Why Everyone is Quitting BIG Automotive YouTube Channels (Donut, Hoonigan, CarThrottle)
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- Опубликовано: 20 июн 2024
- Why have so many automotive content creators quit big channels? Answers here!
It’s not just the on-screen talent, it’s a ton of people behind the scenes, too. All those "Why I quit" videos aren't telling the whole story. Everyone making those still has too much skin in the game, and can't be completely honest.
The information in this video is my opinion, based on my experience, but confirmed through dozens of conversations with many others in automotive media, from other media outlets, with similar experiences.
This one goes deep into the world of automotive media, so if you’re not REALLY interested in that, you’re gonna be bored. Also, I don’t get into many specifics about any particular channel here, but if y’all wanna see that, let me know in the comments and look out for future videos.
#carthrottle #hoonigan #donut 
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Selling your company to investors ALWAYS ends this way.
I remember fast lane daily and when they sold I knew it was gonna fail
@@nestr2007oh man, I miss FLD and I remember it’s downfall.
Cory Doctorow has referred to this phenomena as enshittification
That is a name I haven't heard in a long time. @@nestr2007
Private equity acquisitions make everything worse!
Big TV sucks. Old school RUclips is coming back.
Big TV does suck but old school RUclips isn't coming out. Ad revenue has been highing all-time lows.
That def seems to be the narrative thread if people aren't leaving on their own terms it's because companies like Rooster Teeth (gaming media) are being nuked from up high making people lose their jobs but also reform into smaller collectives with greater creative control. I am curious about the cycle of channel growth though back in the day channels like G4, or Machinima (Also gaming media/journalism seems very similar to the way car media works lol) Those people formed new ventures and grew those on YT like the inside gaming daily people forming Funhaus under Rooster Teeth but this is very different landscape. Wonder if the streamer effect (collectives being out of vogue in favor of one or two personalities in longform) has any weight on car media, and if that will disrupt new car media outlets from prevailing? I might be hyperfocusing as I'm just a viewer but it does seem small scale garage revival/builds are where it's at rn.
RUclips in the form we know it is unlikely to exist in 3-4 years time, if at all. It and most other media companies suffer the very core problem identified in this video.
@@gw1814 youtube channels with a patreon can be very profitable.
@@gw1814
I don't know who told you that ad revenue is at an all-time low, even I run a small side channel with about 1k subs and I'm pulling about 700 per 100k views - I got 250k views just last month.
Who's here after Big Time released their "why we left Donut" video?
I am, and this video is directly pertinent to me because I just put my resignation in over witnessing the very same growing and layering of management who really don't contribute, and who don't know what they are doing.
Yeah, here immediately after. Hadn't watched Donut in a while, wasn't aware of what went on and just how massive this problem is. Such a shame.
@@osier769
I had unsubscribed from and unfollowed Donut on everything a while ago because their content was getting really stale and they hired some social media people who just turned their socials into a bizarre combination of just milquetoast corporate sponsored ads and shitposting outlet posting a lot of absurdly bigoted nonsense that had absolutely nothing to do with cars. Whoever was running the account on Threads at one point spent all of their time online using the Donut account to get in political arguments with people. That's when I knew the company was dead.
There are a slew of those videos, you are wasting your time on these types of channels.
Who gives a fuck 😂
As someone that’s worked in the auto collision industry and have worked with many managers that have never actually done the work, they don’t understand what it takes to make it happen… I am a firm believer and have always said “if you’ve never actually done the job, you shouldn’t be able to manage the ppl doing the job“.
The best managers are those who rose through the ranks on merit AND know how to delegate work effectively to those actually doing it. It's a rare breed, and they usually don't have MBAs. The honest MBAs that get it usually aren't part of the cliques at the top that decide who gets laid off. And those cliques hold the reigns of the money anyway, stifling legit competition.
Economic theory is funny that way - high-minded abstractions largely divorced from reality that statistically seem right if you look at it just so...
@@XxxThePsyCheMisTxxX Also throw in the fact that if they know promoting you will leave an empty space that will need to be filled, which if you’re a good/hard worker can be difficult to fill making it even more reason to leave you there and hire someone else from outside (not to mention any potential clicks/disgruntled you may have with coworkers. I mean I get it but at the same time, life’s a risk and to the ones who you refuse to promote, may just leave and then where are you left…
i have never let fake bosses tell me what to do. i ignored them at every possible opportunity. to be fair, if the man guiding me knew what he was talking about and was a master in the field….. i listened intently
MIUBI: Specious deduction. One need not have done the work in order to be an effective manager. Your post comes across more as someone who was too lazy to gain a degree And you resent people who are better educated and more informed than you are. Auto collision attracts a high percentage of males with a lot of issues. Issues which are in direct opposition to effective work over time.
@@stephencurry8552 Well you would be completely wrong, but thanks.
"Not taking risks for ideas" is the cancer of modern corporate society.
Risk cost money son .
Don't forget the intersection of "Growth for growth's sake"×"Short-term gains above all"; as much as we all love to rag on business managers as know-nothing imbeciles (... because they usually are) - in one *very specific context*, they're not idiots.
They all *KNOW* none of this is sustainable, and that their choices harm the acquired company/brand in the long run. They just don't care. Their entire collective existences revolve around a series of pump & dump schemes. Buy the studio/brand, force the short-term value up while running it into the ground, then either sell or shutter it once it's no longer profitable - repeat. Classic corporate raider bullshit.
So, no, they're not *just* a bunch of know-nothing imbeciles... they're also a very specific brand of parasite.
You sound like a bad investor
Capitalism encourages innovation
This has been an issue for centuries. When the market becomes volatile and companies become more valuable, it becomes harder to take risks without potential massive losses.
I hate the behavior of essentially, "We bought you because you're outstanding in your field. But now that we own you, we won't listen to you, the experts in the field."
"Things are working perfectly? Lets change everything." 🤦♂
@@Kuson2 well thats tough because nothing is perfect, at least not yet but that would be in another 100 billion years. they want less with more but clearly nature shows that it its not possible
Venture capitalists don't care about contents they only see numbers. Doing product reviews is cheaper and has a faster turn around than car projects or going on a road trips
this is going to happen to everything you love.
@@bonkman6463 how do you both completely understand the point and also completely miss the point in the same comment lmao
The rise of the Professional Management Class (useless people with a useless college degree who have never actually had a job before, for the most part) seems to be the root cause of much of the decay we're seeing today.
You just described all YTers
it sounds, like Boeing
@@buffalobilly6046 uh...no? most YTers make their own content, and at the most have one or two editors to help. They're still putting in the hours to make captivating content
@@buffalobilly6046 how did you read the comment and think 'youtubers are the problem'
So you mean… like a ruling class? 🤔 an idea that has been around since the inception of America?
What is depressing is that this is a constant issue in all industries. In my job with a 10K+ person publicly traded company, my team of 3 grew sales 10% and then 19% in a niche industry covering all of the US and Canada the last two years, so instead of getting us the 3 more people we need in the field, the company decided to finally get us a director who has no experience in the field. He immediately changed how we do things that got us that growth despite us telling them the changes are not sustainable. Sales are plummeting, we have to fill out spreadsheet after spreadsheet which is keeping us away from what we need to do, and everybody is now looking to jump ship. Went from wanting to be my forever career to likely out of the industry in the next few months. Same issue. Suits who have no idea what they are doing, but change everything without trying to understand and learn from the experts on the front lines. Just infuriating.
I experienced that same sort of thing. Had an amazing, able to do anything team, and then it all went down hill, then I left.
I don’t know your case specifically but I spoken to a bunch of people who were in your managers position and a lot of them said they felt pressured to do it. If you think about it most of them shouldn’t exist but if they hire someone to manage you and everything’s going good already it makes the hire e look bad in a sense of what are you doing? What am I paying you for if you didn’t change anything you didn’t do anything etc etc so they have to come in doing all this crap to make it look to their bosses that they’re are working
@@mhknfh3049dont you see thats the goal to pump and dump? its like corporate espionage
Private equity running a successful business to the ground. Name a more iconic duo
It's happening accords all industries too, I'm involved in the MTB scene and some massive brands and teams have been completely nuked by private equity firms which sucked as before those brands were amazing
Not as iconic as clueless youtube comments. Private equity wouldn't exist if it didn't help to grow business in the majority of cases.
@@stacraftydamn you really out here defending uncreative millionaires? 😅 Your boot sir 🥾
@@JarrylKhan Don't give him boots, he'll lick them.
It's not even an iconic duo, that's the whole point. Acquiring companies for less than their scrap value.
It starts to look like the actual goal is to suck as much money out of a company as possible before killing it off, rather than making profit in the traditional sense.
That theory has definitely been batted around...
Sounds like a business
It sounds like ultimately the race to the last dollar and short term investor gains don’t incentivize creativity but standardizes mediocrity. Classic capitalism.
thats what venture capitalist do. Look at what they did to Red Lobster among others.
Sounds like bad business practices. You see this a lot in the game industry.
Creative companies get bought out, everything changes, the company starves itself out, or gets scuttled for not performing as expected.
We’ve been doing RUclips automotive content for 16 years straight. (Yes we are the grandpas of car stuff on RUclips) Over a billion views of our cars across our channels. About 2 weeks into making the show we went out and got some fried rice, we decided we’d never take money from anyone we didn’t trust or any company that we didn’t know. We stuck to that ever since. There’s 2 of us on screen. And two owners. That’s us. That’s it. We can’t keep up with the multi-nationals and the companies with 50 staff. But I reckon just us and a few mates is a recipe for longevity.
The automotive community is way smaller in Australia but I think the local channels punch above their weight. MCM, Skid Factory, Motive, Bennys Custom Works.
Last year when BBC asked me to host the new Top Gear - I didn’t have to ask a boss for time off. Again, just 2 of us went and had a fried rice and decided to go for it.
I get that it’s a unique situation and everyone likes to get bigger all the time. But sometimes there’s discipline in keeping constant, and keeping quality up without having to compromise.
Wishing all the small, and big channels all the best.
This is true and also the reason why I’ve been an avid viewer since the trdlzr,
Also that one time where someone borrowed an s2000, (definitely never owned it) 😂
You guys are the OGs 🤙. Will these channels fit in my Honda though?
This isn't the first genre (or industry) to go through this, it's happened in others as well. Investors acquire a very popular channel, install bloat, then start pushing "what's popular and cheap" and not what the audience wants -- all while not giving back to the creators/talent. They bleed it dry, rinse, repeat.
what's "popular" isn't what the audience wants?
The Car Throttle guys did it right.. They all left in pairs and started their own channels which now collaborate on everything.
All of which I subscribe to and enjoy more than CT. It's the way to go for sure if you can make a living (increasingly difficult on YT).
They essentially said "Fine, we'll make our own Car Throttle, with blackjack and BMWs" and expanded it into two extra channels that are killing it too, could there be a bigger middle finger toward the folks that bought CarThrottle? Aside from Alex buying the brand to not use it out of spite lmfao
@@TheCynicalJedi did Alex actually but CT? Or you speaking hypothetically?
@@kallumwatts9543 quite clearly speaking hypothetically
more complicated than that. TDC are employees of autoalex. jack and ethan are partners with rory and alex in a dedicated company for all the gear.
uk is actually quite transparent, search someone s name on govt website companies house - eye opening whats on there
It's terrifying how corporate bureaucracy ruins literally anything it touches in hopes of short-term profits.
The modern MBA is pretty much all about that.
We just need to make more money this quarter than last quarter. We just need to make more money this quarter than last quarter. We just need to make more money this qua
It’s not the corporate bureaucracy - it’s the shareholders (that’s probably you and me, as our favorite bribed politicians are telling us that we have to care for our retirement on our own, bc everything different is "communism".) Nuf said.
Corporate Bureaucracy is a neat name for neo-liberal capitalism.
I am all for capitalism. But not the way the Chicago School and Neoliberals stand for.
@@taiteo558 yeah, i mean, for what??? 😆
The insatiable greed of parasites is the most unsustainable thing imaginable.
Bingo
Careful now, the ADL doesnt take to kindly to that word ;)
I work in the automotive industry, a global company, we are seeing this exact same thing playing out in front of our eyes, word for word. It was actually chilling to listen to what he was saying.
Carwow doesn't have anyone leaving
@@local_tony_sopranowhy do you think this person is from Carwow and “no one leaving” doesn’t mean the exact same thing is playing out. The video lays out the entire process from private equity buyout to management bloat to the eventual exit of creators.
@TheVinceZampella I never said he's from carwow, and Plus, carwow doesn't have private investors
This is why people like Adam LZ, TJ, cleetus are doing so well. Because they have a big empire, but they are the ones at the helm.
Yep
No, it's because they are not relying on other talent to be the hosts. They own the channel. People who are owners in the channel (business) won't leave. Everyone else was beholden by non-competes that prevented them from launching their own channel with their fan base... As of Feb 2024 non-competes are invalid and the talent can go into business for themselves.
Tavarish
And Ludwig literally sold his stake in his channel to his employees to prevent similar issues.
@@BrendanEvan no
The worst part of all is the new suits aren't even car guys. So they have no clue
It's like the workers should manage the company
Totally agree. And this does apply to a lot of businesses, not only creative/automotive 😢😢
just because of their couple of ferraris they cant even do an oil change on they think they know about cars🤦♂
@@TheMarcQ that wouldn't work either
Remember that video they raced all their personal vehicles and the rich mf with the Tesla won and didn’t even know anything about cars. Yeah that pissed me off
I 100% trust what Tiernan is saying. I had the opportunity to work with him before he left Donut through BRABUS. I am the marketing manager at BRABUS USA. Tiernan was the one who reached out to us and made this happen. It was the episode of the original G Wagon vs BRABUS G800. It was not a paid promotion from BRABUS. Tiernan was such a pleasure to work with. Some time after the episode aired he followed up with me to give me a heads up. Taking in VC for YT channel will almost always kill the channel. Tiernan I believe the best if ahead of you and rooting for you bro! -Abe at BRABUS USA
Brabus USA got any openings, asking for a friend 😂😅
I have noticed a drop in Donut. Thanks for shining the light.
Micromanaging 101
Holy crap it's insane how terrible Donut became. The early Donut videos were pure gold. James was an incredible personality who basically made the videos worth watching. And same with Bart. But Donut has been unwatchable crap for so long now. I gave up on them years ago.
The crazy about is When big time released the first vid .. donut dropped a car ad video on Chinese Ev neo 😂😂😂
Private equity is ruining everything, and that's not an exaggeration. They have done the same to the MSP/IT world, buying up, consolidating, enshitification of services and pay. It has and continues to happen to video game studios, movie studios, dentists, HOUSES, f'n everything
…because they’re making money for investors AKA people who have money to make money. It’s a f*cking scam.
PE is kind of a disaster since they don't know how to run a business, but no one's forcing these companies to sell out to PE. So you can't really blame PE, blame the owners seeing a pay day and taking it, it's the classic selling out.
Enshitification- must be added to the dictionary 😂
Such an underrated comment. It is the rot at the root of most ills today.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 Surely there will be some outliers of people sticking to their guns and keeping their business, taking on the risks and endeavors for lots of capital infusion, but by and large PE's buying up companies like this is the norm, and what we call "mismanagement" is actually just satisfying the need for exponential gains on capital, which while it may hurt the creatives and the original audience, leads to financial gains. If the company loses all their audience and loses money, these investors likely have other endeavors to hedge their risks. So all in all a great deal for everyone. Be grateful for the PE's they make this country rich and great
This isn't limited to automotive journalism/media. Any time a capital venture/investment firm acquires a company for pure financial profit, the quality goes down or gets blurred.
*vulture capitalism (Sorry had to correct the terminology)
Poor Red Lobster
Literally dealing with the same issue at an IT company as we speak. Company wants growth so they hire investors. They want money so they make ‘laughable’ moves that truly destroy our quality of service over the sake of making sales quicker.
Not even VC. Just a bad leader in a company who is airdropped in because they have an MBA or friends with the CEO can have the same effect.
Happened to a company I know about. The hedge fund fired all the people who know how to do the jobs, left no one to provide support to the clients they serve. They lost more business. Firms are the death of a business.
I used to have a part-time gig in the auto industry. You perfectly nailed what happened and why I got out.
It really is greed. These “investors” want only to make as much money as possible, as quickly as possible. But they enter thinking they know better. They very seldom do.
But, they cannot do this unless the current company ownership invites the them in. Bringing in outside investors is how a a founder/current owner makes “the bag” vice slugging thru with a salary type situation. Maybe it’s an owners “retirement plan”.
I’ve even seen folks like yourself leave a gig to start his own because of outside investors, swearing they would never do the same thing… and do the exact same thing. Money is king and the greed ruins everything it touches.
Great video. I saw this after having watched watched Big Time's first video, and the point you make about people making videos on "Why I left----" makes so much sense.
Throughout Big Time's video, Jeremiah and Zach simply re-stated the same lines, "Donut wasn't what I expected it to be", but hardly ever go into the grittier details. Almost like a resignation letter where you have to tell your company that working with them was a great pleasure.
Hert basically said the exact same thing. No matter how hard I work for hoonigan I don’t get paid any more, get equity in the company or earn a large payout some time down the road. Kudos for Hert for saying that he realized that all the hard work he was willing to put in needed to have a direct return for his family and specifically building something for his son to benefit from later.
This is why people quiet quit. It's when you realize the amount of money you make isn't tethered to how hard you work.
Meanwhile Vinnie was getting paid insane money for doing the same thing.
@@SuperTimeStretch I’ve never liked companies where you cut your own deal and have 2 people doing the same job at wildly different rates. Sure, have a scale that reflects years of experience doing that work but how much you get paid shouldn’t come down to how well you bluff and how desperate a company is on any given day.
Do these people have this same reaction when they're getting pay increase below inflation by big Corp??
Bingo, if there is no reward/incentive to work hard it's stupid for employees to keep working hard for no gain, ESPECIALLY when a lot of those people can go start their own channels.
When you look at the big channels like MCM, G&G, Tavarish, Matt Armstrong and Speed Academy who have stayed independent you can see how the quality of the content has stayed consistent or gone up, while to channels that were bought by VC have stopped doing the things people really enjoy like interesting builds, road trips, and track driving. The new channels that are coming out from creatives who have left the corporate channels (Big Time, Auto Alex, All The Gear, TDC etc) are getting back to the interesting and relatable content people want to see.
It's the Automotive RUclips revolution, the industry is course correcting itself and I am here for it!
Alex quitting was the best thing to happen to CT, it made Jack and Ethan step up, and Brought Edwin on screen
@@user-qj9ig6dn6x
Imo that is a bit of a stretch as Alex leaving was a big part of why I stopped watching CT vids over time, however, I see your point as the others got way more confident being on camera and getting their shite together
@@callumroper7251 Alex is insufferable. Edwin is a million times more interesting
Emilia Hartford and Cleetus wouldnt be able to even consider owning race tracks if they had ever sold out.
God I hope Emilia manages to buy Willow Springs.
@@nicholastrawinski I hadn't heard that she was looking to buy Willow Springs. I agree that I hope she does. I don't want that track to get bought by some corpo group that will end up complaining it isn't making billions and then destroy it for housing development in the desert.
Great video. I was a big donut subscriber for several years and sort of notice my subscription feed had Donut videos I wasn’t as interested in watching anymore. I feel a lot of what you laid out is being felt across media in general as well, not just automotive media. Also think about the automotive manufacturers, so many cars people love and are passionate about are dying as well.
So interesting. I, too, just left a vehicles-based job after years of productive growth, but watching the company layer on more and more 'suits' above me who weren't the ones bringing in the money. It's incredible how many people companies will hire to 'manage' the people and profits, but who don't actually contribute to making the profits. And those suits all pat each other on the back, go out to have nice lunches, etc., while the producer is tied to being on-site as much as possible to bring in the millions of dollars for them. Thank you for this - thank you for your perspective into exactly what I just got done living through.
Prime example of how consistent profit growth is not a sustainable business model and will always compromise quality.
Once you've reached market saturation, how can you expect ever increasing profits?
Bc consultant came in and drew a straight line for profits going up for all time. @@tmtmrm
@@tmtmrm Clueless exec: "We are pivoting our company to become the Apple of our industry!"
P.S.: "By using AI!!!!!....(somehow)"
@@tmtmrm exactly why the very concept of "infinite growth" is completely and totally absurd
This is definitely not true. It doesn’t make sense in creative products like media, but in B2B commerce, it almost always works. Cut the fat, automate as many processes as possible, add to the marketing budget and bring in an exec team that understands the goal is to increase value of the company and pay out distributions to the investors. I do it all the time, and while there are always people that hate the changes, the best people at those companies love it because their hard work is rewarded, and they get to see their lazy complaining colleagues stomp out the door.
People also need to know corporate youtube channels are just a way for media companies to make content while avoiding unions.
for now
the law always catches up
its slow
but it always catches up
There's a lot of media companies that aren't unionized. And there's a reason why they aren't in California.
unions != good or better. unions always bring a different, and often worse, set of problems.
@@ppmnox BS, Collective bargaining is the only way to secure fair agreements between workers and their employer. Companies are incentivised by their exact financial nature to diminish the employee experience in order to increase their margins.
@braydos1578 how's that working out for the big three who got jobs cut? Newsflssh:union membership continues to decline to historically low levels and job creation is in right to work states.
I'm not a car person, (However, I am a Creative,) but the scenario transfers to a lot of other businesses. This was super interesting, and I think we all know it's going on but it's finally nice to hear someone spell it all out. This video deserved my subscription. Looking forward to more...
I have no idea who you are or why you popped up in my algorithm, but that was a GREAT video. I'm sharing.
Same thing seems to be happening with a sewing machine company I work for and the dialysis composure I previously worked for. I mean, it's pretty effing bad when a medical industry goes public for profit.
WTF1 deserves a shoutout here. IDK how they didn't realize that the viewers were drawn to the creators: their personality, wits, humors, not always on the content itself. Glad to see it burn to the ground.
Agreed . I don’t understand how they didn’t realize what was gonna happen .
Shoutout? They drained the love and soul out of Matt and Tommy, they didnt enjoy their work and Tommy used to own WTF1. I dont think it was their decision, M&T had enough and forced their hand
Wtf1 is/was part of car throttle
WTF1 was bought out by car throttle a long time ago.
That means they are suffering for the same reason that car throttle is suffering
@@dizuko_ I think that's what he meant.
They forced M&T to do stupid content.
M&T left them and they (corpos) are now left with another failed channel.
So at donut where "the boss" races everyone in his tesla. It's that guy.
That SOB Dave
Knew he couldn't be trusted as soon as I saw he drove an EV
@@Genos2600 Let people enjoy all cars.
probably more danny the producer too her rap sheet includes hoonigan, motortrend and roadkill
she's the one in the lexus that cant figure out how to use it properly
@@Genos2600????
Wow. Utterly fascinating. I honestly see this as a win for the viewer who now get more individual creators making what they want to make without the corporate overlords forcing their hand
This is a top-shelf, plainly spoken, easy-to-understand explanation of the "what" and the "why" companies have morale issues and people quit. Not just in your industry, but I have seen the same thing in other industries and other functions within these industries. Substitute "content creator" with "engineer", "mechanic", "nurse", "waitstaff", "accountant", "coder", "brand manager", "category manager", etc. and it's the same shitty situation. Anyone that does any kind of actual work will recognize and understand what you are talking about - People who are "manager", "VP", etc. don't understand or forgot how actual work is done and never learned to listen and lead.
And my god its the same situation anytime any good company gets bought out. Every damn time. PE Firms never learn the lesson.
Private equity always shuts down a company and hopes nobody will notice. When your company gets taken over, start looking for a job right away. Every time. No exceptions.
well, unless you're the former owner who just sold. then you go on vacation
Facts
Happened to me, got fired by the new company and my entire team got laid off as well. After the purchase, the company promised “no changes and everything will continue as usual”. Yeah, right…
Luckily enough I had 2 jobs
Happened to a placed I worked at back in 2008 or so. As soon as I heard about it I put in my noticed and left. After the buyout they made EVERY existing employee apply to work at the place that just bought it. Not everyone was rehired. I couldn’t imagine the stress. Glad I was able to leave on my own terms.
My company has been owned by private equity for ~20 years; I can't leave because nobody else will pay me as much as I make here. You only hear about the bad ones.
These investors/managers should ask the BBC how valuable the Top Gear "brand" was without Jeremy Richard and James. Most of these executives know that they are replaceable because anyone could do their job, and they assume that personalities and creators are the same
Subscribed. That's the best thing I can do at this point to support all the great creative minds venturing out on your own!
Thank you for sharing this insight!! Too often this all goes unsaid (for a variety of reasons) so it was super appreciated
If we wanted television style content we’ll just watch TV. RUclips viewers do not want that polished business type of video sponsored by products we never heard of or won’t buy. Content is king
I had to learn english to watch good content on youtube because brazilian youtube is a cancer full of shit, now the good chanels are becoming that cancerous pile of shit.
Thing is RUclips is free. A lot of people like the television style content you can watch without paying for cable or anything. Sure there’s ads the content itself isn’t paywalled.
Exactly. the sponsors are either stuff that are meh, or just plain horrible (betterhelp for example.)
Donut had some good TV quality shows like Hi Low and that's something that I enjoyed about donut and that type of show is likely one that eventually is going to get cut because it's expensive to make.
@@Bobspineable Donut before they were bought out seemed more wild, had more freedom, was more funny, was more random, less structured and just felt more connected to the viewers down to the body gestures and sentences. After it was purchased (like many media companies that get purchased) the status quo changed by people who are not a part of the core fanbase. Weird sponsored came in and it slowly went down hill. It happens to a lot of media companies that are purchased by people who aren’t apart of the niche culture itself. They have to cater to their owners and sponsors first and then then viewers. They used to cater to the viewers first.
I'm a truck driver and the same thing is happening in our industry. The last company I left didn't have a single person out of the 60ish office staff who had ever so much as driven a truck around the parking lot. If numbers weren't going up, they hired a manager to manage the manager in charge of making the numbers go up. When I started in 2014 my division had 20 trucks and 2 people looking after it. When I left it had 10 trucks and 4 people looking after it. Their shop is struggling to perform the work required but instead of hiring mechanics and fabricators they hired a supervisor to oversee the shop manager and then within 6 months they put a director over the supervisor.
All these effing business degrees and nobody can figure out that the people actually bringing in the money are the ones who need to be prioritized and consulted if you want to succeed.
Ah well, they can enjoy the heat from their dumpster fire while I work for a guy with 5 trucks and no shits to give.
Edit: i also want to point out, that company is privately owned and operated. it isn't just investors, but its any time you prioritize constant growth over a solid foundation. I called it at our drivers meeting in 2020 when they announced they were switching to a growth model of 10% year over year that the place would be an unworkable hellhole by 2025 and....yep.
Wish I could "like" this 100 times more. Spot on.
I've been in trucking for 13 years and have driven for about 9 companies or some number close to that.
What you're saying is dead nuts on across the entire industry.
There's usually one or two people at best in the office that are former drivers that actually know how things work on the road. And they're always low level employees that don't have the ability to do anything about the problems.
They'll hire somebody with a college degree to be an operations manager who did that job at another company that got run into the ground, but they won't promote the former driver who was a fully independent owner operator at one point that knows the business side of the industry, as well as the boots on the ground part.
Nope, fuck that. College guy that knows dick about being a trucker gets put in charge right out of the gate. There's a reason why the trucks have piss bottles in them and smell like ballsack on the inside, and have crunched bumpers and fenders. A former or active driver in charge of a fleet will shut that shit down yesterday.
This is an interesting problem.
The military has similar issues with politics and goal setting.
The working stiffs (enlisted) are lead by the officers (white collar) but usually those two are paired. A first sergeant (the enlisted liason and confidant for personal issues) is paired to the commander to a squadron. So the commander is getting recommendations from the first sergeant. The enlisted also have the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. The highest enlisted spot. (He technically is below the lowest officer rank) but he is the liason to all enlisted with the generals.
We are less concerned about profits, that has its own issues and workarounds by calling things weapon systems for extra congress $$$
but i think that system is more effective at protecting bs from the higher levels onto the lower tiers.
This happened at my place of employment. I used to enjoy working, and had extreme pride in my work. I am a mechanic. But the family sold out to a corporate company and it has gone to shit. We had like 20 people quit in the first couple months, and they don't care about the employees that made the company work. I quit a couple weeks ago, and it was the best dissection I could have made. I can almost guarantee that they will ruin the location that I was working at. I know that the family that sold the company is regretting it a whole lot. It's sad seeing all these family owned companies going away.
it's cuz admin/managers can self-preserve. This is why unions are so important. It takes collective action to get stuff done if you aren't in charge.
Wow, thank you so much for explaining so clearly why creators create. You have my most heartfelt thanks and I wish you much luck.
Always appreciate the "inside baseball" from the other end of the RUclips spectrum! This at least momentarily reduces the stress of wearing ALL of the hats as a smaller automotive creator. Best of luck with what you do next, though considering you've passed my all time number in the first week on this channel, I suspect you'll do ok. 🍻
It’s the same thing with companies. They become big, suddenly there are a lot of managers with fancy titles that weren’t there before, cost needs to be cut, and they think the people who made the companies big in the first place are idiots, treating them like garbage. The good people leave, and the products get worse. Then they try to fool the customers. And when everything’s down they leave for another company. It’s insane and SO obvious…
Perhaps it is intentional. Perhaps "killing off" certain businesses is the point because it strengthens investments elsewhere. It's worth considering these investors actually know what they are doing and therefore it isn't as insane as it looks.
@@JH-wd6dp my brother in christ, the only qualifications these "investors" have are having money and wanting it to grow exponentially. They aren't playing 5d chess, they just want to see the line go up faster and faster.
Everyone is an investment genius in a bull market.
Autodesk, Microsoft and adobe
This is every industry. Most companies used to be run by the people that built OR worked in them. Now they are run by accountants who have no idea about the business. Leaches
!!
I worked in the broadcast arts for 50 years. Everything he said here happened in radio. You're in the trenches. You meet the people you serve. The suits considered talent to be debit. There was a time I thought that my voice would never be replaced by machine. Boy, was I wrong.
Retirement suits me.
My dad was in TV news and did the same thing. And then I was in digital local news and had to get out. It's coming for us all.
it is kind of disheartening to hear that from so many people in so many different fields. It's either 'I'm retired, so I don'[t have to deal with this", or 'by the time that happens I'll be long retired, so somebody else can deal with this'.
Eight years in game development. Long hours for little pay on games I didn't care for because it was just us, a bunch of awesome people anyone would want to work with, making a name for ourselves and making a living, investing our into OUR... Company sells out to investors, investors get bought out by the worst of the mega corporations that's laying off studios left and right...
Thank you for the insite. I could definitely tell when the creativity and the special “it” factor with Donut started to change.
Private equity has become a problem in many industries. Thanks for the video.
That’s what’s killing businesses in every market! Investors squeezing every dime out of a company at the expense of the employees and a quality product. Then when the company inevitably fails everyone loses their job and anything of value is sold off so the investors can get one last payday and the cycle starts over. And they’re the ones the government gives all the tax breaks to
Enshittification.
Exactly it's the same thing was what happened to Boeing for example but on a smaller scale
Make Unions Great Again!
I can't wait to have OG Zach back, the moneypit show was amazing and since then Donut became a brand. Always knew something was up
100% Donut definitely is not the same as when they started and always felt kind of like a sellout lately. Glad Zach and Jeremiah are doing their own thing, and I'm not surprised at all.
Knowing what I know of the industry and the type of content Donut was making lately, none of this was really surprising. I basically called it during the Tacoma builds, and only got more obvious after that
you mean that actor who would do anything for money with his other actor friend who also quit that garbage channel , these are not real car guys , they would do anything to get out of real work , and tools like you will click on them to keep their leeching alive
Short-hair Zach is best Zach.
Especially with the Ranger build, too, you can just tell none of them give AF about it. It's like let's pour outrageous money into this crappy truck and make content with it and it's pretty cringey to watch. Hoovie is still pretty good tho he's gotten out of control with his cars lately lol
awesome of you to make this video, explains a lot about current situations
As a content creator myself it’s good to be aware of this stuff especially as I get more popular and have more entrepreneurship responsibilities. Let’s hope that one day I can be smart with who I work for and do business with/for. 👍
to many people taking pieces of the pie without ever going in to the kitchen to help make the pie is what it sounds like.
Spoiled brats who never had to work a day in their life, yet reap the benefits of their predecessors in a life where they have it all now are want to impress their parents by showing them they can actually "produce value" as well, yet all they know how to do is cost cut without any regard to the people that keep the small company afloat.
@@SI0AX the parasite class, parasiting again. They suck the life out of real skill and talent and make insane amounts of money doing it.
Capitalism 101
yup.
daddy's money and daddy's connections.
theyre undereducated, lazy, and incompetent. exactly what they project onto us.
oh well.
daddy's money wont last forever lol. no matter how many laws they break and lives they ruin.
The little Red Hen was one of my favorite books as a kid. 😉
This video instantly made me think of the gaming industry. Ideas are born from the creators. The creators create a company to house these ideas. The idea/ideas generate mass amounts of money. A bigger company takes notice of this. They buy the company, and start cutting costs, while demanding thatbthe creative team produce more with less.
Yes, definitely! Game devs and content creators have a lot in common, too. You should check out Noodle's video "The Crunch Culture Conundrum" if you haven't.
Ha! I made my comment about EA and how they do exactly this.
It made me think of that too. Fromsoftware is now 30% Sony/TenCent games, both with 15% in the company. 3/10 seats in the executive lounge are now rats who only care for quick profits. Tale as old as Capitalism.
it is basically what happened since mobile games became a thing, then almost all companies became stupid
Lol imagine blaming your ideas on other people.
As someone who works in the creative field and has dealt many times with the “non-creatives”, I think that the future of entertainment lies with us, the creatives, and in streamlining the often bloated executive staff that is responsible for a large part of the budgets involved in production. In my opinion, the reason RUclips is great is that in its purest form, it provides an unfiltered stream between the creatives and their audience. Glad to hear that you’re part of that growing movement!
I'm a non-creative, who spent a lifetime helping creatives get their ideas commercialized, distributed and properly valued. We're not all ogres. The key is not selling your entity to a bunch of finance bros who wave dollars at you (dollars they have no intention of actually giving you.) Grow organically, and hire people like me with talents that compliment yours.
And if phrases like "shareholder value" regularly roll off the tongues of the management of your company, GTFO.
@@TonySims888 sure! That’s why I said “streamlined” and not eliminated. I definitely think that having non-creatives working alongside creatives is necessary and beneficial! I just mean there are some of those positions that are extraneous, and often eat up large portions of the budget for a project. I very much appreciate the people in non-creative roles, because they have a different skill set and talents than I do. 👍😅
Happened to me in the Aerospace Industry. I got hired on to be a creative and to expand business. They changed management around and then started cutting our budget, did not trust us to do the jobs the hired us to do, and refused to try new ideas that could expand business.
As an employee of a RUclips channel, this should be pinned to the front page.
Nah you're a gig worker not an employee.
dam brother idk how I could have 100% absolute faith in that. “ I work for a RUclips channel “ it’s not even yours bro
@@mmmFreshBrew salaried w/ benefits for a few years
Well said
I can see why Mighty Car Mods said they wouldn't sell out, to be owned by a bigger company who has control over their creative direction.
In terms of those people who've upped and quit, as someone who enjoys car content, I always then follow the folks on their new channel.
That’s what happened when motortrend went corporate
Was MotorTrend ever not corporate? I can’t imagine a company from the 1940s not being “corporate”
That's why MCM has always been the best. Been watching them for a decade. Even have a Daihatsu Mira.
@@ColAlbSmi my bad, I meant when they got bought out by cable bullshit
@@ColAlbSmi MotorTrend was corporate, but Roadkill at the beginning was a scrappy show with a limited budget at I think they did their best episodes at the beginning. They were small so corporate didn't notice them. Multiple years later and now we have multi-hundred thousand dollar sponsored builds (i.e., General Mayhem should have NEVER had a Hellcat) and a bunch of the other shows got Roadkill-ized, and some that weren't were cancelled.
I'm a suit for a TV & Streaming platform. I run a fairly large team and the "dont trust the creators" and "low budget and expecting high resuts" is idiotic and shows the managment had no experience building strong creative teams and pipelines. It makes me sad as I see similar trends in TV and Streaming and Cinema (though there are exceptions). In the past creative execs (producers, people in development & comissioning) were promoted, now it's finance and marketing people so they make key decisions. Many times also despite bragging about being good at business those people are bad at interpreting what actually drives the company (progressively better product so you need to find ways to make that grow, not cut costs but that's also a problem of how benefits for managers are created to incentivise short term thinking).
This needs to change. Suits should basically work as shepards of creative teams helping them thrive and only blocking really unreasonable ideas. Not as cost cutters for fast buck in bad times and fad chasers in boom times.
Also not listening to experts from managers should be a fireable offense
Thank you for this comment! One of the best managers I ever had was someone who had never done what I had done, and was humble enough to consider their role (with respect to my job) as simply making sure I had all the resources I needed to be maximally effective, and to fight for those resources when necessary. That was true leadership, and it built an amazing team.
I guess this started back when I first heard James say "I guess we're a T-Shirt company now." He's likely on a NCA for a couple/few years, but I'll keep my eyes out for the other talented folks as that aren't as bound to the sale. I hope they all pop up again soon in TNG of Fun Car Vid-Co's. This does remind me of how I, as IT Talent, had to bounce around the IT industry back in the day when this phenomenon happened there too. I'm pulling for all you creatives, keep it real !
I feel like people think consumers can’t tell when things take a turn for the sake of making more money while trying to appear like they are just making good content. But we can absolutely tell. We aren’t stupid, the content feels different.
But as long as enough people keep buying they keep doing it.
Not enough people care about quality.
1. Do your own thing
2. Get popular doing your thing
3. Stop thing that made you popular
4. Wonder why you're losing popularity
What is this strategy called?
You missed a crucial step: sellout to a big corp or to venture capitalists. That is what causes step 3.
It is as if you didn't even watch the vid 🤦
@sepg5084 it even applies to VCs, they're dumb enough to think it would be better to stop doing what made the channel successful
"sellout" is what it's called
@@falcongamer58 The main issue is selling out. If you are gonna sell out to any kind of investor, you should take the money and run, not stay in the company that is going to go downhill from management that doesn't have a clue nor care about how your company works. I'd sell it all, and tell them to do as they please, then make plans to start the company under a different name and rehire my employees after they quit and the company goes bankrupt. This is what happened with Cyanogen mod after they owner recreated it under the LineageOS name. The investors got deservingly screwed, lol.
Enshitification?
(Yes, this term has a Wikipedia entry!)
Thanks for what seems like a really clear, honest take. It jives with what I've seen in other industries and communities, particularly when bought out by aggregator firms. Best of luck to you and all of the other creators out there who are passionate about their subject.
After months of feeling like I’m running @transportevolved badly because we are still independent and I barely pay myself, you’ve just convinced me that’s the way to be in automotive media. Well, maybe not the not paying myself bit… but the keeping it small, agile and teamed by three other amazing folks who get our shit done for us and us alone.
Thank you. No, seriously.
What's really scary to me is that I can draw *a lot* of parallels between this video and the recent culture shift I've witnessed working in manufacturing. Modern corporate society is on a very fast downhill spiral.
It's the American way. Even voted Trump, a grimy corporate CEO, as President 🤷
@@sepg5084 lmao guy hasnt been in office for years and still want to blame today problems on him like it wasnt biden,bamma and nixon that ruined america lmao
My mother, who's a nurse who knows absolutely nothing ab cars, just happened to be watching the video with me and she said it's exactly the same story at her hospital/rehab facility. It's the entire country slaving away at the hands of these corporate management firms while overworking the on-the-ground workers for terrible pay and significantly decreased output quality for the consumer. We're living in very weird times.
I work for a major car company and yes, they are doing the same thing. Kicking out suppliers (who are effective) and looking for the lowest cost. Also moving engineering to low cost countries. That will come back to bite them in the ass one day but I will be well away from them when it happens.
It's all aspects of business.
Oof, the “I went from being 2 steps from the top to 9 steps” bit really resonated with me as a creative working in the corporate world. Thanks for the interesting and levelheaded perspective on this. As a casual Donut fan who’s followed the channel for a few years now and spent time digging through their back catalog, the work of you and other creatives (and what happens when they don’t get to be as involved) has not gone unnoticed. I can think of several big channels outside of the car scene where the same comment could apply…
I’m sorry this happened, best of luck with future endeavors!
Excellent explaination. The frusrtration and damage caused by out of touch management crosses all industries. Wishing you all the best in you future.
This happened to the magazine industry about 15 years ago. They valued their ad sales over the content that brought in readership, so they started outsourcing, shutting down magazines and refused to invest in any quality. The few people that were left quickly burned out with the increased burden.
Most Print media went this way , My partner was a strategist at a big print media company., She identifiedthat the biggest threat was their investors and the culture they insisted on, they couldn't comprehend it and collapsed.
i worked/lived through the magazine decline as a creative. only one of them survived into the late 00’s because we created a website that had a search listing of all our content and reviews. then yelp launched and killed us within a year. good times though. i wish i would have jumped into youtube in this earlier times, who knew it would morph into similar creative content as magazines.
Car and Driver...
Luckily a car lover is back in charge there.
@@flip_moto I think we worked for the same parent company.
@@dsteinhil This was going to be my comment. They used to be extremely critical about cars, until they got bought out and ad revenue started going down because they didn't think every car was the most ultimate perfect car of all time. It's no wonder they started circling the drain.
Jeez, WTF1, Hoonigan, The Theorist channels, Car Throttle and now Donut Media... corporations are killing every big RUclips channel because all they see are dollar signs, it's sad 😢
No blame on the original creator who sold out to the suits and got theirs though, right?
@@jamessmith8480 not really no. why wouldn't you create something big and get out while you're at the top? You can then go on to do other big things while you're wealthy and repeat. Why would you blame someone for being smart and not blame the people who bought in and then decided to change everything when the original idea was working so well?
@@deekamikaze Because obviously you can't sell the idea and expect it to stay the same. The owners could grow their channel and stay involved, instead they take the payday and run while the viewers suffer. That's just life, but anyone with half a brain knows bean counters won't run a channel the same as the original creator.
@@jamessmith8480 Nah, will not blame the original creators. It's just that the viewers are the ones who suffer with the content changing dramatically. After all if big suits see your channel as a money generator it means you were doing something right. It's just sad that bean counters ruin the creativity to save a quick buck 'tis all...
There definitely should be blame on the original creator.
To make his channel interesting enough to be bought out it took the efforts of many more employees.
Going from 4 to 8 million took the work of many people.
It's like any company really. Companies can't grow without more employees contributing.
The problem is the system. Someone offers you a lot of money for something most people will take it if they realize it would take 20 more years of running the business to make that money.
What is missing here? The people that actually work there! No thought is given to them at all! Not by the person purchasing the company or the person selling the company.
"Hey thanks for working hard and making possible this huge sale."
"Do we get some of that money?"
"I am thanking you! Of course you don't get to share in the reward."
People working for decent to low pay really need to push for equity and share in profits in case of sale.
Don't count on someone being kind or your friend. Get all workers together and demand it in writing.
As a long-time viewer of Donut, all of this checks out from the audience-side. Watching content like Up to Speed, Hi/Lo, and B2B slowly replaced with hot-takes and reaction videos has been depressing. I have gladly purchased merch (several t-shirts and posters) to help fund a team that put the enthusiasm into auto enthusiast but that too has come to an end.
I am sure I am not alone when I say your audience is here and looking forward to what is next!
Watching the rise, and now fall of Donut and Hoonigan is sad. It's sad that these companies come in to a thriving brand, then refuse to do the things that made them thrive and complain when number drop. Risk sells, creativity sells. We watched these channels because they were different, not because we wanted them to fit the mold of automotive media.
Came in? Let’s not make it sound like the VCs didn’t throw a bunch of money at the channel owners. The owners knew what was going to happen. Don’t blame the VC, blame the channels who decided to pocket a bunch of money.
100% spot on.
@Rebel635csi Oh yeah, keep telling yourself that if a big company approached you and offered to buy your brand for an eye-watering sum of money you wouldn't even consider it.
"No, for I am a man of princi- how many million?"
@@alexg1778 and I’d be blamed for the fall of it if they decide to run it into the ground. The two things can be both true. For a deal to happen both parties need to come to an agreement….
@@Rebel635csi Yeah the owners share some of the blame for selling it but the company that purchases it is the one that makes changes and runs it into the ground.
You never know, the purchasers might spin a lie like "oh yeah we love the content as it is, we'll just buy you out so you can keep doing what you do but on a bigger scale" then do an uno reverso and change everything.
Remember when RUclips wasn’t trying to be just another tv service?
RUclips is trying to make money, advertising makes money. Old youtube is still around but it's not pulling millions of views per video.... It requires a bit of luck and searching for content creators that is true to the core.
Great video! This is true not just in automotive but in almost all businesses. Its why I now am trying to save money to start my own business and I'm starting to look at other funding options.
The saddest thing is when things go really bad, the ones who take the hardest fall and all the blame are the OG people, the founders, the front face of the content.
This video said so many things that I've been wanting to. A dream job is great, but it's still always a job.
Yup! You lived it, too, so you know.
Very true. I work in the gaming industry for a major developer and publisher and people always get excited when I mention what I do. "Isn't that such a dream job! I bet you love it every day" and I have to remind them that yeah it is a lot of fun, but sometimes it sucks just like any other job lol
You can work for a great company, the problem is when it goes public or gets bought out by an investor. If it gets bought out by an investor, *immediately* start looking for another job, throwing out applications, I have never seen a small company not get destroyed after being bought by an investor and even worse if they go public on Wallstreet. If they go public on Wallstreet, see if you can put money in the stock start job hunting, then cash-out once it peaks somewhat and leave to another company that is not public.
@@TheBulletTrain Well yea thats why people say there is a difference between A CAREER and A JOB if youre looking at is a job and isnt what you want your career to be then yea ur gonna think it sucks
This is the way of the world. Happening in every single industry. I have worked as an industrial insulator in petrol / gas plants for 17 years. When i started there was about a dozen small mom & pop shops ran by families that held all the work contracts in my area.
Slowly massive international corps have been starving out the mom an pop shops by basically doing work for free then buying these shops for pennies on the dollar once they are forced to basically bankruptcy. Then they install a bunch of pencil pushers that don't even know what a petrol plant is to write new safety protocol and work practices. Such as if you want new work gloves you have to turn in your old gloves, Well in 90% of the cases we cannot bring work gloves into buildings because they are covered in harmful chemicals. So now we stand around and argue with supervisors over gloves instead of working because they think they saved 5 bucks.
Also in oil and gas and the contractor I work for has been bought out 3 times... nothing ever gets better with the new owners lol
We could put a stop to all this and live in a better world, but people (especially americans) scoff at all the possible solutions
@@ileutur6863 Yeah, this just once again proves that if the workers at a business also are the owners like Donut in it's early days you get a better channel or any other kind of business. But oh no that's COMMUNISM!
And you get called in to explain your low KPIs to middle management, wasting even more time
this is such a brilliant video and I feel like almost all the points can be applied to a variety of current industries, look at what's been happening to Gaming over the past decade/15ish years. Same story - big money gets a whiff of a profitable industry and mines it for all it's worth leaving actual creatives and consumers behind in the dust while they count their bennies.
Your points are concise and have full metal jackets, in the sense that what you're saying is not just true but it's almost fundamental to the creativity and business intersection leaving the argument undisputable. Remember your words and how you said them in this video as it can be applied to so many things in life that will soon be discovered.
This is probably the best explanation of upper management I've ever heard! And it's the same with all companies. I am a (now retired) veterinary pathologist and I spent most of my career in the pharmaceutical industry. I saw it change from actually caring about developing innovative and useful new treatments to just finding slightly new uses for old stuff so patent protection could be extended. "Speed to Market" became the official motto, and no one cared about patient care any more. Can you tell I'm not a big fan of (usually clueless) upper management?!
this is every business, but never has it been explained so clearly. WE NEED PEOPLE LIKE YOU! support this man!!
Very eloquent and thoughtful insight! It makes perfect sense to me, however unfortunate it may be.. But anyways, I appreciate the more ''behind the scenes'' (if you will) take from someone who's also a professional in the industry, just not an on-screen personality. Really helps to ensure people are more aware of all of the different perspectives involved, which ultimately leads to a more cohesive and complete understanding of what's truly going on. Based take. And for that sir, you deserve a sincere Thank You! for keeping it 💯my man! Best of luck to you and your future endeavors yo! Cheers, -Fred
This is a classic case of; You should build your own business because they will replace you or fire you on a moment’s notice.
The scary thing in my opinion is that this seems to be happening more and more in multiple different entertainment industries. It's quickly taking its toll on various different hobbies.
The video game industry is a huge example of this. You don't see as much creativity and experimental work from big publishers these days. Many games seem to have a bigger emphasis on maximizing profits by prioritizing microtransactions and instant money solutions over having a solid user experience. You don't feel as much of the passion with many big publisher games these days that are often a buggy mess on launch compared to the polished games of 10-20 years ago. And it makes sense for the same reasons as what's happening to automotive youtube channels that have to satisfy investors and bring on management that may not be as in touch with the industry they are now working with.
Then don't support the corporate games and buy indie games instead. If you still buy corporate games then you are also part of the problem because you are funding their existence.
I really feel this depends a ton on what part of the games industry you are looking at. Mobile games for sure are 100% like that, it's nearly impossible to find one that isn't just a disguised casino. However, at least on PC there has never really been a better time for smaller indie titles; modern engines allow smaller teams to make much more ambitious games that were possible 10-15 years ago. Look at something like my summer car, there's a ton of content for something developed by essentially a single guy, and that isn't the only example. The big AAA games are definitely getting worse, but that has been a slow trend for quite a while as budgets have crept up to astronomical levels. Rockstar needs to have ludicrous monetization strategies to justify the 100's of millions of dollars they spend making their games, but those aren't the only thing on the market. If anything, smaller indie games are much more prevalent and easier to find now than in 2004.
My comment primarily refers to AAA games and not indie games. There is a reason why more and more of the most popular trending games these days are indie games.
Indie games are basically like the people that have left the big car channels to do their own thing. Smaller teams and budgets but more freedom to be creative.
@@sepg5084
I agree with you. And this goes for paying for overpriced microtransactions on free big publisher games too since that's a current trending model. And it goes beyond gaming. Whaling is what enables passionless scalpers to exist in every hobby.
But the sad part is that game devs will ultimately take the blame and good game studios get dissolved as a result of the actions of corporate.
Personally, its been years since I actually purchased a AAA game. Very few if any of them really interest me anymore. Indie games and games from 10+ years ago with mods are generally just more appealing to me and have much better replayability for me.
@@thaifightr Technically games like Cyberpunk and Baldurs Gate 3 are indie games but also very much AAA. After all, indie just means "no corporate overlords" and doesn't have to be made by a small team on a shoestring budget.
I'd love to see the people that left all these automotive channels team up to do something awesome together. Just the creative people doing what they do best.
Thanks for making this. Similar stuff happening in a lot of businesses right now…
Thank you for finally saying it out loud.. we as the viewers have felt this shift, glad to see its finally going to shift. LETS GO CREATIVES
You pretty much just explained American big business. For decades they've said raising the minimum wage would increase prices, but prices have skyrocketed, and executive pay has gone up nearly 60% the system is broken
What does that have to do with a buyout or merger? I don't think they mentioned increasing wages as an issue at all
@@jngobngo yeah but with the same wages for the people who actually do the work you now have a bunch of very well paid suits that dont actually contribute much but its exactly those suits that dont want the working people getting more money because they know that theyre getting the money that should be payed to the workers but isnt
prices skyrocketed in part due to raising minimum wage
Suits don't understand that the content is the initial driver of why we watch the channel but the personality are what keep us there
to them, the best consumer is one that believes everything from the song "collective consciousness"
Very well made video. I'd like to add that suits tend to pick short term gains over long term ones. Even if they do understand why content is important for the brand, they're incentivized to earn a quick promotion and leave the fallout for the next guy.
Subscribed to give you some support! Being somewhat of a suit myself, I really don't understand how so many miss the idea of "the brand" being something that was built by the creatives. You can build a handbag from couture Italian leather or reusable Walmart bags, but one will clearly hurt the final product, creatives are the materials of the product which in turn is a huge part of what makes "the brand".
At least the silver lining is the death of a giant channel like Donut, just as an example, will spawn some new, more interesting channels
Gotta love a world where you can't say "This company is doing bad things." or "A lot of people are quitting this company." because they'll sue you.
Like.. literally just saying facts about a company gets you silenced.. that's greeaat for everyone.
Yup! So many things I wish I could say, but can't...
Agreed. Silence by legal intimidation. Pathetic. its extremely sad, you'd think that "investors" (and I consider myself in this group) would be smarter than blind greed. but ..history absolutely shows otherwise.
Dunno how I got this in my feed, I only follow auto circles in a very very small way. But I thought I'd throw a supportive comment anyway. good luck to you @autotea, you should get rewarded for your efforts.
This is what freedom of speech is supposed to protect against, but these corporations' pockets and legal teams are so deep, you'll just go bankrupt from ongoing legal fees alone. So even if you can win, you still lose smh
Its the way things work sadly. Big companies can easily drown smaller people or firms in legal action even if they know they will lose in court. Unless the smaller entity can crowd source enough of a legal fund to fight back, they are going to fold for the sake of their health and so on.
@@autotea It would be a SHAME if an anonymous inside source spilled info that corporate lawyers & soulless execs would be upset about. That would be SO sad; a crime against humanity even. Imagine the various stains they'd get on their ugly Merc SUVs' napa seats - the horror! Totally cool of you to withhold info for the sake of your friends/colleagues though, you seem like a great dude. 👊
I spent most of my career in the radio business. I was a "creative," writing bits, doing on air work, creating commercial content and station imaging. Then the ownership rules changed, and big companies gobbled up all the mom & pop stations. Then the smaller companies. Then everything. Long story short, it went from an environment where your program director would tell you "just have fun...and don't lose the station's license!" to me having to break it to my assistant that to corporate, he was just an entry on a spreadsheet and he wasn't going to get a raise. The reason radio sucks now is because it was taken over by accountants and giant corporations, and all they care about is numbers.
I sure miss real radio.
What is this r.a.d.i.o you speak of? I quit listening to the radio in the mid 90's. The programming had gotten really bad combined with the saturation bombing of incredibly annoying and incessant advertising. I don't know if any of the old stations I listened to are even on the air anymore.
Intelligent and candid insights. Thank you for sharing your candor.
I saw Jobe and Jerry's video, they essentially said the same thing with less detail. I fully intend on following them as I had gotten bored of Donut's rinse and repeat formula. Hoping the creative freedom will allow you guys to make the types of content that pulled us to those channels in the first place.
Unfortunately, this type of thing is extremely common when a big conglomerate buys a company. Instead of simply allowing that company to keep doing everything the same way they have, which has been profitable enough to make it worth buying. They bring in people who don't know anything about that type of business, and they start changing things to "improve" the business. Often reducing the quality of the end product which leads to less people willing to buy it. Then at the end of the year they can't figure out why it isn't as profit as before they did anything. But instead of admitting they messed up and put everything back to how it was before they just try something else, that makes it even worse.
Because the investor pays more than what the company is actually worth. That is why companies get sold in the first place, the investors make an offer that the owners cannot refuse. Then the investor needs to find a way to increase profits and since they have just spent a fortune on the purchase price, the only way that they can afford to do that is to cut costs. The new management team will get bonuses if they can cut costs so they are more than willing to do what it takes to achieve that.
We all know how that mostly ends.
You've spelled things out wonderfully and couldn't agree more. There's trends like this happening all over creative media, but its good to know the passion of the creators we've come to care about still have the motivation to listen to their audiences and make the content we all enjoy by taking a chance and splitting off like this. Great video!
Thanks! I believe similar stuff happened at Sports Illustrated, which should be major news, and it barely got any attention... because the media companies who would cover it are all at various stages of the same decline!
It certainly feels like being a creative these days requires you to build something from scratch rather than joining anything because companies see us as cheap and disposable. Making a living as a creative post covid has become the second biggest challenge after breaking in in the first place. Much of it due to late stage capitalism and the absolute need to squeeze every penny out of what we create, even if that means stealing and creating an AI bot to replicate what we do because paying creatives a living wage for their work is burdensome.
I’ve seen, from the inside, this trend building across the industry for years. It’s not just the big channels or websites either, but anyone in the industry trying to make a quick buck. My job as a knowledgeable auto writer turned into being an editor, doing nothing but fixing all the mistakes non-car people made that I would’ve gotten right the first time. Somehow this made sense to management. Then, when the expected profits never came, who got laid off? Me. But at least I now have professional experience as an editor to expand my career options… Anyway, I’m glad to see this bubble bursting.
I haven't been excited to see a donut upload in what feels like over a year now. Glad to see Jerry and jobe start big time.
Well, off to unsub from donut
Their last video was literally just an ad for a Chinese EV I couldn't hit the unsub button fast enough.
If James leaves then they might as well turn off the lights.
@@latinsizerJames should leave and bring back the Up to Speed series, even if it's a slightly different name
@@hudsonja hes been less and less active, I feel like James is who he was alluding to throughout the video.
If they do become shit, I really hope the faces we love make their own channels. I can't unsub yet, I'd miss seeing james, joe, Nolan, Justin etc. Just gotta hold out til they jump ship.