Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

April 14, 2009 -

Video game journalism can be a tough business.

By way of example, former Edge Online editor Colin Campbell (left) explains why the site's entire staff quit, effective last Friday:

Back in December, I received a blunt email from a publisher at Future UK... This middle manager outlined some changes he wanted to make; in my view, a gumbo of old media thinking, rampant cost-cutting and ego-driven control mechanisms...

 

Edge-Online's new bosses claim they want to "integrate" the online and print facets of the magazine. I believe this to be an error... any attempt to reshape a dynamic daily website in the image of a monthly print magazine is conceptually and practically highly problematic.


The story of the game industry is now being told via lightning fast websites and blogs of phenomenal competence and editorial quality. The days when giant print brands dominated the mediascape are over...

Meanwhile, Edge publishing director James Binns fired back:

Any brand needs a strong, consistent voice across multiple media. We're focused on developing the best quality content from the ground up that works well in print and online, and has a true global voice.

That means effective planning and more flexibility in news gathering. The changes to the team that we're making will put us in a stronger position to achieve this.

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Comments

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by Saxy on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 15:04.

Would Future UK have any relations to Future US, the company who is now printing Nintendo Power Magazines?

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by beemoh on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 07:22.

 Yes.

/b

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by axiomatic on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 12:45.

Lets hope this trend continues. The "good ole' boy" management style is sure ruining the IT world as well as the news/publishing industry lately.

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by Michael Chandra on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 12:19.

You know, I just read that response and saw NOTHING. No explanation. No logic, no facts, no actual response to why the employees quit. Just the management equivalent of techno-babble. Empty message, empty head.

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by Krono on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 13:36.

Well, to be fair, it is a little hard to spin "The staff quit because we're idiots and they saw our management BS for what it was."

-Gray17

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 12:04.

Must suck to discover you don't have Yes-men under your thumb and instead have people with a shred of independance

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by beemoh on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 11:42.

 Hrm. I can understand the value of trying to make Edge Online have a lot more in common with Edge Offline- Online does seem a lot more "industry-er" than Offline does- but then how would it be any different to the mess computerandvideogames.com is at the moment, being as it is basically articles culled from the print mags? It'll be interesting to see where this goes.

/b

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 11:52.

I am curious to see what happens. If it is all just print and online sharing content, then those who have the print mag will not have a need to read online, or they will cancel their subscription and move to the frre online version. THose who currently read online will have no reason to get the print mag. THere has to be some kind of difference and defining factor between the two.

E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by Michael Chandra on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 12:17.

If there is, they sure didn't try to make it clear to their employees.

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 11:40.

This explains why there were no new stories yesterday. Here I thought it was a bank holiday.

I hope all the best for the former staff in what they now are doing. I wonder what the future content of Edge will be like. I read it everyday and if anything changes, I may end up on Gamasutra entirely.

E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by Michael Chandra on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 11:29.

"The changes to the team that we're making will put us in a stronger position to achieve this."

Uhm, does he mean he chased them away deliberately? That's quite the claim to make, could easily end you up in lawsuits.

Re: Edge Online Shakeout Leads to New Game Blog

Submitted by DarkSaber on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 11:24.

I like how Binns seems completely ignorant of the fact that the ENTIRE staff has quit workng for him.

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Andrew Eisen: Neo_DrKefka - "Attacking"? Interesting choice of words. Also interesting that you quoted something that wasn't actually said. Leaving out a relevant link, are you?10/20/2014 - 11:04am
quiknkold: ugh. I want to know why the hell Mozerella Sticks are 4 dollars at my works cafeteria...are they cooked in Truffle Oil?10/20/2014 - 10:41am
Neo_DrKefka: Anti-Gamergate supporter Robert Caruso attacks female GamerGate supporter by also attacking another cause she support which is the situation happening in Syia “LET SYRIANS SUFFER” https://archive.today/F14zZ https://archive.today/Wpz8S10/20/2014 - 10:18am
Neo_DrKefka: That is correct in an At-Will state you or the employer can part ways at any time. However Florida also has laws on the books about "Wrongful combinations against workers" http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/448.04510/20/2014 - 10:07am
james_fudge: he'd die if he couldn't talk about Wii U :)10/20/2014 - 9:16am
Michael Chandra: By the way, I am not saying Andrew should stop talking about Wii-U. I find it quite nice. :)10/20/2014 - 8:53am
Michael Chandra: 'How dare he ignore my wishes and my advice! I am his boss! I could have ordered him but I should be able to say it's advice rather than ordering him directly!'10/20/2014 - 8:52am
Michael Chandra: If GP goes "EZK, do not talk about X publicly for a week, we're preparing a big article on it" and he still tweets about X, they'd have a legitimate reason to be pissed.10/20/2014 - 8:52am
Michael Chandra: If GP tells Andrew "we'd kinda prefer it if you stopped talking about Wii-U for 1 week" and he'd tweet about it anyway, firing him for it would be idiotic.10/20/2014 - 8:51am
Michael Chandra: Legal right, sure. But that doesn't make it any less pathetic of an excuse.10/20/2014 - 8:50am
ZippyDSMlee: You mean right to fire states.10/20/2014 - 8:50am
james_fudge: some states have "at will" employee laws10/20/2014 - 7:50am
quiknkold: It says in the article that being in florida, you can get fired regardless if its a fireable offence10/20/2014 - 7:19am
Michael Chandra: If your employee respectfully disagrees with your advice, that's not a fireable offense. If they ignore your order, THEN you have the right to be pissed.10/20/2014 - 6:49am
Michael Chandra: I... Don't get one thing. If you do not want your employee to do X, why do you tell them it's advice or a wish? Give them a damn order.10/20/2014 - 6:48am
james_fudge: A leak that had me worried about being swatted by Lizard Squad.10/20/2014 - 6:03am
james_fudge: It should be noted that the author leaked the GJP group names online10/20/2014 - 6:03am
MechaTama31: I mean, of the groups being bullied here, which of the two would you refer to collectively as "nerds"?10/19/2014 - 11:30pm
MechaTama31: But that's the thing, it doesn't sound to me like he is advocating bullying, it sounds like he is accusing the SJWs of bullying the "nerds", who I can only assume refers to the GGers.10/19/2014 - 11:21pm
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