MTV Multiplayer Falls Silent Yet Again

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The MTV Multiplayer blog is silent once again, as writer Tracey John leaves. You might remember that Stephen Totilo moved to competetitor Kotaku which put the blog on hiatus, then it rolled back out with updates from contributor Tracey John. And now he’s gone too, hinting that something’s going on but nothing more than that.

And I encourage the industry and gamers to continue to support MTV Multiplayer and the new editor when the blog is back in full force. Exciting things are in the works — just you wait. Thanks for being so patient.

This is a bad move. It is way better to just put a blog on hiatus and offer some sort of notification solution for its reader, rather than being this vague about what’s happening. The editorial group on MTV.com really need to get its act together. They are hurting the brand with this nonsense.

MTV Multiplayer Videogame Blog On Hiatus

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Popular, and sometimes breaking, videogame blog MTV Multiplayer has put itself on hiatus as lead writer Stephen Totilo is no longer working with it. He explains the decision like this:

Because April 24 is my last day, and because our search for the best team to continue Multiplayer is underway but not yet complete, we’re putting the blog on hiatus.

In other words, you haven’t seen the last of MTV Multiplayer, but it’ll take some time to get it rolling again. Poor planning perhaps, but that’s the way it is sometimes.

Incidentally, I’d like to point you to Totilo’s second to last post about why he became a gaming journalist. It is an interesting read.

So where did Totilo go? From one videogame blog to another: He is now Deputy Managing Editor on Gawker Media’s Kotaku.

Gawker Media Layoffs 19, Suspends Pageview Bonuses Temporarily

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Nick Denton’s successful blog network is getting ready for harder times. 19 of the 133 employers is being laid off, while another 10 is hired to strengthen the successful sites like Gawker, Kotaku, Gizmodo and Lifehacker. He’s also temporarily suspending the pageview bonus system, which have already seen some slashing, for the first quarter next year, while hinting that it might be out of the loop longer in his memo. It’s not all bad news for Gawker Media bloggers, though, since the base pay amount will be raised for the ones not getting sacked.

Denton blames the recession. [Read more…]