Farewell, Racked

September 20, 2018 10:30 AM

After 11 years of intelligent writing about fashion, beauty, shopping and other topics traditionally coded as "female," Racked ceased publication on September 14th.

The farewell note points readers toward Vox's site The Goods and Racked's front page features links to Best of Compilations.

Racked was purchased by Vox Media in November, 2013 and spawned numerous FPPs.

posted by kimberussell (14 comments total)

GOD DAMMIT I WAS JUST ABOUT TO PITCH THEM.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 10:46 AM on September 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

......I worried I’ve become the kiss of death for online publications
posted by The Whelk at 11:48 AM on September 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

God damn it I love Racked! It’s where probably 30% of my FPPs have come from!
posted by Grandysaur at 12:19 PM on September 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm going to miss them so much.
posted by sukeban at 12:42 PM on September 20, 2018

I hate that all of these intelligent, thoughtful sites are being shuttered.
posted by kimberussell at 12:56 PM on September 20, 2018 [16 favorites]

You wonder if there's going to be a lot more shutdowns like this. How much longer is the AVClub going to be around for instance? Last I saw, they were on the market but no one was interested.
posted by octothorpe at 1:15 PM on September 20, 2018

Oh fuck.

Why do the intelligent sites always go down? I'm reading Who What Wear now, but it's mostly embedded advertorials for cheap crappy trends...
posted by jrochest at 2:32 PM on September 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

From what I can tell, about the only thing that pays these days is affiliate marketing, and the sweetest paying clicks come from credit card companies. The NY Times recognized this and bought The Wirecutter and poured a lot of resources into building out the aff link inventory (lots of reviews, lots of not quite a review product roundups or how to choose guides that still carry aff links, or steer traffic to aff link review pages) (although I don’t think they have jumped into the credit card aff link biz in a big way. Yet.).

Buzzfeed generates TONs of listicles that are basically carriers for affiliate links.

“Smaller” sites can’t generate the traffic that makes whatever advertisers pay a sustainable business. If they aren’t aggressive in pursuing affiliate marketing revenue, they are going to struggle.
posted by notyou at 2:41 PM on September 20, 2018

I have to say, I'm slowly coming around to affiliate clicks being a better and less-noisy moneymaker than expansive advertising. Probably less invasive as well.

Of course subscriptions are the best, but I think its day hasn't quite come yet.
posted by rhizome at 8:11 PM on September 20, 2018

They fired a portion of their staff a few months ago and it felt like the posting rate slowed WAY down, so maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised. It still sucks. I keep phantom typing my way back to the site (just like when the toast shut down).

...some of their beat is going to be covered on vox's the goods, I think, but it clearly won't be the same.
posted by grandiloquiet at 8:46 PM on September 20, 2018

FFS!!
posted by ellieBOA at 10:26 PM on September 20, 2018

Dammit.
posted by rednikki at 12:02 AM on September 21, 2018

That is so, so disappointing to hear. Any time I came across one of their articles, it was such a treat to dive in: there are so many quality, in-depth articles in their archives. (And on topics I never expect)

The farewell note is disappointingly short, and doesn't mention anything about their plans for the site... here's hoping it will stay up for the foreseeable future.
posted by Gordafarin at 1:30 AM on September 21, 2018

Vox has apparently hired lots of Racked staff, will be keeping an eye on The Goods newsletter.
posted by ellieBOA at 4:02 AM on September 21, 2018