Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: etc.

"it would be ironic if I had to work overtime to write an article attacking the culture of overtime."

If you follow the game media for a long time, you may find that there seems to be less and less important news in the industry recently.

After all, the game media is going through a round of intensive layoffs. Although companies usually explain it in terms of "structural change", "supply chain problems" and "difficult market environment", they often use the keyword "Alden Ring" in their communication with practitioners because the game has brought much-needed traffic to many websites.

"Alden Ring brought us a lot of traffic when it was released, but later, as the number of such masterpieces decreased, website traffic declined." "coupled with the impact of the epidemic, game reporting is in an interesting position that only large games can get the most traffic, unless there are dark horses or cross-border hot products on the market," said Carly Velosi, who has previously worked as a game editor at Android Central, iMore and Windows Central.

In a sense, layoffs are like an epidemic in game media, leaving many websites with only a small number of backbone staff or teams of newcomers to run. In June, Inverse fired some members of its editorial team. About three months ago, Waypoint, a vertical gaming site owned by Vice Media, suddenly shut down and its parent company made large-scale layoffs. Earlier, Launcher and Fanbyte, owned by the Washington Post, as well as several gaming sites of the Gamurs Group and Future groups, suffered brutal layoffs.

Several journalists and editors affected by the layoffs at Inverse, an online technology media with a user base of millennials, involved editors in departments such as entertainment, games and science. One of the most common challenges facing game news teams was to meet traffic and revenue targets set by management, according to journalists and editors affected by the layoffs. For many writers, the Elden Ring has become a key catalyst for surpassing these goals. "We decided to have some members write a comprehensive and detailed strategy for the Elden Ring, because longer pages tend to generate higher income." A former Fanbyte contributor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, "although we can't achieve the traffic target, we can also achieve the revenue target, which is fine."

Perhaps it is out of the pursuit of traffic that Fanbyte has gradually transformed into a game media focusing on strategies since it was acquired by Tencent. In September 2022, the site suddenly launched a round of mass layoffs, including former news editor Amra Strauss-Kahn and former Fanbyte social media manager Lutes.

Lutes explained that she was on vacation and missed the call. When she arrived at her destination, she received a templated dismissal email that ended with: "according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an employee will change an average of 12 to 15 jobs in his or her lifetime. This is just a small bump in your career, and we sincerely hope that you can start all over again with a stronger posture."

Fanbyte, formerly known as Zam.com, was briefly renamed Ready Set after the acquisition, and then editor-in-chief Chris Loris Child was fired shortly after the site was renamed. According to him, there was no warning of the layoffs, and management did not explain why. Four years later, the Fanbyte editorial team was also shocked by the scale of the company's new round of layoffs. According to several laid-off employees, Fanbyte was able to meet traffic and revenue targets set by senior executives, but those targets change every few months.

Lutes added: "my superiors do everything they can to keep us away from data and things like that, and they keep making new demands. In some ways, Fanbyte employees are almost isolated. I think Fanbyte has done a good job, but the idea of management is that now that you have achieved those unrealistic goals, let's challenge this even more unrealistic 10x goal. If we fail to achieve our new goals, we may lose our jobs. "

Fanbyte's layoffs were reported to be so sudden that some people said they had been working with colleagues an hour before, until editor-in-chief Danielle Riendeau announced on Twitter that he had been laid off and was known to the public in September last year, around the same time as Fanbyte announced layoffs. Future, the British media group, also carried out several rounds of large-scale layoffs. Carly Velosi, a former Future game editor, said the company did not explain why, but the layoffs mainly affected the editorial department. She also mentioned that the games section of Future sub-media basically met its traffic and revenue targets, although both figures were down from their peak during the outbreak.

Another former Future employee revealed that he and his colleagues generally agreed that many of the goals set by management were simply unrealistic. Because the full-time editorial team is too small and the budget for hiring part-time workers has been slashed, the lack of resources has put great pressure on the team.

In March 2023, a group of freelancers did not receive any severance pay during a round of layoffs by Gamurs Group, the parent company of game media such as Twinfinite, Gamepur and Dot Esports. In fact, Gamurs's fee standards for part-time writers are quite low. For example, Gamepur pays only $15 for short news articles, and longer articles such as opinions and features can only generate $35 to $70 for freelance writers. On e-sports 's website Dot Esports, a 2000-word feature costs only $90. According to several freelance writers who have contributed to Gamurs's media, their average monthly income is between $400 and $600.

"generally speaking, you can earn about $5 billion to $1000 a month from Gamepur, but most of them don't exceed $600." Stephen Lawler, a former Gamepur freelance writer, said, "when I work part-time as a full-time job, I usually work with two or three media outlets every month, but this is by no means a long-term solution, because the contribution income is only enough to cover daily expenses and offset some small bills."

Shortly after the layoffs, Gamurs issued a recruitment advertisement for AI editors, requiring proficiency in the use of tools such as SEO and AI to create high-quality content. Gamurs's fee structure encourages freelance writers to write more articles as long as the number of contributions reaches a certain number each quarter, and the author gets a bonus. He received an additional bonus of $500 for providing more than 500 articles in one quarter, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity. "A lot of freelance writers do a lot of work, but they are underpaid." "these authors are directly inspired by the fee system to write as many articles as possible," said Grace Benfield, a former Gamepur feature editor. "

However, according to Riyadh Chihani, founder and chief executive of Gamurs, this strategy, while prompting part-time writers to produce a lot of content, is inefficient, which is one of the reasons why the group decided to lay off staff. Mr Zihani said in an email to employees that about 35 per cent of the content on Gamurs's websites generated less than 10 per cent of traffic, and that the group could not afford such inefficiency.

"We have tried to increase the flow of existing sections while investing in new ones, but we have failed to bring the expected profitability, so there is no reason to continue to invest. I take full responsibility for the decisions made by the company."

Today, Qihani still serves as CEO of the Gamurs Group.

The Washington Post closed its game division Launcher and its children's edition KidsPost in January, cutting a total of 20 news editorial positions. In March this year, the game vertical Launcher of the veteran media giant Washington Post was abruptly closed and most members of the editorial team were fired. But Mike Hume, a former Launcher editor, revealed on social media that the section was strong and "attracted tens of millions of users, most of whom were new readers of the Washington Post." Several of Hume's former colleagues also mentioned that the closure of Launcher was surprising because the Washington Post's long-term vision was to attract young readers, which is exactly what Launcher is good at.

A former Launcher reporter pointed out: "of all the sections, Launcher has the youngest audience, and colleagues in many other sections are learning Launcher because it fulfills part of the Washington Post mission statement. As far as I know, we meet our traffic targets every year."

Launcher's editorial team was told that the team was not laid off because of their poor performance or failure to meet any specific targets. Sally Buzby, executive editor of the Washington Post, wrote in an internal email: "after a thoughtful assessment of our existing staff and vacant positions, the leaders of the newsroom made the decision to lay off staff. While it is not easy to make such a change, it is necessary for us to remain competitive, and the economic environment has led us to take action. We believe that these measures will eventually help us accomplish our mission of censorship and empowering readers. "

However, another former Launcher reporter said the platitudes did not bring much comfort to laid-off employees. "We were not fired for poor performance, but in many ways it is still very frustrating."

Several former Launcher employees interviewed pointed out that the Washington Post did not force the editorial team to achieve any specified goals in terms of manuscript volume, website traffic and revenue, and that authors were free to write any articles they wanted without having to write quickly around masterpieces such as the Alden Ring or other hot topics, making it easier for search engines to include them.

The Washington Post union said the layoffs were unacceptable and should be zero. "when I first started, everyone told me,'We hope this is your last job and we want you to develop your career here for decades.'" A former Launcher writer revealed, "at that time, I also thought that I might be able to work in this place for decades and become famous."

Shannong Liao, a former Launcher reporter, said that sometimes she felt she had to write more articles every week to make the site have more content. But she usually has enough time to do interviews and write more in-depth investigative reports.

"I feel very honored to work at the Washington Post... just a few months after joining Launcher, a lot of sources and the company began to contact me: 'can you release this scoop? I want to see it in the Washington Post.' this is great. I don't want to miss any important news, but at the same time, I have too many things to deal with."

"I've written a lot about overtime, so I often think it would be ironic if I had to work overtime to write an article attacking the culture of overtime. Even so, I imposed it on myself. The company has never asked anyone to work overtime, but I think I have to do this if I want to write an objective and impartial article."

Waypoint was also shut down by vertical businesses such as Vice World News and Vice Audio, and Vice Media formally filed for bankruptcy protection a few weeks later, although the intense layoffs in gaming media are disturbing, but according to Willinglu, a senior legal adviser to law firm Morrison Rothman, these layoffs are legal.

Unfortunately, whether some of a company's behavior is legal or moral is sometimes two different things. From the legal point of view of the contract, there is no law on how companies must fire their employees, whether they should notify the laid-off employees in advance, or whether to sue the media. Employees get little protection. Some trade unions may have rules, such as requiring enterprises to negotiate with employees first, trade unions also have a certain say, and so on, but most companies do not have trade unions at all. "

Of the above-mentioned gaming media, only Launcher's former employees belong to a trade union, the Washington Post union. According to former employees of Launcher interviewed, the union did help them get more severance pay through negotiations.

Given the current economic environment, Willinglu advises journalists to pay special attention to the terms of the employment contract, especially to see if the contract contains a termination clause and whether they have room to negotiate. " We should make a distinction between the termination of the contract with and without reason. If a journalist is terminated for some reason, it means that he made a mistake and his contract was terminated immediately. But if you are fired for no reason, you may be able to negotiate with your employer and make your own demands according to the relevant terms of the contract, such as' how many months of health insurance or employment allowance do I have the right to receive'or'I am entitled to a termination indemnity'. "

But in the long run, many journalists are pessimistic about the future of game media. The root of the problem is that to date, digital media have not yet found a way to continuously generate sufficient profits for head stakeholders.

"in game media, some journalists are good at writing excellent investigative reports, news, and very in-depth oral histories or features. but overall, resources do not flow to these sections." "most of it goes to search engine-optimized content, and journalists are required to produce articles that can quickly attract readers to click on, which results in a lot of homogenization of content, which is a big problem for the entire journalism industry," Velosi said. for a long time, the news industry did not know how to make money, and struggled with it. "

Another reporter pointed out that as the wave of layoffs swept the game media, the competition has become extremely fierce, it will be more difficult for newcomers to enter the industry. " I don't know if the situation is going to get worse. This period is so difficult that I feel unable to see the future of the industry. Many young people who want to engage in game news reporting will have to compete with experienced professional editors because they have also been fired and are looking for new jobs. If even these seniors can not find a job, then it is a pity that there is little chance for newcomers to join the game media. "

This article is compiled from: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/why-do-games-media-layoffs-keep-happening

The original title: "Why do games media layoffs keep happening?"

Original author: Khee Hoon Chan

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