I guess people don't want to be up anymore... they want to be down. Or getting boosted up no longer works.
CNN reports:
Upworthy skyrockted to viral fame in 2013 because of its catchy headlines and innovative mastery of Facebook's algorithm. The website is famous for headlines using the "curiosity gap," sentences that end in "You Won't Believe Why." At one point Upworthy attracted 85 million visitors. Traffic dipped to 6.4 million in June, according to ComScore. The website pivoted in 2015, writing original content and hired big names from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Good Media bought the website in 2017 and laid off staffers....
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69 comments:
Good.
They don't necessarily want up or down they want a mouthpiece for their political proclivities. On the internet everyone thinks they're Tom Steyer.
You can run a business with this one little trick . . .
Lefties using Facebook Algorithms: Good.
Conservatives using Facebook Algorithms: Bad.....and a crime....for which people must be fired....and indicted....and hounded......
Upworthy figured out a way to manipulate the Facebook algorithms....You Won't Believe What Happened Next....
It's a start.
Combined with the massive layoff last week at the Daily News and other Journalists getting laid off.
To paraphrase Dave Dudly: There'd be no journalists if it wasn't for those journals.
https://youtu.be/KiBt935GKJs
And if there are no fake journals and fake journalists, there would be no fake news.
Full disclosure: I am a card carrying pressie. I detest these folks giving non-fake folks like me a bad name.
John Henry
Liz thought it would be just another day at Upworthy
You WON'T BELIEVE what happened next!
They're responsible for the "you won't believe..." scourge? They should all be in jail.
They're responsible for the "you won't believe..." scourge? They should all be in jail.
I think they lifted it from the Penthouse Forum.
Liquidators - God loves them.
You won't believe why I don't believe that I like to read articles that I won't believe.
Liz Heron - Ex-Purveyor of Fake News.
"You won't believe..." isn't as odious as listicles with the template headline "7 things that...", especially when combined with a subheadline that reads "Number 6 will blow your mind!". Or "The truth about X"
I'll believe it's dead when it's been burned the ashes have been drowned burned and drowned again.
Another formerly successful business fails, here's why...
1. Successful business model generates huge growth and maybe profits, too.
2. Model can be copied or has a short lifespan of popularity
3. Business changes model to something they no little about or has no track record of success in order to be a going concern or grow.
4. New model fails and company goes out of business.
Businesses can't accept a limited life span and cash it out and move on. Businesses can't accept a flattening of the revenue curve as they mature. They must always invest in new things, which often have nothing to do with what made them successful in the first place.
There is nothing wrong with generating as much cash as possible and as soon as it turns negative, shut it down. Instead of pivoting, the "new" business model gets its own funding based on its own risk/return potential.
I think I managed to never, ever click on one of the billions of Upworthy links my friends posted on Facebook. I knew disappointment lived on the other side of that click.
Today, almost my entire team at Upworthy/GOOD was laid off (and I resigned).
WE"RE NOT WORTHY!
WE'RE NOT WORTHY!
WE'RE SCUM!
WE SUCK!
She can't seem to hold down a job:
Liz Heron
I had never heard of this outfit before.
Their website featured Anita Hill as an expert on sexual harassment. There was also a story about a young man punched at a Trump rally and getting arrested. The Nazi Trump supporter meme was palpable.
Gee. I wonder why they could not make it.
Two words: The pet rock.
The Upworthy generator parody site is pretty brilliant.
http://www.upworthygenerator.com
OK, I admit it. I clicked on those "you wont believe" 4 maybe 5 times before I figured out the term "click bait". I now believe I'll survive not knowing. Is this the same place that promises to tell me what ex-famous people are doing now, or the ones that have the embarrassing risque photo? The whole premise is a very weak business model, on the other hand, few have gone broke by underestimating the intelligence of the masses.
Kind of an interesting self-referential paradox. If the NYT started every article with "You won't believe what I am about to tell you happened next ...", I would have to admit they were right.
Shoulda done STEM. Then the job would be looking for you.
Rusty said...
"Shoulda done STEM. Then the job would be looking for you."
That's a bit like saying, "If you had majored in basketball, you'd be making a fortune in the NBA". Assumes facts not in evidence.
It is impossible to overestimate the unimportance of this to me.
Aw shucks, there goes another internet fad that I failed to discover. Blinked, and missed it.
Now, can we please also do away with the "What kind of [cat, dog, Disney character, vegetable, etc.] are you" quizzes?
The founder of Upworthy had this bright idea: "The world really needs one more librul website like Vox or CNN or Politico or MSNMC etc!" But it really doesn't.
Before You Say America's Disparity In Income Is All Bad, Listen To These Five Nouns From An Animal Rights Activist.
Comics on the official Natalie Dee site may make more sense.
Just waiting for the rest--all the way up to the NYT.
With apologies to Althouse, I am reminded of the old joke: "What do you call 500 dead lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?"
"A start."
Honestly never heard of it.
Etienne,
Not only can't she hold a job, 10-12 since 2001, she seems to be downwardly mobile. She has worked at National Geographic, Washington Post, WSJ, ABC. then down to HuffPo. Then this?
And now, of course, nothing?
If I got her resume it would go straight to trash.
She is a graduate of Oberlin, BTW. That might explain it. They were leaders in the SJW movement.
Didn't Oberlin go out of business?
John Henry
Ironically, Upworthy is not newsworthy. Upworthy failed to cultivate a market and/or attract billionaire investors, and lost their jobs with cause. This is in contrast to millions of people who lost and lose their jobs to labor and environmental arbitrage (e.g. implicit tariffs) and insourcing (e.g. [excessive] immigration reform).
They hired journalists from the wsj and nyt and everything went downhill from there.
Just waiting for the rest--all the way up to the NYT.
Up? Seems more of a lateral move...
I had no idea Upworthy was still among the living.
Record low unemployment in the United States.
Except for journalists.
Sad.
Almost your entire team. Almost. How can we miss you if you won't go away?
I almost never read any of their content, because it would ask a question (data mining, no doubt) but none of the choices you could pick were ever sane responses. 50 shades of left...I didn't want to read it that badly.
Not enough Russians.
Sooner or later everybody's shtick gets old---and then the act goes off in a corner and dies--or goes through bankruptcy proceedings.
Keep it fresh--or die. The way of the world.
"almost my entire team at Upworthy/GOOD was laid off"
Reminds me of a thousand monster movies in which the good guys "kill" the monster and then go merrily on their way only to have it recover and come after them.
Cut off its head, dismember the body and burn the remains.
Sometimes even that doesn't work, but you want to put the odds in your favor when you can.
Who, in this world, spread more good will? The Upworthy gang or the Honey Badger guy?
Honey Badger guy.
"Almost my entire team at Upworthy/GOOD was laid off"
I think it sounds much better this way:
"Almost my entire team at Upworthy was laid off" GOOD!
Blogger Etienne said...
"She can't seem to hold down a job.." 8/3/18, 12:04 PM
Fairly typical of these "Digital Medial/Social Media" jobs - meaningless and job hopping. But the industry has no standards for hiring and the MSM all look the same. Look at her College - Oberlin - left of Mao. 1,000s have failed and will continue to fail - never saw the value? When Facebook hits the wall it will be interesting to hear from Wall Street analysts as to why they thought this business model had long term legs.
They should have followed WaPo motto--Keep your readers in the dark, like mushrooms, and feed them manure.
> Keep it fresh--or die. The way of the world.
Hey, I resemble that remark.
Their content overpromised. And became tedious. (shrug)
We could do with fewer "passionate" writers on the web.
Thanks Etienne
If this doesn't make you throw up in your mouth, see Kevorkian STAT
Liz Heron:My passion is making great media that is meaningful, accessible and delivers positive social impact in our rapidly changing industry environment. Creative journalist and digital executive with a proven track record of anticipating and driving transformational change in several of the world's most influential media and technology companies. Early pioneer in social publishing, including mobile- and video-first content, collaborative open journalism, social media verification and emerging platform partnerships. I believe in strong journalism, transparent leadership, that diverse groups make better decisions, that data is an amazing tool to inform -- but not overwhelm -- a company's mission, and in iterative and goal-oriented strategy.
What’s the problem? They can move to Eastern Kentucky and learn to code!
Facebook is withering away.
Liz Heron... that diverse groups make better decisions
Any group with more than one person is diverse, but people like Heron deny individual dignity and attribute diversity to color, sex, etc. While this may be ethical (i.e. situational or circumstantial morality or behavior protocol), this is progressively and self-evidently an intolerable intellectual and moral mode. Perhaps her diverse group revealed one too many character flaws and the market realized that the journolists were dressed alike and redundant.
A nephew of mine went to Oberlin around the same time as Heron. He is very smart but also very close minded [and far left librul]. He is almost 40 now and will wise up when he is 50 or so if he is lucky. His parents are old hippies and have not changed their opinion on anything in 45 years.
I googled Liz Heron and found an interview she did in 2000, as editor of Oberlin's newspaper, where she grilled the owner of the Cleveland indians, who happened to be an Oberlin trustee at the time, Her interview focused pretty much on the Indians' use of Chief Wahoo as their mascot.
The problem can be found right here in the CNN article:
"The website pivoted in 2015, writing original content and hired big names from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times."
Let me take a wild guess- it pivoted toward the left politically?
Upworthy was explicitly and purposefully on the left from the beginning. Its cofounder is Eli Pariser, who used to be the Executive Director of MoveOn.org, and they did not hide their goal of pushing the "progressive" agenda. I'm a little surprised that people don't remember them. Their clickbait articles were ubiquitous during the 2012 campaign.
Someone should start a media group and call it "Up Yours".. It could be the anti-CNN. Jim Acosta will poopy his pants. Stop it. You're killing him.
Jim Acosta (D-CNN) - his life is in danger!
Biff
Upworthy was explicitly and purposefully on the left from the beginning. Its cofounder is Eli Pariser, who used to be the Executive Director of MoveOn.org...
Which leads me to conclude that the downfall of Upworthy is a good thing. Turn all those lefty journos into baristas, where they can convert their customers. Better a barista than a journolister.
Before Ann's posting of today, I had never heard of Upworthy.
Upworthy, upyorthy.
Biff wrote:
"Upworthy was explicitly and purposefully on the left from the beginning."
Ah, then the problem is the hiring of simple hacks from the the big newspapers instead of hiring left-wing hacks from the big newspapers.
masterclickbators
That was the site people would share stuff from while noting that it made them cry. Helpful because then you knew never to go there.
No Jupiter. Your analogy is wrong. Everyone knows that to be a professional basketball player takes a unique set of gifts that maybe one in a million or so has. All it takes to take advantage of stem is to pay attention in math class.
Right reason for closing:
Facebook changed their algorithms and became more pay to play, even with viral content. This doomed their business model. They tried to get around this with higher quality, original content.
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