Cycling Tips - key staff sacked ??!!

[MichaelB]

I'd noted in the past few days, the quality and depth of articles at CT suddenly changed

Now I know why ....

https://forum.cyclingtips.com/t/laid-of ... today/6496

Today Caley Fretz, Dave Rome, Matt de Neef and Daniel Benson (Editor-in-Chief of VN) were let go. Plus lots of other staff (including Steve Brawley who has been with CT for years in sales) and others throughout the company. 12% in total.

What a clusterfcuk OutsideInc is. Robin Thurston has gotten his head over his skis and singlehandedly fcuked up dozens of good media publications in just 2 years.

Goodbye CT. It was good while it lasted.

[trailgumby]

I'd noted in the past few days, the quality and depth of articles at CT suddenly changed

Now I know why ....

https://forum.cyclingtips.com/t/laid-of ... today/6496

That's what happens when the MBAs get hold of a business. They pay too much, then to get the returns to justify paying over the odds for the brand, they slash and burn the key staff that established the brand, and then outsource to save costs.

All that happens is they sow the seeds of their own demise. The brand implodes (witness GCN, and once-reputable brands like Schwinn and Mongoose who are now BSO supermarket brands) or they set up the offshore manufacturers/content producers to become their own competitors.

You'd think the MBA programs - supposedly evidence based - would have picked up on this by now. But no, it seems not.

[Mububban]

All that happens is they sow the seeds of their own demise. The brand implodes (witness GCN....

What's the story with GCN?

[trailgumby]

All that happens is they sow the seeds of their own demise. The brand implodes (witness GCN....

What's the story with GCN?

Now mostly clickbait titles and "listicles". Yawn-inducing race to the bottom.

[Thoglette]

There was an article recently in The Atlantic (IIRC) that described a trend for doing this to newspapers. Buy them at a bargain price (no one else is buying) then cut, cut, cut until the advertisers and subscribers finally stop buying. Then shut the doors (well, if you’re doing it properly all that’s left is to SMS the last freelancers)
Lather, Rinse, Repeat

[AUbicycles]

On the one side there is outside online and their approach and decisions, but on the other are key people at CT who engaged and saw opportunity with this relationship (becoming part of that empire).

Not to say that staff impacted may have had any stake or say… but I would argue that at this level with advertising income + subscriptionss, it is a sizeable amount so there may be inefficiencies somewhere or turnover demands beyond the capabilities that have caused this stretch.

With any publication, I read selected stories and not everything one outlet publishes… it is hard to be a one-stop-shop.

[cyclotaur]

Did Elon Musk buy Cycling Tips !?

Still waiting on Wade Wallace’s thoughts on this debacle.

[ace70]

Sounds like Wade is putting together CT.2
https://open.substack.com/pub/wadewalla ... paign=post

[MichaelB]

A couple of podcasts have been released by them

https://bicyclingsuggestions.podbean.com/

[AUbicycles]

A lot of the subscribers are reporting that they are cancelling subscriptions to Cycling Tips.

One take-away is that it was very much personality based and many readers / subscribers are behind people / a group of people.

[AUbicycles]

Details that were obviously not previously (widely) known.


Other staff like José and Abby who were not made redundant have left (I understand) voluntarily.

[MichaelB]

For those that follow Wade Wallace (the key person from the original and better C Tips) has just sent info to introduce that they are starting up a proper cycling website that is membership based.

You can register your interest - https://wadewallace.substack.com/p/onwa ... dium=email

In his link, there is a REALLY interesting article re the impact of AI on all sorts of online content - quite illuminating and disturbing at the same time - The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI

scary stuff ....

[blizzard]

For those that follow Wade Wallace (the key person from the original and better C Tips) has just sent info to introduce that they are starting up a proper cycling website that is membership based.

You can register your interest - https://wadewallace.substack.com/p/onwa ... dium=email

In his link, there is a REALLY interesting article re the impact of AI on all sorts of online content - quite illuminating and disturbing at the same time - The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI

scary stuff ....

Hopefully it succeeds, CT is a shell of it's former self, almost no articles getting posted and no Australian staff. I really like James Huang's review and tech articles, hopefully he can move to greener pastures.

Also, they have now shut their forum and say they are migrating CT to a new platform, whatever that means.

[RonK]

Recent I came across this free site - which is quite informative, so no more CT and CN for me.

https://cyclinguptodate.com

[Arbuckle23]

Recent I came across this free site - which is quite informative, so no more CT and CN for me.

https://cyclinguptodate.com

Thanks Ron
Bookmarked!

[MichaelB]

Recent I came across this free site - which is quite informative, so no more CT and CN for me.

https://cyclinguptodate.com

Bookmarked as well.

Cheers

[P!N20]

I wonder how all this will affect the Giro Della Donna bike festival that was put on by Cycling Tips? No word on the website or Facebook page, so assume it’s going ahead for now.

[antigee]

Last Nerd Alert podcast was on 10th Nov
Freewheeling 21 Dec no coverage (womens) TDU
No "weekly show" since 22nd Dec and no TDU podcasts (yet)

a TDU preview article at last minute (by a Velonews staffer?) and a handful of articles year to date

sadly dead but hardly surprising with key staff laid off or packed their own bags

[blizzard]

James Huang has written his last article for CT, really can't see any reason to visit CT anymore.

[MichaelB]

James Huang has written his last article for CT, really can't see any reason to visit CT anymore.

Haven't visited since the debacle started a while ago !

[fat and old]

Here it is, Wade's latest offering

https://escapecollective.cc/

No, I won't be stumping up the hard earned (absolutely 0 interest in bikepacking and gravel "culture" stuff), but good luck with it I say.

[MichaelB]

Here it is, Wade's latest offering

https://escapecollective.cc/

No, I won't be stumping up the hard earned (absolutely 0 interest in bikepacking and gravel "culture" stuff), but good luck with it I say.

Hmm, thought that it'd be more road oriented, but I guess that there is already plenty of content there and gravel is the new black.

I'll have a think about it ...

[blizzard]

Looks interesting but the subscription is about 2x what I would consider paying annually for it.

[ace70]

Happily pay for the awesome content these guys bring to the table, and no b$&(AT)$&$t pressure from manufacturers and sponsors. Was totally lost when these guys stopped producing stuff on the website and podcast.
And local content from Iain, Dave, Wade.
Also good to hear about other genres in the cycling world, there’s enough cycling hatred out there on the roads, we need some lovin’ between our 2 wheeled brethren

[AUbicycles]

Escape Collective - with the majority of the cyclingtips staff appears to be going well. I prefer the genuine content over their ‘want to be viral’. (Guess some call it entertainment… though I don’t need that).


Otherwise, Outside announced the that cyclingtips, velonews and peloton are merging into “Velo”… so cyclingtips is essentially gone but I expect it will continue to syndicate the content for a while.


Media landscape is tough…