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Discussion (49 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews
--Nate Silver (538 founder)
ABC seem pretty petty here.
Any exec who operates that way should be shown the door ASAP as they are likely doing similar emotional management of other aspects of the business.
Not that it's always the same company doing both at the same time, but it's crazy 538 was just left to die. It was a very recognizable brand among wonky professionals, a very desirable customer base. It's not as if politics and sports have gotten less relevant in the world over the past decade. ABC's decision to toss this aside is baffling.
Much of the 538 alumni seem to be doing well, either independently or as part of a major organization, so I don't think much was lost overall. But I sure empathize with the folks who lost their dream job and ABC looks pretty bad for frittering away a successful business for seemingly no reason. Taking down these articles is nonsensical.
Things got worse after Disney had their first round of layoffs. Their problem was they weren't profitable outside the presidential election years when interest peaked in the general public. 3 out of 4 years only diehard election polling wonks tuned in.
If Nate Silver buys it back (for pennies on the dollar) and then makes it successful, it's embarrassing and makes ABC look bad at business.
Maybe that was the logic on ABC's part but it's ridiculously wrong given how much clear market demand there is for the 538 people and content.
i was a casual reader of 538 back in the day. his substack feels pretty similar, if smaller in scope.
I expected it would be resurrected outside the Pushkin network, but hasn't happened yet.
What I _don't_ miss is listening to podcasts on Pushkin. I had nothing against Malcolm Gladwell, but something about having his voice on every one of the network's very numerous ads became incredibly grating.
https://xcancel.com/NateSilver538
Fortunately the Github is still up: https://github.com/fivethirtyeight
I need to mirror everything to keep it accessible when they decide to shut this down, too?
I loved that site, and referred people to it frequently.
ABC officially sunset 538 over a year ago (and laid off most/all of the staff).
Edit: nm it was definitely the burrito battle royale bracket. Big burrito couldn’t handle the truth being revealed about their restaurants.
All this proves is when the press was deregulated to allow one person to own all the media they can afford brought us were we are now.
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20250306183754/https://projects....
They had a good article about how their predictions were much better than you'd expect, but obviously I can't link it anymore because ABC removed it.
But in the end people pick on Nate because he really enjoys being an asshole on the internet. It's far more about when he acts as a pundit, not as an expert on statistics.