After 13 years, Evan Smith has decided to leave the online newspaper/website he started Ross Ramsey, and John Thornton's money in the background.
The NYT piece gives Smith the respectful high-gloss spit shine.
In reality?
Some nonprofit new media sites, like the Colorado Sun, have done so without his help. Traditional newspapers that have eyed his model, like Salt Lake City, have sometimes struggled.
And, then there's John Thornton's money. After all, the man worked for McKinsey before going on his own, a black mark right there.
Or rather, his money as symptomatic of all those corporate donors.
As documented here on many an occasion, Ev and the gang have pulled punches on climate change stories, among other things, because of those corporate — and Texas university — donors.
When you have no paywall, and big money donors are your primary money stream (they are for the "events" as well), this:
“We have shown people all over the world that it is possible to do this work with integrity, with revenue diversity,” he said.
Ain't so true, Ev, and it's not just me to say that.
My biggest hot take was on the Trib's 10th anniversary. A few notes from that:
- The Trib either does in-house advertorial or, like the Snooze until about 2 years ago, blends its digital marketing consultancy and its news writing. That's a diff, between the two, that makes no difference at end.
- At that time, pre-COVID, Ev's profit margin was 3 percent. So, in the black, but not a robust success model, either. (Maybe, as Omicron threatens more festivals, and people get more used to virtual ones, Ev is seeing some fiscal handwriting on the wall.)
- Then there's Ross's suck-up pre-Trib relationship with John Sharp, a ConservaDem so conservative he ought to officially register as Republican.
At the five year mark of the Trib, I elsewhere noted that, at that time at least, Ev didn't have that integrity that the Times let him boast about. In there, I started with riffing on Jim Moore (sorry, his website is dead) talking about just who all those donations are from. I also noted that Ev may have been fudging some of his numbers, and that he might be overpaid.
That's not all, and certainly not all COVID related. Maybe Ev was hiring glorified interns even before the virus, but, this wasn't a good look during it.
