What It Has Become
Erika Nardini
I’ve been a Stoolie for at least 5 years and this new acquisition by the Chernin Group is taking a turn for the worse. The Pres sold Barstool for a figure in the range of $15 million a few months ago and gave up control of the company. They hired a female CEO named Erika Nardini (who used to work for AOL) and the site has radically changed. What we are now seeing:
- A desperate plea to sign up for their newsletter
- More and more podcasts that no one wants to listen to
- More bigger named sponsored (Kohls, Spotify, Covergirl, Coca Cola) all over the site
- Content that is not worth reading because it’s pilfered from Reddit or just plain stupid
It seems exactly like Deadspin, BuzzFeed, and the other crap that developed once they sold out.
What It Was
The reason Stoolies liked Barstool was because they could identify with its unorganized approach. The office was a shit hole. The employees were all degenerates. The content was silly. The Pres was a hero.
Now they have a bunch of corporate assholes running the company and the zany bloggers are now employees. Not even good employees. Before it was funny that they were uneducated and wrote about worthless information. Now they are expected to be journalists and they flat out aren’t. When Smitty was in Philly I was amused as his local antics. Now that he’s in New York, he’s just another blogger and one that I frankly care little about.
Barstool was real. Even though the Pres was completely shtick, it was real shtick. Now it’s like, “what can we come up with that will produce a lot of eyeballs.” It’s forced and not worth paying attention to.
What I Hope Happens
I hope they start to lose a lot of money, go bankrupt, and go back to what it was. It wasn’t lavish but this new formula doesn’t work. It’s a phony act that looks to appease million dollar corporations and bring on new eyeballs of people who won’t be “stoolies”. RIP Barstool.
For the record, the Pres bought a 2 million dollar mansion in Nantucket that looks like this.
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