Most of you have probably heard about this now but if you don’t here’s the lowdown: Vivek Shah the head of digital media company Ziff Davis made the decision to close down IGN’s sister sites 1UP, Gamespy and UGO a few days ago and sent out a staff email announcing the changes that were coming and that those sites were being closed down so they could focus their efforts on IGN and Askmen (I know I’ve never heard of AskMen either!) and that some employees have been let go to save money.
To be honest, I’m not surprised that Gamespy has been closed down because it was basically a weaker version of IGN and there wasn’t really any point in the site in the first place. Also, the fact that many people have decided not to trust IGN’s review scores anymore because they are too bias might also be a contributing factor to them losing some money.
As for 1UP I have never heard of that site and never been on it so I doubt that site will me missed by many people. However, after reading the email I sat there wondering if IGN will be a site totally focused on gaming and movies for much longer because to quote Viviek Shah himself “IGN’s role going forward will be to broadcast and cover a variety of eSports events;”. If this means that gaming will no longer be a part of IGN’s agenda, I can be pretty sure that they will lose a hell of a lot of views on their website and on their Youtube channel.
However, this may be a good thing in that it could open up the flood gates for more gaming related sites to get the spotlight for once and give gamers more sites to go to for reviews,walkthrough and the like.
I will keep you updated with any developments with this story and will go more in depth with my opinion during episode 9 of the podcast on Monday!
Here is the letter in full if you are interested
From: Vivek Shah
Date: February 21, 2013
Subject: Staff AnnouncementToday, we took some difficult but important actions that will ensure the continued growth and health of IGN and AskMen. Before I go into more details about the changes, you should know that they resulted in the elimination of jobs at IGN. It’s always upsetting to say goodbye to colleagues and let’s do what we can to help these employees as they seek new opportunities.
It’s also important for you to know that we are absolutely confident that we now have the best structure and team to successfully move the company forward and that there are no further planned reductions.
The changes we made today are designed to allow us to Simplify and Focus. Our goal is to do fewer things and to do them exceptionally well. In that vein, we want to direct all of our energy and work behind our two flagship brands: IGN and AskMen. They are both category killers and share a vision of a multi-screen (PCs, tablets, smartphones, TV) and multi-format (text, photos and video) world.
As a result of our decision to focus on our core brands, we are:
· Winding down 1UP.com, UGO.com and GameSpy.com;
· No longer ad repping 3rd party sites such as GameStop.com and FamilyGuy.com;
· Actively engaged with parties interested in acquiring IPL. IGN’s role going forward will be to broadcast and cover a variety of eSports events;
· Dividing our ad sales team into two: one focused on IGN and the other focused onAskMen.On the IGN front, Peer Schneider will continue to oversee all of editorial and product, focusing those resources exclusively on IGN. The foundation of this entire company is its content and we will continue to have the best people in the industry producing it.
Charlie Barrett will oversee the monetization of IGN everywhere in the U.S.—PCs, tablets, smartphones, YouTube, consoles—and now be able to concentrate the sales and ad ops teams’ efforts where they can make the most impact.
Frank Puma will assume an exciting new role as executive director of programs and solutions, reporting to Charlie. The sales development, design and creative teams will report to Frank, whose charge is to deliver world-class advertising experiences.
A new head of engineering and technology for IGN will be recruited as quickly as possible. Tech has a monumental role to play in the growth of IGN and will be committed to working hand-in-glove with edit, product and sales.
On the AskMen front, Ric Poupada will continue to oversee all aspects of the AskMenorganization and is excited to have a new VP of sales, Paul Chenier, reporting to him. Paul has been a longtime advocate of the AskMen brand and is one of the most talented sales executives in our organization. Having him build a dedicated AskMen ad sales team will do wonders for the business.
Ian Chambers will continue to run International out of the UK for both IGN and AskMenand we’re thrilled with the performance of our businesses overseas.
Mike Etheridge will be the VP of finance and operations for IGN and AskMen, working across all of the departments to ensure that we’re growing our business, expanding our margins and making metric-based decisions.
Rachelle Igoe will be the head of human resources for IGN and AskMen, ensuring that we continue to nurture, attract and retain the best talent in the industry.
I’m sure that there will be a number of questions in the days and weeks ahead but please know that we will be a better functioning and nimbler organization from this moment forward.
As I said on day one, openness and transparency are important, so please email me at [email] if you have any questions, thoughts or ideas.
Gary's Gamer Podcast 