Quick Spin: You Can’t Save Journalism With NFTs
A short rant about the state of legacy media, followed by some delicious carbs.
I actually love Mondays—maybe because I try not to take deadlines on Mondays and I know editors won’t be getting back to me first thing. They’re usually too busy working through their inboxes, which gives me a slow, quiet morning to catch up and reset.
It’s finally feeling like spring in New York, and I just spent four days doing my favorite thing: walking and eating my way through the city with my best friend. Highly recommend.
Today, instead of a bunch of bite-sized bits, I want to dig into one thing that’s been on my mind:
When I started working in journalism about four years ago, Outside was one of my dream publications. It was the gold standard for longform narrative and investigative reporting in the outdoor space—no one else was really doing it like that. Sure, by 2020, it had already lost some of it’s edge, but the editorial staff still upheld the values and storytelling that made it an award-winning magazine.
Now—because nearly all of journalism is at a breaking point—you may not have even noticed what’s happened. (Most publications still think people want to read listicles, after all, even though Buzzfeed peaked in, what, 2011?)
Like so many others, Outside has been in free fall. TL;DR: In 2021, Robin Thurston, a venture-backed fitness-tech guy, acquired the publication after gobbling up a slew of niche outlets in the outdoor and endurance world—like Peloton Magazine, Triathlete, and Yoga Journal. Over the past few years, they’ve laid off most of their editorial staff, reportedly discouraged political or “dark” stories (like this powerful piece on a sexual abuser in the climbing community by Annette McGivney), and pivoted hard toward content-lite. There’s a great piece in the Columbia Journalism Review that details some of what went down, and a New Yorker piece that unpacks the magazine’s long history and its current identity crisis.
In both, former and current staff talk about the pressure to keep up with the times—and to be fair, legacy publications do need to evolve. Millennials and Gen Z aren’t exactly subscribing to glossy mags anymore, and most people get their information from a mix of TikToks (expert or otherwise), newsletters, and Reddit threads. Increasingly, people want to hear from other people—real voices with faces behind them—and social media and platforms like Substack are driving that shift. (Case in point, most people would rather watch a 30-second IG reel of their favorite creator talking about an issue than read an entire article about it.)
The problem is, most legacy publications still haven’t figured out how to adapt to that new dynamic without losing the substance that made them matter in the first place. (Or they’re still stuck trying to write content like “10 best hiking snacks” that appeals to our Google overlords while neglecting to see that people want to read things with curiosity, perspective, and actual voice). No wonder everybody hates reading now.
But Robin Thurston, the CEO behind the new Outside, seems like the worst possible person to lead that charge. He’s the type of middle-aged investor who heard from his nephew that NFTs were the future and decided to pivot the entire brand accordingly. (They launched an NFT-based membership program, and—shocker—it flopped not long after.) This is what happens when people with more money than editorial instinct try to run a media company like a tech startup.
A few more things worth paying attention to:
RFK Jr. just cut all staff from the CDC lab that track STI outbreaks—the only lab in the US that tests more rare forms of STIs... Staff was immediately locked out of their labs while hazardous material was left unattended. Cool. Just in case we forgot: syphilis is back, gonorrhea is getting more drug-resistant, and STI rates are already spiking without cuts. Get tested, folks!
Another RFK cut? The entire staff of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program (LIHEAP), a program that helps low income people pay for their heating and cooling. Since 1999, more than 21,000 people have died from heat waves. LIHEAP helps over six million residents, so that number is sure to rise if they can’t get AC in their home before sure-to-be record breaking temps this summer.
A new start up—led by 17-year-olds—is hosting the first-ever competitive sperm race in Los Angeles. Naturally, the biohacking community is obsessed. You just know it’s crawling with guys who’ve optimized every minute of their lives convinced their sperm would take gold. (And look, talking about male fertility is important! But... this is not it.)
LA’s newest gambling event—live sperm racing, The Times
Things I’ve Liked This Week:
This is mostly about food…..ngl.
🍨 I will be dreaming about the ice cream sundae from Wildair in LES. (The food was also incredible but…. go for the ice cream.)
🍩 I will also be dreaming about the perfect mix of dough and guava and cheese from Fan Fan Doughnuts.
🍜 A giant plate of wheat noodles with peanut sauce is $3.25 at Shu Jiao Fu Zhou in Chinatown and it’s absolutely worth every dollar.
🧦 The new sock collection from Bombas!! I’m thoroughly obsessed but my favorites are the vintage stripe because the half calf height is absolutely phenomenal.
🛏️ I’ve been testing out cooling blankets for an upcoming article for GQ and although it doesn’t have a magic cooling effect like some others, the Buffy Cloud Comforter is cute as fuck and light enough that I don’t wake up sweating.
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Wait why is the new Bombas sock collection healing my inner child