Study Hall Digest 12/3/2018

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs (@allegraehobbs)

Mic’s Anti-Union, Pro-Facebook Idiocy

Mic’s union called the company’s decision to axe its entire editorial staff last week a “new low in corporate mendacity.” That seems about right, seeing as it was likely motivated in part by a desire to suppress the staff’s organizing efforts. If a majority of Mic’s staff, newly acquired by Bustle for a relatively paltry $5 million, had already been unionized, the boss would’ve had to bargain with them — and who wants that?

Co-founders Chris Altchek and Jake Horowitz were perfectly content to run the site into the ground on their own terms. It was Altcheck’s idea to pivot to video in 2017 despite evidence users really aren’t that into video! The founders also seem to have pinned all their hopes for traffic on Facebook Watch, so when the social media giant canceled their show, the company’s finances nose-dived — according to Altchek, that’s why they have to fire their approximately 100 employees. Whoopsy! These two geniuses are great at making sound business decisions. Surely they will thrive at Bustle, so long as they can continue to do things their way, unburdened by modest requests for equitable labor standards and sensical business strategy.

What will become of the Mic union? According to experts, Mic’s actions may very well be legal. In its statement, the union said it will “pursue all options available to us” — though what that means, exactly, remains to be seen. A representative would only tell Study Hall that the union is still in talks with management.

Condé’s Sponsored Content Craze

In August, Condé Nast chief executive Bob Sauerberg painted a picture of long-term growth that included layoffs in the more immediate future in hopes of bolstering the company’s revenue by $600 million by 2022. The plan includes a heavy focus on business-to-consumer services like GQ Recommends, a style guide through which the magazine earns affiliate commissions when readers buy the products. (Remember, GQ also recently axed a bunch of people.)

In September, Condé launched its beauty studio, in partnership with Neutrogena™ and Dyson™ Supersonic™ Hair™ Dryer™ (also good for roasting chicken!), to churn out content both for editorial and advertising clients. The future of the company looks to be further blurring the lines between editorial and advertising content and encouraging the output of more branded content, according to a former Condé staffer who spoke with Study Hall.

“There’s absolutely no separation of church and state,” said the former staffer, who was laid off within the last few months. “I think there are now more ways to reach consumers, so you can make a branded Instagram story, whereas in the past Condé couldn’t do that. I think it’s the world changing and they’re trying to adapt.”

The new approach “almost feels like The Strategist,” noted the staffer, referring to New York Magazine’s consumer guide vertical. “So many brands are trying to emulate things like that.”

A consultant hired in the past to write a research report for the company said the emphasis among the business team, in considering the future of its lifestyle publications, was almost exclusively on integrating ads. Developing editorial content seemed to not be a factor at all.

“They were talking about the structure of the magazines and what it would look like in the future. It was all just how to integrate cool ads on the online version,” noted the consultant. “There was no mention of content or quality anywhere.” Condé made its business on high-end editorial that readers couldn’t live without. Are those days over?

The Science of Rehabilitating Fallen Celebrities

When it came to rehabbing the fallen star’s public image, Amanda Bynes’s PR people knew exactly what they were doing when they went with Paper Magazine. After all, the magazine took down a musician profile by writer Kaitlin Tiffany in September because the subject didn’t like it. So, uh, pretty safe to say it won’t go too hard on your controversial client!

Sure enough, the tone of the piece is gushing, replete with details of Bynes’s “bright-eyed warmth” and her friendliness with the production staff on a photo shoot. Helen Donahue later noted in Playboy that the star’s explanation for her vicious, often racist Tweets are…weed and Adderall?? An excuse that goes utterly unchallenged by the writer, who blithely sidesteps the nature of Bynes’ past behavior and heaps praise on the actress for her “clear-eyed analysis” of “preconceived notions.” The whole thing is laughably surface-level and that’s great for Paper, which clearly falls over itself to avoid calls from disgruntled publicists. (The profile also became an opportunity for some totally unnecessary queer-baiting. Heterosexual queer icon! Okay!)

Compare the piece to New York Magazine’s warts-and-all profile of Lena Dunham, which manages to be both empathetic and critical. Bynes would never! And frankly, maybe she shouldn’t, though it would certainly make for better journalism.

“Social Impact Firm” Digs Into Journalism

Recode reported that Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective, a “social impact firm,” has acquired Pop-Up Magazine Productions, which runs the eponymous series of live storytelling events and publishes California Sunday Magazine. What is a social impact firm? It’s an organization with the rather vague objective of spurring positive social change by partnering with entrepreneurs and investing in causes, which include media.

This isn’t the first time Emerson has dipped its toes into the fight to save journalism: Emerson had invested in series A funding for Axios back in 2016 (though it’s unclear what positive change Axios has ever brought to the world), then in 2017 acquired a majority stake in The Atlantic. In the same year, podcast startup Gimlet Media got an investment from the collective.

Since the 2016 election, the free press has become something of a social-justice cause for investors, so it makes sense a firm that boasts its philanthropic involvement in causes like education would take on the media. But Emerson’s targets seem to be based more on profit potential and cultural cache than imminent problems. Have they caught wind of the Mic/Bustle situation?

Freeze Peach

CNN fired Marc Lamont Hill, a commentator on the channel and a professor at Temple University, for daring to criticize Israel. At a speech at the UN, Lamont Hill said the world needs to act to ensure that, “Palestine [is free] from the river to the sea.” Whatever your position on Israel, it’s clear that Hill was not calling for the abolition of the Jewish state. Nor were his comments in any way anti-Semitic. CNN is allowed to fire and hire whoever it wants, but what seems disgraceful about the situation is that the network has no problem keeping on pundits who defend or casually dismiss the actions of ACTUAL Nazis. And of course, the usual Free Speech Worriers® like Bari Weiss and Jonathan Chait were nowhere to be found defending Lamont Hill’s right to say what he wants. — Enav Moskowitz

Study Hall Special Comic Edition by Aude White:

SHORT LINKS:

— Leon Neyfakh is leaving Slate to start his own podcast production company. The project in the works, called Fiasco, seems similar to Slow Burn. It’ll dissect past historical fiascos in great detail, beginning with Bush v. Gore and Iran-Contra. (Rumors say the podcast will be published by Luminary.)

— David Edelstein was fired by NPR for making a bad butter-centric joke about The Last Tango in Paris director’s death. Never post, kids.

— Sheryl Sandberg had directed Facebook to look into George Soros’ financial interests, according to a new report in the New York Times — in Facebook’s defense, a spokesperson claimed it had already started looking into Soros BEFORE direct orders from Sandberg. Ok then!

— Beloved online magazine Rookie shut down after seven years, citing financial difficulties. The Awl, The Toast, and now Rookie — what spaces are left for the stranger and wonderful on the internet?

— Sunset Magazine, an iconic California publication that has been around for over a century, is reportedly circling the drain: five top editors have recently quit, freelancers are waiting months to be paid, and the holiday issue is going out late due to lack of advertising.

— Can two Online Attention Seekers get more attention if they seek attention together?

— One bright spot this past week: Our hero Gritty is on the cover of Artforum. Highbrow trolling or genuine appreciation? Probably both, tbh.