Jeff comments on budget/new hires from his blog.

Most of you know this or maybe it's already been posted before, but I wanted to at least put it up since this is the first I've heard about this. I've been wondering about the GB crew getting some new people in for a while now and Jeff commented on the budget, how GB is doing and possible new hires/new features from his blog. (http://blog.jeffgerstmann.net/). So I thought I would repost here for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

"Wait, a message board thread is speculating about things they don’t actually know anything about? Weird.

Here’s the short version: If I didn’t still think that there was a way for us to create the content we want to create and grow into something bigger and cooler, I would have left last year.

I’m tempted to leave it at that since forum junk like that typically doesn’t warrant an answer, but the site’s actually doing really well. Just kinda slogging through the process of getting budget shit locked down and putting a proper “let’s actually get some more people in here because this is completely ridiculous” plan together. It’s taken forever to get to this point but it seems like everyone is finally in basic agreement about pushing a reasonably-sized pile of money my way and letting me spend it on humans.

We should get that new video player pushed out next week, and that comes with a larger code merge that’ll make it easier for engineers to actually add new features to the site. We’re talking about finding better ways to showcase premium videos as one of the early things we’d like to change, and the wiki needs some additional attention (but that’s a larger, more difficult project). We’ll start messing around with mid-roll video ads in the near future, but it looks like we’re going to eventually remove ads for monthly members, too. It’s sort of a careful balancing act between bringing money in so we can continue to afford additional hires without making the site look like garbage or putting 100% of our stuff behind a paywall. The podcast ads seem to be doing especially well. I’d like to bring back a free, regular live show at some point.

We’re also talking about road trips and tours and bringing back the Big Live Live Show and a bunch of other wild shit, but that’s all further off, just kinda kicking ideas around at the moment."

UPDATE FOR CONTEXT: Here is the original question that prompted this answer, my apologies for not putting it in originally.

"Anonymous asked:

There's a thread on GAF and they are speculating that Giant Bomb is in danger of disappearing/that the website hasn't been doing well lately. I know it's GAF and they are usually full of shit but I'm still a little worried and I don't really follow the business side of the website. Is there any veracity to their claims or is this just GAF being GAF?"

This makes me happy and hopeful :)

I hope they get somebody to find decent breaks in videos for these ads, and that they're not an automatic thing.

I hope what happens is that Jeff or whoever else says "and now a moment from our sponsors!" and then the premium feed is them just sitting in silence until the ad is over.

Yeah, this was great news. Really hope they find some good people to bring on.

@geraltitude:

Or they make up fake ads in place of the real ads.

Same here, I'm looking forward to see who they bring in. I still kind of wish Danny O'Dwyer could come over to the Giant Bomb side of things. But he's a Gamespot dude mostly it seems.

Really curious who Jeff plans to hire. he's been talking about this for a while on tumblr. so he definitely has people in mind.

my bets are on Jeff green and fully bringing in Danny o Dwyer as a GB employee.

now you're talking.

or...

Wait for it: the bombcrew does the ads, just like on the podcast. That, I would be down for.

That would be awesome! My vote is on them doing the ads! I always get a good laugh out of the podcast ads.

@mosaicm80: Oh another Big Live Live Show would make my year

Good. I'm glad he's finally opened up a bit more about that, and I wish Jeff would be a bit more transparent about this kind of stuff. While his cryptic hints and jokes about budgets, hiring, and bureaucracy never bothered me, it's easy to see why it would make some people worry about the state of the site. Giantbomb lives and dies by its personalities and the close relationship they have with the community, so being more direct with this kind of information is nothing but a good thing.

I will actually be offended if they do not hire Danny.

You know what I fucking hate? That shit like this is not on giant bomb and that you need to go to twitter or where this thing was to find out this information. Why isn't this a monthly forum thread on the site? Why do we need to go to other sites to find out information about the site that many of us are paying money for? I never understood that. If he takes the time to read through and answer question like that why can't there be an official monthly post on the front page with this stuff in it? A state of the site address or something.

I love how the tone of that blog post is "oh my gawd why are you people bothering me about this shit?" like the Giant Bomb audience should just absorb all of this information we've never been given through osmosis.

@crusader8463: I'm guessing because they are all ideas and nothing is set in stone; if they had posted that stuff here and none of it ends up happening some people here would get upset because they would have built up expectations.

It's nice that they share as much as they do.

That's kinda how I wish all ads on the site were handled.

Then say that at the top of the post. That's why I liked Jar Time so much. Everyone knew it was just Jeff rambling about what he thought and that nothing was taken as gospel. Most of this community are adults or people that can put enough brain cells together to know those things. At least I like to think so. Maybe I'm giving the community too much credit, but this place has always had a smarter then average group of people compared to the moronic people that seem to make up most video game communities. I like to think this one is smart enough to know that.

"A message board thread"? No Jeff. Your message board thread.

I wish the staff would use their own boards instead of Gaf or whatever shit.

Danny works for CBSi already

@beachthunder said:

I doubt Gamespot would be thrilled about the idea of giving him up, and we don't know what exactly Danny himself wants either.

I'm real excited after reading that. It gives me hope for this site's future. I can't wait for all the fun shenanigans to come.

There was a time like that... long ago...

Anyway, it's good hear that the site is doing well. Seeing other sites closing down made me a little bit concerned about GB.

Jeff Green, please. Thanks.

Did anyone really have doubts in Jeff? I know I didn't.

I don't know if I hate it, but there is some truth to this. Perhaps Jeff felt that this is not apropo for the site right now, thus not blogged on the site. I don't do twitter. I'm just not that hooked in, though very occasionally I will listen and watch Jeff drive home. Lol. Even tried to sign in for comments, but hit a snag.

I do not know if GB will get to steal GS employees. I do hope one or two. Internal politics may be difficult also, even if amongst the 6 'guys' I can think of right now.

What GB has taught me is to be minimalist in my expectations, but that those expectations may be ones of quality, rather than quantity. I'm pretty happy w/that formula. Future hires will be difficult for both reaching out to the wide subscriber base, and meshing with the other GB Personalities.

i'm glad jeff stuck it out, i couldn't imagine him leaving or the site going away. and this stuff all bodes well. i have faith he'll get some fine people to join the crew (even if everyone here despises them for the next few months/years).

This made me happy reading it. I'm hoping GB can get some great new hires and I'd love for the return for a new and improved Professional Wednesdays show.

I want to see Giantbomb steal Justin McElroy from Polygon...

@ripelivejam said:

Where did this expectation come from? Because of Patrick? He was kind of an asshole in the beginning and rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He's certainly grown and become one of the more endearing members of the crew, but that first year was super rocky. Calling all of it irrational hatred of some "new guy" is pretty blind.

I don't think it's fair to say whoever the new hire is will get the same treatment because the one new hire they had made a bad first impression.

Sounds great to me. Jeff will do the right thing I am sure^^

People are interested in these things and want to speculate because they care about the site. If discussion concerning the future and direction of the site from the fans is "forum junk" then what the hell is the rest of the shit posted on here?

@crusader8463 said:

Not to disagree, because I've felt this way this I first posted on the forums years ago back when Dave kept floating the idea of virtual town-halls, which never happened, but I would bet there are business reasons for not wanting to do that. It encourages people to seek out the staff on social media sites, which probably looks really good in some skeezy business-ese during a meeting or business review. "Social media presence" and all that. Consolidating stuff on the site probably doesn't have any benefit, even if I would prefer it, since those visitors are already here.

Anywho, I'm glad the site's doing well, and I hope Jeff chooses the right folks to make the site better at what it does. As always, I hope the site sticks to it's strengths, rather than diverting from them.

Yeah, that was kind of a loaded statement. In the beginning I didn't liked Patrick at all (not because he was new, that's just stupid) but now he's more than okay in my books. He changed over the years for the better and that shows.

Also, by that logic we should have hated Rorie, considering technically he's the newest GB member.

I hope jeff hires someone from the GB community.

It would feel right.

I want someone I've never heard of. Fuck it

20-forward mofo!!

The 1st year of kessler was the worst thing ever in the history of the universe. But I actually really liked 2nd year kessler.

I think @fattony12000 should be hired.

I'd trust a guy named Fat Tony

Basically, they're doing what they can and moving forward.

So that's nice, time to not think about this again til news comes.

if they take the entire budget, go to vegas and bet it all on black they could hire twice as many people

I wouldn't mind a developer podcast update thing but now the developers are also part of CBS and working on everything I know that becomes harder. Right now all we really have is...Alexis? Still, love to hear him on a podcast...that way I can maybe call in and not forget I had my serial killer voice filter on like an idiot...

Context is fun, you guys...

The original question was about a GAF post, not a post on Giant Bomb's forums.

There's a thread on GAF and they are speculating that Giant Bomb is in danger of disappearing/that the website hasn't been doing well lately. I know it's GAF and they are usually full of shit but I'm still a little worried and I don't really follow the business side of the website. Is there any veracity to their claims or is this just GAF being GAF?

You know he is like, Number 2 at Polygon right? That's almost as crazy as hoping for Polygon to steal Jeff.

That doesn't stop people from speculating around here. Hardly a week goes by without a thread in which someone states a desire for Giant Bomb to hire a particular person despite that person's current employment status or personal level of desire to jump ship for Giant Bomb or anywhere else. The funniest ones are always the suggestions that they should hire someone that left game journalism for a position in the actual development industry more or less because that person worked for Gamespot alongside Jeff once upon a time.

Context is boring though

I respect yours and some others people's opinion, but back then, I got the feeling there were definitely a group of people who disliked Patrick because he was "ruining the vibe" of the main four. So much that they projected their own feelings and seriously believed the main four secretly disliked Patrick and were annoyed with his behavior on a daily basis. It became the new "Does Ryan hate Brad?"

I agree Patrick has naturally matured, but I don't think he was ever awful. Maybe you and others saw something I didn't, but considering the rest of the staff seemed to like him fine from the beginning, I kind of take their word for it since they know him and I don't.

Gah! I'm so excited to see where everything goes! I love this site. It's easily been the biggest, constant, positive thing in my life over the past six-ish years.

Also, I'll restate that I would be willing to work at Giant Bomb.

It's been on here. Twice. In two different Jar Times Jeff has mentioned he's planning on hiring new people, and is just calculating the money they get from ads first. He then mentioned again he's trying new ads in the future, and wants to get their money situation in a good place before they really start hiring new people. Or the other part on Jar Time when he mentioned they basically have to wait for the new fiscal quarter before CBSi really gives them the money they need, they need to prove they are worth the money, and that they did in fact prove they are worth the money, so it's basically a waiting game.

This is on top of Rorie outright saying in a few previous threads about this that yes, GB is looking for new people RIGHT NOW.

They've been pretty transparent that the main reason January was so light on content was due to Jeff/Vinny sitting in boardroom meetings most days trying to get men in suits to give them money/hire specific people, and ordering new equipment.