Business & Finance The Gizmodo Media Group Journalists (Kotaku, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Lifehacker, and The Root) are Going On Strike

[Husky_Khan]

Kotaku might go dark! Maybe for now! Maybe FOREVER! They haven't posted content since Monday apparently... I didn't notice. I haven't even confirmed that's true because fuck giving them clicks. But if it's on the internet it must be true.

They're striking because their bosses at G/O Media didn't meet their demands after five or so meetings with their Corporate Overlords and there weren't even close to a breakthrough!

The union also criticized the company as being unwilling to commit to healthcare standards for trans employees, sufficient parental leave, or diversity hiring initiatives, as well as "lowballing" salaries.

"Kotaku staff is [very] trans, non-binary, and genderqueer," Kotaku editor-in-chief Patricia Hernandez said on Twitter. "I stand with them, and everyone else at G/O Media fighting for better working conditions to make the content that you love."

The union said 93% of its membership participated in a strike authorization vote, and 100% of those voting were in favor of the action. It has also set up a strike fund to support its workers.

Be strong people! Hopefully other Games Journalists follow suit! Polygon, your next!

This is great news! Not too long ago G/O Media had labor issue with their other subsidiary, the AV Club and half of the AV Club people quit and G/O Media didn't give a fuck! The "sports" journalists at Deadspin also tried to complain when G/O Media told them to focus on Sports and when the Deadspin people refused, most of them got cut as well and replaced with people who actually covered sports more!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting a revolution in Games Journalism here, but it looks like the gravy train for these social commentators posing as games journalists has come to an end at least for another big gaming journalism website. Here's hoping!

Kotaku and Gizmodo Media Group workers strike

The Gizmodo Media Group Union went on strike today, with staff at Kotaku, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Lifehacker, and T…

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[ParadiseLost]

I wonder when those big companies will start looking outside of cities like LA, NY, and Chicago for their workers. That places a lot of unnecessary pressure to pay higher wages that wouldn't exist if they sourced their stuff remotely.

 

[sander093]

Any chance we can convince them to stay striking, permanently. It would a great boon to gaming as a whole.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Any chance we can convince them to stay striking, permanently. It would a great boon to gaming as a whole.

Gosh I hope so. If the Corporation gives in demand more! Take it to them!

Remember they are doing this for us. ♥

 

[Large_Farva]

I feel uniquely qualified to discuss this topic, as someone who's read the AV Club and Jalopnik(an automotive blog) for years - long before they became part of Gawker (subsequently the Gizmodo Media Group...subsequently G/O Media).

The sites have been bleeding talent and quality for a long time. The two I mentioned were relatively early in Web 2.0, starting sometime in the 2000's. I guess they weren't quite able to figure out how to monetize their content, since they ended up being bought by the larger organization (or maybe their owners just wanted to cash out.)

There's been a slow degradation on both of those - I have to imagine that Kotaku fits the bill as well - a slide away from well-written news, reviews and analysis. In their place is poorly-proofread clickbait, titled to provoke and written to drive emotion-driven responses in the comments.

Basically, it's the story of every business bought out by capital management groups. Take a property with brand recognition, then cut costs to maximize profit margin. When the customers notice that the quality has gone downhill, pivot to a gimmick and ride it. Keep cutting costs as much as you can. When the meat has been entirely flensed from the bone, and there are no more costs to cut, sell it on at a bargain-basement price to some sucker who's given a list of long-past highlights to try and gild the name.

In this case, that means pay the writers and editors less, dismiss any that won't take pay cuts. Hire cheaper people who are just starting out, make sure they're aiming for maximal user engagement - political viewpoints always rile someone up and hate clicks are still clicks. Push writers to get as much content out as possible, damn the quality. Eventually, editors are dropped since fuck it, and it gives at least one person a reason to post in the comments.

The sites are a shadow of their former selves, the comment sections largely dried up like a flower petal in the Arizona sun. The writers that grew followings in the sites heydays - and even after the heydays - have used those gigs as a springboard to something better. The ones who are still around have largely failed to distinguish themselves (although in a hilarious example of a fallen angel Erin Marquis, a Jalopnik writer, left for the New York Times to be the lead editor of their product-review site Wirecutter...only to return to Jalopnik five months later after she invoked her New York Times credentials when haranguing a gun-rights organization. Turns out the NYT isn't a fan of their personnel using the name for credibility when making political statements.)

My hope is that whoever buys the group of sites figures out that maybe the way to get eyeballs is by doing the things that garnered the audience years ago - good writing and thoughtful perspectives when it comes to news, reviews and articles of the various sectors that the respective sites cover.

I wonder when those big companies will start looking outside of cities like LA, NY, and Chicago for their workers. That places a lot of unnecessary pressure to pay higher wages that wouldn't exist if they sourced their stuff remotely.

The AV Club staff were required to all move to LA, with a fairly insubstantial sum to help them do it. A fair number lived in Chicago, and the money was insufficient to convince them to pack up and head to one of the most expensive cities in the US to keep their jobs.