Press Pass: Dan "Shoe" Hsu Takes on the Bitmob
The former Ziff Davis exec. talks about the fate of his former company and the recent launch of his new community-driven gaming site, Bitmob
7/2/2009 1:20 PM | 5 Comments | Page 2 of 4
"It kind of felt like, OK, well, worse times were coming, it's maybe time for me to get out and maybe try something else. It was not a very positive, upbeat environment there at the time. When you have money problems, you have problems, period. It's like I guess why a lot of people get divorced -- we were just getting a divorce from the company; you just couldn't do a lot of the things you want to do as a business. A lot of people saw that coming and a lot of people left before things got worse."
On the changes at 1UP since his departure and the UGO buyout
"I think they've kind of settled in and found their place. It took a little while for the transition I think because when you lose that many people -- with the layoffs when the UGO thing happened and the exodus before that -- it's gonna be tough for the people who are used to depending on the veterans that aren't there anymore. You're losing such raw manpower, you're losing that experience, a lot of the personalities, so I think it was going to be rough for them no matter what during that transition, but now they've gotten some time away from that, they've kind of gotten into their groove, got some new hires in there.
13-year-old former EGM subscribers: Enjoy!
It's weird, when I got into those offices to visit, it's not like visiting an old family necessarily, there are so many new face there I don't know. ... It's definitely not the same [as it was before the buyout], and I don't think that anyone can reasonably argue that because a lot of what makes any of these Web sites work are the personalities involved -- Crispy Gamer has a personality, IGN has a personality, Gamespot has a personality -- so when most of those personalities leave it's not going to be the same. But that doesn't mean they're not doing a good job. it means it's just going to take them some time to [realize] 'Hey, we're a different group, we have some new young blood in here, and a lot of those people are working really hard and doing a great job.'" There are some new podcasts that have shown up, they've re-evaluated their video strategy with most of the video people gone."
On the remainder of EGM subscriptions being filled by Maxim
It's kind of a mixed blessing. One, it's a business thing. You have this subscriber base, you have nothing to give them anymore. It used to be, when Ziff Davis would cancel a magazine, it would go to one of our sister publications, which at least kept the readers and increased the circulation. I think
EGM absorbed the subscription base for
Xbox Nation back in the day. So that subscriber list is money to somebody, and hey,
Maxim's a big publication and a widely known one -- better that than, say,
Better Homes and Gardens or something like that.
At the same time, it is kind of weird. Even though the average reader of
EGM was 21 at the time when I left, you do have some younger readers. I just can't imagine what it's like for a 13-year-old getting a
Maxim in the mail, what mom and dad had to say about that.
