DROPPING OUT [Author: Lum the Mad]
Yes, that is easy to say, and too often that gets forgotten. Jay Harris was up until last month the publisher of the San Jose Mercury News, one of the most important newspapers in Silicon Valley. He abruptly resigned, citing the money-grubbing monkey business of the Merc-News’s parent company, Knight-Ridder as the reason for his departure. He was the keynote speaker at a newspaper editor’s convention, where he railed against the “tyranny of the markets”, of the big media
conglomerates desiring more power, money and influence over the industry, and to appease their stockholders.
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Most of the editors, including some that worked for K-R, stood and cheered. One of the K-R executives stood to make a brief rebuttal to Harris, saying he was “frustrated that some people weren’t looking at the journalism that Knight Ridder does,” that the Merc-News employs around 400 (expected to drop through attrition.)
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That’s a big newspaper. It needs that many people. One may assume that it and most other newspapers its size only got to be that size because some very talented people made things happen for a wide audience, and some other people with wealth, influence and experience in business realized its potential. Newspapers and magazines have been around for a very long time.
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Computer games have not, nor have publications that cover them; and there aren’t any Jay Harrises around that I can identify. So it’s hard to say, from the outside looking in, whether there was even a tiny piece of that know-how, that purpose, that drive, at DR or its parent company, Imagine Media. DR might be just another footnote in history, a lackluster publication that got too big for its britches, and needed to get culled for the sake of the larger organism.
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That’d be easy to say, too. And I wish I’d have been around when DR started, so I’d have some insight into why it got started in the first place. What are all the\’c2\~staffers going to do, the ones that don’t have their heads up their asses, or think destroying PS2s makes for good material? Was there no interest in continuing\’c2\~at a smaller level, to pick up the pieces and start over small-scale?
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Speaking of small scale, haven’t we been placing bets about the next Web network to bite it? What about all the hobbyists and wannabe professionals that are cranking out what in some cases is professional-quality product (if DR set the standard for professionalism, this is certainly true); what’s going to happen to their work? And what about all the games that get covered by them; and what about all the users that read those sites?
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We might have been dwelling too much on the doomed and overwrought; it seems like every other week, I notice a new conglomeration of fansites are pooling their resources and trying to make a name for themselves. Shouldn’t we be able to tell which ones will make it?
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I can’t, and it’s not just because the ad banner market’s squishy soft. It’s hard for me to know what will make or break a site anymore; or what set of talents can really get the job done. And I’m not alone; if I could bottle and sell that knowledge, I’d make a mint. The wanting, for there to be a purpose, for there to be potential and viability, is certainly there, just in small doses.
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But those doses add up. In two weeks, E3 2001 will be upon us. UGO is not going to be driving a van-billboard up and down in front of the convention center; Happy Puppy is not going to be springing for product placement in the front foyer. One wonders whether IGN will, either.
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And if the business hype, which has been a hallmark of E3s past, won’t be there, will the reporters be gone, too? E3, besides being an opportunity for business people to schmooze, is also a chance for them to beg journalists for free coverage. As one of the few holders of a press pass (yes, my interview with Ragnar Scheuermann kept me from having to pay $250 for access) (Editor’s note – I had to pay, though. Funny world. – Lum) I’ve been asked by quite a few businesses if I would be willing to stop by and sample their half-finished game engine or CD scratch cleaner, ostensibly because they’d like me to write something about it.
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As it is, I’ve got a very narrow agenda for E3, one that I intend to fill up with stuff I want to see, not necessarily because I want to write about it. I still want to write stuff, but it’s a vacation first of all. Nobody’s paying for me to be there. There are some people who might wish I wasn’t planning to come. But instead of getting the hordes of paid staff from DR, they get me.
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That’s a pretty sad state of affairs, folks. So let’s get serious, and ask ourselves some questions.
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Gamers, does it matter to you that news sites or news magazines about games exist?
Writers, do you still have reasons to do this sort of work beyond a paycheck?
Editors, do you have unique ideas about how to turn this situation around?
Site publishers, have you got the tools you need to make this railroad run?
Game developers and publishers, how long do you think you can survive without press to cover you? Wouldn’t you rather not have to pay for reviews all the time? How much does this mean to you?
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It means a lot to me, but I don’t expect anyone to stand up and cheer when the next one drops.