Gamekult’s editorial board resigned after the site was taken over by Reworld Media

Rather than having to bow to the new shareholder, the formulation of gamekult Prefer to leave the ship. On Thursday, November 17, the journalists of the website specializing in video games announced, during a live broadcast on Twitch, that almost all members of the editorial staff will resign.

” We are here to announce the departure of the Editorial Board, effective from December 7thAnd the Explained during this direct guidance to our Editor-in-Chief, Nicolas “Puyo” Verlet. This pertains to almost all of our extended editorial staff: editors, JRIs, but also our freelance journalists.. (…) It’s a reversal that we’ve been doing for several months now, since the announcement of the acquisition. Don’t imagine we are leaving on a whim. »

It will end in June. gamekult I learned that its shareholder, TF1, was selling its digital media division, called Unify, of which the title is a part, to Reworld Media Group. The site team takes advantage of the opening of the transfer clause to leave the company. In total, there are nine journalists on permanent contracts – that is, all contract holders – including the editor-in-chief, and seventeen out of nineteen freelance journalists have decided to leave the editorial board.

Attention please, the editorial staff at Gamekult is leaving Gamekult. https://t.co/hp4PkGHAXX

– Gamekult (Gamekult)

A waiver clause is a specificity associated with journalist status that is triggered following an acquisition or shareholding change. The concerned journalists are allowed to leave the company while retaining their right to unemployment and to benefit from a variable allowance depending on the number of years spent on the editorial board. Shareholder change gamekult It became effective on October 18th and employees were told to open the transfer clause on the 28th.

Strip historical site

Nearly five months after announcing the acquisition, Reworld Media Group has not made clear its ambitions regarding the new acquisition. We are still waiting for the Reworld strategy, Regrets Karel Ait Kassi Ali, staff representative for the Unify Tech entity, an offshoot of Unify that brings together an editorial team specializing in video games and new technologies, including gamekult. Despite the meetings we’ve been able to have, we still don’t have clear elements regarding Unify’s development plans. » When contacted, Reworld Media Group did not respond to requests from Globalism.

gamekult It was founded in December 2000 and presented itself as one of the first online magazines specializing in video games in France, relying solely on its publications on the web. In the ranking of video game sites created each year by the French Agency for Video Games (AFJV), gamekult He won second place in November 2012 behind him Gamesvideo.com. The site, which has since slipped to fifth place, had many contributors during its existence, from LDLC to Cup Interactive and then Newen, before dropping in the TF1 portfolio. gamekult Then he found himself integrated into Unify.

The announcement of the new contributor has already caused journalists from elsewhere in the group to depart, notably at the Unify Tech subsidiary. uniformity, in addition to gamekultsites DigitalAnd the Cnet FranceAnd the ZDNetAnd the feminineAnd the Scullion And the Doctisimo. In contrast to the group’s other writings, gamekult in 2015 to introduce a paid subscription aimed at funding articles and surveys about the sector. At the beginning of the year, the site had more than 12,200 subscribers.

Founded in 2012, Reworld Media has based its strategy on acquiring several magazine titles – for example, it already owns beautyAnd the House and works where Auto add – Reducing production costs sometimes by taking advantage of the departure of journalists to reduce the number of positions. The group had already faced a similar situation in 2019 when it acquired the Mondadori France group: several journalists from the editorial board Science and life Then he chose to take the waiver clause And left to found the scientific journal epsilon.