Gossip Web site JuicyCampus.com shut down for good last Thursday, and founder and CEO Matt Ivester cited the hard economic times as the reason for the site’s termination
“Unfortunately, even with great traffic and strong user loyalty, a business can’t survive and grow without a steady stream of revenue to support it,” Ivester said in his blog last Wednesday. “In these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved. JuicyCampus’ exponential growth outpaced our ability to muster the resources needed to survive this economic downturn.”
Overall Bradley student reaction to the shutdown of JuicyCampus has been positive.
Sophomore public relations and English major Nausheen Farishta said she is glad the site will no longer be available.
“I’m really glad it got shut down,” she said. “There have been serious effects from this in the past, and it’s about time it got shut down.”
Vice President for Student Affairs Alan Galsky said he thinks the end of JuicyCampus was inevitable.
“JuicyCampus did not serve any positive purpose,” he said. “It just became a tell-all sheet for college students to talk about their friends.”
Although the site’s shutdown has been attributed to the struggling economy, Galsky said the nature of the site may have had something to do with its closure.
“The economy was what caused it to be no longer functional,” he said. “But certain people who initially chose to sponsor the site, once they realized what was involved, wouldn’t want to participate any longer.”
Many Bradley students have been directly affected by gossip spread on the Web site, senior English major Becca Baker said.
“I was never personally on it, but my sorority was,” she said. “Girls would end up crying because of something posted on there. I can’t understand how you could do that to someone.”
Galsky said the situation on the site was getting out of hand, and he is aware of people who have registered concerns with the owner.
“I am just aggravated that those who founded the site wanted to encourage behavior like this,” he said.
When Bradley was first added to JuicyCampus, Galsky said student interest in the site was high, but later began to slow down.
“One would hope common sense would prevail after the initial response in a situation like this,” he said.
Student Body President Jordan Ticaric said she has always been against everything JuicyCampus stood for.
“I am very passionate about how ridiculous this was,” she said. “It was a gargantuan time-waster and participation in a site like this is unacceptable for those who attend a prestigious university like Bradley.”
