The big rumor this week is that CNN is in talks to buy Mashable. I had to chuckle when I read some of the comments:
“Nooooooooooooooo! Keep Mashable independent!”
“IMO, this would make Mashable much less awesome instantly. I would probably begin to question it’s objectivity much more; one of the things that makes it great. No thanks.”
“Cashmore, what a fitting name.”
“Mashable will be mashed. CNN is fine, but they will certainly take the excitement and independence out of Mashable and just make it another site to find info you can get a thousand other places. A waste of money for CNN, but the Mashable owners can go straight to the bank.”
The Social Media space, for whatever reason, gets extremely jealous and snippy whenever there’s ANY talk of someone making money off their efforts.
For example, I’m thinking of two ‘thought leaders’ in this space. Their identities really don’t matter. What’s interesting to me is that these two people have a lot of similarities:
- They are both avid content creators, covering similar topics, Social Media for business, Social Business, etc.
- They both speak multiple times a month, all over the world.
- They both work with similar clients (from what I can tell)
- They make comparable incomes (from what I can tell)
Any yet, one of these people is routinely criticized in this space, and the other almost never is. Even though they both create the same type of content, and do the same type of work for the same type of clients while speaking on the same type of topics at the same type of events.
The difference is: One person is an independent consultant and the other is employed by a large company. So while the consultant is frequently selling their services and publicizing products and services they are offering for sale, the other person doesn’t do that because they get a salary from their employer.
It seems that when we publicly talk about making money, even if it’s just to offer something for sale, that people go crazy. No one seemed to mind the millions that Mashable has likely been making all along in ad sales, sponsorships, etc, but as soon as there’s a public rumor that CNN might buy them, the haters come out of the woodwork.
Why does this happen? I suppose it’s human nature but it still aggravates me every time I see someone complaining about the money someone is making or that they think someone is making.
It is rather odd but not surprising I suppose. I don’t know why we can’t celebrate the financial success of others but I know that many are scared to talk about money or ask for money (myself included). Yet we all need money and is indeed why work, at least in part. Maybe once we are comfortable asking for money or talking about our own financial success we can begin to appreciate others as well.
Thanks for taking the time to post about this Mack. I love that you always tackle the tough issues head on.
Thank you for sharing, Jennifer. It’s funny because when I hear that one of my peers is finding a way to make money, my first thought is ‘what can I learn from them?’ I want to try to figure out what’s working for them, and then see if there’s anything they are doing that I can apply to my own efforts. Sure, I could worry about whether or not they ‘deserved’ the money, but what good would that serve me? And yet, this seems to be where a lot of people invest their time.
Mack I’ll admit I said many of those things that you put in quotes above when I first heard about the supposed deal (I NEVER go to cnn’s website, but follow Mashable). But to me making money is not the crux of the issue. I think Pete Cashmore totally deserves his success, monetary or otherwise. For me, and I’m sure, other info-consumers like me, the real fear is that we’ll start seeing generic, mass-produced content on Mashable. And since the AOL-Techcrunch takeover doesn’t seem to be without its problems, I suppose an underlying factor fear is that normal readers will get caught up in the politics of it all.
Hi Salma! Really, don’t we already have that with Mashable anyway? They are a volume business, the more content they can create and publish, the better. When you focus on getting up 40 new articles a day, quality HAS to suffer. It’s all about volume and generating more pageviews. The more content you create, the more pageviews and visitors you get.
Mashable always has been and always will be the McDonalds of social media content. If you want the latest news quick without much depth at all, go with Mashable. If you want in-depth analysis/reporting/opinion, Mashable isn’t for you. I don’t see the model changing if they go to CNN.