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Introducing: The Zero Hedge Ombuds(wo)man

Submitted by Marla Singer on 02/13/2010 02:53 -0400

One daunting aspect of Zero Hedge is the simply explosive mass of content that the site distributes. On weekdays, and counting only the front page (and therefore only Senior Staff writings and an occasional guest post or two), Zero Hedge publishes between 25 and 35 primary articles per day usually ranging from 100 to over 4000 words each. Our contributors add another 5 to 15 pieces daily, depending on how much is going on in the world, or how much post-close drinking went on the day before. Unlike most finance sites, Zero Hedge also prints content on Saturday and Sunday, as well as market holidays. Last year, on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Zero Hedge was spitting out stories like an unemployed, single, Canadian atheist. Whatever conclusions you might (reasonably) draw about our social lives and sanity when reflecting on these facts, what you cannot but agree with is that Zero Hedge produces a metric asston of original content 365 days a year. (We can say that now that our one year anniversary has just passed).

You may or may not also be aware that no one at Zero Hedge draws a salary. Even members of the Senior Staff, which if you call "full time" 40 hours a week, each work about 2.2 "full time" jobs for Zero Hedge, get no paycheck. The vast majority of our revenues and donations go directly to infrastructure like utilities, internet, system administration, research and filing costs for FOIA, legal research and the like. What remains (if there is any, and many months there isn't) we generally retain in a modest reserve fund in case a server blows up (more and more likely the way you data hungry content gluttons stress our resources), we have to pay for some big legal filing or document production request, or a critical dataset seems worth buying one day. Again, you may draw a number of conclusions from this, including some not very flattering to us from a mental health perspective. If any of the Senior Staff once harbored illusions about being well (or even adequately) paid via their association with Zero Hedge (and actually I don't think anyone harbored such fantasies), they have long since been disabused thereof.

Yet, as of this writing, Zero Hedge is #90 on the Technorati "Top 100" blogs in the world http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/ in the immediate company of sites like Ubergizmo (which lists two founders, a Senior Associate Editor, an Associate Editor, two Contributing Editors, an International Team of five as well as a System Administrator among its staff- which we doubt consists entirely of volunteers), The Lede (A New York Times Blog- though they might be broke by now for all we know), the gorgeous design site, Inhabitat (with a founder, Managing Editor, six Senior Editors, a Business Development Manager, a Communications Manager, two News Editors, an Intern, a New York Editor, thirteen Contributing Writers and a News and Transportation Editor- an indeterminate number of whom command salaries), Autoblog (apparently an AOL affiliated blog- draw your own budget conclusions), EurekAlert (affiliated with the Association for the Advancement of Science which, in addition to a list of donors spanning 10 pages of 5 column, 8 point font, also named 12 donors who gave $100,000 or more in 2008), Funny or Die (backed by Mark Kvamme of Sequoia Capital, among others), The Campaign Spot (a National Review venture- we doubt they are hurting for cash), friend of Zero Hedge Felix Salmon (under the Reuters umbrella), Cato@Liberty (which is quite obviously well funded- though times are tough for anyone to the right of Chavez these days), and Danger Room (Wired Magazine's security technology nexus).

We also share this quartile of the Technorati top 100 with "one man band" (or nearly so) online publications like Political Wire (Taegan D. Goddard's space), Crooks and Liars (John Amato's digital real estate) and Legal Insurrection (Cornell Law Professor William A. Jacobson's legal tour de force), but these are few and far between when the blogosphere altitude gets this high and the digital air this thin.

At this level there are also online outlets that fall somewhere in the middle, like Powerline (run by attorney John Hinderaker et. al) that seem to represent a collaboration between professional colleagues whose full-time occupations might otherwise to limit them to an aggregate of four articles per day, or so. In any event, these online presences are generally run by individuals who seem to have reached a station in life such that their day job permits them a bit of serious daily blogging during the work week. (Certainly, this has the added effect of signaling their expertise to potential clients- an endeavor we fully support).

At the moment, Zero Hedge is also #3 in the Technorati Business section, trading slots in the top five places often with Felix Salmon, Mashable, Calculated Risk and TechCrunch. Usually not far off if not right next to or above us are Naked Capitalism, The Market Ticker, and The Baseline Scenario, Mish's, Business Insider and, of course and dear to my own heart not just because the front page still bears my by-line, Dealbreaker. Here, small, tightly run shops are more common, but well funded commercial sites with numerous paid writers and (often) venture or angel financing behind them (like Dealbreaker, and Business Insider) round out nearly half of the population.

All of this is a long way of saying, it is usually a lot of work and potentially a lot of capital to maintain this kind of infrastructure. Someone pointed out to us yesterday that Wikileaks (which primarily posts uploaded content, rather than creating much of its own) runs on a budget of $200,000 per year- before paying a cent in staff salary.

Still, don't think for a moment we are complaining.

At least among the all-volunteer Senior Staff, we absolutely love what we do, and for some of us it has become more than just an obsession, but a fixation bordering on unhealthy. (As I write the first draft of this post, 4:30 am ET approaches). Most of us hail from the annoyingly-high-paid finance world and the opportunity cost of Senior Staffing Zero Hedge 180% of full time is, therefore, significant. ("Sacrilege" in particular deserves mention here given that, in the face of the brutal battering you ceaselessly inflict on his overwhelmed severs even at 2am ET, I have no idea why he hasn't quit yet). Of course, I would be remiss not to mention our contributors here as well. (Thanks guys and gals!)

But, having waxed poetic on our greatness and accomplishments, it falls to us to admit that there is a Dark Side(tm) to employing a non-professional (read: unpaid) and skeleton crew. We miss quite a lot. Our tips@zh inbox sees about 200-300 emails per day, of which perhaps 15% are penis enlargement advertisements and 25% represent actionable, interesting material. Yesterday between 12:00am and 11:59pm we processed more than 1700 comments. No, that's not a typo. We are hosting over 225,000 comments in total today.

As you will quickly see, it is literally impossible for a newsroom as sparse as ours to cover such a beat. We miss quite a lot of interesting stories. Many reader tips are, if not ignored, simply lost in the static. More significantly, Zero Hedge employs no "Managing Editor."

Unfortunately, Zero Hedge, which was but a small online carve-out lost in a salty sea of Blogger.com foam only 10 months ago, has reached a point where the weight of subject matter we regularly manage requires a bit more care and attention than we have been able to give before now.

It is for this reason that Zero Hedge has retained our first Ombuds(wo)man.

It would not be waterboarding the matter in the least to suggest that Zero Hedge is a literal lightening rod for criticism. Nor would it be out of place to point out that, where it is dismissed, Zero Hedge tends to fall into the "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" bucket. True, we have hit a number of very thin nails on the head (national security exceptions to financial disclosures and AIG balance sheets come to mind). But, to the extent "extraordinary evidence" is the side of that balance sheet that readers (or non-reader critics) find lacking, we are underperforming in the marketplace. This will not do.

The sorts of small details that are likely to escape a writing staff with no formal editors in-house, quite obviously, escape us- as we have no formal editors in-house. Moreover, despite the fact that we maintain a dedicated abuse / legal team (with a dedicated inbox that we monitor pretty closely), most Zero Hedge criticism seems to find root in the pages of other blogs, whose authors do not appear to regard comment from us as a pre-requisite to unfettered publication. Often, we learn of some "cutting" rebuke somewhere in the blogosphere (or even the mainstream media) days or even weeks after its publication. In fact, it seems to be the rule that issues of citation, clerical or even significant factual errors on Zero Hedge play out in public before we ever hear of them. This month (as you may have noticed) has been no exception.

In keeping with tradition here at Zero Hedge, our Ombuds(wo)man is pseudonymous. In fact, his/her true identity is known only to two members of the Senior Staff. In keeping with our manifesto, we believe this will permit a certain savagery that might not be available to a named Zero Hedge critic. We can, however, credit him/her with the following sanitized biography:

- An annoying number of years in Big Law
- A fewer (but better) number in corporate finance
- Several past and present directorships including two with public firms
- Several tedious "scholarly" publications (mostly legal related)
- An intimidating hourly rate (when permitted to run undiscounted)
- A disconcerting affinity for H. L. Mencken

We are still astonished that we are paying so little. Jana spent two hours trying to determine if a decimal point had misprinted.

Though we may regret it, our new addition has unfettered access to the front page of Zero Hedge and can be expected to pen missives in the early morning hours when we are least likely to find them and strike them down. No one is immune, Senior Staff, Authors and Contributors alike.

As if all that were not enough, members of the public can complain (or rave?) directly to the Ombuds(wo)man via email at: ombudsman [at] zerohedge [dot] com

Of course, we will probably try to distract you immediately from this development by unveiling the massive site remake that is Zero Hedge 3.0 early next month. (Though, to our dismay, the site mock-ups appear to include a whole "Notes from the Ombuds(wo)man" section).

Meanwhile, there is plenty for us to do, and the population of our critics just increased by (at least) one.

- advertisements -

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 16:55 | 230060 Narcolepzzzzzz

Happy Anniversary ZH crew.

This site should come with a Government Health Warning - it's addictive.

Thanks for waking me up!

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 16:57 | 230062 SDRII

Remarkable content.

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 17:07 | 230065 laughing_swordfish

From: KrvtKpt. laughing swordfish - Kommandant-im-deputize

Reichsministerium GschKhl der DKM

(trading arm of the Kriegsmarine)

To: All hands at Zero Hedge

Subject: Congratulations

cc: BdU, KzS. Scholz, Kommandant der RmGschKhl der DKM

Congratulations on your progess one year from your commissioning date.

A very large Bravo Zulu to all hands (Well Done).

You have consistently more than exceeded the expectations of your audience.

Suggestion:

Do include a PO Box or mailing address for check or money order contributions - many of the Matrosen (ordinary seamen) who read you on the limited internet resources we have aboard ship would like to contribute. As it is official DKM policy to restrict the access to credit cards among the younger and lower-ranking men, if you set up a PO Box, many will send donations, as will I.

Zero Hedge is well read throughout the fleet - and key articles are often printed out and posted on ship's bulletin boards, right next to the Watch Bill and Plan of the Day.

KrvtKpt laughing swordfish

in a shoreside desk job for the time being

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 17:05 | 230066 Mr Lennon Hendrix

Thanks ZH for all you do!

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 17:08 | 230068 hound dog vigilante

"A disconcerting affinity for H. L. Mencken"

Wonderful. I like this person already.

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 18:43 | 230159 No More Bubbles

"A disconcerting affinity for H. L. Mencken". RIGHT ON JANA! (I mean Marla).......

In Treatise on the Gods (1930), Mencken wrote:

The Jews could be put down very plausibly as the most unpleasant race ever heard of. As commonly encountered, they lack many of the qualities that mark the civilized man: courage, dignity, incorruptibility, ease, confidence. They have vanity without pride, voluptuousness without taste, and learning without wisdom. Their fortitude, such as it is, is wasted upon puerile objects, and their charity is mainly a form of display.

---- I wonder what H.L. would have thought of Greenspan, Bernanke, Geithner and Goldman Sachs, had he lived to see their EVIL.

Mon, 02/15/2010 - 12:07 | 231432 Marla Singer

A. Jana would be very irritated (maybe even insulted) at being mistaken for me.

B. You need to study your Mencken in more detail.

C. I suspect we might find out.

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 17:09 | 230071 hayleecomet

You guys have your pulse on everything financial and economic. I start my morning with ZH, pop in during trading hours, and you are my evening reading. Many of the commenters here are awesome as well. I jut can't thank you enough for your refreshing, factual and honest views. Please don't ever go away.

Jan

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 17:31 | 230095 No More Bubbles

Happy Anniversary!

Thanks for all you do at ZH!

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 17:58 | 230120 Anonymous

Upon his first visit to Rome Giovanni de' Medici is rumored to have whispered, "My God,what happened to them."

Zerohedge is one of the last candles to flare before the lights go out.

Welcome to the darkness, and by all means cup your hand over the flame.

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 17:58 | 230121 deadhead

You guys suck.....

the lies, half truths, propaganda, and deceit out of the world of the financial/political complex and leave the truth exposed.

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 19:55 | 230966 WaterWings

+1 for meaning more than you say.

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 18:04 | 230125 queenbee

On behalf of Inside the Hive congratulations on your one year aniversary. I very much appreciate your hard work and dedication. You are the best financial resource on the web

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 19:22 | 230178 MsCreant

Hi Queenbee,

I know you from Mish's site. They stole my country you know...

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 18:20 | 230139 boiow

without sounding like those snivelling , grovelling bastards above me. well done zerohedge and its contributers for astounding and prolific commentary. might even buy me some of your "gold bitches" mugs.

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 18:36 | 230150 No More Bubbles

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep. - Saul Bellow

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 18:49 | 230164 double 007

thanks and happy one year anniversary ZH

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 19:42 | 230192 Hephasteus

Happy birthday Zero Hedge!!!!! Thank you for everything you do!!!

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 20:26 | 230212 loki

can I write off my donation as for "education" expenses? ;)

Thanks for all you do...

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 20:47 | 230232 Comrade de Chaos

MARLA !

I am very glad that there are people like you in this world. And while many will claim that they bring the hope, you actually do.

You ve done well kid, thank you.

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 21:43 | 230266 Anonymous

Congrats on one year of dedicated service. you are now qualified to have a Saint named after you for € 70,000 or for $99 you can have a star named after you in the Centaurus galaxy. All kidding aside, ZH is the trailblazer on the 'net.

I will donate as soon as;

1.) the Jobs bill produces more than 8 legitimate jobs
2.) POTUS stay off TV for more than 1 day
3.) (Jokerface w/POTUS) comes back to comment on any 1 article
4.) I get a check for from any job

Thanks again.

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 21:54 | 230270 Anonymous

When is the IPO. I am buying

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 22:06 | 230277 putbuyer

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-02/11/content_9465127.htm

sweet

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 11:41 | 230597 MsCreant

I would bet we are posting on a pornographic website, yes?

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 23:11 | 230317 colonial

sorry to be late to the party...was an early reader and read zh every day.

How about a required contribution? Even if its modest. As I write this the NYT has announced it will begin to charge for content, (sounds like something similar to FT,) but, like pending Obama care, its sometime in the future.

Maybe the new ombud-person can provide some data so that readers understand what's involved in producing zh.

Of course no one can put a price on Tyler, Marla, Travis, Cornelius, Sacrilege and now an Ombudsman to boot.

Thank you for this excellent resource. Rather than a baptism by fire its been more like baptism during an inferno. I have a feeling the next 12 months will be as wild as the last 12

Sat, 02/13/2010 - 23:58 | 230348 Anonymous

your byline is on dealbreaker marla...say what?

BTW sent in a little donation...you guyz are indeed an exceptional bunch

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 00:24 | 230367 Anonymous

Add me to the list of lurkers. ZH is hands-down great. I became an addict last Christmas when you posted new material on the revered holiday...and then again on the following Sunday and even on our hallowed Superbowl Sunday- the day when we backwoods Mtn folk can go poach a deer or elk because the entire world is glued to the set. Hell, I bet Missy Failin' even sneaks a peek on here every now and then. (Sternly asked what she reads by that CNN stuffed shirt she stammers and then sweetly confides "Why, ZH, of course!".)
So keep the articles and your lack of reverence rockin' and rollin'. Now if I can just answer the captcha math question.....
SheHunter
Co Mtn.

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 01:21 | 230374 Bear

ZH is like honey to da Bear ... Thanks for the memories

There is a big difference between all 100 blog's and ZH

It's all about CONTENT, so in my book you're No. 1 ... keep up the good (and arduous) work

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 01:25 | 230396 SilverIsKing

An idea...

If you want to raise money fairly easily, sell non-voting shares in ZH. Carve out 10-15% of the company and hold an auction for shares. While buyers of the shares will have no assurances that they'll ever get anything in return for their investment, I'd be surprised if the money raised wasn't substantial. The shares would be non-transferable to avoid an after (black) market in ZH shares but if you ever get an offer for a few gazillion dollars (or a couple of gold eagles), you may be tempted to cash in some or all of your chips, even while maintaining complete editorial control.

This idea just came to me so I haven't really given it too much thought. If it's a real bad idea, I'm sure many of you won't be shy and will let me know. It is quite early in ZH's life to consider such a move but on the surface, it may be something to think about if raising money eventually becomes critical to the continued success this site and donations don't do the trick.

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 02:00 | 230411 Tic tock

Let's talk to the BIS about seeting up an account for you

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 03:58 | 230437 Anonymous

Congrats on one year anniversary - as someone with 10 plus years in web-design/development - the phrase 'content is king' comes to mind when musing on ZH.

Simply my fave must read site of the day.. or tbh several times a day.. ahem..

Bought a hat to show my support - would be happy to subscribe if ZH ever went down that route.

All the best - thanks for your passion and insight.. well appreciated ;-)

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 08:42 | 230513 fresbee

Tyler

Thank you for your site. Am a fan of your reporting. Infact ZERO HEDGE was the primary motivation before we began http://www.investingcontrarian.com 4 months back.

I work in the buy side (Hedge Fund) managing an emerging market portfolio in India and China and hence our writing at Investing Contrarian is more analysis on emerging market (China, India). But we frequently post bond market and US and UK economy analysis.

As you say it has now become an addiction for us :)

Keep it going and a pleasure to read your work.

Thanks

Fresbee

Editor: Investing Contrarian

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 17:23 | 230867 Kayman

to Marla and her frisky children:

Thank you for a wonderful year. I know that we have been freeloading from you and now you are suggesting we start to contribute to our room and board.

Some of your freeloaders do not trust governments of any sort and would prefer you create a mailing address(es) or lock box(es), so that we may send notes of the paper kind. I can assure you this will increase your revenues.

Insofar as ZH, with good reason, prefers anonymity, so too, do many of your readers.

If you are going to knock down this stinking house of financial crap, you will need dry gun powder. Think of alternative ways to source funding anonymously.

And while all of us are amazed at the volume and quality ZH churns out, just think for a minute; you have many readers, but each reader must read articles, one at a time. A daunting task. Many a night I have looked up to find I have been lost in Zerohedge for hours.

Finally, let me say, Zero Hedge is a bright light in a very large, dark political, financial and economic cavern. An ounce of truth on ZH overcomes a ton of Bullshit on the MSM. So, you must find a way that we can help finance this anti-propoganda site. Let us help you, let us help each other.

Congratulations, again.

Kayman

Mon, 02/15/2010 - 12:46 | 231494 Anonymous

U DA BEST !

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Introducing: The Zero Hedge Ombuds(wo)man

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