Popular China news and culture website, Shanghaiist has been shut down abruptly on Nov. 3, 2017 at about 5am.
Popular China news and culture website, Shanghaiist has been shut down abruptly on Nov. 3, 2017 at about 5am.
Photo: mothership
Visitors to the website were directed to a general hyperlink that displayed a letter posted by billionaire CEO Joe Ricketts.
Ricketts founded DNAInfo in 2009 and bought New York-focused Gothamist and its other city-specific sister sites, including Shanghaiist earlier this year.
Ricketts cited financial reasons for the closure. Below is the full letter:
Photo: Shanghaiist‘s website
Staff unionisation at parent publication triggered the move
Founded in 2005, Shanghaiist was a widely-read source for China’s news and culture written in English for an international audience interested in the happenings of China.
The shutdown happened days after staff at its parent publication decided to unionise.
A spokeswoman for DNAinfo said the decision to unionise was only another competitive obstacle in a financially-challenging environment, as reported by The New York Times.
Photo:cityweekend
According to a Sixth Tone report, staff at Shanghaiist had not been involved in the union drive.The report quoted a former Shanghaiist editor saying that the news has come as a “huge shock.”
“Many of us were concerned when Gothamist was sold to DNAInfo [earlier this year], but we never expected anything so brutal or sudden,” he said, noting that Shanghaiist had little connection to the main network.
Social media presence remain, but links not working
Shanghaiist social media accounts have remained. They still show content from Shanghaiist, but the links to the main website are not working.
Screenshot via Shanghaiist‘s FB Photo:mothership
Screenshot via Shanghaiist‘s Instagram photo:mothership
However, it still remains unclear whether these social handles will be shut down in time to come.
Aftermath of the move
Shanghaiist editors have also given their comment to other sites:
“We worked for years in the shadow of the Great Firewall, worrying we could be blocked and kicked out of the country at any time.
We never expected the threat to come from the US, from a petulant spoiled billionaire resentful he lost his fight to prevent employees unionizing. His cruel and arbitrary response, which came with no warning, shows exactly why that drive was necessary.
At least Gawker (a U.S. media news website) got to write its own obituary, Shanghaiist was just run down in the street.”
Photo: Screenshot of shanghaiiist
Articles to be archived
The dramatic fashion of the closure gave rise to the concern that the content would be lost. But the archive still exists and is expected to return to the web, according to people who worked for the sites.
Speaking to New York Times, an official at DNAinfo said the articles would be archived online, which could presumably include Shanghaiist content.
Source: Mothership
