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Consumerist

April 28, 2024

For the encouragement of the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts, see consumerism.

Consumerist (also known as The Consumerist) was a non-profit consumer affairs website owned by Consumer Media LLC, a subsidiary of Consumer Reports, with content created by a team of full-time reporters and editors. The site's focus was on consumerism and consumers' experiences and issues with companies and corporations, concentrating mostly on U.S. consumers. As an early proponent of crowdsourced journalism, some content was based on reader-submitted tips and complaints. The majority of the site's articles consisted of original content and reporting by the site's staff. On October 30, 2017, Consumer Reports shut down Consumerist, stating that coverage of consumer issues would now be found on the main Consumer Reports website.[2]

Consumerist
Homepage on 31 December 2008; References to Gawker Media properties have since been removed.
Type of site
Non-profit consumer news
Available inEnglish
DissolvedOctober 30, 2017; 6 years ago (2017-10-30)
OwnerConsumer Reports
Created by
Editors
  • Ben Popken
  • Meg Marco
URLconsumerist.com
RegistrationOptional
Launched2005; 19 years ago (2005)[1]
Current statusClosed

History edit

Gawker Media established the site in December 2005,[3] with Joel Johnson as editor.[1]

In creating Consumerist, Denton established its slogan and initial focus on readers' complaints, "consumer-oriented news nuggets, funny pictures and shopping tips — all with the same snarky tone that characterizes Gawker properties like Wonkette and Defamer."[1] Gawker hired Ben Popken to take over as site lead in February, 2006. Johnson left Gawker in July 2006, citing a "disagreement about [his] role within the company."[4]

Gawker put the site up for sale in November 2008, at the same time it announced the closure of one of its other blogs, Valleywag. Consumerist was purchased by Consumers Union, the publishers of Consumer Reports, in December 2008.[5] The site's two editors, site lead Ben Popken and senior editor Meghann Marco, were retained through the sale. Following the acquisition, Marco and Popken shared the title of Co-Executive Editor, and contributors Chris Walters and Carey Greenberg-Berger, who had been laid off by Gawker, were reinstated.[5]

Due to potential conflict of interest concerns, Consumerist did not run display ads for outside advertisers; while owned by Gawker, all display ads linked to other Gawker sites, although the Consumerist sold text ads through the Google AdWords program. As such, the site was considered a loss leader, whose primary business role was to help drive traffic to other revenue-producing Gawker sites. As an ad-free publication, Consumerist "[had] some freedom" to take on major national advertisers such as Comcast.[6]

Consumer Reports laid off Managing Editor Ben Popken in November 2011.[7] The departure was announced in a final blog post by Popken on Consumerist.[8] Other editors later joined the site, including Deputy Editor Chris Morran, Senior Editor Mary Beth Quirk, Assistant Editor Laura Northrup, Content Editor Kate Cox, and Special Projects Editor Ashlee Kieler.[9]

Consumerist's traffic remained steady throughout most of its existence. At the time it was acquired from Gawker, it had monthly traffic of approximately 10 million pageviews, and had similar levels as of 2014.[6]

On August 30, 2017, The Wall Street Journal announced that it had appointed Meg Marco as its Editor, Digital Content Strategy, citing her history at Consumerist, which it called "the innovative digital arm of Consumer Reports."[10]

On October 30, 2017, it was announced that no further posts to Consumerist.com would be made.[2]

Features edit

"Friday Flickr Finds"

Usually the first post of every Friday consisting of reader submitted photos.

"Great Moments In Commercial History"

A popular past feature was known as "Great Moments In Commercial History", which focused on strange and entertaining local commercials. Past feature "moments" have included Moo and Oink grocery stores (Chicago, Illinois) and Mr. Appliance (Eugene, Oregon).

"Christmas Creep"

This feature publicized photos or stories of retail stores advertising Christmas sales, displaying Christmas decorations, or playing Christmas music far before the traditional holiday season, and often appeared between September and early November.

"Above and Beyond"

In a post introducing "Above and Beyond", Creator Carey Greenberg-Berger said: "Occasionally, corporations do something right. Not all the time. Not most of the time. Occasionally. When they do, we want to give credit where credit is due."[11]

"Worst Company In America"

Consumerist ran an annual "Worst Company In America" contest with the winner determined by a series of reader polls. The single-elimination tournament was similar in format to college basketball's March Madness being held simultaneously. Companies that have advanced to the final four are included in the table below. The winning company was sent a "Golden Poo" trophy. In recent years, silver and bronze poos have been sent to the other finalists.[citation needed] This tournament was last held in 2014.

  1. ^ One of the first dominoes to fall in the United States housing bubble
  2. ^ Involved in 2009 AIG bonus payments controversy after taking billions of dollars in Troubled Asset Relief Program bailouts
  3. ^ Acquired Countrywide Financial in 2008
  4. ^ involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill
  5. ^ Defeated Wal-Mart in the first consolation match to win the bronze poo.

Highlights edit

Stories reported on Consumerist have been featured in national media such as CNN and The New York Times.[12] Consumerist often posts phone numbers and contact information for CEOs and upper level corporate customer support, and provides information on how to execute an "Executive Email Carpet Bomb".[13]

Vincent Ferrari and AOL edit

On June 13, 2006, Vincent Ferrari posted an audio file of himself speaking with an AOL representative, allegedly named John, as Ferrari tried to cancel his AOL account. The AOL representative initially resisted Ferrari's request by attempting to keep the discussion focused on Ferrari's reasons for wanting to cancel. Vincent asked the customer representative several times to close the account until the conversation became confrontational, at which point Ferrari adamantly stated, "Cancel the account!", repeatedly until John complied with his request. After recording this call, Ferrari both posted it to his blog and submitted it to Consumerist tip line. The AOL representative whom Vincent spoke to was fired from his job.[14][15] Consumerist called the story "[t]he best story we ever posted."[16]

"The Grocery Shrink Ray" edit

The "grocery shrink ray" is a term Meghann Marco coined to describe the trend for groceries to be reduced in size while being sold at the same price point.[17] Manufacturers perform these reductions to reduce their own costs but do not pass any savings on to the customer. Installments of these articles usually included user submitted photographs of the product in question on the shelf, being sold along with a newer and slightly smaller version of the same product. Local and national media outlets such as WTVT-TV FOX 13 in Florida, and National Public Radio has interviewed Popken regarding the trend and his attempts to inform the public at large.[18][19] The issue is now commonly known as shrinkflation.


Facebook terms of service edit

On February 15, 2009, Consumerist broke the news of a terms of service clause that gave Facebook the right to "Do anything they want with your content. Forever."[20] Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, Inc., later claimed that a paragraph was accidentally left out saying that the license to your content was exclusive to one's privacy settings and that the license expired when an account was closed. This event instigated much media coverage over the controversy of the terms of service.[21]

Closure edit

On October 30, 2017, Consumerist announced it was shutting down, and that coverage would be handled by Consumer Reports in the future.[2]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Dan Mitchell (31 December 2005). "What's Online: Shoppers of the World, Unite". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  2. ^ a b c "An important message from Consumer Reports". Consumerist. 2017-10-30. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  3. ^ Carl Bialik (December 25, 2005). "An Interview With the Consumerist". Gelf Magazine. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  4. ^ . joeljohnson.com. July 21, 2006. Archived from the original on 2009-10-03.
  5. ^ a b Clifford, Stephanie (31 December 2012). "Consumers Union to Buy Gawker Blog Consumerist". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  6. ^ a b . The Inquirer. 27 October 2014. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014.
  7. ^ Ben Popken. . benpopkenwrites. Archived from the original on 26 September 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  8. ^ Ben Popken Says Farewell To Consumerist.com
  9. ^ "About Us". Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  10. ^ "WSJ appoints Meg Marco Editor, Digital Content Strategy". 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2018-07-21.
  11. ^ "Introducing Above And Beyond", Consumerist, 18 February 2007.
  12. ^ "Consumers Have Allies on the Web". The New York Times. 3 February 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  13. ^ How to Launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb
  14. ^ Vincent Ferrari, One of the New Influencers from blogoscoped.com
  15. ^ ICMI/Call Center Magazine Network from callcentermagazine.com
  16. ^ The Best Thing We Have Ever Posted: Reader Tries To Cancel AOL from consumerist.com
  17. ^ . Consumerist. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on 2008-07-14. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  18. ^ Popken, Ben (2008-06-20). "Ben Popken on TV talking bout Shrinking Packages". Consumerist. Gawker Media. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  19. ^ "Grocery Items: Same Price, Smaller Size". All Things Considered. National Public Radio. 2008-07-10. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  20. ^ . Consumerist. Consumer Media LLC. Archived from the original on 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  21. ^ "Facebook Privacy Fallout Goes Nuclear". Consumerist. Consumer Media LLC. Retrieved 2009-02-20.

External links edit

  • Official site

April 28, 2024
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For the encouragement of the acquisition of goods and services in ever increasing amounts see consumerism Parts of this article those related to screenshot need to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information May 2017 Consumerist also known as The Consumerist was a non profit consumer affairs website owned by Consumer Media LLC a subsidiary of Consumer Reports with content created by a team of full time reporters and editors The site s focus was on consumerism and consumers experiences and issues with companies and corporations concentrating mostly on U S consumers As an early proponent of crowdsourced journalism some content was based on reader submitted tips and complaints The majority of the site s articles consisted of original content and reporting by the site s staff On October 30 2017 Consumer Reports shut down Consumerist stating that coverage of consumer issues would now be found on the main Consumer Reports website 2 ConsumeristHomepage on 31 December 2008 References to Gawker Media properties have since been removed Type of siteNon profit consumer newsAvailable inEnglishDissolvedOctober 30 2017 6 years ago 2017 10 30 OwnerConsumer ReportsCreated byNick DentonJoel JohnsonEditorsBen PopkenMeg MarcoURLconsumerist wbr comRegistrationOptionalLaunched2005 19 years ago 2005 1 Current statusClosed Contents 1 History 2 Features 3 Highlights 3 1 Vincent Ferrari and AOL 3 2 The Grocery Shrink Ray 3 3 Facebook terms of service 4 Closure 5 References 6 External linksHistory editGawker Media established the site in December 2005 3 with Joel Johnson as editor 1 In creating Consumerist Denton established its slogan and initial focus on readers complaints consumer oriented news nuggets funny pictures and shopping tips all with the same snarky tone that characterizes Gawker properties like Wonkette and Defamer 1 Gawker hired Ben Popken to take over as site lead in February 2006 Johnson left Gawker in July 2006 citing a disagreement about his role within the company 4 Gawker put the site up for sale in November 2008 at the same time it announced the closure of one of its other blogs Valleywag Consumerist was purchased by Consumers Union the publishers of Consumer Reports in December 2008 5 The site s two editors site lead Ben Popken and senior editor Meghann Marco were retained through the sale Following the acquisition Marco and Popken shared the title of Co Executive Editor and contributors Chris Walters and Carey Greenberg Berger who had been laid off by Gawker were reinstated 5 Due to potential conflict of interest concerns Consumerist did not run display ads for outside advertisers while owned by Gawker all display ads linked to other Gawker sites although the Consumerist sold text ads through the Google AdWords program As such the site was considered a loss leader whose primary business role was to help drive traffic to other revenue producing Gawker sites As an ad free publication Consumerist had some freedom to take on major national advertisers such as Comcast 6 Consumer Reports laid off Managing Editor Ben Popken in November 2011 7 The departure was announced in a final blog post by Popken on Consumerist 8 Other editors later joined the site including Deputy Editor Chris Morran Senior Editor Mary Beth Quirk Assistant Editor Laura Northrup Content Editor Kate Cox and Special Projects Editor Ashlee Kieler 9 Consumerist s traffic remained steady throughout most of its existence At the time it was acquired from Gawker it had monthly traffic of approximately 10 million pageviews and had similar levels as of 2014 6 On August 30 2017 The Wall Street Journal announced that it had appointed Meg Marco as its Editor Digital Content Strategy citing her history at Consumerist which it called the innovative digital arm of Consumer Reports 10 On October 30 2017 it was announced that no further posts to Consumerist com would be made 2 Features editThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed August 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Friday Flickr Finds Usually the first post of every Friday consisting of reader submitted photos Great Moments In Commercial History A popular past feature was known as Great Moments In Commercial History which focused on strange and entertaining local commercials Past feature moments have included Moo and Oink grocery stores Chicago Illinois and Mr Appliance Eugene Oregon Christmas Creep This feature publicized photos or stories of retail stores advertising Christmas sales displaying Christmas decorations or playing Christmas music far before the traditional holiday season and often appeared between September and early November Above and Beyond In a post introducing Above and Beyond Creator Carey Greenberg Berger said Occasionally corporations do something right Not all the time Not most of the time Occasionally When they do we want to give credit where credit is due 11 Worst Company In America Consumerist ran an annual Worst Company In America contest with the winner determined by a series of reader polls The single elimination tournament was similar in format to college basketball s March Madness being held simultaneously Companies that have advanced to the final four are included in the table below The winning company was sent a Golden Poo trophy In recent years silver and bronze poos have been sent to the other finalists citation needed This tournament was last held in 2014 Year Winner Runner up Third place 2006 Halliburton Choicepoint Wal Mart and US Government 2007 RIAA Halliburton Wal Mart and Exxon 2008 Countrywide Financial note 1 Comcast Diebold and Wal Mart 2009 AIG note 2 Comcast Bank of America note 3 and Ticketmaster 2010 Comcast Cash4Gold Bank of America and Ticketmaster 2011 BP note 4 Bank of America Comcast and Ticketmaster 2012 Electronic Arts Bank of America AT amp T note 5 and Wal Mart 2013 Electronic Arts Bank of America Comcast 2014 Comcast Monsanto Wal Mart and SeaWorld One of the first dominoes to fall in the United States housing bubble Involved in 2009 AIG bonus payments controversy after taking billions of dollars in Troubled Asset Relief Program bailouts Acquired Countrywide Financial in 2008 involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill Defeated Wal Mart in the first consolation match to win the bronze poo Highlights editStories reported on Consumerist have been featured in national media such as CNN and The New York Times 12 Consumerist often posts phone numbers and contact information for CEOs and upper level corporate customer support and provides information on how to execute an Executive Email Carpet Bomb 13 Vincent Ferrari and AOL edit On June 13 2006 Vincent Ferrari posted an audio file of himself speaking with an AOL representative allegedly named John as Ferrari tried to cancel his AOL account The AOL representative initially resisted Ferrari s request by attempting to keep the discussion focused on Ferrari s reasons for wanting to cancel Vincent asked the customer representative several times to close the account until the conversation became confrontational at which point Ferrari adamantly stated Cancel the account repeatedly until John complied with his request After recording this call Ferrari both posted it to his blog and submitted it to Consumerist tip line The AOL representative whom Vincent spoke to was fired from his job 14 15 Consumerist called the story t he best story we ever posted 16 The Grocery Shrink Ray edit The grocery shrink ray is a term Meghann Marco coined to describe the trend for groceries to be reduced in size while being sold at the same price point 17 Manufacturers perform these reductions to reduce their own costs but do not pass any savings on to the customer Installments of these articles usually included user submitted photographs of the product in question on the shelf being sold along with a newer and slightly smaller version of the same product Local and national media outlets such as WTVT TV FOX 13 in Florida and National Public Radio has interviewed Popken regarding the trend and his attempts to inform the public at large 18 19 The issue is now commonly known as shrinkflation Facebook terms of service edit On February 15 2009 Consumerist broke the news of a terms of service clause that gave Facebook the right to Do anything they want with your content Forever 20 Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Facebook Inc later claimed that a paragraph was accidentally left out saying that the license to your content was exclusive to one s privacy settings and that the license expired when an account was closed This event instigated much media coverage over the controversy of the terms of service 21 Closure editOn October 30 2017 Consumerist announced it was shutting down and that coverage would be handled by Consumer Reports in the future 2 References edit a b c Dan Mitchell 31 December 2005 What s Online Shoppers of the World Unite The New York Times Retrieved 24 February 2013 a b c An important message from Consumer Reports Consumerist 2017 10 30 Retrieved 2017 11 13 Carl Bialik December 25 2005 An Interview With the Consumerist Gelf Magazine Retrieved 21 December 2011 Second Annual Gawker Media Bug Out joeljohnson com July 21 2006 Archived from the original on 2009 10 03 a b Clifford Stephanie 31 December 2012 Consumers Union to Buy Gawker Blog Consumerist The New York Times Retrieved 24 February 2012 a b Watchdog in S Phila doesn t shrink from Comcast The Inquirer 27 October 2014 Archived from the original on October 29 2014 Ben Popken Goodbye to Consumerist com benpopkenwrites Archived from the original on 26 September 2012 Retrieved 24 February 2013 Ben Popken Says Farewell To Consumerist com About Us Retrieved 25 February 2015 WSJ appoints Meg Marco Editor Digital Content Strategy 2017 08 30 Retrieved 2018 07 21 Introducing Above And Beyond Consumerist 18 February 2007 Consumers Have Allies on the Web The New York Times 3 February 2007 Retrieved 24 February 2013 How to Launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb Vincent Ferrari One of the New Influencers from blogoscoped com ICMI Call Center Magazine Network from callcentermagazine com The Best Thing We Have Ever Posted Reader Tries To Cancel AOL from consumerist com Grocery Shrink Ray Consumerist Gawker Media Archived from the original on 2008 07 14 Retrieved 2008 07 14 Popken Ben 2008 06 20 Ben Popken on TV talking bout Shrinking Packages Consumerist Gawker Media Retrieved 2008 07 14 Grocery Items Same Price Smaller Size All Things Considered National Public Radio 2008 07 10 Retrieved 2008 07 14 Facebook s New Terms Of Service We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content Forever Consumerist Consumer Media LLC Archived from the original on 2009 10 08 Retrieved 2009 02 20 Facebook Privacy Fallout Goes Nuclear Consumerist Consumer Media LLC Retrieved 2009 02 20 External links editOfficial site Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Consumerist amp oldid 1217198381, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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