GameBizBlog wrote:Edge-Online's editorial team has quit and moved on. As the former editor-in-chief of that organ, now writing for this blog, I should probably explain why.
Back in December, I received a blunt email from a publisher at Future UK, baldly stating that control of Edge-Online had been transferred from our happy home in the San Francisco office, to an office based in the West of England, where Edge Magazine is produced.
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.
I resigned immediately, viewing his plans as a bad deal for the readers (most of whom live and work in North America) and for the future of Edge-Online. These past few months I have been working out an agreed notice period.
Kris Graft and Rob Crossley write the vast majority of Edge-Online and are two of the most hard-working and talented journalists covering the games industry right now. Edge-Online's new overlords in England did a really bad job of convincing Kris and Rob to remain working at Edge-Online beyond my own leaving date; and so they decided to move on. Our last day on Edge was Friday.
They are now contributing editorial, variously, to Develop, Mobile Entertainment, CasualGaming.Biz, MCV, Gamasutra and here at GameBizBlog. I am heading up the US operation for Develop's publishing house Intent, and will also write for this blog.
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. Although the Edge voice ought to be maintained throughout all its activities, 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.
Most of us can recognize that the financial models of the past are now becoming entirely irrelevant; and that trying to view online as some extension of print is just plain wrong.
Game industry editorial is no longer something that is simply crafted by writers and consumed by readers. It is a conversation between the people who make the games and the people who play them. No amount of publishing horseshit about 'editorial pipelines' is going to change that. Fiddling with Excel spreadsheets is a poor defense against revolution.
Editorial management of Edge Online is being handed over to the magazine's print team. Some of the ideas I have heard, at least as outlined by management, are anathema to those of us with hard-earned experience in the super-fast, savagely competitive world of creating online content. But I wish the editorial guys well. They are good people working under unnecessarily difficult conditions.
Onwards. I love the fact that social media allows writers to communicate directly, without the necessity of publishing bureaucracies. And so, as bloggers, we'll try to bring you a news, features and analysis service right here for the foreseeable future.
Though I work for Intent Media, a professional publishing organisation which strives to maintain success and profitability, right now this blog is not competing with anyone for advertising dollars (the job ads you see posted here are free). Right now we have no "traffic targets"; no overblown ambitions to reform the media landscape. Right now, we just want to be a part of the conversation and we hope you enjoy this as much as we do.
Future Publishing management are out of touch? Well I never!
(cough)Producing the site in the UK however, where the magazine itself is based
after all, is completely logical to me, though.
One thing is blindingly obvious. Future & Campbell's don't mix.
