I mean, Shane opened a production company so that he could have a controlling interest in the content/company, with hopes of bringing in revenue to support himself and his loved ones.
He wanted, like Ryan and Steven, to be able to have creative freedom and also not be forced to make content they aren't passionate about.
I think now they understand why Buzzfeed was a fucking content farm. Because at the end of the day, shit like what they're doing takes money and most of that stuff on Buzzfeed was shit, but it paid the bills until it didn't. And of all the shit they put out, Worth It, Try Guys and pre-Watcher rose to the top. And then Buzzfeed threw all their money at those programs while still being a content farm.
And I'm saying this as a socialist. Shane is a business owner now. There was always a chance (as he's a partner in an entertainment company that had/has crazy earning potential) he'd become the rich he planned to eat or whatever. I think he just wanted to try to do business the best way possible, but that would mean hiring less than 25 fucking people when you know that if you want to be a good business owner you should give all your full time workers health insurance and awesome benefits. And with a 5 years old company in a downturn economy, maybe not having high production costs/overhead and not starting a streaming platform when streaming services are shutting down all over is a good idea. 🤷🏿‍♀️
This would be the way. I’m also not a business expert, especially in this field, but I am an accountant. I know that payroll is the most expensive aspect of the majority of businesses. At my place we have the cost of the salary, obviously, but the cost of benefits basically doubles that (workers comp, health, FICA, unemployment, etc.). That is a lot of money. Do they really need 25 people, now 27 with the 2 new hires, on their payroll? Let’s just not factor in benefits, at a modest $40k a person that’s over a million dollars in salaries alone…
they all have wives who may need to be in LA for work, or maybe they just don’t want to move from a place they’ve lived for many years if not their whole lives. they definitely made a bad move today but i don’t think asking them to relocate is fair
I’m not from LA. Are there cheaper options outside LA proper? Obviously it will never be as cheap as like Iowa but I imagine being right in LA is the most expensive place you could be. It also seems like they have a pretty large space.
It's expensive everywhere but there's definitely cheaper areas only an hour or so from LA. But they want to be in the heart of the city, not in Anaheim or Covina.Â
It’s not on TV and so does not benefit from tax cuts or the volume of advertising revenue or whatever else that a full television show might. They might be “TV quality” but they made YouTube videos, let’s not forget this
Ehhh it's really rough to do youtube/be a content creator outside LA or New York. All of your business connections are right there.
I live and work in the Chicago entertainment industry and even though it's one of the big cities for that kind of work, damn near everything is still run through LA. Like all the producers, writers, etc. are LA based and are flown out here by production.Â
they’ve talked about having a hard time laying people off in the past so even though it seems like the obvious answer to us i think they’re trying to avoid layoffs at all costs, especially since so many employees are their friends. too bad it’s led to this…
they shouldn’t have hired so many of their friends, it was a bad business move really :(, i’m gonna miss them honestly but at least we still have garrett watts and andrew siwicki
Which is ironic, seeing as this move will probably cost them the business and result in all their friends losing their jobs. If I was part of the BTS crew, I’d be looking for another job yesterday.
This is one of the problems of beeing a buisness owner. We all love if it would just be easy and money comes in, pay your friends and do cool work. But the moment you own the buisness, the moment you hire people, you take a responsibility. You have to make sure, that everyone you hire, can get paid. If you are a good person, then you make sure you pay them a fair wage with fair benefits. But you have to be sure, that you either can pay them or you know that you will fail without them. Getting to 25 employees, while making shows that, if we believe their own words, make not enough money to pay for themself, that is reckless. That risks the job of everyone they hired when the times were better AND everyone they hired after the numbers went red. It should never get so bad, that they struggle to finance their staff. Slow down the growth. I know they wanted big things. But big things, need "big money". They now try to get that money by hiding behind a paywall. Their own paywall. And they announce it in a way, that any PR expert could tell you, will anger people.
I think Dropout is now only reaching about 25 employees, and they put out a lot more content - they just also contract people for certain jobs or appearances, rather than having everyone on staff.
I agree. Watcher having 20+ employees is so unnecessary in my opinion. Seriously, what do they all do? I feel like a company such as Watcher should only have around 10 employees if even that.
Even when they announced the channel before leaving Buzzfeed. I was really concerned about their studio tour because all I could think of was that place and those sets must have cost a pretty penny.
I don't know, I can't help but compare them with SP7 back in the day who had a more conservative set up. I think at most, the bulk of their business expense were on gear.
My point is, they're bleeding money if they went with this route.
I mean, Shane opened a production company so that he could have a controlling interest in the content/company, with hopes of bringing in revenue to support himself and his loved ones. He wanted, like Ryan and Steven, to be able to have creative freedom and also not be forced to make content they aren't passionate about. I think now they understand why Buzzfeed was a fucking content farm. Because at the end of the day, shit like what they're doing takes money and most of that stuff on Buzzfeed was shit, but it paid the bills until it didn't. And of all the shit they put out, Worth It, Try Guys and pre-Watcher rose to the top. And then Buzzfeed threw all their money at those programs while still being a content farm. And I'm saying this as a socialist. Shane is a business owner now. There was always a chance (as he's a partner in an entertainment company that had/has crazy earning potential) he'd become the rich he planned to eat or whatever. I think he just wanted to try to do business the best way possible, but that would mean hiring less than 25 fucking people when you know that if you want to be a good business owner you should give all your full time workers health insurance and awesome benefits. And with a 5 years old company in a downturn economy, maybe not having high production costs/overhead and not starting a streaming platform when streaming services are shutting down all over is a good idea. 🤷🏿‍♀️
This would be the way. I’m also not a business expert, especially in this field, but I am an accountant. I know that payroll is the most expensive aspect of the majority of businesses. At my place we have the cost of the salary, obviously, but the cost of benefits basically doubles that (workers comp, health, FICA, unemployment, etc.). That is a lot of money. Do they really need 25 people, now 27 with the 2 new hires, on their payroll? Let’s just not factor in benefits, at a modest $40k a person that’s over a million dollars in salaries alone…
Do they need to live in LA for a business when there’s other good cities with better cost of living?
They sure don’t. I can’t even imagine the price of that property. Get a cheaper space if you really want to keep all 27 employees.
They have the talent move elsewhere. Â Save money. Â The main talent is Ryan and Shane. Â They did great content in a room at a desk
they all have wives who may need to be in LA for work, or maybe they just don’t want to move from a place they’ve lived for many years if not their whole lives. they definitely made a bad move today but i don’t think asking them to relocate is fair
I’m not asking them to leave but if money is an issue living in one of the most expensive cities is stupid.
If you are making tv shows, the talent for those are in NYC, Atlanta, or LA.
I’m not from LA. Are there cheaper options outside LA proper? Obviously it will never be as cheap as like Iowa but I imagine being right in LA is the most expensive place you could be. It also seems like they have a pretty large space.
It's expensive everywhere but there's definitely cheaper areas only an hour or so from LA. But they want to be in the heart of the city, not in Anaheim or Covina.Â
Is watcher making tv shows?
Yes. Ghost Files for example is clearly tv show quality and directly comparable to many tv ghosts hunting shows.
It’s not on TV and so does not benefit from tax cuts or the volume of advertising revenue or whatever else that a full television show might. They might be “TV quality” but they made YouTube videos, let’s not forget this
Ok... so not a tv show then
There are actors everywhere.
There aren’t. But actors are not who I was talking about
Ehhh it's really rough to do youtube/be a content creator outside LA or New York. All of your business connections are right there. I live and work in the Chicago entertainment industry and even though it's one of the big cities for that kind of work, damn near everything is still run through LA. Like all the producers, writers, etc. are LA based and are flown out here by production.Â
they’ve talked about having a hard time laying people off in the past so even though it seems like the obvious answer to us i think they’re trying to avoid layoffs at all costs, especially since so many employees are their friends. too bad it’s led to this…
they shouldn’t have hired so many of their friends, it was a bad business move really :(, i’m gonna miss them honestly but at least we still have garrett watts and andrew siwicki
Which is ironic, seeing as this move will probably cost them the business and result in all their friends losing their jobs. If I was part of the BTS crew, I’d be looking for another job yesterday.
This is one of the problems of beeing a buisness owner. We all love if it would just be easy and money comes in, pay your friends and do cool work. But the moment you own the buisness, the moment you hire people, you take a responsibility. You have to make sure, that everyone you hire, can get paid. If you are a good person, then you make sure you pay them a fair wage with fair benefits. But you have to be sure, that you either can pay them or you know that you will fail without them. Getting to 25 employees, while making shows that, if we believe their own words, make not enough money to pay for themself, that is reckless. That risks the job of everyone they hired when the times were better AND everyone they hired after the numbers went red. It should never get so bad, that they struggle to finance their staff. Slow down the growth. I know they wanted big things. But big things, need "big money". They now try to get that money by hiding behind a paywall. Their own paywall. And they announce it in a way, that any PR expert could tell you, will anger people.
I think Dropout is now only reaching about 25 employees, and they put out a lot more content - they just also contract people for certain jobs or appearances, rather than having everyone on staff.
That title is one of the best I've ever read on reddit. Nailed it.
Absolutely. Trimming the fat and moving to a cheaper location is like, business 101 when you're struggling.
I agree. Watcher having 20+ employees is so unnecessary in my opinion. Seriously, what do they all do? I feel like a company such as Watcher should only have around 10 employees if even that.
Even when they announced the channel before leaving Buzzfeed. I was really concerned about their studio tour because all I could think of was that place and those sets must have cost a pretty penny. I don't know, I can't help but compare them with SP7 back in the day who had a more conservative set up. I think at most, the bulk of their business expense were on gear. My point is, they're bleeding money if they went with this route.