- fable & folly (company competing w/ RQ) marketing director posts an article about RQ mismanagement & exploitation (https://medium.com/@newtschott/whos-afraid-of-alex-j-newall-ae3a67f3a5e1)
- the first version of the article didn’t note that the poster is a marketing director at f&f; this has now been edited in
- they cite approximately three sources in total, mostly coming back to unverifiable anonymous RQ affiliates (ex employees, people who were offered a position, etc). the other two sources are a tweet from RQ specifically about the official discord, and a line in the beginning stating that “The information presented in this article is not only taken from interviews with my sources, but publicly available data that I was able to find and access.”. there is no further clarification of what data, where it came from, etc, and the only time a source is linked or references is the aforementioned tweet from RQ.
ETA: this is false! there are multiple sources on multiple different things.
- (https://rustyquill.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Operations-Update-2020-PUBLIC-RELEASE-1.pdf) this RQ operations update was used to source two quotes on RQ’s payment structure. it’s worth noting that the payments listed in the article are all above both the uk minimum wage and (with the exclusion of the £11 figure) the national living wage (https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates, https://www.livingwage.org.uk/calculation)
- (https://twitter.com/TheRustyQuill/status/1438175815615791111?s=20&t=m1Z2vI0Fmpvq3gVt72gIvQ) this rq tweet was used to source a screenshot from rq’s statement about the discord.
- (https://twitter.com/TheRustyQuill/status/1408001969218859008?s=20&t=ngBXzvyzl4PJY9XpOL7DjA) this rq thread was used to source a screenshot from rq about the transcripts.
- there is a relevant link to the unofficial fan transcripts, although i personally wouldn’t necessarily call this a source.
- (https://medium.com/acast/how-to-go-from-0-to-millions-growth-strategies-for-fiction-podcasters-fde8d6dc0cb5) this callum dougherty interview was used to source a quote from callum dougherty about TMA’s success.
- the interview is misquoted. newt’s article quotes:
“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…
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.”
- this misses out a relevant paragraph, reading
“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.” (emphasis my own)
- newt’s article goes on to state
“As someone who engaged in the fandom side of audio drama for a long time, including the period of Magnus’ rise to popularity to its finale, I remember things quite differently. TMA wasn’t nearly the smash hit Dougherty describes until about 2019, when the season four finale saw the consummation of Jon and Martin’s slow-burn enemies-to-lovers storyline. Until that point, I had never heard of TMA.” (emphasis my own).
- it’s also worth noting that newt’s article didn’t include the typical ellipses in square brackets to indicate missing text from a quote - it simply has an ellipses, which makes it seem that dougherty trailed off and then continued.
- at the end of the article, there are multiple links to social media accounts of people who may provide a list of laid off employees, intended for those looking to hire ex-RQ employees
- the rest of the claims made are either unsourced or from newt’s anonymous sources.
- tal, one of the editors, not affiliated w/ f&f, says this isn’t a marketing thing, was run past two editors and multiple lawyers
- there’s some truth in the article, mostly a lot of plausible but unverifiable things, and some plain misinformation / bad faith readings [i.e; article states 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 false; many of the guest writers have RQ podcasts or have interacted with RQ before, although it may be intended to mean bad experiences rather than simply an experience]
- ben meredith retweeted the article w/o comment; not sure what he’s agreeing with. he also liked a tweet reading “Alright, read the thing. I’m terribly sorry for everyone who has been dealt with so badly by Rusty Quill - and I can only imagine the distress that must have incited this action. I hope these concerns are taken seriously, and that these issues are resolved swiftly.“ (https://twitter.com/GejWatts/status/1602420853630697475
- malevolent podcast’s official twitter posted
“I don’t know much but I will say that if you decide to stop listening to my show; a show I work so very hard on, because of an article that presumptively and poorly attempts to speak for me, then I think you’re hurting the thing you intend to be helping.” (https://twitter.com/MalevolentCast/status/1602441871992782849?s=20&t=Z_86aECzgsdU9OgtfoiU6g)
- “harlan guthrie [creator of malevolent], quoted above, spoke on the topic in his discord server, invictus. i’m nor comfortable posting screencaps of his words, which were not intended as a public statement, without permission, but the highlights include:
"The timing, authorship, and intent of this article doesn’t sit well with me.”
“Overall, this isn’t a watergate, neither is it an expose of a dangerous company, it’s akin to a glassdoor report with half truths. My experience with RQ has been absolutely fine across the board.”
“The contract is in no way misleading nor manipulative the way the article would make it seem (no moreso than any other contract)”“ (via orchidbreezefc on tumblr; i am not personally in this discord)
- the creator(? correct if wrong) of The Town Whispers and Tiny Terrors tweeted:
”What do I say here? I work day and night on @/TheTownWhispers & @/tinyterrorspod. I personally create, fund, produce, and direct my shows. What a shame to see someone speak on behalf of what I and others have built for years at our own expense dominate the conversation. No one reached out to me about “the article” ahead of time, no one asked me if I consented to be spoken for, I don’t appreciate people victimizing me & weaponizing it for personal gain, & I don’t appreciate that it’s being passed off as a benevolent act of courage on my behalf.“ (https://twitter.com/ColeWeev/status/1602447361045065728?s=20&t=aAf1T5fen0FzXuAAllevLA)
- woe.begone’s official twitter tweeted: ”The only thing I want to say about The Article is that I am concerned that readers will believe things about my show and my relationship to my network that have not been my experience. I think this is what others mean when they describe feeling “spoken for.”“ (https://twitter.com/woebegonepod/status/1602453798332538881)
- the cellar letters twitter tweeted: ”About the article: I am not going to attempt to invalidate anyone’s thoughts or feelings… but I will say that it absolutely does not speak for me or align with my relationship and experiences with the network or anyone involved at the company. Love you all. Go create stuff.“ (https://twitter.com/CellarLetters/status/1602457106271330304)
- multiple people have reportedly been blocked by newt on twitter for criticising the article, or asking questions about it. (https://twitter.com/ReassessHistory/status/1602425447098228737?s=20&t=IQ9wZJuHgqX2mgfDvTizqA, https://twitter.com/ReassessHistory/status/1602455204557127681?s=20&t=j22xMz0Hxw0yvW6Oz7B8SQ)
- alexander j newall has given a statement to podnews! it reads;
"Redundancies can be a highly emotional topic but this opinion blog is full of provable factual inaccuracies and its writers include individuals that hold senior positions at competitor companies that stand to monetarily gain from a reputational attack. We were approached for comment under false pretences and were not given a copy of this piece by the author. Numerous cast, crew and contractors have notified us directly in solidary about similarly misleading approaches made to them for this blog.
Rusty Quill has already internally released its 2023 Operations Update which included factual information on these topics along with information on out 93% RQ Network creator retention rate and our independent Employee Satisfaction Survey which scored an exceptional minimum of 4.3 out of 5 in all areas. This Operations update is due for public release in the new year.”
(https://podnews.net/update/audio-drama-company-drama)
- in the (unofficial) “Rusty Quill PLEBS” discord, the creator of the storage papers said “The RQN stuff - I’ll just say it’s not entirely accurate or, at least, it’s not the full picture which means it’s painted in an unnecessarily bad light. I can’t comment on the RQO stuff because I’m as much in the dark about that as anyone. But, as others on RQN have said, there’s at least some of that that hasn’t been my experience (and, for the record, I myself am not legally obligated to not say negative things about RQ).”
- annie (an RQ editor) retweeted this (https://twitter.com/serhawke/status/1602375132579827713?s=20&t=Q3iAjLLwsdIqYShTKinvHw)
- this thread also has a useful tweet further up on how to assess the utility of a source:
“PURPOSE - what was it meant to achieve?
ACCURACY - can the facts be proven or disproven?
CONTENT - what does it actually tell you?
LIMITATIONS - what is it NOT telling you? Why?
AUTHOR - biased?
DATE - was its publication date "convenient” for any reason? Firsthand or hearsay?“
[this method is from their partial study of history in uni]
edits: corrected misinfo about sources in the article, newt’s position in f&f, and f&f’s name. added quotes from rq creators & note about newt blocking people. added RQ’s statement.
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