Elite Daily

Last updated

Elite Daily
Elite Daily 2021 logo.svg
Type of site
News and features
Available inEnglish
FoundedFebruary 2012;12 years ago (2012-02)
Headquarters
United States
Employees100
Parent Bustle Digital Group
URL elitedaily.com
LaunchedFebruary 1, 2012
Current statusActive

Elite Daily is an American online news platform founded by David Arabov, Jonathon Francis, and Gerard Adams. [1] The site describes its target audience as millennials. In addition to general news and trending topics, the site offers feature stories and listicles covering politics, social justice, sex and dating, women's issues, and sports. Its slogan is "The Voice of Generation Y". [2]

Contents

History

Elite Daily logo.svg
Updatedelitedailylogo.png
Previous logos

Elite Daily was launched independently in February 2012. It was purchased by DMG Media in January 2015 for an estimated $50 million. [3]

In December 2014, Elite Daily ranked as the seventh most shared site on Facebook and the fourteenth most popular US online news entity. [4] [5] In 2015, it was listed as one of the most prolific Facebook content publishers. [6]

In 2014, Elite Daily's documentary team won a New York Emmy Award in Politics/Government for their short documentary Meet the 14-Year-Old Who Helped Legalize Medical Marijuana In NY. [7]

On April 17, 2017, Elite Daily was purchased from DMG by Bustle Digital Group. [8] [9]

Controversies and criticism

Pseudonymous publishing

In July 2013, it was discovered that many of Elite Daily's writers were using fake names and profile photos that were actually of unrelated models. [10] In a September 2013 interview with TechCrunch, founder David Arabov revealed that he publishes all of his articles under the pseudonym "Preston Waters". [1] At least five other in-house writers were also publishing with pseudonyms. Elite Daily's staff was described in the TechCrunch article as having the belief that "there is no responsibility in telling the truth when it comes to [a writer's] byline or bio, as long as the articles themselves are accurate." [1]

Identity theft

In July 2015, Gawker writer Kate Knibbs discovered that her name was appearing in the byline of Elite Daily articles she had not written. [11] When questioned about Elite Daily's failure to authenticate the identity of the writer claiming to be Knibbs, the communications director of another DMG publication (the Daily Mail) Sean Walsh suggested systemic risks of the publication's system and responded, "This is the nature of a platform that accepts contributors." [11] The matter was settled and Knibbs said once Elite Daily confirmed the veracity of her claims they acted in a "courteous" manner. [11]

Sexism

Feminist blog Jezebel has criticized Elite Daily's content as "misogynistic screeds". In a September 2013 article, Jezebel criticized an Elite Daily article which stated that "a woman's value depreciates over time", compared aging women to stale bread, and suggested that this was justification "compelling men to cheat". [12] Jezebel has remained critical of Elite Daily, publishing articles condemning the site and its content as recently as September 2015. [13]

In February 2014, The Daily Banter published an article calling Elite Daily "everything that is wrong with online journalism". [14] While singling out the site's alleged sexism (with listicles such as "21 Signs She's Expired" – #15 of which was "3 fingers fit"), it also criticized the site's "sweatshop" labor model of publishing content primarily by contributors whose only compensation is exposure. [14]

In a 2015 Gawker story, writer Max Read credited Elite Daily for shifting "away from aggressively dumb misogyny" but noted that the site remained "imbecilic", "dull", and "utterly charmless and completely unredeemable". [15]

In March 2015, photojournalist Peter Menzel sued Elite Daily for using thirty of his photos without his consent. Menzel claimed that Elite Daily not only removed a copyright notice from one of the images but also stated that the photos were "courtesy of Peter Menzel" without actually obtaining his permission. [16]

Notable people

Related Research Articles

DMG Media is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing, Harmsworth Media and other subsidiaries of Daily Mail and General Trust. It is based at 9 Derry Street in Kensington, West London.

Gawker was an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers that was based in New York City and focused on celebrities and the media industry. According to SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month in 2015. Founded in 2002, Gawker was the flagship blog for Denton's Gawker Media. Gawker Media also managed other blogs such as Jezebel, io9, Deadspin and Kotaku.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gawker Media</span> Defunct British-American online media company and blog network

Gawker Media LLC was an American internet media company and blog network. It was founded by Nick Denton in October 2003 as Blogwire, and was based in New York City. Incorporated in the Cayman Islands, as of 2012, Gawker Media was the parent company for seven different weblogs and many subsites under them: Gawker.com, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, and Jezebel. All Gawker articles are licensed on a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial license. In 2004, the company renamed from Blogwire, Inc. to Gawker Media, Inc., and to Gawker Media LLC shortly after.

The byline on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines place bylines at the bottom of the page to leave more room for graphical elements around the headline.

Kotaku is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.

Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles, and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be attributed to a smaller number of breakout titles, as was typical of most large-scale successful blog networks of the mid-2000s. Popular blogs included Engadget, Autoblog, TUAW, Joystiq, Luxist, Slashfood, Cinematical, TV Squad, Download Squad, Blogging Baby, Gadling, AdJab, and Blogging Stocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valleywag</span> Gawker Media blog

Valleywag was a Gawker Media blog with gossip and news about Silicon Valley personalities. It was initially launched under the direction of editor Nick Douglas in February 2006. After Douglas was fired, the blog was taken over by Owen Thomas. Thomas left in May 2009, and was replaced by Ryan Tate.

<i>Gizmodo</i> Design, technology, science, and science fiction website and blog

Gizmodo is a design, technology, science, and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. Gizmodo also includes the sub-blogs io9 and Earther, which focus on pop-culture and environmentalism, respectively.

MailOnline is the website of the Daily Mail, a tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom, and of its sister paper The Mail on Sunday. MailOnline is a division of dmg media, which is owned by Daily Mail and General Trust plc.

Jezebel is a US-based website featuring news and cultural commentary geared towards women. It was launched in 2007 by Gawker Media under the editorship of Anna Holmes as a feminist counterpoint to traditional women's magazines.

In journalism and blogging, a listicle is an article that is structured as a list, which is often fleshed out with additional text relating to each item. A typical listicle will have a title describing a specific number of items contained within, along with subsequent subheadings within the text for each entry. The word is a portmanteau of list and article.

BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Kenneth Lerer, co-founder and chairman of The Huffington Post, started as a co-founder and investor in BuzzFeed and is now the executive chairman.

On the social news site Reddit, some communities are devoted to explicit, violent, propagandist, or hateful material. These subreddits have been the topic of controversy, at times receiving significant media coverage. Journalists, attorneys, media researchers, and others have commented that such communities shape and promote biased views of international politics, the veracity of medical evidence, misogynistic rhetoric, and other disruptive concepts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mic (media company)</span> American internet and media company

Mic is an American internet and media company based in New York City that caters to millennials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Holmes</span> American writer and editor

Anna Holmes is an American writer and editor. In 2007, she founded the Gawker Media women-focused site Jezebel.

Bustle is an online American women's magazine founded in August 2013 by Bryan Goldberg. It positions news and politics alongside articles about beauty, celebrities, and fashion trends. By September 2016, the website had 50 million monthly readers.

Matt Stopera is a senior editor at BuzzFeed. He is best known for an article he wrote in 2015 about a Chinese man who had received Stopera's stolen cell phone and posted dozens of photos of an orange tree which appeared on his iPhone's photo stream.

<i>Reductress</i> American feminist satire website

Reductress is an American satire website that parodies the style, tone, and perspective of media targeted towards women, especially women's magazines. Founded in 2013 by comedians Beth Newell and Sarah Pappalardo, the site has received praise from reviewers for its satirical pieces including advice columns, news stories, and listicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryan Goldberg</span>

Bryan Goldberg is an American entrepreneur and the owner of Bustle Digital Group, which operates a number of media properties, including Bustle, Nylon, W Magazine and Gawker. Previously, Goldberg founded Bleacher Report, a sports news website that sold to Turner Broadcasting System in 2012 for $200 million.

G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that owns and operates several digital media outlets, including Kotaku, The Root, The Inventory, and Quartz.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Crook, Jordan (September 5, 2013). "Elite Daily, Content Farm Or Groundbreaking Site For Upwardly Mobile Youngsters? You Decide". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  2. "The Voice Of Generation-Y™ | Elite Daily". Elite Daily. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  3. "How Elite Daily's 20-something founders sold their startup to Daily Mail for ~ $50 Million in cash". Business Insider. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  4. "The Biggest Facebook Publishers of December 2014 | The Whip". The Whip. Archived from the original on September 21, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  5. "Digital: Top 50 Online News Entities (2015)*". Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. Archived from the original on October 31, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  6. "The Biggest Facebook Publishers Of January 2015 | The Whip". The Whip. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  7. "Meet the 14-Year-Old Who Helped Legalize Medical Marijuana In NY". YouTube. July 7, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  8. "Elite Daily lost a ton of money, but Bustle just bought it from the Daily Mail anyway". Nieman Lab. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  9. "Bustle acquires Elite Daily from Daily Mail and rebrands as Bustle Digital Group". Business Insider. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  10. "Rich Kids Of The Internet: Inside The Astounding Troll-Hole That Is Elite Daily". The Awl. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  11. 1 2 3 "Elite Daily promises changes after writer identity theft". www.capitalnewyork.com. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  12. "The Elite Daily's Misogynistic Screeds Are Probably the Worst Things You'll Read All Day". Jezebel. March 20, 2013. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  13. "Elite Daily, Where Being Fat Is Morally Wrong and All Women Want Anal". Jezebel. September 20, 2013. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  14. 1 2 "Elite Daily is Everything That's Wrong With Internet Journalism and Generation-Y - The Daily Banter". The Daily Banter. February 14, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  15. "Daily Mail Purchases Elite Daily to Form Voltron of ####". TKTK. Archived from the original on October 16, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  16. "Photographer Peter Menzel is Suing EliteDaily.com for Copyright Infringement". American Photo. Archived from the original on September 9, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  17. Carter, Brooke (August 23, 2018). "Joe Santagato Net Worth 2018". Gazette Review. Retrieved April 17, 2020.