News has been going around about Vice reducing its headcount across its global workforce by up to 10%, or 250 employees. This comes at a time where 1,000 journalists and staff were collectively let go across Verizon’s platforms, Buzzfeed, and Garnett in recent weeks.
According to Digiday, Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc – who was put into the position after the former male higher-ups were let go due to rampant sexual misconduct – sent the letter out to those working at Vice Media, noting that employees in television, editorial, and finance would all be affected. Dubuc wrote in the memo…
“Having finalized the 2019 budget, our focus shifts to executing our goals and hitting our marks. To this end, we’ve had to make hard but necessary operating decisions. Starting today, the next phase of our plan begins as we reorganize our global workforce. Unfortunately, this means we will have to say goodbye to some of our VICE colleagues.”
Reportedly, “non-core” editorial verticals will either be wiped off the map or reduced in size.
According to a report from Variety back in November of 2018, Vice had already begun a hiring freeze and had previously announced that they were looking to reduce staff by up to 15% to cut costs.
A lot of anti-#GamerGate critics were worried that one of #GamerGate’s biggest opponents, Waypoint, would be affected in way, and there was – for a brief moment in the continuum of righteousness – wailing and pouting from those over on the ResetEra forum. And yes, this is the same Waypoint who refused to even review Kingdom Come: Deliverance because they were part of a group of journalists who considered the historical accuracy of the game “racist”.
However, Waypoint editor-in-chief, Austin Walker, announced on February 1st, 2019 that Waypoint remains unaffected by the layoffs… for now.
Just want to clear a few things up, because the internet often gets stuff wrong:
1. No, Waypoint has not been “eliminated.” We’re all still right here.
2. Yes, we’ll soon be working more closely with the some other parts of VICE.
3. But @Waypoint will not be going anywhere.— austin walker (@austin_walker) February 1, 2019
For those of you who sent condolences or concern our way, thank you so much. You totally outweighed the naysayers and celebrators. It means the world to us. If you can do one thing, please extend that good will (and those job offers) to those who were caught up in today’s layoffs
— austin walker (@austin_walker) February 1, 2019
So, for the ethics crowd wanting to be rid of an outlet that propagates part of the Social Justice sphere that surrounds journalism, you can take solace in a partial victory of Vice having to lay off some of its staff. However, for the crowd that still wants video game journalism to go back to being about writing critically about video games and talking about the latest games, you’re still going to have to wait quite some time because Waypoint isn’t going anywhere… for now.
(Thanks for the news tip Lyle)
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