Gamurs lays off more game journalists, because of course they did

It came as no surprise to me that Gamurs - a media group that has a history of shitcanning writers - has shitcanned more writers.

Look: It's no secret I'm extremely unhappy with the direction game journalism has gone. I shuttered Ghost Gamer News because good, detailed content providers are getting overwhelmed by churn & burn content farms, and I didn't have the time nor the energy to do every thing needed to compete and still be able to cover the overhead.

So, when I heard Gamurs performed another round of layoffs, well.. Insert shocked Pikachu face, I guess?

What's sad is a number of the publications Gamurs has snatched up used to be pretty decent. Hell, even after acquisition many of the staff had said things weren't too bad! Of course, that's all relative; as someone who's worked under multiple media groups over the years in the publishing industry, there is a certain degree of "managed by spreadsheet" that you've got to deal with as a peon.. And the pay was never good, either (especially in print media).

Want to know what pisses me off, though?

They are hiring.

Of course, they are hiring for contract workers, rather than full-time employees; Presumably so they don't have to provide benefits, or anything a reasonable (like severance in the next round of lay-offs) employee might want.

Anyway, if you look at the hero image on this article, you'll notice some fixing I did for the hero on their own website.

You see, Gamurs has been falling down the trap of the numbers game on Google: The only content they value is the kind that folks click through from Google, which means.. Clickbait, clickbait, clickbait!

Value is determined by page (and ad) impressions, and when editorial decisions are dictated purely by an SEO team, you're going to find yourself producing shitty content that - while it may get clicks - it won't retain readership or provide any real value.

That doesn't matter for most gaming industry publications nowadays, though; Churn & burn is just the name of the game, and with Google's enshitification of search it's no surprise.

If you like good (or at least somewhat entertaining) journalism, check out Aftermath (a great publication made up of folks in the industry who have suffered from similar layoffs), or maybe.. You know.. buy me a coffee?