Should I renew my subscription the-ken? Should you subscribe to the-ken?
I will try to answer those questions. But before that? Who am I?
I am the venerable Guru Cingh, but who am I to critique the mighty the-ken. The-Ken that has been backed by none other than the great wealth distributor, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Omidyar Network, and 13 more investors (as per Crunchbase).
I have been a reader, paid subscriber, and I think I gifted one to a friend of mine and paid for another subscription for someone who really cared about me.
All the above grants me the right to say what I am about to say. I will talk about the product, which is spectacular.
The stories, some of them were immersive.
The hit job that they did and the stories they did not, which I can attribute to the person who funded them. And that fact helps me question their integrity.
Their side projects – visual stories and the podcast – Unofficial Sources
Before I dig in, I could however renew my subscription, not because I like what they write – which I do not lately, it is because I am a voracious reader, and even though they have become stale and repetitive, they do open you up to newer topics and discussions.
Or I could trial with the Morning Context but I am sure it is going to be similar trope.
First the Software – the website and the iOS app. Cannot comment on the Android app, didn’t use it, but those who did, had no complaints.
Excellent reading experience – both on the web and the mobile app. 5/5 on both.
Everything loads fast, reads well, nice use of fonts, all the goodies are there.
Looks and feels like a product made by excellent engineers.
So what is there to moan about?
No print option means I cannot read that on paper. Remember I said I am a voracious reader and they are not even in my top five, which is Matt Levine, Ben Evans, Bryne Hobart, Economist, the Wired, Finshots, and the Rolling Stone, and well, probably now you see my predicament.
I requested those guys that just like WSJ has the print option, you can print the story, read at your leisure.
That is how you know when someone is probably too full of themselves.
If by any chance someone at the-ken reads this, I will let you in on a secret, ‘News is a perishable business.’
No one is going to sell pirated prints of your closely guarded narratives.
Additionally, there is not much demand for what you write. So the incentive of selling The-Ken’s narrative in some grey market is zero to negative.
If there was one reason why I would not renew my subscription is this.
I am more than okay paying for a sub-par product but at least help me consume it.
Lately their stories have become ‘meh’.
I have a feeling their heart is not in it anymore. The depth is gone.
They have a new writer, Jaspreet Singh, who is a saving grace.
The other day there was this story on Byju’s and just like you could tell the hunter by its prey, I knew instinctively it was Jaspreet who wrote it, but I feel the other seniors simply added their names along after doing some piecemeal work for the article. That is my personal opinion though.
Apart from that, most of the stories have no meat. It is like picking a book with the title,’One Hundred Years of Solitude’ and discovering that it is entirely about Indian male engineers (mechanical mostly).
I think due to their painting everything in a negative manner, industry people have stopped interacting with them. Basically there is no flavor left in the long form stories. I might subscribe only to the newsletters but for stories I will pass.
And the hit job they did on Ashneer Grover. That was such a blunt personal attack. I do not even know the guy and I am sure he has his troubles and what not, but that was piece was pure schadenfreude and at the same time total silence on the wealth destruction that happened after Paytm IPO.
Personally I like both products. But that is me. I like innovations. But I think by not writing about Paytm like they did about OYO, and lately about Byju’s, the-ken did a huge disservice to their readers and for that they lose one subscriber at least.
And the podcast – I could not listen past the first few minutes of first episode. I never even cared to see what it was about until today and you guys had rightfully shut it down. It was horrible.
I have this distinct feeling that the-ken is being built for acquisition.
The writers (or reporters as you might call them) do not have their heart into it anymore. Only the one new kid has it, but seems like he has trained himself all these years to write the way he does.
The-Ken is a lot of things but it is not business journalism. So yeah it does not make sense for me to renew.
I will answer another question – Should one subscribe though?
I think one should if one can afford or wants to come out of their echo chamber. They do a good job of introducing their reader to new topics and companies and pretty interesting stuff now and again.
Why won’t I renew in the end?
It is because of Nietzsche. Nietzsche suggested, Say No (to content) and maintain a strict information diet.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic and philologist whose work has exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history. Among other things he espoused strict information diet and for that reason alone I would cut down on the content.
I think of all the content that I read regularly the-ken has the lowest standard of writing and for this I would cut them off, otherwise they are okay people, a bit full of themselves, take criticism very personally and have marred their journalistic integrity, but still a good indulgence on my way to work.
This is my personal opinion on my personal blog. I sincerely hope I am not drawn into senseless debate and discussions about what I feel personally about something I paid for.
Btw you lose access to the older stories that you paid for. Just found out.
