How GAMURS shows the esports journalism industry’s struggle to overcome low freelance rates

By Alexander Lee

In the latest round of consolidation to hit esports media, GAMURS Group purchased Upcomer and other Enthusiast Gaming editorial properties last week — then announced a $12 million Series A funding round earlier today.

But the acquisition leaves many wondering how the fine print of those acquisitions and influx in funding will shake out for those new GAMURS employees — namely what that means for their compensation. Upcomer has already cut two full-time staff members in the transition, though GAMURS CEO Riad Chikhani told Digiday that he doesn’t anticipate any further layoffs at any of the acquired properties.

In theory, the profitable Australia-based media network should be a safe haven for an embattled editorial operation such as Upcomer, and the acquisition has brought a feeling of stability for Upcomer’s remaining staff members. But GAMURS has also developed a reputation for subpar pay and reliance on freelance workers — a trend that undergirds the entire esports journalism industry.

To learn more about GAMURS’ pay practices, Digiday spoke to eight current or former full-time or freelance employees of the company, many of whom requested anonymity due to fears of jeopardizing future employment opportunities in the space.

The bigger picture

GAMURS Group was founded by CEO Chikhani in 2014. The crown jewel of its portfolio is Dot Esports, a prominent source of endemic esports news, which GAMURS acquired from the Daily Dot in October 2016; other GAMURS properties include websites such as Pro Game Guides and The Mary Sue.

GAMURS’ low rates have long been a topic of discussion in the whisper network that powers the esports journalism industry, which is no stranger to broader mistreatment of contract workers.

The company usually pays freelance writers $15 for 300-word news posts and up to a non-negotiable $35 for reported features, according to both former staffers and GAMURS’ public job listings, though those rates vary from site to site. Under Enthusiast Gaming ownership, Upcomer freelancers received a base pay rate of $25 per news story, and up to $300 for a reported feature; under GAMURS, they have already received new contracts featuring a tiered pay scale that begins at $10 for “tier one” and goes up to $50 for a “tier five” article.

These rates are in line with the low freelancer payouts elsewhere in the industry. Earlier this year, for example, IGN came under fire for advertising base rates of $20 per article; base rates for news stories at outlets such as GameSpot currently sit at $25, but the website spent many years paying freelancers $15 to aggregate news.

“It’s an unworkable rate; likely no person working at that rate could have made a living from that and paid their rent and [for]food every day,” said Rod Breslau, a longtime esports journalist who was part of the founding teams at ESPN Esports and Yahoo Esports. “… this is how the bigger industry is — everything’s all fucked up.”

Part of this is economics: the audience for written editorial esports content is not yet large …read more

Source:: Digiday