Vice executives abruptly lay off workers. Vice employees showed up to a town hall and voiced their disapproval of executives with a steady stream of dislike emojis. The digital media workers were, of course, responding to a mass layoff, if not the demise of their trailblazing news site altogether, according to Fortune.
A week ago, the media company announced it was set to lay off hundreds of employees as it was shutting down the website and also making moves to sell Refinery 29. Coming a year after filing for bankruptcy, Vice CEO Bruce Dixon reportedly said in a memo that this was “the best past forward,” as “we position the company for long-term creative and financial success.”
In a video of said town hall, COO Cory Haik spoke of a “very, very, very difficult time in the macro landscape,” while a river of dislike emojis flowed alongside her talking head. Dixon suddenly ended the meeting while saying that “it’s impossible to ignore the emojis, from my side.” Adding that Vice would “organize this in a way where we can actually give the information to people who want to receive it in the way it’s meant,” Dixon’s words were met with another emoji eruption.
The Utah Legislature has passed a pair of bills that would give billions in tax dollars to build an MLB stadium and NHL arena in Salt Lake City, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
But will this help Utah’s economy? J.C. Bradbury, an economist and leading researcher on the impacts of publicly financed sports arenas has a warning, according to The Tribune. They are “boondoggles,” a terrible use of taxpayer money and don’t deliver the promised economic benefits.
“Sports stadiums are poor public investments, and this is something economists have demonstrated with decades full of research. And we understand why. It’s basically just a reallocation of local commerce,” said Bradbury, a professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. “I know someone is whispering in your ear saying, ‘No, this one is going to be different.’ … It’s not. Trust me, it’s not.”
If you are driving around Utah right now the wind is so strong it moves your car. According to Fox News, Strong winds were already being felt across much of Utah Friday, ahead of a cold front that is expected to bring heavy snow, including a possible 4-6 inches to valley locations, with much more in mountain areas.
The winds are also causing delays at Salt Lake City International Airport. As of noon Friday, there were 47 official flight delays.
Just miles from the site of the 1979 Church Rock Mill spill, the largest nuclear disaster in American history, uranium extraction operations could resume near the Navajo Nation. Now, Navajo leaders say the health and prosperity of their community could be in even further jeopardy, according to ABC News. A Canadian company is working to move forward with uranium extraction, an industry that has a lengthy history around the Navajo Nation.
“The pursuit of happiness for us is to be able to live in our communities without fear from the impact of radiation and uranium,” said Teracita Keyanna, who grew up near an abandoned uranium mine in New Mexico. “It’s been really scary, just being a mom in this area.”
In the age of Tik Tok influencers taking over the world, what does it take to be a social media influencer?
A Wall Street Journal article asks this question. Ally Noriega has more than 100,000 Instagram followers—and enough money to trade in her full-time job as an executive assistant for a full-time job on social media. Enough money, in fact, that her husband, Ricardo Noriega, also decided not to pursue another job after being laid off, opting instead to handle the administrative end of his wife’s business.
The Noriegas are one of an estimated 50 million global “content creators” who are sharing their interests, expertise and handiwork with their online followers, according to a Goldman Sachs report last year.
Although this couple is an example of success, the competition for the expanding pie is fierce, and likely to get fiercer. Only about 4% of global creators pull in more than $100,000 a year, according to the Goldman analysis.
*Content for this article curated from other sources.
