General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Inside Story of Matt Taibbi's Departure From First Look Media [View all]Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)The management philosophy at First Look Media, the publisher behind the digital magazine The Intercept, is worthy of extensive consideration (by the Erik Wemple Blog, among others). Last week, that management came under scrutiny after star First Look hire Matt Taibbi quit and four other marquee employees wrote a remarkable post at The Intercept about the dysfunction within the operation particularly between journalists based in New York and company executives with ties to Silicon Valley, where First Look funder and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar made his fortune.
One of those taking a hard look at First Look, it turns out, is First Look itself. The fledgling news outlet is working with a Silicon Valley institution Stanford University to examine management strategies at the start-up, several sources tell the Erik Wemple Blog.
Neither First Look nor Stanford is eager to talk about their collaboration. An inquiry to Justin Ferrell, fellowships director at Stanfords Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (known as the d.school), who is reportedly involved in the study, fetched this reply from PR operative Debbe Stern: Thanks for reaching out to both me and Justin at the Stanford d.school. We dont really feel we have anything helpful to add to your story. I am sorry we cant be more helpful.
And John Temple, a top editorial official at First Look, declined to provide any information: Sorry Erik. Not now. Before joining First Look as president of audience and products, Temple was a senior fellow at Stanfords John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships program, focusing on design thinking as applied to journalism challenges. (Temple is also a former managing editor of The Post). Sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Stanford is doing a study of First Look but didnt provide details.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/11/03/stanford-university-working-with-first-look-media-on-management/
You know, you can only go to so many conferences and hire so many industry experts and consultants and advisors and analysts to point out what's wrong before you have to start looking at the mirror...