
Vox Media is cutting pay and furloughing 9% of employees - gullyfur
https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/17/vox-media-furloughs/
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simonsarris
I don't have any opinions here but for added context and interest, the two
unions involved released statements:

NY Mag Union statement on the cuts:
[https://twitter.com/NYMagUnion/status/1251218401688772608](https://twitter.com/NYMagUnion/status/1251218401688772608)

Vox media union on the cuts:
[https://twitter.com/vox_union/status/1251174537120616454](https://twitter.com/vox_union/status/1251174537120616454)

> While we appreciate Vox Media talking to us in good faith, we don’t agree
> with the company’s decision to furlough employees — especially after
> hundreds of us told the company we were willing to take wider pay cuts to
> save all jobs.

> We won a guarantee of no layoffs, no additional furloughs, and no additional
> pay cuts through July 31, along with enhanced severance for any layoffs that
> occur in August-December. The company also agreed to reduce the number of
> furloughs.

~~~
ajross
I made this point earlier, but contrast the difference in tone between Vox
workers and Amazon workers in what is really a very similar dispute.
Cultivating a healthy working relationship with your unions means that when
the world blows up, making hard choices doesn't get covered as an existential
disaster.

~~~
samename
Also notice how Vox workers have a union, while Amazon workers don’t.

~~~
ajross
Which is sort of the point. Amazon resisted unionization (in the US), almost
to a fault. And in the process they ended up offering things like salary and
benefits that were quite generous within the relevant industries, precisely to
prevent unionization.

And yet it's all blown up. Because while sure: they offer a $15 wage and
retraining and all that, what they _don 't_ have is a union organization on
the other side of the table who they trust to act in mutual self interest.

So when Vox runs out of money, their unions are willing to accept that and
broadly trust the management to do the right thing for everyone, Amazon's
workers are faced with trying to Get Theirs before their employer runs out of
cash, because they _don 't_ trust Bezos.

And this was all avoidable.

------
Traster
I think this is basically par for the course for media organisations. Let's
face it, ad spend is gone and it's not going to be coming back for a while. I
suspect we'll be see a lot more of this coming in the near future.

------
AlchemistCamp
The context is interesting:

[https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1248317812260499456](https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1248317812260499456)

[https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1248317824394653697](https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1248317824394653697)

[https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1248317820800086016](https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1248317820800086016)

[https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1248318363538837504](https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1248318363538837504)

The same company that considerably increased the damage the virus did in their
country is now in financial difficulty as a result. They mocked people for
avoiding handshakes, repeatedly told people that masks were ineffective and
dismissed the virus as just a flu.

It's also interesting their political opponents, including the president
adopted their original positions a few weeks later.

It's mind-boggling that analysis of the severity of a virus became so highly
politicized. I don't think the same could have happened in the US a generation
ago.

~~~
Traster
First tweet: Vox saying face masks aren't the best way to avoid Coronavirus.
Actually basically the mainstream view in the US at the time, and still
arguable. Note how right now the states aren't mandating masks, they're
mandating social isolation.

Second tweet: Vox factually reporting the tech industry is eschewing
handshakes. Tweet author editorialises that Vox is telling them not to.

Third Tweet: Vox factually reporting that tech companies are providing
9million masks. Factually states that it's not enough to solve the problem.
Tweet author contends that's not true - but provides no evidence .

Fourth tweet: Author tries to claim Vox is responsible for Coronavirus.

I find this hilarious, because we all know perfectly well, if that tweeter had
found a Vox contributer tweeting that 4th tweet he'd be apoplectic.

I'm sure this tweet thread has nothing to do with Vox's coverage of that
tweeter and his previous attacks on the FDA:
[https://www.vox.com/2017/1/14/14276530/balaji-srinivasan-
tru...](https://www.vox.com/2017/1/14/14276530/balaji-srinivasan-trump-fda-
twitter-andreessen-horowitz)

~~~
foob4r
Almost makes you wonder if balajis has a personal gripe with vox or recode or
Ezra or Kara.

Balaji is a crypto bro and epitome of technocrats who thinks just because they
are (rich|famous|networked), they are experts on everything. Fact of the
matter is, Balaji doesn't know any more about Covid than what is reported.
He's using hindsight bias to claim that media reported was false.

~~~
buboard
Whatever. Thanks to him i knew about Coronavirus and warned everyone back in
February.

You re making the exact same remarks that tech hating journos did

If you re claiming the journos knew something he didnt, then it means they
criminally misreported it

~~~
foob4r
> criminally misreported it

What law dictates that?

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MangoCoffee
didn't Vox got like $200 million from NBCUniversal? why not ask for another
round of funding?

~~~
bearcobra
They did raise $200 million from NBCU in 2015. Now probably wouldn't be a
great time to try to raise money given that their revenue streams (ads,
events, etc.) are under extreme pressure.

------
Markoff
how about Techcrunch, Engadget and Gizmodo owner company? not visiting any of
these sites since all of them first redirect you through some advertising
tracking domain caught by my ublock, haven't seen any major site doing such
shady thing, they would deserve it more

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RickJWagner
I tend to be conservative in my politics, but I hate to see this. If it had to
be some liberal publisher, I'd rather that it not be Vox.

Vox seems to me to be about as left-leaning as you can get, but they do it
quite fairly. Example: Vox was one of the first left-side publications to run
articles about Joe Biden's accuser. A lot of other publications stayed away
from this story-- some still are-- but Vox bravely ran it. (From a far-left
position, of course. If you go far enough left, you'll end up close to far-
right.) They are the real deal, and for that I respect them.

~~~
jhwang5
Serious question. Are you confounding left-leaning with lack of journalistic
integrity, and conservative news outlets as having integrity?

~~~
RickJWagner
No, not at all.

I consider most media sources biased (right or left) and also consider them to
have various degrees of integrity.

For integrity, I give Vox good credit for running a story that deserves
attention but runs counter to their political leanings.

