They say that they kept the core editorial staff, but a lot of the people they cut were the more experienced and/or popular writers/editors. A comment I read on Kotaku's article about it put it pretty well; they fired the real staff and kept the interns.

What?  You didn't hire 24 people you assbag.  These people were already employed.  All you did was transfer employment while giving the finger to over 40 other talented people.  Grats on getting some paperwork done, you prick.

For everyone else, here's a link to the first Rebel FM podcast feature some of the former 1up employees:  http://tinyurl.com/9btloz

Keith K said, "One company bought another. Company A is keeping company B in business which, prior to the deal was not something guaranteed. Fans of the site should be sighing relief, not crying murder."

Ah, but you forget that this is the internet combined with gamers. If something changes, it must automatically be bad, and it is the responsibility of each individual to fly off the handle.

Although I do agree with part of what Keddren said. Moses' comment that "We have just hired 24 people..." should go to the Corporate Spin Hall of Fame. Before the acquisition, there were 50-ish people employed, now there are 24 people employed, but he manages to turn that into a statement of job creation. On the other hand, with the financial situation Ziff-Davis is in, 24 people still having a job is better than 0.

As for the statement that, "it's not surprising that many of the reader comments to the Moses interview are negative", I didn't find the comments to be overly negative. Of the seven comments, I'd say three are negative and the rest are what I'd probably class as neutral (i.e. of the nature of, let's wait and see what happens).

Hi All,

UGO isn't the chief culprit in this transaction, yes it may have influenced the deal. But the real baddie being ignored is "HEARST" they're the magazine publisher with the dollars that afforded all of this to go down. Perhaps an interview with the CEO of Hearst is more apropo than that of UGO.

Although J. Moses CEO of UGO is correct in stating they aren't at fault for EGM magazine getting shafted. That blame falls squarely on "Ziff Davis" and they're need of meeting debt obligations.

In the "Big Picture" EGM magazine is another casualty of Print Media transitioning to Online Media. It's happening to the Newspaper and Magazine industry as a WHOLE. From the ashes of one culture another shall take its place that being the digital online media.

I'm i sadden that we've lost great gamer magazines like: Computer Games World, Computer Gaming World, and now EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly). Of course!

But it's more than a bad economy or shody management at "Ziff Davis". It's the current trend, unfortubnately.

I never really went to the 1UP site so that doesn't neccesarily affect me, but I have been reading EGM for awhile. It sucks that EGM won't be printed anymore, but it doesn't surprise me because I have been less than impressed with the magazine lately. The magazine got substantially smaller from when I read it a couple of years back, and the reviews I found dissapointing. They weren't very detailed or helpful.