Sports on Earth writers and editors laid off

Story here:
http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/say-goodbye-to-sports-on-earth-as-you-know-it.html

It's unclear how many people lost their jobs, but "95%" was thrown around on Twitter.

(Edit: I see now this was being covered in the Gannett thread, too. Sorry for the double-posting.)

 

I know the site has been criticized but no one wanted this outcome.

 

I hope Patrick Hruby, who self reported on the Twitterz that he was one of the people let go, finds a place to land and quickly.

His stuff on college sports have been must reads for me.

Also, why would anyone quit their job to go to an online startup? They all seemed to have crashed and burned, even those owned by ginormous legacy media companies.

 

One of many, many reasons that, as bad as the newspaper industry has gotten, I'm thankful I still have a job at one. Has any media company ever actually MADE money off the internet? Even the ones who went that direction from the start?
It seems like every internet media company's business model is to follow the HuffPost example/Ponzi scheme: Play off of writer's egos and delusions of gaining "exposure" in exchange for little or no pay, all the while making promises of a steady paycheck down the road; get a few A-listers who are actually paid (and who may or may not have been laid off from newspapers) to gain some credibility; then, at the first hint of turning a profit, sell to someone bigger.
The people who founded the site make gobs of money. Everyone under them is screwed -- after being screwed over -- and usually ends up out of work within six months of the sale as the bigger company realizes the profit it invested upon was all smoke and mirrors and pulls the plug.
And that's with the "successful" ventures. Hundreds of others probably go tits up within a year, or have starts and stops as money comes and goes.
Unless I get to the point where there's no other choice, I have absolutely no desire to stake my future and my family's well-being to that circus.

 

All that may be true, but with USA Today Sports Media Group and MLB Advanced Media backing it, SOE seemed a little more credible than most online startups.

 

It might explain why Posnanski's stay there was so short.

 

SOE was very nice, but it didn't seem like it could ever make money. Do you know many people -- aside from people in the business -- who regularly read it? Similarly, Grantland has some great material, but could it survive without full subsidy by ESPN?

 

That's the $100,000 question. And I think we all know the answer.

 

Grantland comes up pretty often in my group of friends, and most of them aren't journalists. I don't think SOE has ever come up. I went there today for the first time since its first week.

 

I'm sure he will. The best of them always find a place to land.

 

Of course not. Although I could see ESPN keeping on some of the NBA writers.

 

Any regional cable heft, such as Comcast or NESN.