The Hard Times


The Hard Times is a satirical website with a focus on punk, alt music, and millennial culture founded in 2014 by former SF Weekly music editor Matt Saincome, his brother Ed Saincome, and comedian Bill Conway. It has been compared to The Onion, ClickHole, and Reductress in style, and has received praise for its specificity and niche appeal.
The Hard Times also publishes Hard Drive, a satirical video game vertical, hosts stand-up comedy shows at music festivals, and produces podcasts.
Content published by The Hard Times is typically virally spread through engagement on social media such as Facebook. The site averages between 2 and 6 million views a month.

History

Founder Matt Saincome began pitching the idea for The Hard Times in 2012 as a junior studying journalism at San Francisco State. He formally founded The Hard Times with his brother Ed and comedian Bill Conway in December 2014, following a soft launch earlier in the year.
In September 2016, the site passed 3 million views, and entered into an advertising partnership with Vice Media.
In 2017, the site launched Hard Drive to publish video game related articles, and began developing video content. The site tapped Jeremy Kaplowitz, Mike Amory, and Mark Roebuck as co-founding editors.
In 2018, The Hard Times began work on a book and a television show.
In 2019, several editors of The Hard Times and actor Phil Jamesson created parody presidential candidate Ace Watkins on Twitter, with the fictional candidate claiming to aspire to be "the first gamer president". The Twitter account amassed more than 40,000 followers within several days after the account's creation.
Hard Times Media LLC sold The Hard Times to Project M Group, the parent company of Revolver Magazine and Inked Magazine, in July 2020, while maintaining ownership of Hard Drive.