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1UP sold to UGO/Hearst. EGM gone. 1up show & podcasts gone. 40 1up/EGM employees gone

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mosaic

go eat paint
My condolences to everyone that's been told they're losing their job... or will be told so in a few months once the "happy lies" wear off.

I sincerely hate that EGM might be done for, just given it's history in the hobby. But this is probably good news for 1UP. Well, as good as can be had in this economy with a site formerly-owned by Ziff-Davis Media. UGO can't possibly run a site or magazine worse than ZD Media did the past 5 years or so... good lord, Ziff was once king of tech-magazine publishers... and they squandered it with greed...

And by they, I mean all of those nameless-to-us execs that thought going into insane debt was better than trimming dozens of overpaid execs. Seriously, you ever read one of Ziff's SEC filings? It was like the ending credits to a movie. What did they all do?! Why did they cost so much?!

Anyway, good luck 1UP people.
 
I really hope all staff remains and they get a chance to say whatever they want as they are use to so far.

That is what I like about 1up best.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Sounds like the 1up websites will be continuing, maybe a little downsizing. The print mag is dead then.
 

Crateman

Member
We saw it coming and now it right in front of us.

I just wanted to say to everyone at 1UP that you guys have my eternal support no matter what happens. Good luck and remember that everything has a reason in this life! I'm sure this change is going to be beneficial.
 

Rlan

Member
ferricide said:

After a comprehensive process, this morning we completed a deal with Hearst Interactive, the owner and operator of UGO Entertainment. 1UP.com, MyCheats.com, Gamevideos.com, and Gametab.com will now all be part of the UGO Entertainment business. Many of our employees will travel with this business and become part of the UGO team.

With this transaction happening, we have also made the decision to discontinue publication of EGM. The January 2009 issue will be the final issue of the publication. With demand for print continuing to decline amongst both advertisers and readers and the content being produced by 1UP no longer available for use in the publication, it simply did not make sense for us to move forward with this business any longer.

We will continue to operate the Filefront business as a part of the PCMag Digital Network. In the coming months we will determine the best ways to leverage the scale and functionality of this digital property to expand our business position.

Is DL.TV part of the PC Mag network?
 

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
Y2Kev said:
Sounds like the 1up websites will be continuing, maybe a little downsizing.
Do you believe it?

When this stuff happens it's only a matter of time before they start merging it all together.
 
ferricide said:
internal emails never do!

Well, yeah, I mean, it sounds so dicey for so many people since the split is so deep. For anyone to transfer over to 1up, it's to a completely different company, and anyone left at ZD will have to find work in what sounds like a massively smaller resource pool. So really it doesn't sound like even one job is safe.
 

maniac80

Member
MirageDwarf said:
I really hope all staff remains and they get a chance to say whatever they want as they are use to so far.

That is what I like about 1up best.

Well when a company spins-off a division it doesn't necessarily mean big changes, and lay-offs. If 1-up was profitable division things should continue 'as-is', especially for the technical/writing side of things.

If 1-up on it's own is not profitable, then we can expect changes and slashing of non-profitable ventures along with employees working on them.

On another note, the 1-Up show could probably take more advertising a become profitable (if it isn't already), it's probably got a good audience that can support ad sales.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Guybrush Threepwood said:
EGM can redeem themselves forever if they release a 400 page epic as their final issue

gfw_final_issue.jpg
 

YYZ

Junior Member
I hope I don't forget to pick up the last issue. Probably a normal issue since there doesn't seem to have been much of a warning signal.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
God damn, that does not sound good at all.

lots of weird contradictions in there....

CEO Jason Young said:
We thank our 1UP team members for their contributions and wish them the best of success into the future"

CEO Jason Young said:
Many of our employees will travel with this business and become part of the UGO team.
 

Zenith

Banned
No one could claim they didn't see this coming. EGM is totally irrelevant, but 1Up might finally have enough money to fix their site and get gamevideos out of "beta".
 

Hostile Paradox

Neo Member
An excerpt:
After a comprehensive process, this morning we completed a deal with Hearst Interactive, the owner and operator of UGO Entertainment. 1UP.com, MyCheats.com, Gamevideos.com, and Gametab.com will now all be part of the UGO Entertainment business. Many of our employees will travel with this business and become part of the UGO team.
Many, not all. Some layoffs are obviously going to happen.

:( :( :(
 

JCX

Member
This kinda sucks. When I used to be big into gaming magazines, I always that EGM was the best of them.
 

Gig

One man's junk is another man's treasure
Damn, this sucks, I've been a subscriber for five years now, loved it a lot.

I hope everyone loses their job is a to get back on their feet.

:( :(
 

Oxymoron

Member
Rlan said:
Matt Chandronait Twitter:

6 minutes ago: NOW today sucks.
I followed his twitter to Stephanie Chopp's, who seems to work in gaming PR in some way (they seem to twitt back and forth quite a bit) and she had:
DAMMIT. Twitter is failing all over today AND one of my favorite editors was just laid off. *shakes fist* I'm against today!!!!!
:(
 

DuckRacer

Member
^^^ Edge is really good, even though it's ridiculously expensive.
With this transaction happening, we have also made the decision to discontinue publication of EGM. The January 2009 issue will be the final issue of the publication. With demand for print continuing to decline amongst both advertisers and readers and the content being produced by 1UP no longer available for use in the publication, it simply did not make sense for us to move forward with this business any longer.
:(. Wolverine's crappy pixelated head will haunt EGM forever
 

Mechar

Neo Member
This really, really sucked. But ,to be frank, I saw this coming.
Has the latest issue started to hit subscribers yet? And if so, does it mention anything about the magazine shutting down?
 
EGM can hardly be called good anymore.

It would be like if The Simpsons was cancelled and people were sad because "we lost one of the greatest television shows in history."

Not anymore, my friend.
 

colinp

Banned
maniac80 said:
Well when a company spins-off a division it doesn't necessarily mean big changes, and lay-offs. If 1-up was profitable division things should continue 'as-is', especially for the technical/writing side of things.

If 1-up on it's own is not profitable, then we can expect changes and slashing of non-profitable ventures along with employees working on them.

On another note, the 1-Up show could probably take more advertising a become profitable (if it isn't already), it's probably got a good audience that can support ad sales.

The thing is a number of the people at 1up have been in print publishing for a long time, and when you take away their baby... This is a precedent we have seen before with gfw. And again there might be blogs and reassurances that things will stay the same, but obviously they wont. This will eventually change everything about 1up, the question is only how soon...
 

Crateman

Member
Godspeed EGM. This is a sad day for gaming.

We'll never forget you! Thanks for everything.

In on the other hand:

I know there's nothing oficial... just don't kill 1UP.com!! :(

Danthrax said:
None. We just lost the last good one. =(

EDGE wants to have a word with you in the parking lot.
 

xSL4INx

Member
This is terrible news. For the last 8 years I've subscribed to the magazine, it's always been the one thing I look forward to every month, knowing that it would be coming to me in the mail. Now that is gone, as well as a possibly the 1UP Yours podcast that I've really grown to love over the last year.

Damn, this is awful news....... :-(
 

ferricide

Member
last issue is the godawful (sorry, art team) wolverine cover, sadly. that's on newsstands now and has been for awhile. go pick it up, kids!
 

aku08

Member
im an EGM subscriber, im really sad about this news. for me, there's still room for a good magazine reading, unfortunately, i guess not a lot of people share this view. sad day. magazines are dropping like flies. well, here's to hoping that 1up transitions well.
 

FartOfWar

Banned
LukeSmith said:
Unsurprising, but super unfortunate that the staffers heard about this via leak rather than being told.

Paidcontent.org: "Oops, our bad!"

May you all land on your feet, my friends.

What Luke said.
 
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