FiveThirtyEight to Partner with New York Times

fivethirtyeight.com

47 points·rms··9 comments

A big congrats to Nate Silver; this is the journalism equivalent of being bought by Google or Microsoft.

If this means FiveThirtyEight goes behind a NYT paywall in the next six months or so, it may not be great for anyone other than the principals of 538.

I give more credit to Nate Silver's lawyer than that.

I think this is a real win for the readers of both too.

538 has some of the best analysis and NYT has some of the best info graphics. This could be a beautiful and informative acquisition.

Infographics (and the Times...) trend towards informing the uninformed, 538 is strongly geared towards the already-savvy. I can't see a mix that doesn't dilute one or the other and it seems clear who will wear the pants if you will.

That said I'm happy for Nate and don't begrudge him one iota; I'm sad that I'll likely be losing a magnificent resource but it's his blood sweat and tears and it's his to do with as he pleases.

I'm not sure I agree. 538 is the only political blog I read, but I still feel like I understand everything that's discussed.

I can't see a mix that doesn't dilute one or the other

There's no reason to be pessimistic at this stage. Fivethirtyeight did some coverage of the UK election for The Guardian (major British newspaper) and it wasn't particularly diluted that I noticed.

Way to go, Nate Silver. I hope you stick with it; I've consistently appreciated your analysis of politics.

Headline: New York Times manages to slow slide into irrelevance.

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