Press Pass: Totilo Talks Transition From MTV to Kotaku
We sit down with Stephen Totilo as he moves from a gaming blog he established to one that's already very well-established without him.
4/23/2009 1:00 PM | 19 Comments | Page 1 of 4
Kyle Orland
Status: "You can't get quality video game editorial from a value menu!" "No, really, you can't."
Stephen Totilo
Music is obviously the core focus of MTV News -- it's right there in the Music Television name. But over the last four years, the outfit has increasingly included videogame coverage in its ever-expanding pop culture sphere. That increased attention has largely been the responsibility of Stephen Totilo, who was hired as MTV's first full-time videogame beat reporter back in May 2005. Since then he's built MTV News, and its game-focused
MTV Multiplayer blog, into a major destination for original game reporting and commentary.
The Totilo era at MTV News
ends this Friday, though, when the longtime game reporter leaves to take a
Deputy Managing Editor position at Gawker's popular gaming blog Kotaku. I took the transition as an opportunity to talk to Totilo about the future of MTV News' gaming coverage, his plans for Kotaku and his thoughts on the wider game journalism industry. Below are some of the most interesting excerpts from our conversation.
On the post-Totilo future of MTV Multiplayer
"MTV has been committed to videogames for quite some time. You can see that in the Rock Band projects, and you can see that in their May 2005 hiring of MTV News' first videogame beat reporter. MTV News and the rest of MTV have backed games with a commitment I haven't seen in any other media company. So, based on that precedent, and based on the fact that I am working with my superiors at MTV to set up a promising future for Multiplayer, I am excited about what may be coming here. ... I love Multiplayer and want to see it thrive. I am doing everything I can to ensure it does. But setting up the phase after me does take time.
"Reporters need to pick up the phone more and find out about stories for themselves. And readers would be best served to identify those reporters and outlets who do the best work and keep supporting them."
"Hopefully the blog doesn't have to go dark, but if it does, I'll expect it to come back and I will be eager to let the world know about it. ... There's a chance [it could happen], but if that happens it won't be some weird frozen-in-time thing. We'll let readers know it's happening, and what they can expect beyond that. I'm flattered to see that people hold the Multiplayer blog in high esteem. We're sensitive to that and want to make sure people's expectations can be met in the future, regardless of who is working on the blog."
On the recession's effect on Multiplayer and other game sites
"Every media company has taken some lumps due to the economy, but Multiplayer and my role here were bound to continue for a long time to come. My departure has nothing to do with the economy. That said, regular Multiplayer readers will remember that
we had to say goodbye to Patrick Klepek in February because of the economic downturn. He's been sorely missed by all since that day. That didn't make Multiplayer any different than any other media enterprise, big or small: We're all perpetually faced with the challenge to do more, often, these days, with less."
