“Stop expecting people crowdfunding large projects to also make a large project out of bonus rewards” it was a single piece of printer paper folded and of the quality that I’d suggest a four year old did it my good bitch
lol Some Shit seems to be going down among re: dracula backers : the physical merch including the zines have shipped out and the quality is. whoo boy.
like OP said this isn't necessarily to litigate what is/isn't a zine or if every zine ought to be professional quality, because it doesn't; but for a project that raised $38k, and crucially whose director has no problems writing about other companies' financial shortcomings as if they're moral failings (tal minear, who edited the rather poor piece of "journalism" on rusty quill that dropped a few months back, is the head of this project), i can't say this is a good look. on its own i think the thing could have charm, but i can't imagine something like this being part of a $100 package personally
close ups of the pics in case you don't feel like clicking through to inspect them yourself
the print quality on the letters itself seems pretty blurry
poor margin control as OP mentions
the drawings seem made in MS paint and....ascii?
the entire thing is one one-sided sheet of paper
the funding page says "The Recipe Zine will include recipes for: Paprika Hendl, Robber's Steak, Texas Toast, Edible Blood, and something that prominently features garlic (there are too many good options and we're still trying to find the BEST one). Space in the Zine permitting, we plan to include a few others, too. Those will simply be a surprise!" which implies a lot more recipes than this (the Robber's Steak doesn't even seem to be included). are they aware the zine could be as long as they wanted it to be
this is a cute thing i would have made in 7th grade with friends. was this + some stickers and paper tat + a tshirt something i would have expected as physical rewards for pledging $100? idk.
lol Some Shit seems to be going down among re: dracula backers : the physical merch including the zines have shipped out and the quality is. whoo boy.
like OP said this isn't necessarily to litigate what is/isn't a zine or if every zine ought to be professional quality, because it doesn't; but for a project that raised $38k, and crucially whose director has no problems writing about other companies' financial shortcomings as if they're moral failings (tal minear, who edited the rather poor piece of "journalism" on rusty quill that dropped a few months back, is the head of this project), i can't say this is a good look. on its own i think the thing could have charm, but i can't imagine something like this being part of a $100 package personally
I found myself typing a more detailed response to the Rusty Quill call-out post, but it's just such a poorly argued mess that I can't take it seriously. There are just so many statements that just aren't supported in the post itself. There's a lot of ominous-sounding fluff.
They claim RQ is aggressive, but the most aggressive example they give is a third-hand account of one person yelling at another on the phone. They allegedly threatened to sue people--okay, who, and over what? How far did it get? I guess it's not important, because they don't bother elaborating.
They claim the average rate for sound designers is $60, apparently based on one of the editors polling people on Tumblr, without bothering to account for salary differences in the UK. Or bothering to convert currencies.
They also didn't know how the GDPR worked. The part where they complain about not having contact info for actors? It was literally illegal for them to hold onto that info without permission.
Probably the silliest argument is this one: "Instead of putting in the work with their original shows, shows full of stories and characters fans have already become attached to, they’re pulling back and returning to what is profitable and nostalgic." What is TMA if not "a show full of stories and characters fans have already become attached to" ?
With this level of research and analysis, it's extremely difficult for me to trust what they're saying, especially when they're going on Twitter claiming anyone who disagrees with them doesn't care about workers. That's a pretty handy way to shut down criticism, isn't it?
I don't know what RQ's employees would be paid to work for other podcast companies. I don't know how creators in their network feel about the cut RQ takes of ad revenue--clearly it seemed worth it at the time they signed up, and I'm assuming none of them are so stupid they didn't bother to compare rates from other networks. What I do know is that the post fails basic principles of journalism, makes shoddy arguments, and uses cheap tactics to persuade readers.
Some people have complained that skeptics of the call-out post are nitpicking. However, if I'm going to trust someone whose main sources are all anonymous, I need to know they're credible. Very little in the post strikes me as credible.
My hope is that more people in the industry will discuss their pay and ad revenue deals, especially UK based workers. If RQ is that much worse than other companies, I'm happy to hear about it. But when a post shows so much evidence of bias and so little evidence of credibility, I'm not going to take it at face value.
If you’re a bit confused about Rusty Quill or what’s been happening, hopefully this will be a handy guide.
Hello everyone, especially all newbies to the Rusty Quill family! I thought I’d talk a little bit about the company. There’s a lot of information out there, some of which may be contradictory or difficult to find, and so I compiled it into what I think is a decent timeline. I’ve also included some of my thoughts on what Rusty Quill has been through, and where it’s going.
(check the end for associated footnotes!)
A Brief And Mostly Objective Timeline For Rusty Quill Ltd.
Alexander J. Newall wanted to start a company for creatives. His father (presumably) laid down the starting capital and Rusty Quill was founded 29th June 2015. Alex owned 99% of the company, John Newall, 1%. (1)
Alex reached out to a bunch of his improv friends and asked if they would participate in an actual-play podcast. Alex hadn’t seen a fully produced actual-play with sound effects and background music and he wanted to fill that niche in the market. James Ross, Bryn Monroe, and Lydia Nicholas all agreed. Tim Meredith was otherwise engaged, but said his brother Ben would be up for it. Rusty Quill Gaming (RQG) was born and started airing episodes in June 2015.
Meanwhile, besides running, editing, producing, directing, and mastering RQG, Alex also worked nights at an extremely boring data entry job James Ross set up for him. James also helped Jonny Sims get that same job (2). At the time, Jonny was playing gigs with his band The Mechanisms, but his passion was for writing. The Mechanisms were a folk band that reimagined classic stories/myths to music with hefty narrative pieces, which has obvious applicability to a podcast company. Because of this fortuitousness, sometime in 2013-14, Alex and Jonny met and found that they were both highly creative people who desperately wanted out of this job. Jonny invited Alex to a Mechanisms show at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Alex loved The Mechs show. He was convinced he must work with Jonny on something. Jonny had a few ideas and pitched what would become The Magnus Archives, though it was first more of a Twilight Zone anthology, which is why the “narrator” had Jonny’s name. Alex wanted to add more of a narrative framework and they shaped it together, all five seasons, so that it was cohesive the whole way through. Some things did, organically, pop up later. For instance, Martin started mainly as a foil to Jon, and only became the love interest after a bit of writing.
Around 2018, Patreon funding eventually allowed RQ to build a studio in Rusty Towers that enabled them to record their high-quality audio (3). Before that, they were - at various times - recording in a ‘yurt’ made of blankets and duvets for most of season one (usually at James Ross’ house or Martyn’s hallway, since Alex was - at that point - intermittently homeless due to asbestos problems).(4)
In 2016, RQ set up the Rusty Quill Forums, an official RQ fan-space where fans could interact with each other and RQ members. (5) This early arena for interaction would precipitate the more immediate (and much larger) Discord, Rusty Quill Official. Anil Godigamuwe, Community Manager, was the main force behind running and moderating the forums.
2016 was also the year that Mike Lebeau decided to gather a few people to play games and raise money for charity in what would become the predecessor to Rusty Quill Giving and Gaming. This event involved only Mike, Bryn, Ben, Anil, and Martyn Pratt (Chief Technology Officer). It only lasted twelve hours and they raised £700. (6)
Late 2017, Rusty Quill, in association with Historic Royal Palaces, released Outliers, a historical fiction podcast. Probably the least known of RQ’s podcasts, but very good and well-done. (Yes, this is a plug for Outliers. Go listen! It’s great!)
In 2018, the Rusty Quill Official Discord server (RQO) went live and most of the fans from the forums moved there. (7)
February 15, 2019, Stellar Firma, the improv comedy sci-fi show starring Tim and Ben Meredith, began airing.
Mike wanted to explore more of the video side of creating. On January 25, 2020, RQ Streams launched, and soon there was a decent amount of content generated on RQ’s Twitch channel. Video content would gain traction in the form of New Player Challenge (NPC). Many RQ members would stream, including Anil, Autumn, several editors, and Helen Gould (member of Rusty Quill Gaming and later promoted to Head of Inclusion). RQ Streams wasn’t fiscally sound as a primary source of income, but streaming helped encourage community engagement.
In February 2020, Alex gave an interview to Haggis and Dragons at PodUK. The host asked why, despite their success, Rusty Quill hadn’t been present at many events such as PodUK before. Alex responded that the company was dedicated to making sure they took care of their people first, but now that all the finicky backend admin stuff was finished, they could do fun things like conventions. (8)
A month later, COVID-19 shut down the world.
At this point, TMA had been running for four years, and - while relatively successful and critically admired- was still a smallish podcast, especially when measured against engagement levels of other fiction podcasts at the time. Whether COVID, the whim of Tumblr, or a spark that refused dim, the fuse on TMA had been lit. It would jump sharply with the season four finale in Halloween 2019, but when season five premiered on April 2, 2020, TMA was at its second highest peak in popularity , its highest only a month away. It would maintain a high level of engagement until the series finale in March 2021. (9) Whatever the reason, TMA had exploded, and no one could’ve predicted it.
In July 2020, Hannah Brankin, Chief Operations Officer and spouse of Alex Newall, became a director in the Rusty Quill company. (10)
In August 2020, Autumn Jarvis (longtime fan of RQ) with a history of convention organization came on as Community Assistant. (11) This role promoted her to Head Moderator of the Discord (RQO), coordinating communication between the Discord mods and RQ admin. RQ hired her to help Anil, as at this point, RQO had nearly 8000 members.
The official Rusty Quill Discord server (RQO) went from a reasonable 1000 participants to nearly 14,000 before its shutdown in September 2021. In August 2020 (a few days after Autumn took over), a group raided RQO, proclaiming issues of racism, ableism, and other accusations directed at Rusty Quill, but also at the volunteer mods. It was the only major attack, but from time to time small incursions would occur thereafter. RQO’s many mods (at least 11, at one point) were unpaid. Whether or not that was a good business decision is debatable, but mods were responsible for monitoring content that was Patreon-exclusive, so one might think a Patreon subscription should’ve been included.
April 2, 2021, Patreon-exclusive Inexplicables began airing. The show was initially met with a lot of positive feedback and excitement. The RQO channels were full of theorizing and chat, which Alex could be seen reading. While Inexplicables seemed ripe for a sequel, there have been no indications of future content.
In May of 2021, Rusty Quill launched the Rusty Quill Network. Many felt the network wasn’t explained sufficiently, but subsequent clarification from Autumn verified that RQ was not doing any of the following for the new shows that would be included under the network’s umbrella: producing, funding, editing, or creating. Apparently, the RQN was designed to act as a distribution and collective bargaining service. Unfortunately, this aspect was never made explicit to the fans by official RQ channels.
In September of 2021, Autumn was terminated. While Autumn has stated the reason she was terminated, it was on a private server and because RQ has made no official statement regarding the termination, I won’t share that information. RQ did ask if she would like to appeal the decision, but Autumn declined. Later, the mods organized a walkout in protest and quit. Only the mod known as Crunchy remained, and was the last one to close out the server. Later, he would admit that the mods actively decided not to include him in this decision. (12) RQ released a statement on September 15, 2021 regarding the closing of the Discord and the mod walk-out, and RQO has been dark ever since. (13)
RQ Streams, it’s worth mentioning at this point, also relied on the Discord mods to moderate the chat during streams. Ultimately, when the mods walked out, RQ Streams was also forced to stop.
Since the mod walkout, any events run and sponsored by RQ have been modded by volunteers, and usually small enough that it hasn’t become an issue (RQGG21 being modded by some Discord mods, with other Gather events modded mostly by RQ employees).
April 26, 2022, Chapter and Multiverse, the analogous successor to Rusty Quill Gaming run by Maddy Searle, the former lead editor of Stellar Firma, began airing. It would conclude its first season in August. While RQ has indicated that C&M will continue, it has been postponed until 2023. However, Maddy Searle posted a tweet (since deleted) indicating she is no longer employed at Rusty Quill. After claims that Maddy was reprimanded and forced to take down the tweet, RQ would later clarify that they have a 48 hour confidentiality policy regarding things like that, and that’s why they requested the removal of the tweet for that time. Maddy hasn’t reposted the tweet, or commented publicly on her reasons for doing so.
On June 10, 2022, Mike announced he was leaving Rusty Quill. (14) Although others had also streamed on RQ’s Twitch in the past, he was the primary force driving its relevance and the channel has remained mostly unused since the aforementioned Discord mod walkout, most likely citing lack of moderation as a main concern.
August 2, 2022, the original RQ production Trice Forgotten premiered. Trice Forgotten continues to update.
As per the September 21, 2022 Patreon email, Cry Havoc! and Neon Inkwell, the other RQ original productions, have been postponed to 2023.
With their three original podcasts completed and many future projects postponed, Rusty Quill had reached a quiescent stage. Patreon emails were sparse and while RQ maintained a loyal base, activity around the company had slowed.
Then -
October 10th, 2022 a string of strange letters appeared in a Patreon email. (15) Fandom quickly deduced that it wasn’t a mistake, but rather a cipher. A Discord server dedicated to cracking the code sprang up almost immediately and fandom deciphered the cryptic letters in a few hours. This began a mini-ARG leading to the announcement of a Magnus Archives “side-quel”: The Magnus Protocol. On a subsequent livestream, Alex confirmed the sequel and announced that the project would be fully funded by a Kickstarter. No money would be taken from Patreon, current or proposed shows, income generated through ads, agreements, merch, RQN residuals, etc. (16)
The Magnus Protocol Kickstarter launched November 22. It was fully funded in less than one minute, and as-of publishing this post is currently at £ 624,268, 4162% of their original goal. Release for the project is expected in October 2023 and is said to follow two British civil servants, Alice and Sam, as they deal with the legacy of the burned-down Magnus Institute of Manchester. Curious, as the Magnus Institute from the original series was very much based in London. (17)
On December 12, 2022, Newt Schottelkotte - marketing director for the Fable and Folly podcast network - released an opinion article on Medium detailing several allegations against Rusty Quill. (18) Schottelkotte submitted the article to several publications that declined to publish it. They decided to self-publish on Medium, which allows for independent publication. In good faith, I won’t presume this was a targeted attack by another network, but rather the opinion of a contingent of industry professionals who tried to represent those allegedly wronged by Rusty Quill as a production company (perhaps taking advantage of the timing of the new Kickstarter to gain traction for their post - but that one can only leave to speculation). The testimonies were anonymous.
December 13, 2022, after a resulting influx of polarizing social media posts, RQ released an official response to the Medium article, refuting most points raised. (19)
Now, before I get into less fact-based territory, and knowing RQ intends to announce a more recent Operations Update in the new year, I feel it’s relevant going forward to mention that for all the talk surrounding both sides of the story, the composition of Rusty Quill is not as large as some might think, considering the assumptions of some of the claims. In 2021 the company conducted a voluntary internal census on company makeup and satisfaction. (20) At the time they had 28 employees. 23 responded, and here are a few interesting tidbits they had to say:
91% identify as Neurodivergent
30% identify as non-cisgender; 48% identify as female, 26% as male, and 26% as not exclusively one of those categories
30% are people of color
30% identify as bisexual, 9% pansexual, & 9% queer. 26% identify as heterosexual. These numbers may or may not include the 17% who identify as asexual.
This census doesn’t include individual contractors (which comprises most of their editors and voice actors). In the census, RQ recognized their huge deficit in hiring people of color. RQ maintains a flat pay structure across all departments (including leadership), which - thanks to Patreon funding - stands above the London cost of living rate. (21)
Some of you may have seen a callout post on Medium about Rusty Quill. The author claims to have spoken with a number of people who worked with RQ. The allegations are worth considering, but they should be taken with a heavy grain of salt.
I have trouble taking the callout post seriously for a number of reasons.
The author is head of marketing for Fable & Folly. They initially failed to mention this, but later added this incredibly defensive note: "Editor’s Note: [name] is currently the Marketing Director for Fable & Folly Network, but has worked as an independent creator and journalist for longer." That's a huge conflict of interest.
2. I'm not seeing any evidence that this person is a "journalist." They don't list it on the resume on their website. If they are a journalist, they're not doing it on Medium with (as of this writing) 47 followers.
3. The article title is pure clickbait. It suggests Alex J. Newall is someone to be afraid of and makes vague allegations of RQ showing "aggression," but he's barely mentioned in the article at all. It's an unnecessarily inflammatory title, but that's what they seem to want: to stir drama.
4. The article uses TMA character names as pseudonyms. This was extremely distracting and gave the whole post a weird, cartoonish vibe. As was the decision to use the phrase, "Make your statement, face your fear" to link the post.
5. The article depends entirely on anonymous sources. While anonymous sources are necessary sometimes, the problem is that no one can independently verify what they said. They claim the sources asked to be anonymous because they were afraid RQ would retaliate and ruin their careers, or the fandom would attack them. That may be true. Or it may be because they signed NDAs, which would make it illegal to publicly discuss what happened. An NDA would be a good reason not to come forward, but unfortunately, we can't ask them about it, because they're anonymous.
6. They claim RQ has threatened to sue multiple people--okay, what were the circumstances? It literally never comes back up. Were these NDA violations? Breach of contract? No clue, they don't bother to elaborate.
7. They talk about salaries in different currencies without converting, in the same paragraph. Then they bring up the rates for freelance audio engineers, as if freelancers don't generally get higher rates than in-house staff.
8. The author is finding posts on Twitter and blocking anyone who disagrees with them. I've never interacted with the author, but they found my post and blocked me and others on the thread for daring to criticize the article. That alone speaks volumes about their professionalism. (And also explains why I didn't find any critical comments when I first looked: they're probably all banned).
There are doubtlessly far more issues with the post, but those are just the ones that were immediately apparent.
None of this is to say I think RQ is a well-run company. The dismissive treatment of their server mods alone tells me they have serious problems. But we should all think carefully when we read the allegations in the post, and consider the credibility and motivations of the author.
I have some further thoughts to add. I'm not super experienced in journalism yet, but I've done investigative pieces before and talked with other reporters who have. Also, I work in the US, so things might be different in England — I'll try to keep my insights as general as I can.
This piece refers to itself as a "research, advocacy and opinion piece," but because it's attempting to serve the purpose of doing good to a community through the speaking of truth that is not solely the author's own, I think it's fair to judge it by professional and ethical standards of journalism. I'll put my thoughts in numbers corresponding to fataldrum's numbers.
Newt Schottelkotte should not have written this story.
Someone should have, but not them. Their position as a marketing director within a rival company automatically disqualifies them. Yes, even if despite that, they were able to write the story without bias, they shouldn't have written it. The reason that journalists are taught to avoid conflicts of interest is twofold. The first is to avoid actual bias. The second is to avoid the appearance of bias. No matter how neutrally a story is reported, the appearance of bias will harm the credibility of the facts presented. Just a few months ago I passed on a story to a fellow reporter despite knowing I could report on it without bias and conflict, just because I was friends with the primary source in high school. The story was important and I knew I could do it justice. But important and investigative stories are even more important to avoid conflicts of interest in while writing, because it makes a lot of good work go to waste when people inevitably assume the story is biased, and makes the readers unable to trust the story.
From what I can find, neither of the editors named have experience in journalism.
2. Which brings me to my next point: what makes a journalist? I don't think it's necessarily fair to say that no one can write news or journalistic articles without formal training — after all, everyone has to start somewhere. Indeed, for a long time, delivery boy to beat reporter was a viable career pipeline. "Journalist" isn't a title like "doctor." It just refers to someone who seeks truth and reports it. Particularly in recent years, we've seen some great examples of citizen journalism.
However.
Just because you don't need to go to school to be a journalist doesn't mean that journalism isn't a set of specific skills that can be done well or poorly. Good journalism takes skill and experience. People who set out to do journalism almost never start with investigative pieces like this. Because pieces like this are FUCKING HARD. They're hard to do well, they require specific knowledge and experience, they're exhausting, and the consequences for messing them up are amplified. I did my first investigative piece after about three years of experience and schooling, and I had a full newsroom at my back, including three editors who had worked on similar stories. Looking back, I can see a thousand pitfalls I didn't fall into thanks to them, many of which Schottelkotte did.
The problem isn't that Schottelkotte isn't a professional or experienced journalist. It's that many of the mistakes they made that harm the credibility of the piece would have been immediately flagged by anyone with experience reporting or editing investigative articles. Ironically, just like how in the article Schottelkotte states it's hard to disentangle malice from incompetence in RQ's actions, Schottelkotte's inexperience with journalism makes it hard to disentangle bias from inexperience in the article itself.
People who are not "journalists" can do journalism, and in doing so become journalists. But once someone takes on the mantle of journalist, they become accountable to principles of journalism. I consider "journalist" to be more a descriptor of someone holding a certain set of skills than a job title. Those skills are important.
5. The anonymous sources aren't necessarily a problem. Generally, we don't use anonymous sources unless their information is essential to the story and using their names would have real tangible consequences for them. In this case, both are true, and I think Schottelkotte's disclaimer explains that well. But usually the decision on whether to use anonymous sources is made by an editor. When you read a New York Times article that quotes an anonymous source, there's a level of trust there that the decision was made by editors, that those editors know who the source was, and that they've done their due diligence in checking those sources. Freelancers and amateurs (using amateur here in the literal sense of not being paid and employed as a journalist, not the pejorative sense) do not have that trust. They especially do not have that trust if they have a conflict of interest that they do not immediately disclose.
6. Yup, I noticed that and more. There are tons of points throughout the article where something seemingly very damning is hinted at and then not followed up on. Maybe it just didn't bear fruit, or Schottelkotte hit a wall — Lord knows I've been there. But it's exactly what I'd expect from someone without experience in journalism trying to do an in-depth investigative piece.
7. There are a few other things like this, minor errors and inconsistencies that still harm the article's credibility. The editors should have caught them. I'm confused as to why they didn't. A story like this should have been edited very scrupulously. I've had errors go to print, but not this many.
8. At first, I thought that the lack of disagreeing voices in the article was inexperience — I know that for a piece like this you always talk to people who do not hold the same view as most of your sources, but not everyone would. This is making me think otherwise. It's clear from the twitter response that there are RQ affiliates who would have spoken in contradiction to the main throughline in the article on the record. I don't think Schottelkotte did their due diligence giving them right to reply. They did reach out to Rusty Quill for comment, which, kudos for that.
Now, some further thoughts.
I've written two big investigative pieces. One was about a corrupt individual. One was about the failings of a system. I went into both knowing where I stood, and knowing I was writing, in essence, a criticism — that what I found would indict my subject.
I did my very best to completely excise opinion from my articles.
It wasn't because I wanted to remain objective or neutral. It's because I had faith in my reporting. Facts speak for themselves. Damning information is at its most impactful without the intermediary of the reporter's opinion. That's why I find the frequent opinions expressed in this article galling, because they're all conclusions the reader would have drawn themselves from the facts presented. A good investigative piece doesn't tell you what the truth is — it shows it to you, unadorned and inarguable. Combined with the conflict of interest, the heavy opinion throughout this piece creates a strong appearance of bias.
The word "allegedly" is used a lot in this article, and the beginning of it has some heavy disclaimers. Personally, if I didn't feel confident enough in the truth of my reporting to run the story without disclaimers like that, I wouldn't be comfortable publishing it at all. I think a lot of my colleagues would agree.
Overall, I think this is a case study in why good journalism is important. It's very important to spotlight what Schottelkotte is spotlighting — if there's issues like this going on in a company that is in part financially supported by its fans, that community has a right to know. But even if every single quote and source in the article is completely accurate and within its proper context, the pitfalls that Schottelkotte falls into make them seem less credible by association.
Maybe I'm being too harsh. After all, I highly doubt a mainstream outlet or professional journalist would have picked this up. But it's very aggravating to read an important story like this and see countless points where the story could have been strengthened if anyone who'd ever worked at a newspaper had looked at it for literally ten minutes. And I'm confident that Schottelkotte could have gotten someone with that experience to look at the story. Many people with training in journalism go into different but adjacent fields — just by asking around with my journalism contacts, I could get in touch with marketing people, authors, news anchors, radio personalities, podcast producers, advertising staff, the list goes on. I find it hard to believe that someone working in audio couldn't six degrees of separation their way to a journalist that could look this article over for glaring errors. But then again, I know the journalism landscape is different across the pond.
Personally? I've seen evidence of RQ's mismanagement just from knowing what went down in their discord. I don't believe these quotes were fabricated. Do I believe this story was written with an agenda beyond telling the truth and holding power to account? I don't know. But even that is a problem — a journalist has lost once they lose the trust of their readers. I know that I'm not the authority on journalism, and I've no doubt said something here that I'll find myself disagreeing with later — or something monumentally stupid. But given that this article is likely going to inform how many people interact with RQ and its assorted fandoms in the future, I felt like I couldn't rest easy until I'd said my piece. Hopefully this at least adds something to the conversation.
My ask box is open if anyone has questions or wants to talk further about what I've said here.
This section of Schottelkotte’s article struck me as strange:
Then, I read the full version of the quote Schottelkotte used from Callum Dougherty’s Medium interview. Schottelkotte writes “TMA wasn't nearly the smash hit Dougherty describes until about 2019,” but in their quotation, Schottelkotte selectively omitted a middle paragraph in which Dougherty specifically acknowledges TMA’s growth in 2019 in order to paint Dougherty (and RQ by extension) in a negative light.
The Dougherty interview (Emphasis mine — italics show the omitted paragraph):
BC: A back catalog so large can be overwhelming for a listener, but I think that’s actually been a key part of your success and why people keep coming back. Magnus Archives has been around since 2016, but I’m curious to know when it started gaining traction?
CD: Believe it or not, Magnus was something of a hit right out the gate. Comparative to I guess what would be considered a popular audio-drama podcast now. It found an audience quite quickly.
Though what I would certainly say is that it was in 2019 that the show began to grow, and it went on what I would describe as a 10-month journey from being considered a very popular podcast, to the most popular fiction podcast in the world. That was a line of growth that looked pretty much like a straight line upwards, where we were finding month-on-month listenership doubling at a point. Every single month you could see it — there were hundreds of thousands, now there was a million this month, and it would go in that direction.
To borrow a phrase from Alex Newall [Rusty Quill CEO and founder], I’d also mention that nothing at Rusty Quill — despite what it might seem — has ever happened by accident. And the factor that I would consider — and this may be my own ego — is the show began to grow really dramatically because this was the point that I came in.
In contrast, this is the portion of the Dougherty interview quoted in Schottelkotte’s RQ article:
Schottelkotte’s selective omission gives the reader a VERY different impression of Dougherty’s words, and bends the truth in order to support their narrative. Personally, I’d even go so far as to call it a deliberate misquotation.
TL;DR: Journalistic integrity requires (among other things) fairness, impartiality, truth, and accuracy. As a result of this twisting of the truth, in addition to Schottelkotte’s initial failure to identify themselves as Marketing Director for Fable & Folly Network, I would not trust Newt Schottelkotte as a credible source.
Also raised my eyebrow that the “pseudonyms” used in the piece were all TMA characters (and generally well-liked ones) which is something that’s going to play a certain way to the readers depending on who they’ve chosen and they definitely knew that! That alone discredited some of their journalistic integrity for me, even without knowing who the author was. The title of the piece was also off to me, considering it really wasn’t about Alex at all and that was acknowledged near the end. Not saying this means one thing or another either, but knowing who wrote it definitely puts some things in perspective for me!
yeah no zyka is sharing parts with the class and like this is so far from being objective or reasonable, it's complete horseshit
again: i am sure that managerial fuck ups happened and screwed people and that's not okay
but this shit is trying to build a narrative and uuhhhhhh
Was Rusty Quill testing the waters to see what they could get away with, and what people were prepared to call them out for? It seemed they hoped for everyone to stay quiet so the company’s image could stay clean and things would blow over. Why?
nah brah its pretty common to ask people not to talk about layoffs while they are still in progress, that's actually really fucking normal. you can choose not to obey but its not weird
An observation has been made to me that there’s a very good chance that the list on Kickstarter of stretch goal guest writers may be the totality of the people in the audio fiction indie world that have still not had an experience with Rusty Quill.
this is provably untrue and also the way it frames a specific narrative is incredibly suspicious
What Rusty Quill seems to be doing with The Magnus Protocol is banking on its fans to bail it out. Instead of putting in the work with their original shows, shows full of stories and characters fans have already become attached to, they’re pulling back and returning to what is profitable and nostalgic.
lmao fuck off
guess what, folks, i knew the second the KS was announced that TMA2 was for money. like, i'm sure they worked on an idea and formed it and tried to come up with something cool. but if one of their other properties had blown up, we would not be seeing TMA2
just because you are doing something to get paid doesn't make it soulless and evil.
and folks I'm sorry but: when you are a working artist, doing the art that gets you paid isn't a fucking crime, and the marketing director of fable and folley knows it.
also i hated the "WTNV is only big bc its gay" and i hate the "TMA only blew up bc its gay." get fucked. a lot of people found out about TMA bc jonmart but to be clear: if the show wasn't good, people would not have listened to 159 fucking episodes just for two boys to hold hands. grow up.
They’re going to miss the Kickstarter deadline so why even bother? You’re not going to be able to suck off any money once the KS is done.
also reaching out to ask for contacts AFTER your article is very funny “journalism.”
“we take our due diligence seriously” are you going to answer why you used a twitter poll of 18 people as your “source” for freelance sound designer pay rates, Tal?
They’re going to miss the Kickstarter deadline so why even bother? You’re not going to be able to suck off any money once the KS is done.
also reaching out to ask for contacts AFTER your article is very funny “journalism.”
“we take our due diligence seriously” are you going to answer why you used a twitter poll of 18 people as your “source” for freelance sound designer pay rates, Tal?
[ID: A screenshot of one of the questions on the uquiz. The question reads, “what’s an immediate turn-off in fanfiction?”. The answer options are 1st person pov, grammar/spelling errors, bad characterisations; a block of text, no paragraphs; “i suck at summaries”, and “manhood/nether regions/flesh rod”. The first option, first person pov, has been selected. End ID]
thinking about that bad 'article’ and how the tma kickstarter has grown 200 people and like 5k USD since. like they really thought they deserved some of the KS money and this was how they were going to get it
Incorrect Responses to the Who's Afraid of Alex J Newall article:
attack Newt Schottelkotte as to defend liking TMA because all your 'investigating' is unearthing one small, well-known fact about them and using that to discredit an article that took a month to write that clearly has a lot of research going into it
wilfully misunderstand what RQ's competition is
claim 'this didn't happen to me and I feel spoken for!' as there are people out there to whom this did happen and they're already too scared to come forward, this just makes them feel they won't be believed, discredited, accused of acting with malice the way Newt is right now
boycott RQN shows because this does not help independent creators oh my God did you not read the article
Correct Responses to the Who's Afraid of Alex J Newall article:
cancel your pledge to the TMA2 Kickstarter and donate to another fiction podcast show instead because half a million USD could fund several indie productions for years
I don't even have a horse in this race (haven't donated to the kickstarter, not a patron, wasn't on the discord), but that article is littered with SO many red flags it feels so disingenuous to disregard distrust in it as unearthing "one well-known fact" (why didn't they disclaim it immediately then? WaPo does that w Bezo's ownership it's like basic journalistic ethics).
Not only did they not disclose their affiliation w another company (until called out), they GROSSLY misrepresented quotations through large omissions that COMPLETELY recontexualized them.
I'm not even saying this as a MAG fan bc tbh, I didn't even know there was a Kickstarter until I heard about the article, but EVERYTHING about it REEKS of suspect journalistic practices that people seem too quick to wholeheartedly accept because a small-time company fucked up after some major growing pains.
I don't plan on rlly engaging w MAG more than a passing fandom way even if s2 succeeds, but someone besmirching journalistic integrity always gets on my nerves, which ironically is the only reason I'm even paying half as much attention to this as I am.
Feel free to read the response to this, but either way, without any context, that medium article that couldn't cut it in any other publications just screams unreliability.
As a rule, Rusty Quill tries to avoid directly addressing unfounded social media accusations, preferring to provide formal updates like any
The reason Schottelkotte did not disclose it immediately is because they, nor the other editors, did not consider it relevant. They're a freelancer for Fable & Folly; F&F was not in any way aware of the article before publication – after all, Schottelkotte published it under their own name. Not Fable & Folly's. Not Hug House's or Realm's, the networks the editors are affiliated with, not even Caldera Studios', the production company Schottelkotte founded.
Here's F&F's response to that piece of criticism.
There's a certain misconception that fiction podcast creators are rivals or competitors to one another. I refer you to Kale Brown's thread or this post on the matter, but essentially, no that is not the case. Fiction podcasts are too small for that. The only way audio dramas and actual plays can grow is by sharing listenership, cross-promoting each other (the editors of this piece have promoted RQN shows before, RQN shows have promoted theirs before, F&F shows have promoted RQN shows before), sharing sponsors and donating to one another. If anything, there's more a problem of independent vs industry, when Audible or iHeartRadio create a new show and announce they've 'invented audio drama'.
Rusty Quill and Fable & Folly? Not rivals, not competitors, no beef. The fact that Alex J Newall has decided there is is very disappointing.
But because fiction podcasts are so small, it does make the issue of 'nobody is unbiased' a bit bigger because there is no independent third party in fiction podcasting. Nobody is impartial. Everyone's probably affiliated with someone somewhere, most known names have created their own content, worked with one network or another, guested on each other's shows. The only way we can grow is by advocating for each other as small creators.
And you know who some people are that're known to advocate for small creators? Newt Schottelkotte, Tal Minear and Wil Williams.
That's their agenda. Not tearing down a colleague, but standing up for small creators.
Actually that article pisses me off so much because it is SUCH bad journalism, clearly intended to elicit an emotional reaction, because the writer has a grudge
There are serious allegations in that article and I wish they had been presented in an even, professional, and journalistic way so I didn’t have to spend my time debunking bullshit and could instead discuss what Rusty Quill has done wrong and how they need to fix it.
you probably already know about this but an articles been put out about rusty quills shitty business practices and general shady behavior. if you havent already, you might be getting messages about it soon. just wanted to send a heads up in advance
Yes I saw and read it.
I'm choosing to believe the motivations of those involved, in spite the poor optics of them being from another network (and even quoting what "they" pay as an example of "good" companies), were an attempt to be morally just. That is to say, I have no ill will towards the author, their editors and everyone who contributed.
To be clear; if Rusty Quill has treated employees poorly they should be held accountable, I say if not as a way to not believe those affected but because "alleged" is used more than a dozen times in the article.
Additionally, no employer should ever yell at an employee. Again, if that happened, they should apologize and do better.
That being said…
I don't appreciate articles speaking on behalf of me or, frankly, trying to rope me in without my consent or request. I recognize they weren't attempting to give me a voice, just those who are affected, however the author has only now allowed shows to reach out, after the damage has been done and chose to speak for me nonetheless. Additionally, the article says that if I remain silent, it's because I can't speak out - which is just nonsense.
From my experience; I've had nothing but great experiences with Rusty Quill. They're a network. They host my show. What else do I need them for? Contracts, NDA's and all the legal aspects that the article seemed to make such a big deal about… are very normal. I think this is part of not understanding how large companies work.
For example; I saw tweets upset that people shouldn't have to sign an NDA to look over a sample contract which… is exactly what you do when you're looking over a sample contract.
I was a General Manager of a small rental company for 10 years prior to trying my hand at Audio work and renting a water cooler had more stipulations than RQ's agreement. Contracts are meant to be all encompassing. If you don't agree with stuff, you cross it out and ask it to be changed. If your upset at the way large companies work, your fight is misdirected with addressing just one company.
The article also mentioned something about "Taking Money Upfront" and stuff like that, which failed to mention you don’t HAVE to take money upfront - furthermore - most shows on RQ did not do that.
In any case, this isn't meant to be a dismantling of the article. I don't want to invalidate anyone's experiences or frustrations. Who knows what more may come to light, all I can speak of are my experiences and frustrations.
So why I'm frustrated? Well, I saw a few tweets and posts boycotting RQ shows, which included mine. So that sucked.
Overall however, I think the article was done in poor taste and felt more like virtue signaling more than something trying to be helpful. I think, personally - and I say this with all the genuine sincerity - it seemed written from a perspective of inexperience and naivete. It is not the Watergate scandal people think it is.
And for the people who are upset that "peoples lives were ruined" when they were let go… yes I'm sorry people lost their jobs. I lost the aforementioned GM position as well when the owner of the company sold the company out from under me. Not because I did a bad job or because I made a mistake, just bad luck. It sucked, sometimes people lose their jobs. That doesn't mean I can't have an opinion on, what I feel, was a article meant to stir the pot. After all, shouldn't I express my perspective as a show on RQ (which, like, isn't that what the article was meant to be about?).
Anyway, those are my thoughts. For what it's worth I think you should still read the article! It has some great thoughts…
…but with all things, read it with an informed opinion; remembering that it was written by the Director of Marketing for another Podcast network, who references their own network within their "expose" as an example of a network with "good practices", during a time that they're recruiting for new shows and that every single show on that Network has openly supported the article - retweeting it almost instantly, during the final days of their competitors successful Kickstarter.
The disclaimer on the article about the Authors association with F&F wasn't put until AFTER they were called out. Odd that an expose on uncovering the truth would be less than transparent when posting…
You do realize Newt isn’t employed at F&F full time, right? They’re a freelance artist. And you realize F&F didn’t know about the article until it came out, right?? F&F and RQ aren’t rivals or anything lmao what are y’all even saying. Some of y’all are way too eager to defend RQ’s exploration of workers and it shows 💀
bruh it says at the top of the fucking article that they are the marketing director for another podcast company.
let's exercise some critical thinking skills. why would someone who does not work for RQ do a deep dive piece that alleges but doesn't verify a lot of potentially sketchy actions, goes out of their way to assign motive to these alleged actions, sensationalizes the whole thing, and refers to their apparent sources by TMA character names, and publishes this piece on fucking medium in the final week of RQ's kickstarter
anon i am being flippant with you bc you're being an asshole, but: you really need to reread this article and consider the motives of the writer, especially in the many, many, many moments when they insert their incredibly subjective opinion into what is framed as an expose.
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