Today’s links Vice surrenders: Literally the stupidest publishing strategy I’ve ever heard of (ever). Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2004, 2014, 2019, 2023. Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Vice surrenders (permalink) Vice died the way it lived: being suckered in by smarter predators, even as it trained its own predatory instincts on those more credulous than its own supremely gullible leadership. RIP, we hardly knew ye. For those of you who don’t know, Vice was a Canadian media success story. It was founded by a motley clique of hipsters, one of whom – founder of the Proud Boys – has since grown to be one of the world’s great fascism influencers. Another perfected the art of getting young people to work “for exposure” even as he built a massive, highly lucrative media empire on their free labor: https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/vice-oral-history/ Eventually, Vice transitioned to a string of progressively worsening corporate owners, each more dishonest, predatory – and gullible – than the last. The company was one of the most enthusiastic marks for Facebook’s infamous “pivot to video” – in which Mark Zuckerberg destroyed half the media industry by tricking them into thinking that the public was clamoring for video content, based on fraudulent viewing numbers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pivot_to_video Vice went all-in on video, spending hundreds of millions to finance Zuckerberg’s doomed attempt to conquer Youtube. But unlike other the rubes who got zucked, Vice found greater fools to scam, convincing giant, slow-moving meidia…Pluralistic: Vice surrenders (24 Feb 2024)