Who is Vox Media writing for?

"Explainer" journalism always felt like a pretentious wheel reinvention to me, and I find Vox's style both presumptuous and condescending.

Nerdsplaining the news, basically.

Meh
http://www.voxmedia.com/a/year-in-review-2015

But on a national level they've been running some of the strongest food coverage in the country, especially Bill Addison's work and some of the features. A piece on Arabbers went in depth on something nobody else was covering, Choire Sicha's profile of Ina Garten was great, Ryan Sutton's piece on Danny Meyer ending tipping at his restaurants was probably the best of any publication, etc.

otm

This today is good reporting from Eater. Simple story, big news for their audience in Chicago, and good context built around the announcement.

oh my god the front page on re/code is impossible. I just did a grep for "Mossberg" to find one of his recent pieces and Firefox is like "there's two of those!" but NOWHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM

searching on a page via the browser is such a shitshow these days

they should just make every page a PDF, it would save bandwidth

sad truths in 2016

whaaaat

http://www.wsj.com/articles/vox-hires-choire-sicha-to-oversee-partnerships-with-facebook-snapchat-1455714001

so weird

We're living in a content bubble. back to the old blogs soon, blogs that didn't make money, blogs only written by people with day jobs. Unfortunately, in the meantime, the incredibly stupid sounding headline structure adopted by data-driven content farms has infested everything.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/03/18/i-yelled-black-lives-matter-at-a-trump-rally-this-is-what-happened-next/

https://twitter.com/broderick/status/712355010219286528

SB Nation now virtually impossible to read on a real computer. "Mobile adaptive" design is now officially "laptop oppressive"

this fucking newspeak is puke

https://boards.greenhouse.io/voxmedia/jobs/179360?gh_jid=179360#.VvlQKRIrKAw

People Analyst
at Vox Media (View all jobs)
DC Office

As the People Analyst, you will be responsible for maintaining the data and functionality of Vox Media’s people systems. Ideal candidates for this position will be passionate about using systems and data to drive people decisions and process across the company. This position will report to the Total Rewards Manager and will be based in Washington, D.C.

What you’ll do:

• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to identify the metrics needed to assess the impact of people programs on business outcomes.
• Lead all HRIS reporting; prepare and analyze various regular and ad/hoc reports (i.e. people dashboard metrics, headcount reports, EEOC reporting etc.)
• Develop internal processes and controls to support an analytics-driven organization.
• Recommend streamlined people processes through data automation, and collaborate with People, IT, and other departments to execute.
• Maintain the data and functionality of Vox Media’s HRIS, Namely, as well as the ATS, Greenhouse, and other People systems as applicable.
• Act as the project lead for any People system upgrades or implementations.
• Provide data for all internal and external audit requests related to People data. Collaborate with audit lead and other parties to ensure best practices are created and followed
• Audit data within People systems to maintain data integrity and ensures that system controls and processes meet all internal and external requirements.
• Serve as a liaison with the IT and Finance teams on People systems and technology matters.
• Partner with People Ops, Payroll, Finance to pro-actively drive the development and direction of People system initiatives to improve process efficiency, reporting capabilities and data integrity.
• Provide support to employees of Vox Media for People systems-related questions.
• Perform ad hoc duties as assigned.

idgi... that's indistinguishable from every corporate HR job posting ever?

is everybody now doing find+replace "HR" for "People" so it comes out sounding vaguely insane?
"People Ops" wtf

Sort of surprised that in 2016 Buzzfeed is a name I trust for journalism. Vox, however, remains worthless.

I really hate the current system of how articles reach us though, it's like all the newspapers have competing cornerboys with competing loudspeakers and our relative choices are determined by which is loudest or most piercing.

okay so I went back to their job pages to find more new media terribleness et voila

https://boards.greenhouse.io/voxmedia/jobs/195385?gh_jid=195385

Create Your Own Job
at Vox Media (View all jobs)
Anywhere

...
If you’re interested in working at Vox.com, we want to hear from you! If there’s a specific open position you’re interested in, please apply there. But we’d also like to build our bench, so to speak, so when there’s an opening, we have incredible people top-of-mind. And we realize you may have a better idea for our next position, or even our next section, than we do! So if you want to pitch us on a role, please submit:

it's all around you

what's wrong with that

it's kind of a half-assed wavering between the corporate "put your resume in the system in case something pops up" with some "if you can dream it, maybe you can make it!" icing put on top

let's get real, they're not going to hire a rando to write a column based on a pitch. if you're pitching a cool new idea, it's to a person, not to an inbox

and by inbox I don't mean an email inbox, I mean an online resume management system

I hate this idea of "it's up to you to define the parameters!" Like, no. You're an employer. It's one of your most basic duties to define the job you want to pay for. You're just giving job seekers more unpaid work to do coming up with the job itself.

employers are pretty bad at defining jobs imo

Often, sure, but is making job seekers do it really "better"

i'm sure anyone who gets a 'create your own job' job will not mourn the unpaid hours they spent inventing it

think the point is that most who put in the time "apply" will not get the job

to apply*

exactly. like, great for the one guy who gets the Oxford Comma Officer position or whatever, a ridiculous waste of time for everyone else, even moreso than regular job hunting

tbh though I also just really hate Vox which is making this seem extra annoying

feel like this ask is kinda "can we get somebody with a cool new idea we don't have to pay extra for and especially who we don't have to pay for the time s/he puts into developing it"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMcuRl_shGE

think the point is that most who put in the time "apply" will not get the job

― k3vin k., Tuesday, April 26, 2016 4:15 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so?

so, there's no idea protection there! you could send vox a pitch through this form, they could think "hmm, that's a great idea" and do the whole thing without hiring you

I mean, companies getting prospective employees to pitch ideas and then stealing them wholesale isn't a new thing, but doing it via an employment application web form is very of our times

recode.net seems to have been assimilated design-wise, but I'm not sure what it does? It seems so credulous of the industry it covers. And every other article on the front page appears to be about Uber-Didi.

every time i read something todd vanderwoof has written i gain some insight into why ppl send strangers death threats on the internet

recently considered pitching something to Vox proper

do it, we need a vox contributor

this article is a ... journey...

http://www.vox.com/2016/8/9/12385772/hamilton-broadway-musical

(the genius annotated version is great, and probably the only way to get through reading the whole thing

http://genius.it/10231128/www.vox.com/2016/8/9/12385772/hamilton-broadway-musical)

The often thousand dollar pricetag to even see Hamilton kind of prevents it from getting the backlash it deserves.

i haven't even tried to listen to the hamilton soundtrack but i fucking hate it

but you and it are woke af

feel like hamilton is what people who dont like rap music can listen to in order to be like YES I CAN SAY I LIKE IT NOW

i guess i don't understand why this happened before a popular musical was made about the life of a rapper

or just a slew of unauthorized musicals about living people.

I like the score plenty as a musical but those Genius annotations are richly deserved

is there an explainer for people who do just can't enjoy musicals

there was a big musical that came out and then it got way hyped by people who don't care about musicals and then the hype became too much so it started getting a lot of backlash from people who don't care about musicals and then the backlash started getting backlash from people who don't care about musicals (me)

also fucking yeah, make sure a number that seems large is real when it could provide encouragement to the dickhead anti-social justice keep on trumpin' brigade

i'm just saying that the only reason why that number is wrong is because it either is or isn't wrong, not because it might embolden some anonymous online dudes and saying "who cares" is the kind of thing that sets my internal veracity bells off.

the only reason why that number is wrong is because it either is or isn't wrong

this is actually a very reasonable thing and based in the idea the number matters

in fact, it does matter as a gauge of scale, but on the other hand, the people using it as a gauge of scale will deride any correction to the article. cook's right -- it doesn't matter, the $7 million number is out there, if anyone wanted to be emboldened by it, they have their number and they'll deny any correction

there aren't any reasonable people out there who think "gamergate was bad, but if they had a multi-million dollar effect, then maybe I will reevaluate my stance"

http://www.heartofthedreaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/trustnoone.jpg

imo that's a weakness of the "facts matter" brigade I am a part of too regularly

they only matter if:
- they are relevant
- they're part of a reasonable argument or narrative, single facts are ignored by people
- you're arguing to people who will pay any attention to you whatsoever

http://gamedesignreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dontbe.jpg

imo the greatest science is recognizing biases and emotional responses, very underappreciated

that's what all these dickhole data journalists think

touche

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/behind-the-internets-dark-anti-democracy-movement/516243/

“No,” said Nick Steves, the pseudonym used by one NRxer well-known within the movement. “It will only lend false credence to the misleading facts and outright errors you will inevitably print irrespective of my involvement.”

Asked what he thought I would print, Steves explained that “115 IQ people are not generally well equipped to summarize 160 IQ people” and that only one journalist, Vox’s Dylan Matthews, had “come close to permitting NRx to speak for itself.”

160 IQ people who reference their IQ, as if citing that number wins every argument, are too stupid to understand what a 160 IQ is.

"Nick Steves"
"Dylan Matthews"

xp otm

I would say we need a eugenics program to keep anyone who goes around professing a 160 iq from reproducing, but they're doing pretty well with that on their own.

I can't believe I never started a thread on what a shit show wired magazine is

who is writing for vox media?

http://deadspin.com/leaked-data-show-vast-majority-of-sb-nation-page-views-1803138754

like no kidding SB nation is an aggregator

I just assume all those volunteers are big Jon Bois fans and are just contributing their FanPosts as a sort of sweat-equity Patreon to keep the Jon Bois Content Dream alive.
I mean who would not support this guy: https://www.sbnation.com/2017/7/24/16003968/17776-questions-and-answers

Suggest Ban Nation?

it is boggling to me that there is still any audience for the verge or re/code since they are both terrible, overly earnest tech / nerd verticals that cover almost nothing that their competition doesn't, and the UX is still shit whether you're on mobile or desktop, etc etc.

I guess I still keep loading the verge in a tab from time to time because I hope one day it will improve despite knowing that the vox media house style is always going to grate and only 1 out of 40 times am I going to see anything I'm remotely interested in actually reading. It would be nice to see the whole farm pivot away from being so fucking watery and ditch the pretentiously neutered prose, but that seems highly unlikely. If it ain't broke don't fix it, I guess.

went back to the verge again, they're asking what people would want in a membership / premium version (?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!??!??!!?!!?!?) and they couldn't even cover the new Star Wars trailer properly. Also, hilariously, almost none of the ads loaded in Safari on mobile. everybody loses!

The entire Vox Media enterprise makes it crystal clear that the only thing that matters is how easy it is to buy and sell ads while keeping overhead (i.e. staff writer wages) as "reasonable" as possible. Whether or not I, consumer, click on the ads clearly has no bearing on the system; whether the content is remotely interesting to anyone is the most trivial concern. It's like the iMDB model exported to news verticals. If anybody who actually understands this shit first hand would care to educate me as to why I'm wrong I'd love to learn.

A statement from the Vox Media Union, @thrillistunion and @thedodounion on the partnership between Vox Media and OpenAI. https://t.co/sHcwaxXZT8 pic.twitter.com/TLlXrUwnjo

— Vox Media Union (@vox_union) May 29, 2024