IGN immediately lays off every non-UK person at their newly bought sites, including some key members like deputy editor Alice Bell

Welp, this didn’t take long.

It’s especially interesting that they laid off a lot of people who were the only ones in their particular job, leaving entire jobs uncovered. I suspect this comes right before shutting them entirely or doing it all “with AI” 🤮.

Sad in particular about Alice Bell. She was fantastic, and it always felt like she kept the site going through all the shit of recent years. Plus being the driving force behind their podcast (the Electronic Wireless Show) of course also spells doom for that one though I hope that like Indiescovery they go rogue and run it independent of the site.

Bleak times. Fuck IGN.

kat_angstrom,

I hate how this is phrased as “redundancies”. IGN literally JUST bought these outlets, they haven’t had time to dig into and examine the organizations they acquired; it’s just straight into the Corpo playbook of “lay people off and let the dust settle where it may”.

These are people, not “redundancies”. They contributed in the old organization, and they could contribute in the new, but they never even got the chance.

simple,

Oh they’re redundancies to IGN alright, they literally bought their competitors and got to kill competition with zero resistance

TwilightVulpine,

There used to be laws against this shit.

mPony,

people also used to vote in their own interests

deweydecibel,

There never was a chance.

Generally when companies like this are bought it isn’t to acquire the talent. That’s legitimately what needs to be taken into account when it comes to things like antitrust. You want to buy out this company, are you buying it because you want their talent to join with yours to make something better? Cool. We’ll let you do that provided you do it today fair and competitive manner.

Any other reason for wanting to buy this company is going to need to be pretty heavily scrutinized.

MrScottyTay, (edited )

Redundancy means that they get paid for being made to leave the company. That terminology is used because it’s different from being fired.

Copernican,

It’s basically just British terminology for layoffs with a severance package.

deweydecibel, (edited )

It amounts to the same thing, though. Whether you got a few months pay to carry you through or not you still lost your income, and there’s no guarantee you’ll ever find a job that matches it in pay, benefits, etc.

MrScottyTay,

Read the guys comment again though. They say their issue is with calling them “redundancies” in a language sense. But it’s not sugar coating it or anything, that’s the legitimate term for what happened.

Carighan,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Especially because from what was said, the employees were told the sites will be bought “as is”, so everyone gets to keep their jobs.

It’s in situations such as these where C-suites being required to also apply to them what they apply to others would be nice:

  • CFO or CEO at IGN has to quit. Won’t hurt them much, but eh.
  • CEO at Reedpop has to sell themselves (into slavery I suppose, plus it fits what they do to their workers).
ColeSloth,

You generally don’t buy a business and then figure all of that out. You figure it all out and then buy the business. IGN already would have 100% known the managerial setup at these companies.

xkforce,

What should happen is not always what does happen. There are tons of examples of brain dead companies and rich people buying companies they dont understand and then ruining them because of that.

lud,

Is there anything pointing to that in this case?

xkforce,

Did you not read the title at least? How does firing all these people indicate they know what theyre doing?

makingStuffForFun,
@makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml avatar

I’d say this is the perfect time to start a really regular and dedicated games review site. They have to start somewhere and if you’re trusted and good then you’ll get a following.

SendMePhotos,

Yeah… Let’s call it… G4tv

Ashtear,

It’s tough. A long-standing rule of video games media–even well before web publishing–is that reviews don’t pay the bills. Hype gets clicks, as do guides now that independent guide writing has waned.

Fedizen, (edited )

Buying out competition and throwing out the workers confident that investors won’t back a small dog against a big one

In an investor run economy, competition means you might lose a bet. For an investor its better to reduce competition than lose bets. This is originally why anti trust legislation was created: The market needs to be forced to compete or it will amalgamate into a giant blob of noncompeting assets.

High taxes exist to reduce accumulation of assets and slow down the snowballing effect of huge investors. This is what the trump tax cuts look like.

Theharpyeagle,

Really hoping that we see more stuff like Second Wind, though that took some real name recognition (and I suspect some pre-planning) to pull off.

UnderpantsWeevil,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

This is originally why anti trust legislation was created

If you look at the history of anti-trust legislation, some of its first uses and biggest targets were labor organizers. Under the Sherman Antitrust Act, one of the first and most notable cases was the US lawsuit against the Workingmen’s Amalgamated Council (also known as the “Triple Alliance” of teamsters, scalesmen, and packers) over what was then the largest labor action in US history.

It wasn’t until the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act that unions were granted safe harbor from anti-trust provisions. And it took until 1941 for the courts to finally fully decriminalize labor actions - a process that was ultimately reversed starting in the 1960s under Nixon, and extended under Ford, Carter, and then Reagan.

High taxes exist to reduce accumulation of assets and slow down the snowballing effect of huge investors.

That’s the Keynesian approach, certainly. But the Chicago School that came to dominate US economics during the Volcker Era suggested instead that we can adjust the Federal Funds rate to keep malinvestment from derailing an economy. And that this strategy means asset accumulation is now safe and profitable for large corporate interests.

Large investment banks are actually good, because they give us a steady and constant flow of price information on a private market. And since price discovery is the real goal of regulation, the advent of these mega-banks means we can let the institutions regulate themselves without any conceivable downsi- sound of the 2008 market crash

p5yk0t1km1r4ge,
@p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world avatar

The recent layoffs at the company have been swift and impactful. Notably, several unique positions were affected, leaving entire job functions uncovered. This move suggests a potential restructuring or shift towards automation using artificial intelligence, which is concerning.

In particular, the departure of Alice Bell is deeply regrettable. Her exceptional contributions were instrumental in maintaining the company’s operations during challenging times. Additionally, her leadership in the Electronic Wireless Show podcast was pivotal. It is hoped that, similar to Indiescovery, the podcast team will continue independently to preserve its value.

These developments paint a concerning picture of the company’s future.

LiveLM, (edited )

Buys publication
Immediately fires what makes it tick

???
I don’t get it. Am I dumb? Are they buying other publications just for the branding?

supersquirrel,

The violence is the point

efstajas,

Acquiring a company just for the brand or even just to make it disappear is pretty common in all of the corporate world.

ahriboy,
@ahriboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Quality worsens. Losing a lot of reliable sources for Wikipedia and other free content sites to use.

3volver,

This is a part of the beginning of it. Centralization results in layoffs and worse products. This is why we have antitrust laws, now they go unenforced because of corruption. AI is going to replace a lot of jobs and we’re going to get shittier products while the winning corporations continue to make more money. Winner take all system is bad for everyone.

Hadriscus,

wtf. You can’t fire Alice, she is RPS

supersquirrel,

https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/e204aa97-08ab-4fd4-8a00-b72e4adb35ae.webp

one of the best people in games journalism fired because…?

Seriously fuck late stage capitalism ughh

AFC1886VCC,

I haven’t cared about IGN since I was a horny teenager watching Jessica Chobot hosting the daily fix

hal_5700X,

Let the IGN monopoly begin. Gaming journalism has been a joke for years now. But now it’s getting worst.

slaacaa, (edited )
  1. Governments should only allow big mergers in exceptional circumstances
  2. Big conglomerates should be broken up

They are bad for the workers, and bad for the consumers. Half of the time, also bad for the shareholders (according to an old McK study). Lives are being ruined for billionaires to gamble for more billions.

Mango,

Did anyone ever think that any workplace anywhere is about the value produced and wages rather than tribalistic fuckshit?

shaytan,
@shaytan@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

You now have a chance to follow some of their independent blogs, support them that way, fuck all this big companies, they are laying of everyone for ai

atro_city,

We need more worker owned associations and more workers' rights. This is ridiculous.

Facebones,

Second Wind (old video team from the escapist) has been going strong but they’re still pretty new.

Idk anything about rps but hopefully some of them rally and do the same.

Goronmon,

We also need people to realize that it’s not sustainable to expect free content while running an ad-blocker.

Hadriscus,

I disable my adblocker on RPS. They also have a subscriber system which works well I reckon (although I don’t partake)

atro_city,

I disagree. Ads are not the answer. Treating them as such is simply giving up.

Goronmon, (edited )

Agreed, ads are not the answer. Paying for content is the answer.

But people want their content to be free, while also being angry that their free content contains ads.

atro_city,

Because content distributors haven't thought of another way to get money. The only other thing they came up with is subscriptions. Some have thought of donations, but they haven't banded together to come up with an alternative. It's weak and totally mid.

WldFyre,

Literally what other options are there?

dat_fast_boi,

Outside of straight cash and ads, off the top of my head a user could give a website data, content, or computing power. Which, as I kept writing this, I’ve found aren’t perfect alternatives.

Personal data collection seems compelling, since the data can be sold to hungry data brokers looking to optimise their ads, but tech-savvy users want to keep their data safe, either by using plugins to block ads and tracking, or by not using your website. And you’d also have to have no soul to do this.

User generated content gives users a reason to engage and return, and it also means you could save money that you’d have otherwise used to pay someone to make content. If you rely on this too much though, ethical concerns become apparent - last I checked, Reddit mods are unpaid.

Volunteer computing could maybe lower costs by offloading some server calculations onto volunteer’s computers when idle, but I don’t know if it could even be used for that. It’s probably a non-starter for websites, too; to a user it would seem like your site was asking them to install a crypto miner.

… this comment is getting too long and doesn’t really have a point. But I can’t let the 45 minutes I spent writing it go to waste so easily. Hm… what if I combined all 3 ideas?

Yes, a website that asks you to volunteer idle computer time to train an algorithm that can both be outsourced to other companies and used to analyse your personal data, which itself can be given to other companies and used to reccomend you posts you are more likely to comment on, adding value to the website! Surely this has none of the flaws that I described before.

FeelzGoodMan420,

Bro $4,000 OLED TVs are riddled with rows of home screen ads. What are you talking about that paid content has no ads? ALL CONTENT HAS FUCKING ADS. This has gotten absurd. Fuck ads.

Goronmon,

What are you talking about that paid content has no ads?

The article that OP posted is on a site that allows you to pay and from what I can tell doesn’t have any obvious ads that I’ve seen.

But at the end of the day, find a site you like, pay for the content if you can and run an ad-blocker.

FeelzGoodMan420,

I’m not responding to OP. I’m responding to you.

Goronmon,

OK? I was giving you an example of “paid content with no ads” that you claimed didn’t exist. What is confusing you?

FeelzGoodMan420, (edited )

Man…you said the issue with all of this is people not willing to pay to remove ads. I’m saying that even when you buy expensive products, you still have ads. So ads are everywhere, regardless of whether you pay or use free products. The entire business model is fucked. That’s what I’m saying. I’m not sure what it causing the confusion here.

Goronmon, (edited )

Ahh…I see where you got confused.

I was saying that people will run an ad-blocker, but also refuse to pay directly for content.

And then complain that nobody makes good content.

I’m saying that even when you buy expensive products, you still have ads.

Sure, but that’s not really related to the topic. “Why are there ads in the products I pay for?” is a different issue than "Why are there ads in the products I don’t pay for?

FeelzGoodMan420, (edited )

Yea. Separate but related issues I suppose. I just feel like even when we pay tons of money for expensive products, we will get ads. Even modern cars are collecting an obscene amount of data even though we pay a shit ton of money for them. It’s completely out of control.

maynarkh,

The problem is that ad-driven businesses are price dumping by tricking people into using their services by telling them it’s free, and thus killing the market for everyone else. I am not turning my adblocker off. I do not expect “free” content in perpetuity. I expect the “free” content business model to die off.

Goronmon,

I expect the “free” content business model to die off.

I don’t. I expect the vast majority of people will continue to demand free content while simultaneously complaining about the quality of said content.

Swedneck,
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

i’ll turn off my adblocker when i can be confident that your site won’t show me ads for child porn or actual fucking scams.

criss_cross,

And not make the site impossible to use.

Most sites nowadays its impossible to actually read a goddamn article without 5 pop in videos and ad breaks.

Facebones,

This is the big one. people have grown accustomed to an unsustainable system, problem is wages are still so stagnanted so nobody has money for 10 subs to things.

Empricorn,

These giant corporations don’t even have to be quiet about it anymore, there’s just no consequences. They couldn’t care less about you, me, their customers, or their employees.

CitizenKong,

Someone should remind them that they didn’t do it the last hundred years or so because the alternative was angry mobs trying to kill them.

billiam0202,

Someone should remind the angry mobs that they should be angry mobs.

aquafunk, (edited )
@aquafunk@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

They care about being able to hire labor, which we provide, and they care about revenue and profit, which we also provide. Not defending any behavior, but the consequences in a healthy economy would largely come from customers, potential and current employees. Failing that, large issues would be overcome by regulations, or at least enforcing existing ones (codified rules against monopolies, for examples, are just words if not enforced).

Without consumers willing (and able) to make sacrifices (like paying higher prices) to reward good corporate behavior, and to avoid companies with purely short-term profit motivated behavior, this is what we can and should expect. Nevermind companies are rewarded by shareholder and investor support based more on profits than.how those profits were made, especially when many of those shareholders feel forced to turn to the stock market to fund their retirement, as pensions are so increasingly a rare option.

Would voting for fresh representatives possibly increase instability in out daily lives? Is that instability a possibly necessary cost of maintaining effective regulation of the investor class that has captured our legislative system to their own benefit?

There are systemic problems at play here- not to downplay the choices this individual company made, but the focus could be on the larger forces at work. If your first reaction is that boycotts and choices by consumers and employees, no matter how organized and widespread, do not work, then I ask you, dear reader, to consider what might work to make the necessary systemic changes, and what, if anything, you can do to help make them happen.

The investor class has made it clear what their playbook is, as they have time and time again thru history: explotation, and as much of it as they can get away with. The question then becomes what us, the ever-increasingly exploited, are going to do about it.

no war but class war.

ed:I hope that didnt come off as disagreement- just trying to voice frustration with a side of “everyone who agrees with you please take a moment to think about the big picture, and what you can do about it” because I’m also tired of this slide into an increasingly boring dystopia

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

Without consumers willing (and able) to make sacrifices (like paying higher prices) to reward good corporate behavior, and to avoid companies with purely short-term profit motivated behavior, this is what we can and should expect.

I think consumers have spoken, at least in part. What money can be made doing this job is more easily made on YouTube.

Carighan,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Which sucks due to the innate near-inability of a Youtube video to carry an argument without a visual component well.

It’s why podcasts can be decent for some topics, but youtube is just someone talking a podcast into the camera for 45 minutes, and all of it would be ~5 minutes reading a single paragraph at most if it were in written form but you really really realy got to chase those ad-impressions.

Non-textual forms for textual content have really been their own destructive blight on internet content. :'(

aquafunk,
@aquafunk@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I find myself immediately opening the video transcript for many videos. creating a well made video that offers more than a few paragraphs of text is often a challenge

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

I get my gaming news from YouTube podcasts, mostly; at least those two do employ people actually doing some of that same type of work. It doesn’t really matter how good Schreier is at his job when I’m not going pay for a Bloomberg subscription and someone else can more cheaply copy the same content and tell me what it said. The video format gives me more of a dialogue with the person who did the work. Plus ads are much more easily defeated on a web page than on YouTube, though they are still partially defeated.

wrekone,

Thank you for eloquently saying what I often struggle to convey. I’m saving this comment for later reference.

KingThrillgore,
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

The old Ziff Davis Nasty

I’m amazed they are allowed to own both publishing for video games (Humble) and publishing for journalism.

mPony,

I’m amazed they are allowed to own

By this point I’m surprised that they’re not allowed to own people, seeing as their business model treats people as if they are property.

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