Vox Media A Vox Media logo.

A media outlet asking for donations is always a risky move. In the sports media sphere, that was perhaps even more risky than usual for Vox Media, considering their long and extensively-reported-on history of underpaying contributors (which led to lawsuits covered here), furloughing and laying off top sports talents, parting ways with countless team sites that had long sustained them despite minimal compensation in return, and even having top “sports” executives state that they didn’t know who Nick Saban was. But yet, Vox issued an appeal for donations Monday, which includes options for $9 to $500 one-time donations, and $95 to $350 a year annual donations:

As of 5 p.m. Eastern, that tweet had received just two straight retweets and just 18 likes against 80 quote tweets. Here are some of the many replies and quote tweets that drew:

That last one is notable, as The Ice Garden (a women’s hockey site) is one of the many sites Vox ignominiously parted ways with amidst wide layoffs and cutbacks earlier this year. That particular site seems to have landed on their feet, but they still need some help, and it’s been a tougher road still for others.

And this year’s layoffs were just the continuation of a long tradition of Vox, a company built on a backbone of sports content, mistreating its sportswriters. That’s included them drawing class-action lawsuits over employee misclassification (eventually settled for $4 million), targeting sportswriters heavily in layoffs and furloughs, and even appointing people to sports oversight positions who had no idea who Nick Saban was. So it’s quite rich for many in the sports world to see Vox now asking for public handouts, and that’s led to the intense ratioing of that tweet.

[Vox Media on Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.