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Six months in, journalist-owned tech publication 404 Media is profitable (www.niemanlab.org)

submitted 8 months ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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of note:

The 404 team DIYs as much as possible. They pay for hosting through Ghost and set up litigation insurance, for example, but everyone makes their own art for stories instead of paying for agency photos. (The reporters are also the merch models). Everyone works from home, so they don’t have an office and don’t plan on getting one anytime soon. The team communicates through a free Slack channel. Koebler mails out merchandise from his garage in Los Angeles. Every month, the team meets (virtually) to decide how much they can pay themselves. (The number changes each month, but everyone gets paid the same amount.)

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[–] Norgur@kbin.social 13 points 8 months ago (10 children)

While I love that they are profitable, this sounds like a massive private investment from all involved which is not a good model as a whole

[–] disablist@lemdro.id 15 points 8 months ago (5 children)

They each put a quarter share of $1,000, per the article:

The four cofounders each own 25% of the company, and at launch each put in $1,000 to cover initial costs.

[–] Norgur@kbin.social 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I mean investment less in dollaridoos and more in time and energy.

[–] BravoVictor@programming.dev 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Isn’t that what most small business owners go through? My brother and his wife own a business and they hustle waaaay more than I need to as an employee of a large business with all the HR, retirement etc baked in. I don’t think they went net positive for like 4-5 years.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 2 points 8 months ago

Yeah, this sounds like most small businesses. You could do well, or not. That's the risk you take. It isn't for everyone, which is why a lot of people work for other people for a regular wage. They trade the chance of doing really well for (more) stability, and forgo the risk of losing their investment and having to look for a new job.

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