Elite Daily

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Elite Daily
Elitedaily.jpg
Founded February 2012; 12 years ago (2012-02)
Headquarters United States
Founder(s) David Arabov
Jonathon Francis
Gerard Adams
Key people David Arabov (CEO)
Jonathon Francis (COO)
Miguel Burger Calderon (President)
David Moss (VP of Content)
Kaitlyn Cawley (Editor-In-Chief)
Greg Dybec (Managing Editor)
Employees 100
Parent DMG Media
Slogan(s) "The Voice of Generation Y"
Website elitedaily.com
Alexa rank 1,958 (October, 2015)[1]
Type of site News and features
Available in English
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] Self-described as "Millennials' preferred platform for today’s hot issues and trending topics," their slogan is "The Voice of Generation Y."[3] In addition to general news, 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.

History

Launched independently in February 2012, Elite Daily 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 more recent metrics, however, it no longer ranks in the top 25 of either category,[7] however remains a steady feature on social sites.[8]

Writers

Elite Daily has a full-time staff of approximately twenty in-house writers. The site also maintains an unpaid contributing program, publishing articles submitted by writers. According to Elite Daily, the site maintains over five thousand contributing writers.[9]

Awards

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." [10]

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.[11] 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."

Identity theft

In July of 2015, Gawker writer Kate Knibbs discovered that her name was appearing in the byline of Elite Daily articles she hadn't written.[12] When questioned about Elite Daily's failure to authenticate the identity of the writer claiming to be Knibbs, Elite Daily communication director, Sean Walsh, 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.

Sexism

Feminist blog Jezebel has been a frequent critic of Elite Daily's content, calling it "sexist" and "misogynistic." 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 like "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.

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," "utterly charmless and completely unredeemable."[17]

Copyright infringement

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 stated that the photos were "courtesy of Peter Menzel" without actually obtaining his permission.[18]

References

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External links

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