Is SPIN really circling the drain?

I saw a rerun of 30 Rock, early episode, and man alive it's so heavy on deep pop culture/current events references it's already starting to get borderline incomprehensible, in 20 it be like it was written in Latin

One of those Voice pieces convincingly compares Aaron and Dancer texts, same way the Anonymous/Klein case got cracked. Previously lyin' liar Klein then confessed; Aaron didn't quite, but something to the effect that prying eyes were killing the dream (though the original piece always seemed a little green around the gills to me, intermittently sick with envy and other frustration re the whole mugs' game of rock journo).
Balls is otm about the Dancer piece being as much of a jolt then as it would be a yawn now. But the GOOD JOB and its opp plausibly incl. a signif % of paid.
Some Pitchfork writers are very un-anonymous: yay Tim Finney for inst.
Golden Age of TV usually comes down to the same 10-12 shows.

Oh, and after Aaron didn't quite confess/not confess, the Dancer piece did show up in the SPIN archive.

I saw a rerun of 30 Rock, early episode, and man alive it's so heavy on deep pop culture/current events references it's already starting to get borderline incomprehensible, in 20 it be like it was written in Latin

the last season was full of jokes that weren't funny if you weren't american and didn't have access to a lot of shitty american tv.

Yeah I'd imagine

a SNL-style world

then again absolutely no one will be watching that in 20 years, possibly bcz we will be in Thunderdome or Waterworld

I know Whiney's just trolling here, but the idea that Buzzfeed's music section is being run by an "outlier crank" is pretty amusing. Katy Perry listicles really need that outlier touch to gain any kind of traction.

He's p cranky on twitter and on his blog

Not trying to be mean or snarky, but what is (was?) Videogum? Was it just a site that aggregated funny videos? Was it an official offshoot of Stereogum?

Pretty much.

Was it sort of the red-headed stepchild of SPIN media? I read Spin and Stereogum regularly, and honestly don't recall having heard of it until the announcement today

Videogum was the best site on the web and then Gabe quit and it was over

yeah videogum was gabe and then he left (well became disinvested first) and it kinda withered and died

videogum with gabe at its peak was the funniest web site on the internet and i think he (and silvestri etc) have had a big influence on the sense of humor and style of blogging

ok this demands further explanation. but hey, spin says it wants to put further resources into idolator! so, uh...

ahhhh, gotcha. I couldn't figure out why people were eulogizing what seemed like the millionth site to piggyback on already-viral content

ok this demands further explanation. but hey, spin says it wants to put further resources into idolator! so, uh...

― eric banana (s.clover), Monday, February 3, 2014 7:18 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark

the company is bleeding money (if it even has any left) and i'm sure videogum post-gabe wasn't returning anywhere near the money buzzmedia was putting into it.

had no idea videogum was good

no j0rdan s. hyperbole thread gabe's "worst movie of all time" posts is some of the best/funniest writing in the history of blogging

http://www.videogum.com/category/the-hunt-for-the-worst-movie-of-all-time

omg, ballount post just collapsed and condensed years of reading rockcrit and then ilx into a black hole.

epic on many levels.

People aged 30+ (or older?, wtf) can't help but to view SPIN through a nostalgia lens.

videogum was funny the few times i looked at it but it was definitely like "this ain't bad, shame it's called 'videogum'"

http://nypost.com/2014/02/03/spin-media-being-spun-out-to-creditors/

I remember seeing videogum every so often in my rss feeds and being very impressed how it never watered down its voice. (its voice being a slightly more high-key version of the standard blog voice, but even that is harder than one might think to pull off on a consistent basis.)

I noticed I still haven't gotten my Daily SPIN email today....

Are Whiney and Harvilla still there?
from that Post link:
Short consumer-engagement time on many of the 40 sites in the Spin network was always a problem, suggesting viewers were popping into many of the sites briefly, spending less than 90 seconds before exiting.

The network includes sites such as Celebuzz, The Superficial, Buzznet and Go Fug Yourself. The company had two major downsizings of staff in 2013, and as the editorial staffs were slashed, traffic began to erode as well. By November, it had fallen to around 26 million unique visitors on all platforms, down from 34 million in March.

Strang said the company currently has about 165 employees. He said the sale of the assets to the new firm did not involve any new layoffs, but added, “We’re constantly trying to be at the right size.”

Wow there are (were?) some dreadful websites operating under that umbrella

Go Fug Yourself?

Just visited that. Credit them for committing themselves to their atrocious branding: They work some variation of "fug" into nearly every headline

Obv. fans of The Naked and The Dead and The Fugs; yay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjT_sYUlt70

and grant morrison's seaguy!

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/chubby1.JPG

Are Whiney and Harvilla still there?

whiney is not still there

Sorry, unless you prefer it that way now.

read the ny post story and then take a wild guess if i'm feeling bad about jumping ship

Yeah, I read it; that's what I fuggered. cheerz

videogum with gabe at its peak was the funniest web site on the internet and i think he (and silvestri etc) have had a big influence on the sense of humor and style of blogging

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Monday, February 3, 2014 7:04 PM (Yesterday)

i haven't read vgum in YEARS but i just tried to read that post announcing the move or whatever and shuddered at the voice that girl was taking. maybe i'd hate it from gabe too these days, i don't know

nah she's not good

if this is it for Spin, you gotta give it credit, it took this thread almost exactly 10 years to come true

xp yeah it's that "whoops I dropped my thought... ANYWAY" style of writing, which pervades a lot of those junk Spin Media sites. Nothing wrong with it on a blog (or a forum) or whatever, but no sympathy for the investors just now realizing they aren't going to get rich off of it

no i think there's a lot wrong with adults writing that way anywhere

Short consumer-engagement time on many of the 40 sites in the Spin network was always a problem, suggesting viewers were popping into many of the sites briefly, spending less than 90 seconds before exiting.

In the case of Spin, this might be because after loading, all non-slideshow pieces would redirect to the home page, and all slideshow listicles would only reload the first slide.

(In my work browser)

lol can u imagine

if this is it for Spin, you gotta give it credit, it took this thread almost exactly 10 years to come true

could be the moron who originated it

if somebody just lost their job I think they get a pass on writing style for the day

Miss dash snowden

dash snowden was a lady? a single lady? ::straightens tie::

Back off, buster. I saw her first

Go Fug Yourself?

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Tuesday, 4 February 2014 19:12 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just visited that. Credit them for committing themselves to their atrocious branding: They work some variation of "fug" into nearly every headline

― Evan R, Tuesday, 4 February 2014 19:14 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my partner used to love go fug yourself, though i've not heard her mention it in a lnog while

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/legal-and-management/6029295/spins-editor-in-chief-departs?utm_source=twitter

Someone just pull the trigger already.

guilty lol @ "Aswad"

Wow, Jem Aswad has been around forever. When I went to my first CMJ Convention back in 1989, he was a panellist working for Dutch East India Trading Company, I think!