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Quote of the Day: Farewell, TWS
In honor of the departed Weekly Standard, I wanted to share a favorite quote from one of their finest writers, Matt Labash. He wrote this during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary.
“As one who was never terribly enamored of Hillary Clinton’s personality to start with, I grudgingly admit to enjoying her recent near-tears transformation. Plenty of critics concede her rarely seen emotion was heartfelt, but also that it was due to the 20-hour-day rigors of the campaign trail, making her perhaps the only candidate ever to win the New Hampshire primary because she needed a nap. Still, it was refreshing to watch her punch through the icy crust of her own phoniness, so that the molten core of artificiality could gush forth.”
Every magazine of any persuasion should be in a bidding war for his prose.
Published in General
I hope that someone starts “The New Weekly Standard” magazine.
I also hope that the “Daily Standard” continues at Ricochet. How much does it cost to have the Daily Standard? Is it something that members of Ricochet can contribute to? I really like “The Three Martini Lunch,” but I love “The Daily Standard.”
Gary, did you read any of the 10 or so comments after the one you quoted? We hashed this out pretty much to death.
In any case, if DC Media did in fact liquidate TWS in order to transfer its subscriber list to the Examiner, that would be a perfectly normal marketplace maneuver. Big corporations kill off one of their branches – even profitable branches – and transfer those resources to another of their branches every single day without us calling it murder.
Of course, if you believe John Podhoretz (a male drama queen if there ever was one), this had nothing to do with business motives and everything to do with personal spite between unnamed individuals on both sides.
But even if that was the case: so what? If your salary depends on having a billionaire be willing to part with millions of his dollars every year to prop your organization up, then your number 1 priority is to keep that billionaire’s good graces. TWS obviously failed at that.
No, you’re wrong. Melville never says Moby Dick dies at the end of the story. He just disappears into the depths with Ahab strapped to him and after he has destroyed the Pequod.
It was a big mistake for them to not be non-profit. That’s what it comes down to.
They will grab some writers, too. The editor hates Trump, and is pretty sympathetic to their views on government.
They could start a go fund me. Kristol is reportedly a multimillionaire. The guy that funds the Free Beacon hates Trump and he’s worth zillions.
Making money off of creativity is really a bitch though.
Rick Wilson.
Thanks for asking. I have a pretty linear brain. A couple of years ago, I would read all the comments and then would comment on all of them. I found it better to respond sequentially. Historically that works best.
And that was likely a function of their message failing.
EDIT: Failing to be effective in the marketplace, not necessarily in disagreement with the benefactor.
But the Washington Examiner refused to allow the Weekly Standard to be bought out. Instead they killed it seeking to use its mailing list.
Heck, I would have been all for the creation of “The Weekly Standard, Inc.” with a stock offering of, say, $10 million. Just as many people of Wisconsin own stock in the Green Bay Packers, I would have been thrilled to buy $1,000 worth of stock in “The Weekly Standard, Inc.” I would have framed my stock certificate, and the personalized note from Bill Kristol and Steve Hayes.
LOL!
That’s a good one. That said, some time ago in another comment on Ricochet, I had characterized jpod and the others on the Commentary podcast as “some of the biggest old ladies in America”.
I think your wizbang is better than mine.
Gary, Philip Anschutz owned it lock, stock, and barrel. It’s his property. I suppose it would’ve been risky to turn it into a nonprofit, but that’s the way these things work.
I’m not going to name which one, but there is a conservative anti-Trump magazine that pays their writers / managers mind boggling amounts of money. I’m pretty sure that one is a nonprofit.
Hell, I suppose one of the factors was, if you turn it into a nonprofit, everyone knows what your salary is.
#RulingClass
The point I am making is that the message delivered to the public by TWS was not effective. Moving that same message to another publisher, as seems to be your desire, makes little sense. After all, TWS was for many years effective until many readers began to see through the message, then it died.
So why won’t he sell it?
I would assert that TWS didn’t die, it was murdered for its mailing list. Here is one subscriber who won’t agree to that.
Melville doesn’t say what happened to Moby Dick. The whale already had several harpoons in it when first encountered, so it’s ability to survive being pierced with harpoons is already established.
Kristol was the one that needed the foresight here, to turn it into a non-profit so it would literally have “stakeholders” or whatever, but this is a gigantic pain because you have to beg for money or die. A sugar daddy is way easier. I remember Kristol used to say that he would talk to Murdoch once a year and basically all he did was promise to lose less money.
Anschutz has all of the money and brains, so it’s likely canabalizing is his best move for his equity stake.
To be clear, I never fully understood this stuff until I read that article.
It’s also really clear to me why nonprofits have rigid rules compared to businesses.
Is that even true? Seriously? Wow, I hope is was just a joke.
Haha! To the pain!!
My suggestion is for The New Weekly Standard to be a for-profit company with stock being offered, but no realistic expectation of any profit, not unlike the stock owned in The Green Bay Packers.
Weakly Common
Anschutz thinks he can do better by canabalizing it, instead of selling it. Someone with some power or money needs to step in right now or it’s a done deal.
Was Kristol making bad decisions about the structure of it? I have no idea.
Wait a minute. You’re saying I have to pay to write here, comment here, and even read most of the articles (actually, I would say the best ones). I think that’s a pretty good deal.
Once again, you are wrong. The whale destroys the Pequod with Ahab tangled in the cordage on its back. Moby, you see, is immortal. The Standard, not so much.
It was a pretty good run for media entity that tied it fortunes to promoting endless wars in the Middle East. I guess they sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor… the millions of dead and the doubled national debt. The are just two of their accomplishments. Heck, if they are really impactful there might just be a coup in the USA!
Seriously, what is wrong with this post. Who is conservative? Why can’t we finish a war?
Sadly, it’s true. But it gave me the chance to beat the rush, cancel my subscription, and still get a refund.
I am really suspicious that the answer to your last question has a lot to do with cui bono.
No one is conservative. Either get behind Trump or get behind the libertarians.