@Scrumdidlyumptious said:
There's no way Giant Bomb was profitable at any point during their existence until now. They're not selling out at all. They're keeping the site alive. They've run the site for 5 years with nearly no advertising and practically their sole source of revenue coming from subscriptions starting up 2 years ago. They had around 20,000 subscribers, that's million bucks, then take into account all the equipment, employees, and content Whiskey Media had and there's nothing left. Some people are such selfish jerks. Giant Bomb can't be losing money forever just to please you.
This is kind of accurate. The reality of the situation is that they've been playing with house money this entire time through the millions they raised in venture capital and angel funding. As a pure business deal, all of this makes sense.
@Brighty said:
Everyone who was apart of that deal is no longer with the company, there are completely different people running the company now. Did you even watch the video all the way through, or do you just want something to be up in arms about? Like Jeff said, his journalistic integrity conflicting with ad revenue wasn't a problem (and he had worked at GameSpot since it was founded in like '96) until the company changed hands.
You could argue that "oh geez what if it changes hands into someone malicious or to people who don't understand what journalists do for a living", and while the company could (and probably will) eventually change hands, that isn't a prelude to another GameSpot controversial incident. Look at it from a business perspective - if this kind of debacle happens again where Jeff's journalistic integrity isn't allowed to flourish and they have to leave the company again, can you even fathom how much that would literally be PR suicide for the GameSpot company and would solidify only the most horrible reputation for it? No businessman, no matter how cartoonishly evil you guys seem to think they are, would ever do that. They know how much it hurt the company last time and they know that they can't lean on Jeff and get him to back down. They are going to do everything in their power to keep Jeff (and by extension, GiantBomb) happy, and that generally means letting them continue to do whatever the fuck they want.
I know you like the drama but let it go. Have some common sense.
I posted this elsewhere, I'll just copy and paste it here.
Bingo. You can paint as rosy a picture as you want but the fact of the matter is that the same corporation that fired Jeff for costing them ad revenue is the same corporation that they're going back to work for now. The novelty of Giant Bomb was that they answered to no one, there was no one at the top trying to influence things. I'm sure at the start everything will be all rainbows and puppy dogs, but what happens two years from now when CBSi looks to start making budget cuts? Do they fire staff? Do they question why they have two websites covering the exact same thing? In the past, none of this mattered because Giant Bomb and Whiskey Media were in control of these decisions. Now the decision goes to the corporate overlord who doesn't care how funny Brad or Vinny are, they're looking at numbers in a spreadsheet and want to cut payroll, therefore they get the ax.
If the duders are happy, then I'm happy for them. I'm sure they all got nice pay raises and as was mentioned above they definitely earned it. But I think it's a little naive to say "nothing's changing! Everything's staying the same, except only better." These guys got burned working for the man before, it's the whole reason this site exists to begin with. It's within the realm of possibility to say that it could happen again.
Fake edit: I sound like a goddamn Occupy Wall Street hippy.
Real edit: typos and such.
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