Jason should leave Kotaku and form his own press website that runs on his own terms, alone or with a unionized workforce.
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Kotaku publishes article criticizing their own terrible ads, Kotaku owners later remove it without consent of the staff.
- Thread starter Lant_War
- Start date
Jason and Brian could honestly run their own site and make it they are the only ones whose articles are consistent sometimes tim puts out good stuff too
The fact that the GMG is resorting to aggressive user-unfriendly ads is enough evidence that "just start another video gaming website" is not a risk-adverse idea.
Seriously. There is no better description than shithole for this place. God damn.
This sums up my feelings. It's a shame that so many talented journalists work under such a bullshit umbrella.
Anyone who hasn't read it already owes it to themselves to read Megan Greenwell's farewell post on Deadspin. G/O has been rotten for a long time, and it's unlikely to get better anytime soon, if ever.
Lord, please let Jason get his own site in 2020. I really cannot keep reading Kotaku just for his brilliant work alone.
I would also like to see Jason and a lot of the Kotaku staff pull a Giant Bomb and go off to do their own thing. The only Kotaku articles I normally read are Jason's anyway.
I would 100% contribute to this, and I pretty much never do patreon stuff.
This requires money, though. When Jeff and Ryan left to form Giant Bomb, they had the backing of a private investor that was willing to pour money into GB and Whiskey Media. The site ran for years without any sort of advertising because they had that time to get established with just the investment funding backing them up.
It's hilarious the editorial staff made a big song and dance about never deleting stories when they had that child porn storm, but their overlords will pull stories about criticising their revenue streams.
Priorities and all that.
Priorities and all that.
Nah, their editors can stay. They did approve and let child porn to appear on their website, after all.
The management at Great Hill Partners is financially strip-mining the company just like how Alden Global Capital is doing to the Denver Post.
I've never made it to the actual content on that group of sites since auto play started lol, I thought It was just ads didn't realize there was content behind it. Every time I go to deadspin some fucking auto insurance ad starts and I pause it immediately.
I can't speak for Jason, and what Kotaku and others are going through right now extremely sucks, but one reason you don't see many high-profile reporters who work independently is because of legal protections. Big corporations have problems, but big corporations also have legal teams. It's always given me pause, whenever I've given thought to the idea of doing something on my own. When you go out on a limb, you are *really* out on a limb.
That was the most bone-headed decision second only to my fellow countrymen voting in the Dumpster.
This is exactly the sort of change the now deleted article is about.
This
And this
Jumping ship isn't easy.
It's not just kotaku. And not just gamers. The entire collection of sites is going to shit and will be gone soon enough once the vultures strip them of all value. So the collective memory of gamers isn't really all that relevant in this situation.
Isn't this exactly what these companies have done to other websites they acquire?
They look at the books and realize that it is more profitable to sell high-cost intrusive ads which will drive off readership and destroy the site than to sustain the site long term.
They know the obtrusive ads will drive away readership and eventually destroy the site, but the near term profits from the ads hitting the current user base will make them more money than supporting the site in its current form long term.
They are doing this on purpose.
Isn't capitalism wonderful?
They look at the books and realize that it is more profitable to sell high-cost intrusive ads which will drive off readership and destroy the site than to sustain the site long term.
They know the obtrusive ads will drive away readership and eventually destroy the site, but the near term profits from the ads hitting the current user base will make them more money than supporting the site in its current form long term.
They are doing this on purpose.
Isn't capitalism wonderful?
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Seeing all these folks essentially say that the entire staff can crash and burn as long as Jason can safely find work elsewhere is... completely the worst.
How are you all even fans of his work? He's great at bringing out scoops but there's real human reporting being done too, highlighting unsafe or untenable working conditions like what's happening now at their own workplace. Are you all so heartless to say that no one else's work has value? Maddy's work? Heather's? Tim's? Newer hires like Natalie?
There's alot to criticize about the legacy of the site for sure, but... other people do work there, some have made mistakes that are harder to reconcile than others, but they've all got my sympathy during this rough go.
How are you all even fans of his work? He's great at bringing out scoops but there's real human reporting being done too, highlighting unsafe or untenable working conditions like what's happening now at their own workplace. Are you all so heartless to say that no one else's work has value? Maddy's work? Heather's? Tim's? Newer hires like Natalie?
There's alot to criticize about the legacy of the site for sure, but... other people do work there, some have made mistakes that are harder to reconcile than others, but they've all got my sympathy during this rough go.
Yeah, a lot of these takes are uninformed and ill-intentioned.
For instance, weird to default to "Kotaku does not deserve Jason" here when Kotaku is just outlet #8234 fighting off greedy, exploitative, shortsighted executives who seemed determined to lead them into ruination. How about call out the people who deserve it in this instance, instead of knee-jerking to calling out the people fighting the good fight?
And even putting that aside, it'll never not be a little weird seeing Jason be put on this grand pedestal that seems to assume all his work has been done in a vacuum, without support from Kotaku as an institution, while his colleagues are just dismissed out of hand. Like, we can all see the numerous flaws in that view, right?
Yeah, Jason needs to Giant Bomb that shit and start his own site.
Would he not be an attractive prospect for another outlet to headhunt though? A press sneak fuck who also writes very insightful articles and who would come with a big following? I'm surprised no-one has offered him a nice deal to jump ship especially when it's clear his employers are going down a path at odds with his views.
A few things about the LKD thing:
1. For those that don't know this, it was an article when Joker released in Smash pointed out that "Wake up Get Up Get Out there" says "retarded" in the spoken word section.
2. LKD only started writing it because it came from an email tip, but did not intend to post it without doing more research on it. The editor said no and published it anyway.
3. She got tons of transphobic and ableist abuse on social media and couldn't defend herself at any of it, when none of this was her fault in the first place.
4. Kotaku.com and Kotaku.co.uk are different entities: I believe it's more like how Disney owns Fox, but not Fox News.
If I remember correctly, they didn't remove it and only put up a correction after Nintendo confined that it does not say "retarded".
I read a lot of you saying what Schreier should do. So I'll say it too:
Schreier should do whatever he wants or needs to do.
Schreier should do whatever he wants or needs to do.
More weird opinions here as usual relating to Kotaku just being trash + Jason Schreier.
Do any of you actually read the site? Cecilia D'Anastasio is every bit the investigative journalist that Schreier is, Heather Alexandra is a great critic, Tim Rogers is hilarious, etc.
Do any of you actually read the site? Cecilia D'Anastasio is every bit the investigative journalist that Schreier is, Heather Alexandra is a great critic, Tim Rogers is hilarious, etc.
Seriously though why is Jason still with Kotaku, guy could be making bank going for a setup like Jim Sterling, ect. have.
A perfect storm created by the one/two punch of what Facebook and private equity firms have done to drive down the value ot journalism, and the lingering after effects of how Gawker ended.
Yeah...more patreon-driven personalities. What a.......wonderful idea.
This. I appreciate the support but please stop discounting the work of my talented colleagues. Most notably, nothing I do would be possible without the support of our brilliant editor-in-chief, Stephen Totilo, who is an invaluable mentor and tireless advocate for our work.
