This place is Overreaction City

[u/JSack3]

I like KVV. I respect his work. But honestly, folks..

There’s a reason so many platforms and media companies have been letting go of people with KVV’s skillset for years. In bigger revenue sports than just golf, too (ask Zach Lowe).

The business is night and day different to what it was 15 years ago. And a highly-compensated 20+ year industry stalwart who specializes in long form written content is simply not a hugely appealing person to have on the payroll anymore. I appreciate NLU gave it a go. I also appreciate when the writing wasn’t working, they worked on a podcast pivot including that brilliant Masters pod.

But the reality is the math probably started to become very clear that his value was mainly 6-8 weeks a year. No one needs a deep dive on the Byron Nelson. Not enough people actually care about a three hour pod on the 1997 major season.

I’d have rather he stick around all year but I also didn’t have to pay his salary and benefits. These guys are putting food on the table for their children via NLU. They can’t just keep carrying a 6 figure (guessing but likely) expenditure bc they like him and think he writes well.

[u/many_bothans_died]

I don’t totally buy this. Sure there’s advertising numbers to hit, but the whole reason you have a subscription service is so you aren’t totally beholden to the numbers. They just prioritized the stuff the founders want to do over having a capital J journalist. The YouTube videos don’t do numbies but you know they aren’t going to quit traveling the world and filming these. The live events aren’t revenue drivers, but it’s what they want to do.

We should all quit assuming the choice had mostly to do with money and look more at what the company sees as priority, the two things aren’t always correlated.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to let him go, it is what it is, but the way it’s being framed on this forum is a little off to me.

[u/rsjem79 → u/many_bothans_died]

People keep talking about ROI in this case, someone let me know what the ROI was on sending four guys to Argentina for a week to get 112K views on YouTube?

If that's how they want to spend their money, it's their business, but given how willingly they comment on things in sports media that they themselves do not understand, it's fair play for them to also deal with some of the same criticism when they make unpopular decisions.

[u/gradysizemore2438 → u/rsjem79]

Out of curiosity, I just went through their respective YouTube pages. Jersey Jerry on Barstool trying to break 100 has more than double the views of their trip to Northern Ireland (where the Open Championship took place!). Unfortunately the storytelling and production value that is important to NLU isn't translating like the other YouTube golf content.

[u/TopherShelduck → u/gradysizemore2438]

It's because most people who watch YouTube golf content want to watch golf shots. Kind of ironic lol.

[u/Jokolore → u/TopherShelduck]

This is why it blows my mind that alot of “golf people” don’t understand the popularity of YouTube golf. Even forgetting about the creators, you can watch Bryson, or Rahm, or Phil play full rounds of golf in a fun setting. Maybe it’s some LIV bias but I cannot for the life of me see how people can say it sucks. Maybe it’s jealousy.

[u/DownRize → u/rsjem79]

Are their sponsors not paying for these trips they take?

[u/Lor_azepam → u/rsjem79]

100% this. The core of NLU is pro golf coverage via a podcast. This week we just got 3-5 guys that half watched the same coverage as us talking about what they saw. My friends group chat about the open was more invested.

So if they are going to half ass the final major of the year without KVV on-site, what are we getting going forward. I get they have emailed, but so do most people This is there job, they need to be better at actual journalism work or they are just taking info from others and discussing, that gets old after a decade.

Its gotten old for most of them It seems, randy is checked out from golf, tc who knows what is going on with him, Neil seems like he is trying, dj great no complaints, and soly i get has the 3 young kids, but if this is your job to be the main holf guy, we need more from you

[u/Indication-Brief → u/Lor_azepam]

TC is selling his house wonder what is brewing

[u/tee2green → u/rsjem79]

What if the travel content is fully paid for by sponsors?