Matthew Yglesias
Cofounder Vox.com
Discussion
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Matthew Yglesias
@matthew_yglesias · Title TK, Vox.com
Hi — I'm Matt Yglesias, a co-founder of Vox.com and a writer and editor for the site as well as an author of a couple of books. I mostly cover economic policy, but during this crazy campaign season I've been focused a lot on the presidential primaries. I also like to blab about the NBA and my son who just turned one earlier this month. But as an old-timey blogger, I'm both willing and eager to opine on basically anything at all. Happy to be here -- ask me anything!
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chaz littlejohn
@chazdazzle · Founder, Pokeit.co
Neo-liberalism is getting a bad rap these days. Do you think Democrats are throwing the baby out with the bathwater?
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Matthew Yglesias
@matthew_yglesias · Title TK, Vox.com
@chazdazzle I'm not sure that "neoliberalism" is an incredibly helpful term. What I do think is that Democrats current focus on increasing tax revenue from the top one percent in order to finance the creation of new programs is a little excessively narrow-minded. There's nothing wrong with it, but I do think there's something wrong with how dominant it is. There are a lot of areas (infrastructure comes to mind) where the biggest problem is currently how we spend, not how much we spend it. And there are a lot of areas (housing comes to mind) where the biggest problems are regulatory and not related to taxes or social spending.
Zac Gross
@zac_gross
How much of Vox's readership is from outside the US? Do you ever write with international readers in mind, or think you will ever set up foreign offices/stringers?
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Matthew Yglesias
@matthew_yglesias · Title TK, Vox.com
@zac_gross I haven't looked at this in a while, but the last time I checked it was about 10 percent largely from the UK/Canada/Australia. What we can't tell is how many of those people are foreigners and how many of them are Americans simply living abroad. We don't really target international audience growth right now because our ad sales are US-specific so in a sense foreign readers don't count. But in the long run I'd love to see more internationalization.
Nik Sharma
@mrsharma · Stealth Ad Agency CEO
Hey Matthew, thanks for doing the PH LIVE! My question is: Everything about Vox.com is so different than any other media platform. From the design of the site, to the way the articles are written, to it's portfolio of brands. With all that, where do you see publisher advertising in the next 12 to 18 months? Do you think it will still be programmatic, or directly sold ad revenue, or do you think more pubs will adopt the BuzzFeed style, and have brands sponsor more and more content, instead? Thanks!
Jennifer Grygiel
@jmgrygiel · Assistant Professor, @NewhouseSU
Hi Matthew, I'm concerned about how social media data is being used to convey voter sentiment surrounding the election. Just wondering what your thoughts were on Twitter SOV and Google trends being used during debates etc.
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Matthew Yglesias
@matthew_yglesias · Title TK, Vox.com
@jmgrygiel I really like the increasing use of Google data in election coverage. It's very interesting, as a member of the press, to see what it is people actually want to know about stories in the news. There's more to life than search-demand, but it's in many ways a good starting point for thinking about which stories to tackle.
Jennifer Grygiel
@jmgrygiel · Assistant Professor, @NewhouseSU
@matthew_yglesias Agree that it's good for editorial, but I think it's being presented as poll level data and that there is not education around what Google trends actually means. Some background: http://www.thestreet.com/story/1... and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/je...
Arun Khanna
@arunkhanna00
I'm curious what you feel about using an MMP proportional system(like Germany) to allow smaller parties(instead of a bunch of interest groups acting inside a party) to be elected in Congress and using IRV to elect a president(to allow people to run without worrying about splitting the vote aka Ralph Nader). Also, what affect do you think having such a system would have on polarization.
Also I'm curious about your views on a Henry George LVT...
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Matthew Yglesias
@matthew_yglesias · Title TK, Vox.com
@arunkhanna00 I think those election reform ideas are pretty sound. But as long as we are amending the constitution to press for major political reforms, I'd like us to go full-bore parliamentary system.
Land Value Tax is a good idea. George was not in a position to foresee what a problem over-zoning would become, so in a lot of cities LVT would not make a huge practical difference. But in cities that are growing rapidly and don't have excessive anti-development restrictions (Texas cities, especially) an LVT would be a very useful way to raise revenue without constraining growth.
Ben Tossell
@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt
How do you balance being a father and a hectic work life?
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Matthew Yglesias
@matthew_yglesias · Title TK, Vox.com
@bentossell The main thing is to cut out the social life and not sleep very much.
Or more seriously. One nice thing about journalism is that it's reasonably flexible. A lot of work can be done at night after the baby is asleep or during weekend naps and that helps me catch up with what I miss by leaving the office early.
Justin Kwong
@justinckwong · Increase Engagement Time = wiya.io
What’s the hardest part about keeping users engaging with your content?
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Matthew Yglesias
@matthew_yglesias · Title TK, Vox.com
@justinckwong Honestly the hardest part is thinking of interesting things to write.
Zac Gross
@zac_gross
You have been quite bearish on Cruz's odds in the general election. Why don't you think he will be able to pivot to the centre by the first debate, a la Romney, and embrace the rhetoric of generic republicanism? Romney also had a extremely regressive tax plan & policies, but still made a very respectable showing against an incumbent etc. and Cruz seems to have a extremely cynical and ambitious approach to politics. He wants to win, not be a martyr for the cause.
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Matthew Yglesias
@matthew_yglesias · Title TK, Vox.com
@zac_gross Ted Cruz is very specifically running on a tax plan that would raise taxes on senior citizens. Nobody has ever tried that before because it's utter political suicide. To be clear, any major party nominee has a chance to win if they benefit from favorable events. But Cruz would be swimming against the current in a very strong way.
Peter Favaloro
@peterfavaloro
It looks like this year a bigger-than-ever chunk of the electorate is fed up w "elites ignoring their concerns" — Trump, Cruz, and Bernie all represent revolts against the establishment status quo in varying ways. If the Dems had known in advance, could they have positioned themselves differently to ride this wave of electoral energy to build a new progressive consensus? E.g. if Bernie were less obviously a protest candidate, if down ballot Dems were focused on these issues more, and there were a more robust effort in the liberal wonkery/punditry to design and sell revolutionary (not incrementalist) progressive solutions to these issues?
Also, what does this year say about the wisdom of winnowing the field before the primaries begin? If you’re a major political party, isn’t one of the reasons you have primaries so you can figure out which candidate fits the zeitgeist? I for one am wishing Warren had run.
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Matthew Yglesias
@matthew_yglesias · Title TK, Vox.com
@peterfavaloro I think you are definitely right that Democrats over-winnowed. I would say in general that Democratic elites over-value avoiding tough primaries and under-value the merits of letting political talent rise to the top. You see that in the presidential race, but you also see it in how many safe liberal senate seats are held by people who are kind of old and mediocre and yet have never faced serious competition from young go-getters. American politics is ultimately a conflict-laden and candidate-centric affair, and it can be helpful to have fights.
Peter Favaloro
@peterfavaloro
@matthew_yglesias Thanks for the reply! Any thoughts on the first question wrt what the Dems would have needed to do to better take advantage of this year's anti-establishment sentiment?