IGN has laid off eight employees members, which comprised 12 p.c of the IGN Creators Guild’s bargaining unit, as per a directive from guardian firm Ziff Davis.
As per an announcement issued by the IGN Union by way of Bluesky, the corporate mentioned that the rationale for the job cuts stems from a Ziff Davis-mandate to chop prices “regardless of a number of quarters in a row of year-over-year income will increase.”
The layoffs, which have been introduced yesterday, befell after months of occasions protection, together with Summer time Recreation Fest, IGN Reside, and San Diego Comedian Con, which all make up for a “tremendously profitable yr” because of the group’s work. “Each single particular person impacted in the present day was concerned in and significant to the success of these occasions,” the assertion reads.
Amidst the affected are video editor Chelsea Reed, senior options editor Matt Kim, gaming editorial occasions supervisor Rob Manuel, and leisure opinions editor Erik Adams.
“I cried this morning as a result of so a lot of my great colleagues have been laid off in the present day, even after the success of IGN Reside and Comedian-Con,” IGN lead social host and producer Jeffrey Vega wrote on Bluesky yesterday. “After in the present day’s layoffs, I’m now the one social group member left in LA. How am I presupposed to do my job?”
Extra manufacturers, fewer workers
The IGN layoffs are the most recent in a stream of redundancies and buyouts enacted by Ziff Davis. As reported by The Verge, the media conglomerate laid off 23 individuals, which made for 15 p.c of the Ziff Davis Creators Guild bargaining unit. The layoffs affected workers throughout CNET, Lifehacker, Mashable, and ZDNet.
Final yr, Ziff Davis acquired a lot of Gamer Community publications. Shortly after, a lot of workers throughout the retailers have been laid off. As acknowledged by the union and reported by Aftermath on the time, the corporate introduced in December that it would be providing voluntary buyouts to staff to is likely to be able to “transfer on” or “discover new alternatives.” In keeping with the union’s assertion issued yesterday, the company-wide buyout “shrunk our unit numbers” with the “specific intent of avoiding future layoffs.”Â
In keeping with the union, the corporate hasn’t responded to questions on “whether or not its price range for future acquisitions is being reconsidered as a cost-saving measure alongside these different apparently needed personnel cuts.”
Alongside the Recreation Community publications, Ziff Davis acquired CNET in 2024 by $100 million. This yr alone, the conglomerate accomplished 5 acquisitions—two within the first quarter, and three within the second quarter, which led to July. These embody theSkimm, Maxroll, Forensic and Compliance Programs, E mail Industries, and Properly+Good.
“Whereas IGN Leisure administration could not worth us, we worth each other and the unimaginable work we will do collectively,” the assertion reads. “Behind the articles, movies, social posts, playlists, and maps of IGN are human beings, not simply numbers on a spreadsheet to be pushed round when some quantity on the prime is not large enough. With out us, there isn’t any IGN.”
