Another “New Media” Website, Splinter is shutting down

Another “New Media” Website bites the dust.

Splinter is shutting down. In an internal memo sent Tuesday to staff, Paul Maidment, the editorial director of Splinter’s parent company, G/O Media, praised the site’s journalism but said the publication struggled to gain large numbers of readers.

“Despite the hard work of everyone on that staff, which has produced much outstanding journalism and great scoops, establishing a steady and sustainable audience for a relatively young site proved challenging in a fiercely competitive sector,” Maidment said.

“Given that reality, the leadership team made the difficult decision to cease operation of Splinter and redistribute the headcount to the other sites to increase the impact the editorial department can have overall.” Maidment claimed there would be “no reduction of G/O Media’s editorial workforce as a result of this decision,” and Splinter’s headcount would be “reallocated” across other sites at G/O, the network of former Gizmodo Media Group sites including Deadspin, Jezebel, Gizmodo, and Jalopnik, among others. “Our goal, wherever possible, will be to retain current Splinter staff members in open positions at other G/O Media sites.”

Some Splinter staffers, however, said they’ve been laid off. Deputy editor Jack Mirkinson tweeted, “Splinter is shutting down and we’re all being laid off,” and staff writer Sam Grasso wrote: “I’m getting laid off.”

Splinter was launched in 2017 after Univision acquired most of the old Gawker Media assets following Gawker’s high-profile legal dispute with wrestler Hulk Hogan and conservative tech billionaire Peter Thiel. – Source: The Daily Beast

Now, I am not going to sit here, and say, “ha ha! liberals lost another one!” because is that is stupid, immature, and elitist. I will say truthfully that “New Media” has become a very tight market. Since the crash of 2008, quite a bit of the crazy money floating around, simply dried up. Also too, many people have their favorite news and opinion sites that they frequent and it is tough to break into that market and get eyeballs on a site.

Another problem is that media has become so polarized since the election of President Obama and President Trump. Many people spend their time in their own echo chambers, being feed propaganda; whether it be right wing or left wing. Another thing killing print media is Youtube. Many people would rather watch a video, than take the time to read a webpage.

Personally, in 10 years from now, I think that blogs will become a thing of the past and video will be “the thing”. Personally, I don’t write as much as I used to; It takes a bit of effort to craft a thoughtful blog posting; only to have no one read it. Plus, I have become involved with gaming and that’s taken my attention away from political blogging some. Plus, the political scene is much different than it was, when I first started blogging in 2006. Silly season? More like silly, drama daily anymore. I kinda just got old of it. Why I just game and watch documentaries on Youtube.

Bottom Line: New Media is a tight, fickle, and sometimes even biased market. If one owns a site, one has to figure out, do I want to be an echo chamber or do I want to be real? Decide wisely.

Others: Mother Jones, VICE, Common Dreams, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, The Wrap, Fox News and Contemptor, more at Mediagazer »