How the layoffs at Upcomer show the challenges of public ownership in esports media

In 2021, gaming and esports company Enthusiast Gaming acquired the dormant esports media brand Upcomer, with plans to turn it into a leading esports news publication. But in March 2022, as Upcomer’s readership continued to grow just over a year after its official relaunch under Enthusiast ownership, the company laid off the bulk of its editorial staff, leaving many observers in esports media wondering what had happened to the starry-eyed vision.

Though editor-in-chief Sean Morrison had assembled an all-star team of endemic talent, Enthusiast executives repeatedly moved the goalposts to measure their success, requiring Upcomer staff to hit metrics that they felt were nearly impossible, according to half a dozen current and former staffers Digiday spoke to for this article.

“Enthusiast Gaming always seeks to ensure that it is operating the business as efficiently and effectively as possible and that it is positioned strongly to execute on its growth strategy. Unfortunately, this sometimes includes making difficult decisions about staffing levels. Whenever they occur, these decisions are not taken lightly and we always work to ensure our employees are treated with respect,” said Enthusiast Chief Corporate Officer Eric Bernofsky in an emailed statement, provided in a direct email response after Digiday reached out to Enthusiast’s press contact.

Enthusiast Gaming did not respond to several questions for this story or offer anyone to talk to over the phone. Bernofsky said in his prepared statement that “privacy and confidentiality reasons” kept the company from answering questions about specific employees.

It all came to a head in March 2022, when it came time to balance the books of the publicly-traded company. Instead of building on the groundwork laid by Morrison and his staff, Enthusiastic executives seemingly decided to gut the company, pivoting to a focus on video content. The decision made some esports media workers speculate about whether a pathway to profitability still exists for focused, endemic esports journalism. “Trying to swallow years of losses to build up a brand is great, in theory, but very rarely do boards and executives have the stomach for it when it comes to practice,” said Jason Chung, an assistant professor of sport management and executive director of esports at the University of New Haven.

Of Upcomer’s 26 full-time staff, 11 were laid off on March 10, including editors, writers, social media managers, podcast staff and Yanier “Niero” Gonzalez, the founder of Enthusiast-owned website Destructoid, who worked at the company since June 2017. (Editor’s note: Prior to joining Digiday, the author of this story wrote freelance articles for both the previous and current iterations of Upcomer.)

A handful of employees now populate Upcomer, including a skeleton crew of writers and editors. The bulk of Upcomer’s editorial content is now written by freelancers, and some of the retained writing staff quietly left the company over the past month. The website’s video department was largely unscathed by the layoffs, though some of Upcomer’s video creators now work across multiple Enthusiast Gaming properties, per a former staffer.

And while Upcomer’s video content had been doing …read more

Source:: Digiday