Recession Brings Rough Times for Kotaku Parent Company

October 6, 2008

The parent company of top video game blog Kotaku is girding for tough economic times.

Silicon Alley Insider reports that Gawker Media CEO Nick Denton axed 19 (of 133) employees late Friday. Those getting the chop toiled for blogs apparently judged less competitive by Denton, including Valleywag and Consumerist (a GP favorite).

Kotaku is in no jeopardy, and is actually getting more writers, as Denton explains in a letter strategically leaked on Friday:

You can guess the reason for these brutal measures: the recession... But now the credit crisis is clearly going to affect every sector of the economy. Advertising buys typically plunge after the Christmas shopping season, and 2009 is obviously going to be exceptionally difficult. We have to prepare for the worst, now, rather than when the worst comes upon us...

One reason we're eliminating these positions is to reinforce the teams on the sites with the most commercial appeal—Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker and Gawker—and the properties such as Jezebel, io9, Deadspin and Jalopnik which are poised to join them.

Posted in Media

Comments

Re: Recession Brings Rough Times for Kotaku Parent Company

Submitted by CyberSkull on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 07:46.

It's saddening to hear about the consumerist writer pool being trimmed, they should add more.

Re: Recession Brings Rough Times for Kotaku Parent Company

Submitted by axiomatic on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 16:51.

Everyone please go read the Consumerist. They are truly making some serious headway in SHAMING some of these terrible companies in to doing the right thing for consumers.

It's my favorite blog in the internet and one that actually benefits people.

Re: Recession Brings Rough Times for Kotaku Parent Company

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 11:20.

I was really surprised to see writers being cut from Consumerist. While it does lack Commercial appeal, it is one of the most reader valued sites they have. You would think they would take care of that.

E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/okceca
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1325674091

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary

Re: Recession Brings Rough Times for Kotaku Parent Company

Submitted by Eville1 on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 11:12.

Kotaku has enough writers as it is. Half of them I only see once a month or so anyway. It's not like it will improve the quality of content. Especially after the recent bruhaha over "Respectability."

Shout box

Andrew Eisen: That article is over five years old, Uncharted. A fun blast from the past though.02/12/2012 - 10:47pm

Uncharted NES: Critics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence- http://tinyurl.com/wu64s02/12/2012 - 4:34pm

Zen: I felt Brutal Legends was a funny & beautiful look at the world of rock from Double Fines point of view. The only parts I wasn't hot for were the RTS bits as it felt forced. Otherwise fantastic.02/12/2012 - 1:34pm

DorthLous: Passed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am

Technogeek: Brutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm

RedMage: It looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

RedMage: Brutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

ddrfr33k: Has anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm

Guamish: I think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm

Andrew Eisen: It'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm

james_fudge: $1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am

Uncharted NES: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am

Andrew Eisen: Damn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm

Andrew Eisen: Audrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm

james_fudge: I hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm

Andrew Eisen: Toki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm

james_fudge: Thanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm

DorthLous: Will do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm

Andrew Eisen: I appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm

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