Elite Daily

Elite Daily
Type of site
 News and features
Available in English
Founded February 2012 (2012-02)
Headquarters United States
Employees 100
Parent Bustle Digital Group
Website elitedaily.com
Alexa rank 5,124 (August, 2017)[1]
Launched February 1, 2012
Current status Active

Elite Daily is an American online news platform founded by David Arabov, Jonathon Francis, and Gerard Adams.[2] The site describes its target audience as millennials. In addition to general news and today’s hot issues and trending topics, the site offers feature stories and listicles in the areas of politics, social justice, sex and dating, college life, women's issues, money, sports, and humor. Its slogan is "The Voice of Generation Y." .[3]

History

Elite Daily was launched independently in February 2012 and was purchased by DMG Media in January 2015 for an estimated $50 million.[4]

In December 2014, Elite Daily ranked as the seventh most shared site on Facebook and the fourteenth most popular US online news entity.[5][6] In 2015, it was listed as one of the most prolific Facebook content publishers.[7]

In 2014, Elite Daily’s documentary team took home a New York Emmy Award in Politics/Government for their short documentary Meet the 14-Year-Old Who Helped Legalize Medical Marijuana In NY.[8]

On April 17, 2017 DMG announced that Elite Daily had been purchased by Bustle Digital Group.[9][10][11]

Controversies and criticism

Pseudonymous publishing

In July 2013, it was discovered that many of Elite Daily's writers were using fake names and profile photos that were actually of unrelated models.[12] In a September 2013 interview with TechCrunch, founder David Arabov revealed that he publishes all of his articles under the pseudonym "Preston Waters".[2] At least five other in-house writers were also publishing with pseudonyms. Elite Daily's staff was described in the TechCrunch article as having the belief that "there is no responsibility in telling the truth when it comes to [a writer's] byline or bio, as long as the articles themselves are accurate."[2]

Identity theft

In July 2015, Gawker writer Kate Knibbs discovered that her name was appearing in the byline of Elite Daily articles she hadn't written.[13] When questioned about Elite Daily's failure to authenticate the identity of the writer claiming to be Knibbs, the communications director of another DMG publication (the Daily Mail) Sean Walsh suggested systemic risks of the publication's system and responded, "This is the nature of a platform that accepts contributors."[13] The matter was settled and Knibbs said once Elite Daily confirmed the veracity of her claims they acted in a "courteous" manner.[13]


Sexism

Feminist blog Jezebel has criticized Elite Daily's content as "misogynistic screeds". In a September 2013 article, Jezebel criticized an Elite Daily article which stated that "a woman's value depreciates over time", compared aging women to stale bread, and suggested that this was justification "compelling men to cheat".[14] Jezebel has remained critical of Elite Daily, publishing articles condemning the site and its content as recently as September 2015.[15]

In February 2014, The Daily Banter published an article calling Elite Daily "everything that is wrong with online journalism".[16] While singling out the site's alleged sexism (with listicles such as "21 Signs She's Expired" – #15 of which was "3 fingers fit"), it also criticizes the site's "sweatshop" labor model of publishing content primarily by contributors whose only compensation is exposure.[16]

In a 2015 Gawker story, writer Max Read credits Elite Daily for shifting "away from aggressively dumb misogyny" but notes that the site remains "imbecilic", "dull", and "utterly charmless and completely unredeemable".[17]

In March 2015, photojournalist Peter Menzel sued Elite Daily for using thirty of his photos without his consent. Menzel claimed that Elite Daily not only removed a copyright notice from one of the images but also stated that the photos were "courtesy of Peter Menzel" without actually obtaining his permission.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Elitedaily.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  2. 1 2 3 Crook, Jordan (September 5, 2013). "Elite Daily, Content Farm Or Groundbreaking Site For Upwardly Mobile Youngsters? You Decide". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-10-08.
  3. ↑ "The Voice Of Generation-Y™ | Elite Daily". Elite Daily. Retrieved 2015-10-08.
  4. ↑ "How Elite Daily's 20-something founders sold their startup to Daily Mail for ~ $50 Million in cash". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-10-08.
  5. ↑ "The Biggest Facebook Publishers of December 2014 | The Whip". The Whip. Retrieved 2015-10-08.
  6. ↑ "Digital: Top 50 Online News Entities (2015)*". Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. Archived from the original on October 31, 2015. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  7. ↑ "The Biggest Facebook Publishers Of January 2015 | The Whip". The Whip. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  8. ↑ "Meet the 14-Year-Old Who Helped Legalize Medical Marijuana In NY". YouTube. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  9. ↑ https://www.dmgt.com/news-and-media/news-articles/2017/bustle-purchases-elite-daily
  10. ↑ "Elite Daily lost a ton of money, but Bustle just bought it from the Daily Mail anyway". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  11. ↑ "Bustle acquires Elite Daily from Daily Mail and rebrands as Bustle Digital Group". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  12. ↑ "Rich Kids Of The Internet: Inside The Astounding Troll-Hole That Is Elite Daily". The Awl. Retrieved 2015-10-08.
  13. 1 2 3 "Elite Daily promises changes after writer identity theft". www.capitalnewyork.com. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  14. ↑ "The Elite Daily's Misogynistic Screeds Are Probably the Worst Things You'll Read All Day". Jezebel. Retrieved 2015-10-08.
  15. ↑ "Elite Daily, Where Being Fat Is Morally Wrong and All Women Want Anal". Jezebel. Retrieved 2015-10-08.
  16. 1 2 "Elite Daily is Everything That's Wrong With Internet Journalism and Generation-Y - The Daily Banter". The Daily Banter. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  17. ↑ "Daily Mail Purchases Elite Daily to Form Voltron of Shit". TKTK. Archived from the original on October 16, 2015. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  18. ↑ "Photographer Peter Menzel is Suing EliteDaily.com for Copyright Infringement". American Photo. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
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