In response to a scathing 44-minute critique by its competitor Gamers Nexus, YouTube powerhouse Linus Tech Tips has taken swift action to address allegations about its content creation practices. The channel’s board of directors came together in a newly released video called What Do We Do Now? in an effort to gain control of the narrative.
“I’m speaking today because of the recent community outcry demanding change. I’m here because I agree with the community. We have a lot of work to do.”
Next up was Yvonne Ho, Chief Financial Officer and one of the original founders of Linus Media Group Inc. (LMG), the Canada-based parent company of Linus Tech Tips, which she owns with co-founder and husband Linus Sebastian. She said that the channel would be reducing its output:
“Linus is a human gas molecule. You’ve been telling him for years, and I’ve been telling him for years. Staying relevant on YouTube is hard for everyone. But we aren’t fighting for survival anymore. And we don’t need to run at this pace.”
Sebastian stepped down as CEO last month and was succeeded by Tong. However, he remains on the board as Chief Vision Officer. The team came together to contain the damage after being shot down in flames, promising transparency, dialogue, and change.
The controversy began on August 14, when Steve Burke — Editor-in-Chief of Gamers Nexus — published an article criticizing the quality of Linus Tech Tips‘ content, highlighting factual errors and accusing the channel of prioritizing quantity over quality. Burke expressed concerns about Linus Tech Tips‘ reliability and ethics, suggesting that its reviews were untrustworthy.
Linus Tech Tips launched in 2008 as an edutainment channel. Tubefilter ranked it as one of the “top 1% of Google’s preferred advertising channels.” The company expanded to a team of more than 100 employees on hand to operate the main channel and its sister brands, Techquickie, TechLinked, ShortCircuit, and GameLinked. LMG assets have a combined subscriber base of 26.39 million and over 9.16 billion views.
Fans seemed to respond positively to Chief Technology Officer Luke Lafreniere’s approach. He emphasized clear communication, respect for users, and problem-solving.
“You don’t win by screaming loudly or drama-ing hard. You win by fixing problems, improving, and becoming a hard target. We still f***ed up a lot, and we need to own that, fix it and move on.”
Since its release earlier today the video has received over 596,000 views, 70,000 likes, and 25,000 comments. Clearly the community is willing to engage with the Linus Tech Tips content in the spirit of progress and reconcilliation. All’s well that ends well.
Published: Aug 16, 2023 12:01 pm