[Plura-list] Vice surrenders

Sat Feb 24 12:10:49 EST 2024

Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/24/anti-posse/

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I'm on tour with my new novel *The Bezzle*! Catch me TONIGHT in LA with Adam Conover at Vroman's, then on MONDAY in SEATTLE with Neal Stephenson (Feb 26, Third Place Books). After that, it's Portland, Phoenix, Tucson, Anaheim and more!

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/narrative-capitalism/#bezzle-tour

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Today's links

* Vice surrenders: Literally the stupidest publishing strategy I've ever heard of (ever).

* Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.

* This day in history: 2004, 2014, 2019, 2023.

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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⁉️ Vice surrenders

Vice died the way it lived: being suckered in by smarter predators, even as it trained its own predatory instincts on those more credulous than its own supremely gullible leadership. RIP, we hardly knew ye.

For those of you who don't know, Vice was a Canadian media success story. It was founded by a motley clique of hipsters, one of whom - founder of the Proud Boys - has since grown to be one of the world's great fascism influencers. Another perfected the art of getting young people to work "for exposure" even as he built a massive, highly lucrative media empire on their free labor:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/vice-oral-history/

Eventually, Vice transitioned to a string of progressively worsening corporate owners, each more dishonest, predatory - and gullible - than the last. The company was one of the most enthusiastic marks for Facebook's infamous "pivot to video" - in which Mark Zuckerberg destroyed half the media industry by tricking them into thinking that the public was clamoring for video content, based on fraudulent viewing numbers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pivot_to_video

Vice went all-in on video, spending hundreds of millions to finance Zuckerberg's doomed attempt to conquer Youtube. But unlike other the rubes who got zucked, Vice found greater fools to scam, convincing giant, slow-moving meidia companies that the best way to get in on the Next Big Thing was to shower them with vast sums of string-free money:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viceland_(Canadian_TV_channel)

And yet, at every turn, through a succession of increasingly incompetent owners who bought the stumbling, declining Vice at fire-sale prices and then proceeded to hack away at the wages and tools its journalists depended on while paying executives salaries so high that they beggared the imagination, Vice's reporters continued to turn out *stellar* material.

This went on *literally* until the last moment. The memorial posted by 404 Media rounds up a selection of major stories Vice's beleaguered, precarious writers produced even as Vice's vulture capitalist leadership were pulling the rug out from under them:

https://www.404media.co/behind-the-blog-vices-legacy-and-the-idea-that-the-internet-is-forever/

True to form, those private equity scumbags locked all those workers out of the company's CMS without notice - and then forgot to lock down the podcasting back-end. That allowed a group of Vice veterans - Matthew Gault, Emily Lipstein, Anna Merlan, Tim Marchman and Mack Lamoureux - to gather for a totally unauthorized, tell-all session that they pushed out on an official Vice channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKT4OtDEJRA

It's a hell of a listen. Not only do these Vice veterans have lots of fascinating history to recount, but they also describe the conditions under which those blockbuster stories of Vice's final days were produced. As the "visionary leaders" of the company paid themselves millions, they halted payments to key suppliers, from Lexisnexis to the interview transcription service the writers depended on. Writers paid out of pocket to search PACER court records.

Not only did Vice's reporters do incredible work under terrible and worsening circumstances, but the Vice writers who got out ahead of the total collapse are *also* doing incredible work. 404 Media is a writer-owned investigative news publisher founded by four Vice escapees - Samantha Cole, Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg and Joseph Cox, which is both producing *incredible* work *and* sustaining the writers who founded it:

https://www.404media.co/

All of which leads to an *inescapable* conclusion: whatever problems Vice had, they didn't include "writers don't do productive work" and *also* didn't include "that work isn't economically viable*. Whatever problems Vice had, they weren't problems with Vice's workers - it was a problem with Vice's *bosses*.

Which makes Vice's final, ignominious punishment at the hands of those bosses *even more* brutal, stupid and inexcusable. According to the leaked memos emanating from the company's investors and their millionaire C-suite toadies, the business's new strategy is *abandoning their website* in order to publish on *social media*.

This is...I mean, this,..

This is...

Wow.

I mean, *wow*.

The thing is, the social media business model is a giant rug-pull. They're not even bothering to hide their playbook anymore. For social media, the game is to encourage media companies to become reliant on third parties to reach their audiences. Once that reliance is established, the companies turn down - or even halt - the ability of those media companies to reach their audience altogether. Then, they *charge the media companies to reach their audiences*:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/save-news-we-need-end-end-web

Now, this wasn't always *quite* so obvious. Back when Vice was falling for Facebook's "pivot to video," it wasn't *completely* obvious that the long con was to take your audience hostage and ransom them back to you. But *deliberately* organizing your business to be reliant on social media barons *today*? It's like trusting your money to Sam Bankman-Fried...in 2024.

If there was ever a moment when the obvious, catastrophic, imminent risk of trusting Big Tech intermediaries to sit between you and your customers or audience, it was now. This is *not* the moment to be "social first." This is the moment for POSSE (Post Own Site, Share Everywhere), a strategy that sees social media as a strategy for bringing readers to channels that *you* control:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/19/now-we-are-two/#two-much-posse

Predicting that a social media platform will rug the media companies that depend on it today doesn't take a Sun Tzu - as cunning strategies go, the hamfisted tactics of FB, Twitter and Tiktok make gambits like "Lucy and the football" look like *von Clausewitz*.

The most bonkers part of this strategy is that it's coming from private equity bosses, who laud themselves as the great strategists of the 21st century, whose claim on so much of our global capital and resources is derived from their brilliant insight, which allows them to buy "distressed assets" like Vice, "restructure" them to find "efficiencies" and sell them on.

The reality is that PE goons - like other financiers - are basically herding animals. *Everyone's* hit on the tactic of buying up beloved media companies - from the 150-year-old *Popular Science* to modern publications like CNet - and then filling them with spammy garbage in the hopes that Google will fail to notice and continue to award them pride-of-place on search results pages:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

The fact that these billionaire brain-geniuses can't figure out how to "turn around" a site whose workers a) produce brilliant, popular, successful work; and b) depart to found successful firms that commercialize that work tells you everything about their ability to spot "a good business opportunity."

PE - like other mafiosi - only have one business-plan, the "bust out," where you invade a business that produces useful things, force them to pay your chosen suppliers sky-high fees for things they don't need, extract massive fees for your "management" and then walk away from the collapse:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

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⁉️ Hey look at this

* Klobuchar, Smith Announce Judicial Selection Committee for Vacancy on Federal District Court https://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2024/1/klobuchar-smith-announce-judicial-selection-committee-for-vacancy-on-federal-district-court (h/t Matt Stoller)

* The Fed Is Behind the Capital One/Discover Merger https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-fed-is-behind-the-capital-onediscover

* Cory Doctorow Nails Dot-Com Tech and its Fat Cats in ‘The Bezzle’ https://www.everythingzoomer.com/zed-book-club/2024/02/23/cory-doctorow-nails-dot-com-tech-and-its-fattest-cats-in-the-bezzle/

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⁉️ This day in history

#20yrsago How to get an agent http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004772.html#004772

#20yrsago Capitol Records ships threatening Grey Tuesday letter https://web.archive.org/web/20040224163515/http://downhillbattle.org/grey/emi_cd_letter.html

#10yrsago More Escher tessellated cookies https://www.flickr.com/photos/fdecomite/12707039483/

#5yrsago Mobile apps built with Facebook’s SDK secretly shovel mountains of personal information into the Zuckermouth https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/22/facebook-receives-personal-health-data-from-apps-wsj.html

#5yrsago Fast food executive complains that social media inflates young people’s “self-importance,” killing their willingness to work for free https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/careers/muffin-break-boss-fury-over-youth-who-wont-work-unpaid/news-story/57607ea9a1bbe52ba7746cff031306f2

#5yrsago Small business in Wisconsin cancels its unusably bad internet service from Frontier; Frontier demands $4,300 cancellation fee https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/frontier-demands-4300-cancellation-fee-despite-horribly-slow-internet/

#5yrsago Insider sources say Apple is shutting its east Texas stores to escape the jurisdiction of America’s worst patent court https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/22/apple-closing-stores-in-eastern-district-texas/

#1yrsago Fighting the privacy wars, state by state https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/23/state-of-play/#patchwork

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

* A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

* Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS JAN 2025

* The Bezzle, a Martin Hench noir thriller novel about the prison-tech industry. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS FEB 2024

* Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM

* Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM

Latest podcast: How I Got Scammed (https://craphound.com/news/2024/02/18/how-i-got-scammed/)

Upcoming appearances:

* The Bezzle at Third Place Books (Seattle), Feb 26
https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/cory-doctorow

* The Bezzle at Powell's (Portland) Feb 27:
https://www.powells.com/book/the-bezzle-martin-hench-2-9781250865878/1-2

* The Bezzle at Changing Hands (Phoenix), Feb 29:
https://www.changinghands.com/event/february2024/cory-doctorow

* Tucson Festival of Books, Mar 9/10
https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/?id=676

* Enshittification: How the Internet Went Bad and How to Get it Back (virtual), Mar 26
https://libcal.library.ubc.ca/event/3781006

* Wondercon Anaheim, Mar 29-31
https://www.comic-con.org/wc/

* The Bezzle at Anderson's Books (Chicago), Apr 17
https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1

* Torino Biennale Tecnologia (Apr 19-21)
https://www.turismotorino.org/en/experiences/events/biennale-tecnologia

* Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Winnipeg), May 2
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337?aff=oddtdtcreator

* Tartu Prima Vista Literary Festival (May 5-11)
https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/

* Media Ecology Association keynote (Amherst, NY), Jun 6-9
https://media-ecology.org/convention

* American Association of Law Libraries keynote (Chicago), Jul 21
https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/

Upcoming appearances:

* The Bezzle at Third Place Books (Seattle), Feb 26
https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/cory-doctorow

* The Bezzle at Powell's (Portland) Feb 27:
https://www.powells.com/book/the-bezzle-martin-hench-2-9781250865878/1-2

* The Bezzle at Changing Hands (Phoenix), Feb 29:
https://www.changinghands.com/event/february2024/cory-doctorow

* Tucson Festival of Books, Mar 9/10
https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/?id=676

* Enshittification: How the Internet Went Bad and How to Get it Back (virtual), Mar 26
https://libcal.library.ubc.ca/event/3781006

* Wondercon Anaheim, Mar 29-31
https://www.comic-con.org/wc/

* The Bezzle at Anderson's Books (Chicago), Apr 17
https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1

* Torino Biennale Tecnologia (Apr 19-21)
https://www.turismotorino.org/en/experiences/events/biennale-tecnologia

* Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Winnipeg), May 2
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337?aff=oddtdtcreator

* Tartu Prima Vista Literary Festival (May 5-11)
https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/

* Media Ecology Association keynote, Jun 6-9 (Amherst, NY)
https://media-ecology.org/convention

* American Association of Law Libraries keynote, (Chicago), Jul 21
https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/

Recent appearances:

* Radioactive (KCRL)
https://krcl.org/blog/grist-investigates-doctorow-seed/

* The enshittification of music (Music Ally)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh20fD3XXbg

* Aaron Swartz (EpistemiCast)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5t9QVHSQBjIXKUiN2EvEmK

Latest books:

* The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).

* "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)

* "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

* "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US):  and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.

* "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

Upcoming books:

* Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025

* Unauthorized Bread: a graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025

This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla
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