What a great website: this week on Fresh Powder

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A summary of journalism news and pop culture brought to you by  SNO

The lede

I bought Sports Illustrated to read it, because, as a student of sportswriting, it was the bible. TheMaven Inc., or the newest enemy of the people, bought SI to destroy it. On Thursday, The Enemy laid off 40 people, of the 160 employed at the “sports media bible,” as it plans to infuse the print and digital publication with 200 contractors (a.k.a. blog boys at cheap prices) to cover sports instead: The Wall Street Journal 

. . . “Subscribe to SI! Too late. The bad guys are in charge.” The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis on a grossly mismanaged 24 hours of lies and layoffs and why you and me and even The Athletic can do very little to stop the bleeding.

. . . This is not about journalism dying. (It isn’t). This isn’t even about the enemy big business is to journalism. (OK, maybe it is a little.) “It is about the way people think writing is dying because reading is dying, even though neither actually are … Once you could get a quick fix immediately, the value of the extra stuff that took a couple of more days diminished and eventually expired. The gift of waiting for the definitive explanation had been lost, an unintended corpse in the slaughterhouse of the new technological order.” Deadspin: “See you in hell!”

. . . “Yesterday, Sports Illustrated terminated dozens of incredible journalists who take with them a level of passion and talent for storytelling I was constantly in awe of. Some of their best work:” Robert Klemko, a football writer for SI, assembled a must-read Twitter thread.

Seconded

From Baltimore to Kenya, Turkey to China, Vietnam to South Africa and everywhere in between, BuzzFeed News shows us who our teachers are — all over the world.

TGIF

What to do when your television network bids farewell to two critically-acclaimed titles: Lock arms with Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica and march onward. The Ringer: “The CW is already working to expand Riverdale’s footprint beyond its narrative universe. Between ‘Batwoman’ and ‘Nancy Drew,’ the network is committed to making nostalgia staples a little bit grimmer and a whole lot sexier—a younger network’s version of CBS continuing to crank out new multicam sitcoms. Because in the face of growing uncertainty, why not stick with what works?”

. . . Betty’s ponytail returns this week. Gizmodo: “Riverdale’s Gonna Riverdale”

#MillennialProblems

“Perhaps it’s a good thing if, as Tolentino put it, young writers have since been disabused of the notion that ‘the best thing they have to offer is the worst thing that ever happened to them.’” In a culture bubbling over with bloggers, the Lena Dunhams are not the only ones who make it. (That’s a good thing.) But to what personal cost does “making it” come? For BuzzFeed News, a personal essayist looks introspectively: “Am I Writing About My Life, or Selling Myself Out?”

Sports!

The people who don’t think college athletes should be paid — or, at least, be able to profit from their name and likeness — are only thinking about how that relates to major college football and basketball. That’s a nearsighted opinion. Remember Katelyn Ohashi, the viral UCLA gymnast? She argues, for The New York Times, that California’s Fair Pay to Play Act is “about recognizing that women only receive 4 percent of coverage in all sports media and giving us the freedom to leverage sponsored deals to break through.”

. . . “A business school student at the University of Utah, junior Britain Covey recently pursued and was offered an internship in sales. Then the NCAA told the Utes wide receiver he couldn’t accept it. A compliance committee for the organization that oversees collegiate athletics nationwide told Covey the position would violate its policy on athletes prospering from the commercial use of their name, image or likeness.” (Salt Lake Tribune)

. . . Video: You have to watch this Tampa Bay Rays relay to home plate, even if you already have. (Sends a shiver down your spine, don’t it?)

Thinking ahead

Set your podcast app to Subscribe: The world’s favorite receptionist and its coldest cat parent are sitting down to rewatch “The Office,” to discuss one episode per week until the end. (Please party plan accordingly.) “Office Ladies” premieres Oct. 16.

This also happened last week: Repeat after me, “I am smart. I am blessed. I can do anything.”