SB Nation: (Halos Heaven) Vox Media to Cut 200 Freelancers, Citing California Gig-Worker Law

[Chuck]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/business/media/vox-media-california-job-cuts.html

[Chuck]

One of 10 reasons I always leaned toward keeping AW independent.  Partnerships are fine, but I never wanted the brand and community I built to be under someone else's rule.

 

[angelsnationtalk]

Good post, Chuck. I did the same thing when my site was up and running at the time. Keep up your great work!

[Jay]

@Chuckster70 do you pay any of the contributors here?

 

[Second Base]

Halos Heaven was a cesspool to begin with. That sucks that California passed a law to screw their writers over. Most California laws screw most Californians over, but that's just kind of the way it goes living in this state. 

[Taylor]

Halos Heaven: The Lame AngelsWin

But very sad for the freelancers who are being cut. 

[floplag]

This law is going to hurt a lot of industries from what im reading.  I get the idea of it,  but i think the end result is going to be negative over all.

[Stradling]

It’s our fault. 

[floplag]

4 minutes ago, Stradling said:

It’s our fault. 

True, but its also a classic case of government thinking they know whats best for the governed without their feedback.  
Quite enough failure going around on this one.  

[Stradling]

Just now, floplag said:

True, but its also a classic case of government thinking they know whats best for the governed without their feedback.  
Quite enough failure going around on this one.  

Yes we are the reason we have shitty government is my point. We let it get here.  Then we elected a dude where the democrats can now feel justified in hating conservative agendas.  

[winhalos]

57 minutes ago, Second Base said:

Halos Heaven was a cesspool to begin with. That sucks that California passed a law to screw their writers over. Most California laws screw most Californians over, but that's just kind of the way it goes living in this state. 

This is going to destroy the independent truckers too. Unions behind this and we all know Unions have a big input in Sacramento. 

[floplag]

12 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Yes we are the reason we have shitty government is my point. We let it get here.  Then we elected a dude where the democrats can now feel justified in hating conservative agendas.  

Wholly agreed

[Jeremiah]

28 minutes ago, Stradling said:

It’s our fault. 

Yes and no. Vox has been doing this with other media brands for a couple of years now. It’s the way print and digital media is sadly going. They cut real writers and journalists in favor of quick, clickbait content, regardless of its quality. The first round of SB Nation layoffs came in February of 2018. It’s also what private equity has been doing to media as well. Look at Time, Sports Illustrated, and Deadspin as examples. Even ESPN has ditched off most of its actual journalists in favor of clickbait just to keep up. All of that was done independent of AB5. Just surprising that this keeps coming from Vox, a supposedly progressive media company. They just have a new scapegoat now. It is our fault, just not necessarily because of AB5. We just continue to consume media the way private equity firms dish it out. It also doesn’t help that the president keeps calling the media the enemy of the people.

PS: I didn’t read the NYT article (paywalled). I’ve just read about what private equity firms have done to media over the past couple of years now.

[John Taylor]

Quote

"Mr. Ness said the cuts were also related to a “business and staffing strategy” that predated the law’s passage in September."

Me thinks the law was more of a scapegoat than the root cause of the layoffs, but most likely forced their hand as well. A lot of these online digital platforms treat their writing staff like replaceable bots, in fact some of the digital media companies have been working with A.I. tech to auto generate articles.

[Adam]

3 hours ago, Jay said:

@Chuckster70 do you pay any of the contributors here?

 

We get a handy from Chuck every election cycle and a beej from @Brandon after every 20th published article

[Second Base]

2 hours ago, winhalos said:

This is going to destroy the independent truckers too. Unions behind this and we all know Unions have a big input in Sacramento. 

I hate unions. I understand why they are necessary, but the teachers union in California needs to be disbanded.

[ettin]

14 minutes ago, Adam said:

We get a handy from Chuck every election cycle and a beej from @Brandon after every 20th published article

Wait, WTF? 

All I got for the Primer Series was an open-mouth kiss with tongue from @tdawg87!!! WTF CHUCK!!!!

[notherhalo]

I cant find anywhere if I my out of country  have tax liabilities , knowing the FTB they do

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Adam said:

We get a handy from Chuck every election cycle and a beej from @Brandon after every 20th published article

tdawg also offers prostate massages, but that has nothing to do with Chuck's compensation strategy.

[T.G.]

Hmmm.

I met RevHalo years ago at a 66ers game when they hosted a bunch of bloggers... ran into him again when Mike Trout made his MLB debut.  Interesting guy... a little different, but always very nice to me. 

[Taylor]

5 minutes ago, notherhalo said:

I cant find anywhere if I my out of country  have tax liabilities , knowing the FTB they do

I wonder if @EnglishCop gets paid.

 

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Second Base said:

I hate unions. I understand why they are necessary, but the teachers union in California needs to be disbanded.

Are you a teacher?

[Jeremiah]

5 minutes ago, Taylor said:

I wonder if @EnglishCop gets paid.

 

Probably on the same pay scale as Adam and ettin.

[T.G.]

The only contributor on this site who is being paid is Claude... who is on a paid vacation right now.  I think he's in Washington delivering new Angels swag to Chuck.

Edited December 18, 2019 by True Grich

[Tank]

so who benefits from this new law, and how?