“A page turns”: journalists from the editorial staff of Gamekult announced their departure on Thursday media specializing in video games, bought by Reworld, denouncing a “hostile” context for the independence of the press. “It is with a heavy heart that we announce that as of December 7, the editorial staff will gradually leave Gamekult,” she announced in a tweet.
The editorial staff, made up of a handful of journalists, posted a photo of her on Twitter and organized a live broadcast on Twitch to discuss this decision. A few tears flowed. “It’s important to have people who say ‘shit’,” the team concluded.
“After having considered all the options, for us this is the only possible outcome”, adds the editorial staff, speaking of a “quasi-unanimous decision” and deploring the “economic and media context which is ever more hostile to the independence of the video game press.
“We say it again: it is not a failure of the subscription (12,000 subscribers), the situation and our decision depend on other factors”, hammered the editorial staff. She announced by the beginning of December some “big planned meetings” in the news of the sector and a paper on ethics. “On the other hand, we will not be able to ensure the GK (Gamekult) Awards”, she tweeted again.
Reworld criticized
Since the announcement in June by TF1 of the sale of its digital division, of which Gamekult was a part, to Reworld Media (Auto Plus, Grazia, Science & Life), the fate of Gamekult was at the center of questions. Launched in 2000, the specialized site is highly appreciated by its community of readers and subscribers, who identify it as one of the few to investigate the video game industry.
Reworld’s methods aimed at making profitable sites acquired at a discount as quickly as possible have been criticized in the media, with in particular the proliferation of advertisements in the content and the poor management of staff forced to resign or burn out.
Having set out to conquer video games at the end of 2021 by acquiring Melty (La Crème du Gaming, SuperSoluce, and GameLove), Reworld accelerated at the start of 2021 by buying Eclypsia, a historic brand in esports (competitive video games), and JeuVideo-Live.com, more generalist. Within five years, the group intends to take second place on the French podium on the theme, occupied today by Webedia, with the JeuxVideos.com portal, or Breakflip, owned by the communication agency WSC.