Pitchfork Acquired by Condé Nast
October 13, 2015 10:55 AM Subscribe
The independent online magazine announced it was acquired by the media conglomerate. The indie-rock tastemakers, on the verge of their 20th birthday will join Vogue, Wired and Vanity Fair for an undisclosed sum.
Of course, this being Pitchfork, the news are already being mocked, from the usual "Pitchfork gives Condé Nast 8.2" jokes to the usage of "Millennial males" used in the Condé Nast press release.
Of course, this being Pitchfork, the news are already being mocked, from the usual "Pitchfork gives Condé Nast 8.2" jokes to the usage of "Millennial males" used in the Condé Nast press release.
I'm going to pretend this is the context to those photos of Drake and Anna Wintour hanging out that are floating around.
posted by griphus at 10:59 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by griphus at 10:59 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also IIRC this makes them siblings with Reddit in some vague hazy part of the corporate tree.
posted by Artw at 11:07 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 11:07 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
I give this takeover a 7.6. Its not bad, but it is awfully predictable and kind of surprising they waited so long to go in this direction.
posted by lownote at 11:07 AM on October 13, 2015 [17 favorites]
posted by lownote at 11:07 AM on October 13, 2015 [17 favorites]
0.0
posted by jimmythefish at 11:07 AM on October 13, 2015
posted by jimmythefish at 11:07 AM on October 13, 2015
Hopefully this means that whoever wrote that review of Kid A will be eligible for some better health insurance.
posted by saladin at 11:08 AM on October 13, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by saladin at 11:08 AM on October 13, 2015 [8 favorites]
I hope this is relatively hands off and not a Women's Sports & Fitness kind of travesty.
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:09 AM on October 13, 2015
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:09 AM on October 13, 2015
Well, Ars Technica has been kind of... up and down since the Conde Nast buyout. Still some good tech coverage there, but also some questionable writing and weird sponsor stuff.
posted by selfnoise at 11:14 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by selfnoise at 11:14 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
A gif describing Pitchfork post-buyout
posted by drezdn at 11:16 AM on October 13, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by drezdn at 11:16 AM on October 13, 2015 [3 favorites]
Pitchfork Acquired by Condé Nast
You probably haven't heard about this story.
posted by Fizz at 11:18 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
You probably haven't heard about this story.
posted by Fizz at 11:18 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
Hrm. I wonder if it could have saved The Dissolve if it had come earlier...
posted by mr_roboto at 11:20 AM on October 13, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by mr_roboto at 11:20 AM on October 13, 2015 [3 favorites]
whoever wrote that review of Kid A will be eligible for some better health insurance.
Ha. Ha. To his credit, DiCrescenzo's LinkedIn profile says "Wrote this one thing about Radiohead everyone remembers." But he's working for somebody else now. I've never heard of them.
posted by octobersurprise at 11:21 AM on October 13, 2015
Ha. Ha. To his credit, DiCrescenzo's LinkedIn profile says "Wrote this one thing about Radiohead everyone remembers." But he's working for somebody else now. I've never heard of them.
posted by octobersurprise at 11:21 AM on October 13, 2015
Well, Ars Technica has been kind of... up and down since the Conde Nast buyout. Still some good tech coverage there, but also some questionable writing and weird sponsor stuff.
No shit. That horrific LG tv ad that took over the front page last week was seriously damaging to Ars' reputation.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:30 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
No shit. That horrific LG tv ad that took over the front page last week was seriously damaging to Ars' reputation.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:30 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
mr_roboto: "Hrm. I wonder if it could have saved The Dissolve if it had come earlier..."
Too soon. I'm still bitter about that.
posted by octothorpe at 11:37 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
Too soon. I'm still bitter about that.
posted by octothorpe at 11:37 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
I was into Condé Nast when it was a zine.
posted by scruss at 11:38 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by scruss at 11:38 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
Pitchfork, the Gawker of music "journalism."
posted by entropicamericana at 11:39 AM on October 13, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by entropicamericana at 11:39 AM on October 13, 2015 [5 favorites]
I think Pitchfork is better now, but am I being ironic or earnestly contrarian?
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:44 AM on October 13, 2015
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:44 AM on October 13, 2015
I was into Advance Publications when it was owned by Si Oldhouse.
posted by octobersurprise at 11:47 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by octobersurprise at 11:47 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
An oldie but goodie: Rich Dork Media.
posted by Awkward Philip at 11:49 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Awkward Philip at 11:49 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
This makes a ton of sense, because one of the ways forward for publications in the internet age is live events, i.e. TimesTalks, SlateLive, whatever it is the WaPo does. Live events bring in revenue that can't be pirated over the internet, increase reader devotion from the people that go to them--it's the print version of bands making money from touring.
Conde Nast already has the New Yorker Festival, and now they have a big music festival in Chicago. I'm honestly surprised this didn't happen sooner.
posted by thecaddy at 12:13 PM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
Conde Nast already has the New Yorker Festival, and now they have a big music festival in Chicago. I'm honestly surprised this didn't happen sooner.
posted by thecaddy at 12:13 PM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
Too late to save The Dissolve, sadly.
posted by Automocar at 1:35 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Automocar at 1:35 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
Well, fuck, if they were looking for a way to make us wildly enthusiastic for the purchase they know what to revive.
posted by Artw at 1:40 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 1:40 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
To his credit, DiCrescenzo's LinkedIn profile says "Wrote this one thing about Radiohead everyone remembers." But he's working for somebody else now.
LOL but also he works for somebody else because Pitchfork fired him after he wrote a bunch of untrue stuff in a review of a Beastie Boys album that they later had to retract. Though to be fair, he might've eventually moved on on his own. The Kid A review is in the baffling/terrible pantheon with the infamous "shit, cat" review Schreiber wrote about a Coltrane album.
These days I really only read Pitchfork stuff if Meaghan Garvey or Philip Sherburne wrote it, but sometimes I'll skim other things.
posted by sparkletone at 1:45 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
LOL but also he works for somebody else because Pitchfork fired him after he wrote a bunch of untrue stuff in a review of a Beastie Boys album that they later had to retract. Though to be fair, he might've eventually moved on on his own. The Kid A review is in the baffling/terrible pantheon with the infamous "shit, cat" review Schreiber wrote about a Coltrane album.
These days I really only read Pitchfork stuff if Meaghan Garvey or Philip Sherburne wrote it, but sometimes I'll skim other things.
posted by sparkletone at 1:45 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
From the archives: Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:51 PM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:51 PM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
Sellouts.
posted by maryr at 2:28 PM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by maryr at 2:28 PM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
Yeah I only listen to ambient environmental noise now anyway so...
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 2:34 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 2:34 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
To everyone discussing The Dissolve...it's likely that Pitchfork actually ended The Dissolve in order to jettison an unprofitable arm of the company and make the sale look better to Conde Nast. Hence the very sudden shuttering of the site, and Keith Phipps' mysterious Tweet after the news came out.
To everyone else - jokes about numerical scores and "you probably haven't heard of them"? You're better than this, Metafilter. These jokes were already Jay Leno-level lazy in 2005.
Pitchfork gets a lot of deserved snark for its early years, but they also publish 25 lengthy reviews a week, and their most pretentious writers either left the site (DiCrescenzo) or faded into managerial roles (Scheiber) years ago. In addition to the writers sparkletone named, I think Mark Richardson also writes some good stuff for them.
posted by kingoftonga86 at 4:12 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
To everyone else - jokes about numerical scores and "you probably haven't heard of them"? You're better than this, Metafilter. These jokes were already Jay Leno-level lazy in 2005.
Pitchfork gets a lot of deserved snark for its early years, but they also publish 25 lengthy reviews a week, and their most pretentious writers either left the site (DiCrescenzo) or faded into managerial roles (Scheiber) years ago. In addition to the writers sparkletone named, I think Mark Richardson also writes some good stuff for them.
posted by kingoftonga86 at 4:12 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
I keep trying to have something to say about this, but all I can really land on is lolpitchfork.
posted by brennen at 4:35 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by brennen at 4:35 PM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
They didn't have any credibility or integrity to lose, and they were always pretty sleazy corporate-cozying types anyway. This is just a lateral move, or maybe even an upward tick. Conde Nast should be promising to clean house and end corruption and payola in Best New Music designations.
posted by anazgnos at 4:38 PM on October 13, 2015
posted by anazgnos at 4:38 PM on October 13, 2015
... or to just accept more, because all that money was an investment, not a gift to get #millennialmales
posted by lmfsilva at 5:17 PM on October 13, 2015
posted by lmfsilva at 5:17 PM on October 13, 2015
The "millennial males" thing was odd -- or ominous, if taken as a signal of what the new owner wants it to be -- because Pitchfork is a markedly better, less male-centric publication than it used to be. For example, the excellent Jessica Hopper as senior editor of the website and editor in chief of the magazine.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 5:30 PM on October 13, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by chimpsonfilm at 5:30 PM on October 13, 2015 [3 favorites]
I definitely have a love-hate thing with Pitchfork -- I don't always agree with them, but I'll read reviews of things I'm curious about (but I still don't read music reviews of women musicians written by men unless it's a critic I absolutely trust). I also think they're a good resource for music news (somewhat, anyway -- as good as anywhere else). I guess ... Pitchfork isn't perfect but I don't really know what's better. I always understood it wasn't really for me.
I am really curious to see what happens with this deal. I hope it keeps some people employed, anyway.
posted by darksong at 7:20 PM on October 13, 2015
I am really curious to see what happens with this deal. I hope it keeps some people employed, anyway.
posted by darksong at 7:20 PM on October 13, 2015
The fact that we know about Pitchfork means it's irrelevant now.
Welcome to your Carlsberg years!
posted by clvrmnky at 7:51 PM on October 13, 2015
Welcome to your Carlsberg years!
posted by clvrmnky at 7:51 PM on October 13, 2015
The "millennial males" thing was odd -- or ominous, if taken as a signal of what the new owner wants it to be
I think it's worth noting here that the internal memo sent to Conde Nast people used the term "millennials" but didn't specify a gender. That seems to have been the public-facing PR spokesperson's choice of words. I'm hoping it's not indicative of a major shift there, but we'll see how much they're willing to leave Pitchfork alone.
posted by sparkletone at 12:59 AM on October 14, 2015
I think it's worth noting here that the internal memo sent to Conde Nast people used the term "millennials" but didn't specify a gender. That seems to have been the public-facing PR spokesperson's choice of words. I'm hoping it's not indicative of a major shift there, but we'll see how much they're willing to leave Pitchfork alone.
posted by sparkletone at 12:59 AM on October 14, 2015
Does anyone remember that ridiculous glengarry glen ross rant, i think by Mr. Ryan, about how "I can make or break your band! i can bury you!" and shit like that? It might have been featured on the late great hipster runoff but it was not a parody and it showed up a bunch of other places. This would have been i don't know, 6+ years ago. Google is doing nothing and i started uncontrollably laughing thinking of it when i saw this thread. I want to say it was something he emailed to someone.
posted by emptythought at 4:41 AM on October 14, 2015
posted by emptythought at 4:41 AM on October 14, 2015
You're better than this, Metafilter.
No I'm not, actually. But I'm sorry I disappointed you. I honestly have no beef with Pitchfork. It's always useful as one music news aggregator among many and some of the writers, like the aforementioned Phil Sherburne, I've read with pleasure and profit for years. Much of what gets written there doesn't interest me much beyond a cursory glance, but that's okay, too.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:18 AM on October 14, 2015
No I'm not, actually. But I'm sorry I disappointed you. I honestly have no beef with Pitchfork. It's always useful as one music news aggregator among many and some of the writers, like the aforementioned Phil Sherburne, I've read with pleasure and profit for years. Much of what gets written there doesn't interest me much beyond a cursory glance, but that's okay, too.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:18 AM on October 14, 2015
on the verge of their 20th birthday
Jesus Christ.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 7:14 AM on October 14, 2015
Jesus Christ.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 7:14 AM on October 14, 2015
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