74 Comments - wndycty - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 4:49 pm: Dang. . .despite being worth a couple of billion Rickets must really need that Trump tax cut. - Perrid - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 4:51 pm: He shut them down without even seeing what their ask was. Sheesh. I bet it wasn’t even an economic decision like he claims, he just couldn’t stand someone taking his power away from him. - cdog - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 4:53 pm: That is shocking. Were the employee demands really going to make it difficult, or impossible, to stay in the black? This could be the case. Too bad Ricketts didn’t offer to sell the business to the employees. - Honeybear - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 4:55 pm: Solidarity sisters and brothers I am so sorry management did this to you. It’s going to be such a long labor war. Just remember In the end it didn’t matter if you voted to Organize or not Management is there to screw you Regardless I chose to organize and fight Together in Union Instead of Alone and small - Robert the 1st - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 4:57 pm: Hopefully they can find just-as-good or better work in the next 3-4 months… - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:04 pm: As it appears they were losing money… The fact that closing things down versus allowing a union exist… … that more than a management thing, but a character thing. Very disappointing to that “test”. - wordslinger - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:10 pm: I can’t say that I ever tuned into DNAinfo. Did I miss anything? Ricketts doesn’t mention unions in his statement: –But DNAinfo is, at the end of the day, a business, and businesses need to be economically successful if they are to endure. And while we made important progress toward building DNAinfo into a successful business, in the end, that progress hasn’t been sufficient to support the tremendous effort and expense needed to produce the type of journalism on which the company was founded.– Why would he have a beef with unions, anyway? His other Chicago property is unionized, and it’s value has more than doubled in the eight years since since he bought it, going from $900M to $2.2B, according to Forbes. That’s a swell return. - Amalia - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:18 pm: Total jerk move to take down the archives. this is sad for the writers but also for anyone who was attached to a piece they found on line. friends were in pieces and now they are gone. - Valerie - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:19 pm: I read it daily. It was hyper-local fare and sometimes it was just a store opening. But DNAINfo were in early in some big stories. I read about the Jackie Robinson All-Stars fiasco there, first. It was good stuff though. Jerk move indeed. - YSW - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:22 pm: @Wordslinger yes, you missed out on a lot. DNAInfo provided remarkably granular local reporting, perhaps most importantly on social justice issues. For example, DNAInfo was the first to report on an organization of mothers in Englewood who occupied city blocks to counter violence (a favorite link to send to conservatives falsely crying that there are no intra-communal efforts to combat violence): https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20170317/englewood/army-of-moms-mothers-against-senseless-killings-taking-over-blocks-tamar-manasseh-spring-break.amp Here’s major Trump donor Ricketts’ anti-union screed, if you can stomach it: http://blog.joericketts.com/?p=557 - Wensicia - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:22 pm: Taking down the archives isn’t just a jerk move; it’s incredibly vicious. - Anon221 - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:24 pm: Rickett’s letter to the public- https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago With ProPublica in town, maybe they can hire some of the staff and do a “balance sheet” investigation as to why Rickett’s did this jerk move. - Last Bull Moose - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:25 pm: The severance is extremely generous. It sounds like the decision had been made in advance. I wonder if it comes back in another form. Digital businesses have low barriers to entry. Could the former employees reorganize it as a co-operative? Their contacts and skills are the key competitive edge. - Reason eight billion to hate the Cubs - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:26 pm: Great human beings, the Ricketts family. Joe Ricketts gave Trump $1 million in September 2016, *after* Trump’s “grab ‘em by [words Rich will not permit on this blog]” tape. Great family values coming out of Nebraska, Joe. - paddyrollingstone - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:27 pm: What a humanitarian. When I read this article on Deadspin I looked him up on Wikipedia because I realized I didn’t know much about his besides the money and the racially-tinged campaign that he had proposed using against President Obama. Wikipedia did not let me down: John Joseph “Joe” Ricketts (born July 16, 1941) is a legitimately horrible person who is going to hell, if it exists. He is a horrible union buster and worth over a billion dollars himself.[4] - Anon221 - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:30 pm: The People and Projects Rickett’s silenced- https://twitter.com/search?f=users&vertical=news&q=DNA%20info&src=refgoogle - Jerry - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:32 pm: Joe Ricketts can…have horrible things happen to him. - Montrose - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:38 pm: It is a loss. They did some solid reporting on local issues. It must be nice to have enough money that you can shut down your business to make a statement. - Ron - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:42 pm: Montrose, DNAinfo was almost certainly losing money. Easy to call it quits when the NYC office made it even harder to make money. - McLincoln - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:43 pm: I hope all the Cubs fans put that in their pipe and smoke it. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:45 pm: ===I hope all the Cubs fans put that in their pipe and smoke it.=== Why? The players are unionized, to Joe Ricketts chagrin I bet. Rooting for the players has to irk him… … … while counting all the money the Cubs made him… but I digress… - Dr X - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 5:59 pm: It is my observation that unions exert efforts that tend to destroy the Free Enterprise system. But he would never seek and rents himself. - wordslinger - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 6:06 pm: –It is my observation that unions exert efforts that tend to destroy the Free Enterprise system.– Were you among the 28 million plus who observed Game 7 last night? They didn’t tune in to watch owners own. And everyone from the owners to the TV stations to the union players to the beer vendors all did pretty well on the ol’ Free Enterprise System. Because there was a market for it. - cdog - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 6:11 pm: Glassdoor.com has DNAinfo jobs at around $50K. If Rickets was worried about meeting payroll in low cash flow periods, he could have offered lower base salaries with nice profit-sharing bonuses if those materialized. Everybody wins in that scenario. It could be there is something else is going on, beyond the union and financial angle. With so much drama anymore, the Ricketts dude may have just decided he’s out. dropped the mic. Now he does not have to play god about what to publish and what not to publish. I cannot imagine the pressure. - James - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 6:49 pm: This is what we are up against throughout the world and particularly noticeable in the US where wages are relatively high–billionaires who want to lower workers’ wages to increase their profits. In my opinion, the fundamental problem is capitalism, which encourages and rewards greed and stifles enterprises that may improve the overall quality of life on earth, but are not sufficiently profitable compared to competing investment opportunities. This trend leads to violent revolution, but far enough in the future that today’s billionaires can ignore it because it will be somebody else’s troubles, just as they ignore the environment to maintain today’s fossil fuel profits. The private sector decides what we should do and what we should refrain from doing, based on whether or not the action is profitable. That’s why we need government and the not-for-profit sector, to provide the other things that are necessary to improve quality of life. OK, that’s my rant for this year, sorry to bother y’all, over and out. - Uncle Lou - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 7:03 pm: This is a pretty extreme case. You would expect two sides to negotiate in good faith. Of course, given what is happening on both the local and national political level, I guess it isn’t hard to understand. - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 7:14 pm: Sorry to hear this. I get daily emails from DNAinfo that I kept in a folder. . ..just checked and the links are still working. Rickets may be feeling all-powerful now, but he may not get the last word. Must have forgotten about the power of the pen. - Responsa - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 7:43 pm: Maybe cool our jets and venom a bit? I am guessing there is more to the story than we know and that as part of a national syndicate any future/ potential owner of these Chicago centric sites would demand that the archives and brand name be turned over. If the economics are sound and the interest is truly there from readers someone else will pick up these sites either essentially as-is or to reformulate them with the best local people from the old sites. - Obama’s Puppy - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 7:49 pm: Ivesnomics - Shemp - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 7:53 pm: If it is so easy to run a business and to do it with collective employees, then yes, all the displaced writers should form their own collective or co-op and reinvent themselves. Journalism has been shedding jobs all over as media tries to find its way in the digital age. It’s not anyone’s obligation to run a money losing or break even enterprise. If it’s not a huge profit center, why should someone be compelled to try and run the same business, now with the extra hassle of a unionized workforce? And don’t for a minute pretend like a unionized workforce doesn’t create more work for management, even if it is just the bargaining process which is in itself time consuming and usually creates some adversarial feelings. - Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 8:19 pm: @Shemp Yep, union rules are a pain in the @$$. But union members are typically the most educated, safest, and trustworthy workers. But that’s just my experience. - Responsa - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 8:29 pm: ==In an email leaked this week, Dan Swartz, DNAinfo’s chief operating officer, made a thinly veiled threat to his staff: “Would a union be the final straw that caused the business to be closed? I don’t know.”== His use of the words “final straw” strongly suggests there are/have been significant business related problems for a while that were not totally unknown to management or staff. - Been There - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 9:36 pm: This is a bummer. We had a great local reporter who did a great job. It will be missed. (But I always thought the name DNA Info was kinda odd). - Newsssss - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 9:37 pm: It’s a vicious world. Costs are real and revenues are evaporating in some businesses as the world changes. If the business was on pace to lose money before staff were unionized, it would be tough to justify keeping a business open that’s losing money whether the staff was unionized or not. I’m sure that Rich could attest that if Barton was making $70k, with benefits, it would be hard to keep the blog going. - Glengarry - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 10:31 pm: The guided age Gentry strike again. This is horrible for the journalists. - Robert the 1st - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 11:25 pm: “Yep, union rules are a pain in the @$$. But union members are typically the most educated, safest, and trustworthy workers. But that’s just my experience.” Huh? Then why do they unionize? Employers are really that dumb? - Robert the 1st - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 11:28 pm: This as a private sector, and public sector Teamster. Unions in my employment history were an absolute joke. - Anonymous - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 11:38 pm: DNA info was the perfect organization to be unionized. Cheap Chinese labor couldn’t reproduce it. Couldn’t go to Wisconsin. - Shemp - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 11:51 pm: ===DNA info was the perfect organization to be unionized. Cheap Chinese labor couldn’t reproduce it. Couldn’t go to Wisconsin.=== Um, apparently it wasn’t…. - cc - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 4:44 am: If business owners were not in some way taking advantage of workers one would doubt that the workers would resort to unionization: ie wages much too low compared to business profits. Your reap what you sow. Even pirates shared the bounty. - Huh? - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 5:40 am: Is there a case for an unfair labor practice suit? - PublicServant - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 5:52 am: Go Sox. Buh bye Cubs. - Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 6:42 am: Is Ricketts still involved with TD Ameritrade? If he is I’m taking my 401K out of there. - Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 6:45 am: ===This as a private sector and public sector Teamster.== Teamsters, Writers’ Guild. What is the difference? - Dee Lay - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 7:47 am: Probably no case for an Unfair Labor practice because it is a “business decision.” However, if he opens another news site, or anything resembling a news site, then there is something to pursue by the national guild. Unfortunately, there is little to no recourse for the journalists who lost their jobs today. - hexagon - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 8:02 am: it is my observation that billionaires exert influence that tend to undermine democratic republican institutions. - Ron - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 8:14 am: It is my experience that financially struggling businesses tend to close. A newly unionized workforce would be the final straw at such a business. - whea - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 8:41 am: With respect to those folks calling for the writers to form a collective… They tried that around 2009 with the Chicago News Cooperative. Had bigger names and more money. How’d that work out for them? - Aldyth - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 8:56 am: As far as Rauner is concerned, he must feel that Ricketts is living the dream. - My Kind of Town - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:00 am: Why all the hand wringing? Businesses start and fail every day. The business end of journalism is really tough, and if his effort wasn’t making a profit, he had every right to pull the plug. Again…it was HIS money floating it. That doesn’t mean I’m happy about it or don’t feel for those who have lost their jobs. But sheesh, grow up, folks. - Free Set of Steak Knives - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:05 am: instead of sending hearts, sun-times should send job offers. Also, someone at IDES could post info on applying for unemployment. - Honeybear - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:12 am: My kind of town- nice display of callous privilege. It must be nice to be so far removed from economic care that you can be cavalier about highly trained and educated journalists losing their jobs. Job loss in our economy more often than not Means Ruin Only the privileged don’t get that. - Go fetch - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:16 am: That y’all is a lesson in basic economics. Ricketts doesn’t owe his employees anything. He started the company and he can end it too. - fed up - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:16 am: When billionaires decide to fight an ideological war, the rest of us are at risk. - Robert the 1st - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:19 am: Honeybear- maybe you’re the one far removed from economic care? What if the kid that mowed your grass demanded healthcare and a pension? You’d probably hire some other kid. Easy to be generous with other people’s money. - Free Set of Steak Knives - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:19 am: Also, we should amend the Illinois WARN Act to require notice for business closings. A company that is laying of 50 people has to provide 60 days notice. But a company that is firing 100 people and closing its doors isn’t required to give any notice at all. That’s just crazy. - Ron - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:23 am: “When billionaires decide to fight an ideological war, the rest of us are at risk” So when billionaires are losing money in an enterprise, they should endlessly feed it? - Robert the 1st - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:23 am: So if you own a company you have to personally go bankrupt paying employees while your business is hemorrhaging money? Some of you are clueless. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:25 am: ===What if the kid that mowed…=== Argue like an adult. This is dorm room ignorance. A “kid” who is most likely taking cash that isn’t being taxed isn’t the sandbags employees for a company and those employees organizing. The truth is Ricketts owner the platforms and wanted nothing to do with organized labor that the industry has had for decades so he shut it down. It’s his right, but it’s not in the same grass-cutting neighborhood as a kid mowing. Do a lil better, be more honest with yourself. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:29 am: The issue appears to be after months and months of losing money, the straw that broke the camel’s back was organizing and forming a union. I said, it was losing money, it was his right, it is his company. The dirty nastiness of this was the timing, the apparent last straw and the anti-union sentiment. Ricketts can’t be a victim of his own choices. - BigBlu - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:30 am: This is still America, the same right that gives these writers to form a union allows the owner of the company to shut down his business. The severance given was tremendous. - Osborne Smith III - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:34 am: Some of you seem to think Ricketts has a choice whether or not he “allows” the Cubs to be unionized. - 33rd Ward - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:38 am: This isn’t about money. It’s about silence. The Gothamist was a profitable, left leaning media voice six months ago when Ricketts bought it. He combined it with the money losing DNAibfo I order to shutter it. So far, it worked. - Saluki - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:38 am: I echo BigBlu’s comments. - Free Set of Steak Knives - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:42 am: Gothamist was making money for 14 years. Joe Ricketts bought the company in March, and apparently destroyed it in six months. So yes, it’s on him. And No, Robert the 1st, Joe wasn’t going to go personally bankrupt. He has a net worth of $2.1 billion. He could have tried selling the company to someone that knew what they were doing. He had other choices. He is not the victim. - whea - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:42 am: ===The Gothamist was a profitable, left leaning media voice=== Citation needed. - DuPage Moderate - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:43 am: I’m with BigBlu too. I don’t blame Ricketts one bit. - Anon221 - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:45 am: Rickett’s did not want unionized workplaces so he just shut them all down. His choice, yes. But also hoarding all the archives of all of these news sites is simply childish and churlish. It’s the equivalent of “it’s my ball and I’m going home now because you won’t play by my rules”. - 33rd Ward - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:48 am: https://web.archive.org/web/20160507090006/https://income.com/4100/27-bloggers-who-make-amazing-money-from-their-blogs The above site claims Gothamist was profitable. Former employees are also saying this. Go read the rest of the Wikipedia article about Gothamist and Joe Ricketts. Pretty cool how our billlionares (do we make anything else anymore?) now call the free speech shots as well as control the elections. - Robert the 1st - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:52 am: =Argue like an adult.= I’d love to but apparently hiring a kid to mow grass is as close to employing anyone most posters here can relate to. Just trying to get people to think as if it was their own investment. - Robert the 1st - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 9:54 am: =Joe wasn’t going to go personally bankrupt= I wasn’t talking about Joe. My comment was in reference to the comment that business should be forced by law to give prior notice to closing. Ridiculous. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 10:05 am: ===I’d love to but apparently hiring a kid to mow grass is as close to employing anyone most posters here can relate to. === Your lack of respect for people here is noted, as well as your poor example trying to “teach”. Again, be better than this - City Zen - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 11:21 am: Joe took his shreds of Bartman ball and went home. - Anonymous - Friday, Nov 3, 17 @ 1:00 pm: Gothamist was a left leaning blog that posted daily stories criticizing Trump and praising Hillary. They also owned Chicagoist which printed daily stories criticizing Rauner while praising Pritzker and all the ilk. When Ricketts bought Gothamist, nothing changed in that regard and the editors allowed comments to be posted criticizing Ricketts, Trump, and any other conservative while deleting and disallowing any opposing viewpoints. Anyone could see it coming, you don’t have to be Einstein to know that you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.