<story><title>Macworld lays off most staff</title><url>https://twitter.com/DanFrakes/status/509753738454528000</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aikah</author><text>&amp;gt;  almost all of the money is falling out of it.&lt;p&gt;Well no money because nobody&amp;#x27;s paying for it,and since nobody&amp;#x27;s paying for it the content is usually average at best.&lt;p&gt;Free information is great,but let&amp;#x27;s face it,quality news cost money and time. What have we today?in the tech world? content farms (readwrite,thenextweb,techcrunch,mashable...) where writers often know nothing about the subject,or are using social justice warfare to manifacture outrage in order to generate impressions( &lt;a href=&quot;http://readwrite.com/2014/09/09/apple-no-women-on-stage-diversity-iwatch&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;readwrite.com&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;apple-no-women-on-stage-dive...&lt;/a&gt; ). How can that kind of news scale? readers are not idiots. But most readers ,at the same time,refuse to pay for anything,so the money has to come from somewhere,so we get sponsorised news too...&lt;p&gt;Real journalists or writers have skills,what&amp;#x27;s missing is a plateform where pro journalists could monetize their skills to corporations directly,to write serious reports on a specific subject for instance,intelligence,sourcing,or just writing for the web(for commercial purposes,i.e. writing for content for a corporate website).</text></item><item><author>munificent</author><text>Today is a great time to be a writer. There are virtually no middlemen between you putting together a sentence and millions being able to read it. There are countless communities where you can find people to give you good feedback to hone your craft.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, that also means it&amp;#x27;s a really terrible time to be a writer &lt;i&gt;for a living.&lt;/i&gt; Like every job that is (a) creative and (b) can be distributed digitally, almost all of the money is falling out of it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>convex</author><text>The current quality and quantity of information previously classified as &amp;quot;news&amp;quot; is far beyond what has ever existed previously. Look at any news event and compare the information that&amp;#x27;s immediately available now compared to similar news events 20 or 30 years ago. People on the ground publish pictures, videos, and reports &lt;i&gt;as the events are happening,&lt;/i&gt; and we can read reports from any source in the world translated instantaneously into our native languages. And we have access to all of this using a tiny computer that fits in a pocket.&lt;p&gt;The idea that quality has decreased is simply an absurd and obvious myth perpetuated by editors and professional writers who are unhappy that their control over the journalism and publishing industries is evaporating. Furthermore, the market has never really paid for journalism, which was always subsidized by ads of questionable efficacy and ownership by wealthy individuals.&lt;p&gt;Finally, the big secret is the a massive amount of non-fiction by professional writers is embellished, plagiarized, or outright fabricated, and there is almost no real fact-checking in the industry. The regular scandals are just the tip of the iceberg.&lt;p&gt;Journalism and non-fiction writing as they exist now are in need of a major overhaul. Thankfully, technology is creating a situation where the world is naturally moving forward.</text></comment>
<story><title>Macworld lays off most staff</title><url>https://twitter.com/DanFrakes/status/509753738454528000</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aikah</author><text>&amp;gt;  almost all of the money is falling out of it.&lt;p&gt;Well no money because nobody&amp;#x27;s paying for it,and since nobody&amp;#x27;s paying for it the content is usually average at best.&lt;p&gt;Free information is great,but let&amp;#x27;s face it,quality news cost money and time. What have we today?in the tech world? content farms (readwrite,thenextweb,techcrunch,mashable...) where writers often know nothing about the subject,or are using social justice warfare to manifacture outrage in order to generate impressions( &lt;a href=&quot;http://readwrite.com/2014/09/09/apple-no-women-on-stage-diversity-iwatch&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;readwrite.com&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;apple-no-women-on-stage-dive...&lt;/a&gt; ). How can that kind of news scale? readers are not idiots. But most readers ,at the same time,refuse to pay for anything,so the money has to come from somewhere,so we get sponsorised news too...&lt;p&gt;Real journalists or writers have skills,what&amp;#x27;s missing is a plateform where pro journalists could monetize their skills to corporations directly,to write serious reports on a specific subject for instance,intelligence,sourcing,or just writing for the web(for commercial purposes,i.e. writing for content for a corporate website).</text></item><item><author>munificent</author><text>Today is a great time to be a writer. There are virtually no middlemen between you putting together a sentence and millions being able to read it. There are countless communities where you can find people to give you good feedback to hone your craft.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, that also means it&amp;#x27;s a really terrible time to be a writer &lt;i&gt;for a living.&lt;/i&gt; Like every job that is (a) creative and (b) can be distributed digitally, almost all of the money is falling out of it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>37prime</author><text>I rolled my eyes every time someone linked to the “publications” you’ve mentioned: readwrite, thenextweb, techcrunch, mashable… add venturebeat, buzzfeed, cnet, business insider, the street, and many more……&lt;p&gt;It is all in the name of page hit, no longer about useful information.</text></comment>