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Business Logs

Helping companies communicate better

Yellow Journalism In The Valley

You have to be fucking kidding me. How could BusinessWeek be so irresponsible as to write the most blatant of lies on the cover of their magazine?

How it happened:

1. People “in the know” estimate Digg’s worth at $200 million
2. Kevin owns approximately 30-40% of that imaginary figure
3. 30% of that imaginary figure equates to $60 million of imaginary money

Sure sounds like he made $60 million in 18 months to me….

Who This Really Affects

I left a comment at JF’s blog saying that this cover is unfortunate for a number of reasons, and in my mind the #1 problem is that it now puts unrealistic expectations into the minds of young entrepreneurs scraping it out in their college dormrooms or studio apartments. I know my parents will see this cover and immediately take it at face value, then turn around and ask me where my $60 million is, or ask if Digg is similar to 9rules, or any other host of questions. I could explain to them why he didn’t actually make any money yet (“We have a clear path toward becoming a profitable company.” -Kevin Rose) and it’s a simple bubble extrapolation but none of that will matter because the dollar signs will already be in their mind. Absolutely fucking worthless journalism.

About Lorraine Barte Nepomuceno

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