
Mashable lays off staff in 'strategic shift' toward video - r721
http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/07/media/mashable-layoffs/
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danso
What a bummer, I've usually thought of Mashable as just a quick-hit blog site
but had been noticing longer pieces in the wild. Of all the specialty blogs,
Mashable IMO had one of the best ideas. Social media will long be one of the
biggest businesses in tech and requires its own specialized comprehensive
coverage. From what I could tell, though, Mashable never got technical enough
in its coverage...Moz made a name for itself and then a SaaS business through
SEO, and social media is at least as big if not bigger than SEO these days,
particularly in the mainstream mindset. Given Mashable's lead in covering
social media, there was an opportunity to do SaaS and consulting...the amount
that government agencies pay for shit social media consultants and software
could easily fund a business where Mashable's news coverage is its loss-
leader.

Edit: Apparently the head of the video team was let go just as she was about
to start a shoot and was left stranded in Ohio because her company email was
cut off. This is the harshest "I'm sorry to say I've been let go but I've had
a great time working with my @COMPANY collagues"

[https://twitter.com/nadjao/status/718099008657440769](https://twitter.com/nadjao/status/718099008657440769)

> _Well at least now we know this company has no fucking vision except total
> garbage click bait production._

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praneshp
I'm sad she is turning this into sexism though. I liked the goodbye message.

[https://twitter.com/nadjao/status/718119373328760834](https://twitter.com/nadjao/status/718119373328760834)
> Interesting that all the people they fired were intelligent, skilled
journalists and producers. This is what happens when bros run media.

[https://twitter.com/nadjao/status/718134509921779712](https://twitter.com/nadjao/status/718134509921779712)
> Also let's take a moment and see that majority of the editors and producers
who are now gone are women.

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cylinder
How are you sad if you don't know if it's true or false?

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larrik
Video is extremely overrated as a medium. It's not searchable, it's not
quotable, and it takes forever to consume compared to reading. I read a
dozen(s) or more articles in a day, and generally watch zero videos per week.

~~~
coralreef
What age are you? Millennials watch a lot of video on
Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat.

~~~
zeemonkee3
WTF has his age to do with it? He made valid criticisms of video as a medium.
Everyone from little kids to grandmas watch a lot of video, but it has its
drawbacks.

~~~
zdean
Because he/she made a pretty broad statement about video as a medium and then
used their own experience to validate/support that statement. I think it's
probably relevant to ask about their age to be able to discuss whether their
personal experience is a useful data point in support of the statement.

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teaneedz
Since my ad blockers are preventing this article from loading, I'm just going
by the Title: bad move Mashable.

I suppose that millennials consume the most videos, but power users rely on
text, especially for consumption and sharing.

Advertisers always poisoning things.

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Reedx
You say it's a bad move, but are simultaneously pointing out that you've
removed their source of revenue. How is it a bad move if their goal is to pay
the bills and survive? Do you have an alternative solution?

~~~
teaneedz
Sure. I didn't remove their source of revenue - their content still displayed
for me, minus nefarious tracking, malverts and poor targeting. The solution is
to stand up to ad-tech and advertisers and do ads the right way - one that
respects UX. Until that happens, publishers are in a no-win situation. Videos
won't solve their problem. They will cost more to produce and many will skip
them or head to other places with plain text. Millennials are still going to
be picky on what they watch. Maybe that generation is still learning the
ramifications of ad-tech but this survey from Realtime Generation is
interesting. What makes them unhappy:

\- Organizations sharing data with third parties (60%). \- Movement tracked
in-store via personal device for marketing purposes (41%). \- Online habits
used to provide targeted ads and promotions (50%). \- Location data used or
shared (54%).

Advertisers are responsible for the current state of declining revenue for
publishers because they never understood UX. Ad blocking usage is going to
rise and publishers will die or eventually address the issue with advertisers.

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cylinder
Does anyone know why Mashable's twitter post links use the address
"[http://on.mash.to/?"](http://on.mash.to/?")

What is the purpose of using link shortening if you add superfluous characters
that don't make sense "on"?

What does "on mash to" mean?

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shockzzz
In other words, "more ads." Video ads pay so much it's silly.

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homero
Idiots it was all click bait anyway

