Gamekult is part of the Unify group (Doctissimo, Marmiton, Les Numériques, etc.), whose sale by TF1 to the Reworld Media group took effect last month.
“A page turns“: journalists from the editorial staff of Gamekult announced Thursday evening their departure from the media specializing in video games, bought last month by the Reworld Media group, denouncing a context “hostilefor 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. Almost all of the site’s freelancers have also decided to leave. Journalists have activated their transfer clause, a device specific to this profession allowing, during a change of shareholder, to leave an editorial office while receiving severance pay proportional to seniority in the company.
“After considering all the options, this is the only way out for us.“, adds the editorial staff, speaking of a “almost unanimous decision» and lamenting the «increasingly hostile economic and media context for the independence of the video game press“.
The editorial staff, made up of a handful of journalists, organized a live broadcast on Twitch to explain this decision. “We say it again: it’s not a failure of the subscription (12,000 subscribers, editor’s note), the situation and our decision depend on other factors“, hammered the editorial staff.
She also published on her site a text emphasizing “overall wearof the team, which has been understaffed for several years, in an unfavorable context for the press specializing in video games. “Its ecosystem has changed, the information channels have changed, the place of information has considerably reduced compared to that of what could be called infotainment. Journalistic ethics now too often come up against the demands of Google, but also of advertisers, whose desire to erase the line between advertising and information is becoming more and more heavily asserted.»
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Reworld’s contested methods
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. Faced with the economic difficulties of the free web press, Gamekult set up a paywall in 2015 on its value-added content (video shows, game reviews, surveys, etc.). Gamekult Premium currently has 12,000 subscribers.
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. The editorial staff of Sciences et Vie also resigned collectively in March 2021, a year and a half after the takeover of the magazine.
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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 e-sports brand (competitive video game) , 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 its site Jeuxvideo.com, or Breakflip, owned by the communication agency WSC.