Wesley Yang, an editor at Esquire who is also well-known for his writings on the cultural identity of Asian-Americans, was the talk of Twitter earlier this month. This time, however, it was for an observation on the nature of online media, rather than for his thoughts on race or the Asian-American experience. He quoted a Vox article reporting The Walt Disney Company's growing concern that the $400 million it had invested in Vice Media was unlikely to generate returns. Yang's concern was not so much that digital media had in and of itself been greatly overvalued and everyone was now sobering up, thus bringing prices back to earth. Rather, the underlying issue might be something closer to this: The strategies some digital media companies use to raise money undermines the quality of their content, the loyalty of their staff and, in turn, eventually the brand and company themselves.
A Bad Marriage: Venture Capital and Online Media?
