Gimlet Media’s Story Was Always Going To End Like This | Defector:

But Gimlet also succeeded in all the ways it was supposed to. When Blumberg and Lieber pursued VC funding right at the beginning of this story, they wrote that story’s end, too. This is because venture-backed companies have an obligation to chase profit at any cost—even the journalism, even the livelihood of the employees, even the life of the company itself. That story only ever ends one way. As I watch ad revenue for podcasts dry up and hear from friends and colleagues who have lost their jobs, and from even more who hate their jobs but have nowhere to go, I wonder what it means that the sun at the center of our universe was always designed to be a flash in the pan.

I think it kind of doesn’t matter what the industry is; as long as we have a bunch of people with far too much money always looking for someplace to put it that will make them even more money, we are going to continue to have this problem.