Ensight - Jeremy Wright’s Personal Blog

Non-Competes, Savage Chickens, Gawker Departures

by Jeremy Wright on December 3rd, 2007

Been awhile, but some more random thoughts (again, if you like this format, I’d appreciate knowing!):

1. Saw a post yesterday on why Non-Competes should be abolished. At the time I almost commented, but I couldn’t quite phrase things in a way that didn’t make me sound like an ass. My basic belief is that non-competes for key employees are fine so long as they get compensated for them, they are limited to a select number of competitors (not the entire industry) and are time-limited. Fred sums my view up incredibly well, better than I could have, in his post that I just read. No matter which side of the debate you fall on, Fred’s post will likely have you nodding at points and grumbling at others. But that’s why non-competes need to be balanced. Me trying to stop all employees from ever working at any company that used blogs wouldn’t be cool. But stopping a key senior management member from joining Gawker the day after he or she left b5 would be wise and responsible.
2. Almost 2 years later and I’m still a fan of Doug Savage’s Savage Chickens. He’s only missed one day in that entire time, and they are consistently giggle-worthy.
3. Half the Gawker editorial team just left. Who covers it? The New York Frackin’ Times! I’m not sure if I should congratulate Nick or make fun of him. I think I’ll let Jason decide, since he’s already ripping Nick a (slightly funny) new one ;-)
4. At a conference last week, comScore showed the top 10 canadian online media companies. Number 10, Atlas, had less than 1MM uniques to Canada. Crazy that that’s all it takes to be Top 10. So I pinged the guy and asked him how b5 placed. Apparently we’re #15 (he wouldn’t give me the specific figure without paying the subscription fee, but still - nice of him to answer for free, heh). Again, this is a bit crazy considering b5 has a negligible Canadian presence (less than 20% of our traffic comes from Canada). Still, with a bit more growth we could break that magic Top 10 next year! ;-)
5. Those who’ve been following my Twitters noted that I worked all this weekend. I hate working all weekend, but considering I’m taking off this weekend for a week in Paris, I figure sacrifice now allows me to enjoy my conference cum vacation.
6. While working this weekend, got in an hour or so of Mass Effect (got absolutely stuck in Assassin’s Creed). What a HUGE game. What a FANTASTIC game. Just WOW WOW WOW.
7. I’ve been following with something near interest Jakob Lodwick’s departure from Vimeo/Connected Ventures/IAC. I’ve never met Jakob, but he’s certainly a polarizing figure (at least according to Valleywag, which is where I set my moral compass). Best of luck to him (and his GFF).

Share This

POSTED IN: General