DNAinfo and Gothamist Are Shut Down After Vote to Unionize
A week ago, reporters and editors in the combined newsroom of DNAinfo and Gothamist, two of New York City's leading digital purveyors of local news, celebrated victory in their vote to join a union.
On Thursday, they lost their jobs, as Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade who owned the sites, shut them down.
At 5 p.m., a post went up on the sites from Mr. Ricketts announcing the decision. He praised them for reporting "tens of thousands of stories that have informed, impacted and inspired millions of people." But he added, "DNAinfo is, at the end of the day, a business, and businesses need to be economically successful if they are to endure."
[...] in the financially daunting era of digital journalism, there has been no tougher nut to crack than making local news profitable, a lesson Mr. Ricketts, who lost money every month of DNAinfo's existence, is just the latest to learn. In New York City, the nation's biggest media market, established organizations such as The Village Voice, The Wall Street Journal and The Daily News have slashed staff or withdrawn from street-level reporting. The Voice stopped publishing its print edition in September.
What about The Daily Planet and Gotham Globe?
Deadspin reports:
Joe Ricketts, TD Ameritrade founder, billionaire, and father of Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts, shut down the local news network of DNAinfo and Gothamist sites today, a week after the writers voted to unionize.
[...] With the sites' articles functionally locked, the reported 115 newly jobless writers now have no clips [to which they can refer potential employers] as they search for work.
Deadspin has scathing comments about Ricketts's explanation for his action.
The Los Angeles Daily News reports:
Angelenos hoping to read the latest local reporting from LAist.com [on November 2] were instead greeted by a letter from the news site's CEO, announcing he had shuttered the parent media company and all of its local news sites.
[...] [Ricketts bought news company DNAinfo in 2010 and, in March 2017, DNAinfo] purchased Gothamist, which ran news sites in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
[...] Julia Wick, editor-in-chief at LAist, [...] said she and her Los Angeles team supported the New York staff's decision to unionize. Originally, she said, all five Gothamist sites planned to join the union, but the Chicago newsroom dropped out, ending the collective effort.
(Score: 5, Informative) by sjames on Tuesday November 07 2017, @02:06AM (20 children)
Does it hurt your chin when your knee jerks that hard? They weren't after money. Also considering the vote was just a week ago, they hadn't actually had time to even discuss what they did want.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @02:33AM (19 children)
Doesn't really matter what they were after. They unionized as unskilled labor in a sole-owner company that was consistently losing money. That's foolish enough to warrant a good stretch of unemployment to consider the wisdom of their choices.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday November 07 2017, @02:40AM (13 children)
I smell revisionism! Also, unskilled?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @03:06AM (12 children)
Nope. I'll cop to not RTFA-ing.
Yup, unskilled. If everyone and their dog can do your job, it's not a skilled profession. The way it's practiced today, everyone and their dog most definitely can do journalism.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday November 07 2017, @04:34AM (4 children)
I'll grant that journalism isn't what it used to be by any means, but it's still not exactly unskilled. Imagine the McDs employees who need a cash register with pictograms trying to write for a magazine or paper.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @11:34AM (3 children)
Dude, one word finishes this disagreement: Bloggers. There are an absurd amount of them around and until today's journalists start producing better content, they can't claim a higher skill valuation.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday November 07 2017, @05:43PM (2 children)
There are bloggers out there that posses the necessary skills, just like there are home cooks that cook as well as a chef and there are shade tree mechanics every bit as good as people who do it for a living. Of course, there's actually a lot of bloggers who really aren't all that good at it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @09:35PM (1 child)
Yup, I'm just saying when the current standards for journalists and bloggers aren't but a couple microns apart, you lose any claim of journalism being a skilled profession.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday November 07 2017, @10:26PM
Many people do their own accounting so CPA is an unskilled profession. Many people run their owmn business so CEO is an unskilled profession. Many people fix their own car so auto mechanic is an unskilled profession. Same for plumber, electrician, any management position, baker, chef and for that matter, doctor. Unskilled laborers the lot of 'em.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @04:56AM (1 child)
> I'll cop to not RTFA-ing.
Had you read the article, you would have seen that it's not only journalists:
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @11:40AM
That's some quality nit-picking there. You left out the cleaning staff though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Tuesday November 07 2017, @06:54AM (4 children)
The uninformed, commenting on what they do not understand, to the ill-informed, or the Russian informed. Buzz, you have lost it again! How can anyone take you seriously? You are just a large bag of right-wing talking points, with only enough intelligence to squirt at the right key-words. Mr. Plow does better. So, here is a bit of advice, a "pro-tip", if you will. Always understand your opponent's position better than they do them selves. That is what we Social Justice League of Warriors do, and guess what? We RTFA! And we read your insipid response. And you know what, you do not come off so well in the comparison. I am going to take your property, Oh Mighty Buzzard! Behold! What are you? You nothing but a collection of skhandas, five of them to be exact. Here:
http://www.dharmanet.org/coursesM/HSMS/HSMS8.htm [dharmanet.org]
So, you see, property of a non-existent entity does not exist. You are a heap, an aggregate, a collusion of feelings that desparately wants to be something, and only property can fill that void, provide you with the existence which you lack but so desparately want to, um possess. First Noble Truth: Dukkha.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @11:38AM (3 children)
There's no particular need to understand the nuances of one instance of whiny socialist parasites getting bitchslapped by reality to talk about the overarching issues. You used many characters in that response but very little wisdom.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @08:44PM (2 children)
I don't think any of those wards are accurate in this case.
The one I will address here is "socialist".
Had they been Socialist, they would have formed a worker-owned cooperative.
The fundamental element of Socialism is the worker-owned cooperative (or perhaps the individual worker-owner.)
...and these folks couldn't even pull off the "solidarity" thing among all the workers at all of the owner's holdings.
Pretty sad bunch of workers.
It reminds me of a film I saw of a pack of hyenas preying on a wildebeest and her calf that had strayed from the herd.
The predators used a series of constant attacks to keep drawing the mom away from the kid until they could kill the kid and have lunch.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @09:38PM (1 child)
Yeah, this is a pretty good example of why I think socialism is never going to work for the majority of humans. Socialism requires a fundamental change in human nature whereas capitalism is nothing but human nature as applied to economics.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @12:34AM
Our species doesn't have big teeth, powerful jaws, or giant claws.
We're pretty slow runners too.
The way we survived for over 100,000 years was by cooperating.
Those groups who wouldn't work together didn't survive.
Any narrative that avoids this stuff is bullshit.
capitalism is nothing but human nature
Greed, selfishness, and exploitation is human nature at its WORST.
If change is to be made, the logical direction that would take is toward cooperatives and for Joe Average to no longer volunteer to be a rent payer|easily-disposable wage slave to an Aristocratic Ownership Class.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @05:15AM (4 children)
The company had offices in five cities. At only one office did the workers vote to have a union. From the article:
If people were organizing to assert their gun rights I think you'd tend to support them. But they (some of them) organized to assert their labor rights and you're saying it's "foolish." A gun can afford protection against physical attack. A union can afford protection in the workplace. Mr. Ricketts' harsh response shows that those workers needed protection.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @11:42AM
Erm... you don't appear to know what the word "rights" means.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @09:04PM (2 children)
In 1947, the GOP had gained a majority in the Congress and they passed the very anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act over the veto of Democrat Harry Truman (one of the few worker-friendly things that Truman ever did).
In 2009, the Dumbocrats had gained a majority in both chambers of Congress and held the presidency.
This condition existed until the next midterm election in 2010.
During that time, the Dumbocrats made no effort to repeal Taft-Hartley or do anything that was worker-friendly.
...in case you are planning to vote in the future and haven't determined which parties do NOT have your back.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @09:40PM (1 child)
Truth. None of them do. Run your own self if you want your views represented that badly.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @12:59AM
Your vision is too narrow. Surprise! (NOT)
The World Socialist Web Site is the publication of The Socialist Equality Party.
The SEP's presidential candidate in 1996, 2008, 2012, and 2016 was Jerry White. [wikipedia.org]
I think he'd be pretty awesome as president.
The party's platform is absolutely pro-worker and pro-consumer.
Even Jill Stein (Green Party) would have been a step in the right direction.
Ellen Brown (Green Party) would have been an awesome Treasurer of California. (I voted for her.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]