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Patrick Klepek Reveals He Only Made $65K at Giant Bomb in SF [Up: Klepek responds, see threadmarks]
- Thread starter Relic
- Start date
Not everyone is willing to put in the hard work when they make a thread.
All of my hate is very well researched.
Bad cherry-picking OP as others have said. This thread needs to be renamed to "Patrick Klepek shares his games media salary history" or something more appropriate for the twitter thread this comes from. Perhaps also mention the other people sharing theirs?
65K in SF is like 30K in most cities. I don't know how you could make rent with that.
No kidding. If you want to drag Giant Bomb, the OT's in Gaming Hangouts.
There is already a thread about this: https://www.resetera.com/threads/du...icly-sharing-their-salaries-on-twitter.223873
I think that collectively we should be arguing for competitive livable wages in all fields based on the inflated cost of living in that area. I'm not particularly interested in his individual numbers, but it's clear that journalism/blogging is a tough career with little wiggle room—especially in major cities where these publications exist.
Regardless, glad to see things shaping up favorably for him.
Regardless, glad to see things shaping up favorably for him.
Let's face it, the entire working class is underpaid. Those at the top want us to be fighting over scraps.
is the figure of 65k supposed to garner outrage? It's a job in the media, they pay like shit across the board. My first job out of college following a journalism degree I got 24 thousand euro a year in Ireland.
I got out of the industry because the pay and prospects were so bad
I got out of the industry because the pay and prospects were so bad
Why is it not fair? Giant Bomb is owned by Viacom, a huge conglomerate (that also owns MTV). What is not fair is comparing them to EZA, a small independent group that's mostly funded via Patreon.
Given that most of the IGN/Kinda Funny guys live in shared houses and shoebox rooms this doesn't surprise me at all. The economy of working in SF in games media seems hugely out of whack.
Wow, if you guys are shocked at 65k in SF, wait till you learn about the pay of these workers in SF:
- QA
- Sales Associates
- Coffee Baristas
- Childcare workers
- Government employees (e.g. Social Security office staff)
- Artists
Your minds would be blown away. Tons of people live in SF under $100k. More even lower.
- QA
- Sales Associates
- Coffee Baristas
- Childcare workers
- Government employees (e.g. Social Security office staff)
- Artists
Your minds would be blown away. Tons of people live in SF under $100k. More even lower.
I don't think its supposed to garner anything, and it seems the wide array of responses kinda reflect that people aren't privy to this information normally (which I believe is the point of him signal boosting, it's important to have these discussions when the American labor force is so easily taken advantage of.)
They weren't when he was hired, they were owned by whiskey media.
Does Giantbomb really generate that much revenue? 65 k seems like a lot considering the content on the site.
Thread backfire
OP
OP
- I meant this for the gaming section (I had two tabs open and accidentally hit "new thread" in etcetera). I reported my post but it hasn't been moved yet.
- I made a thread for this separately from the larger thread about people sharing their wages in relationship to BIPOC wage disparity. It is not more important than the larger discussion. Patrick's tweet was applicable to the gaming section while the larger thread was here in off-topic.
- 1UP is a defunct company. Giant Bomb has continued onward and hired more people. I also don't know anything about how 1UP presented itself.
- I stand by my claim that Giant Bomb presents itself as hip. It's not Gen-Z hip, but their brand is built on lots of "duder" and off topic podcast discussions. Their best of videos always open with a clip of something zany happening to the crew and everyone laughing. It's about people having fun playing video games, not some corporate soul-sucker. Listen to a clip of them asking for subscribers during their subscription drive. "We couldn't do this without you." That is the image they present.
- Issues with game company pay are well-known. I haven't heard anything similar for the games press, so I thought I would make a thread.
- "Cancelling your subscription means less money for the staffers!" Maybe so, but I'm not sure where the money is going now. I would love for this to spark discussion of current GB wages. If it can't exist without giving its employees poverty wages, I don't feel comfortable supporting it.
- I made a thread for this separately from the larger thread about people sharing their wages in relationship to BIPOC wage disparity. It is not more important than the larger discussion. Patrick's tweet was applicable to the gaming section while the larger thread was here in off-topic.
- 1UP is a defunct company. Giant Bomb has continued onward and hired more people. I also don't know anything about how 1UP presented itself.
- I stand by my claim that Giant Bomb presents itself as hip. It's not Gen-Z hip, but their brand is built on lots of "duder" and off topic podcast discussions. Their best of videos always open with a clip of something zany happening to the crew and everyone laughing. It's about people having fun playing video games, not some corporate soul-sucker. Listen to a clip of them asking for subscribers during their subscription drive. "We couldn't do this without you." That is the image they present.
- Issues with game company pay are well-known. I haven't heard anything similar for the games press, so I thought I would make a thread.
- "Cancelling your subscription means less money for the staffers!" Maybe so, but I'm not sure where the money is going now. I would love for this to spark discussion of current GB wages. If it can't exist without giving its employees poverty wages, I don't feel comfortable supporting it.
giant bomb was doing what eza was doing years before patreon was even a thing
Same for one of my buddies; he went from game development to a big (game) middleware supplier to a research job at Nvidia. Money was never a big motivator but the gamesindustry is a far cry compared to other industries.. That said, financial will probably pay even more.
It was 9 years ago when he started. He never asked for a raise. You're ignoring the other tweets he made.
This is 100% speculation on your part. You're assuming the worst based on what a startup was paying 9 years ago (which was clearly above industry standard at the time). It's hard to think that you didn't make this thread in bad faith.
You've never heard of game press talking about being paid shit?? That's strange.
As things go, for a writer in Bay Area for an enthusiast site, 65k is pretty OK actually.
I definitely feel like there is this perception with a lot of people that once you start working for a big company (like CNN) or get a high profile job where you are creating content for big websites (like games media) that you've "made it". The fact that there is so much turnover in these industries always made it fairly apparent to me that this was not the case.
[/QUOTE]
What does that even mean in regards to a videogame forum? It's a site with tens of thousands of members. Moderation bans most openly regressive members, leading to a lot more participating who have liberal and progressive opinions. Is there something wrong with that?
Also rather stupid to use a self selecting poll on gaming side as some sort of evidence. It's mentioned a lot here that the participating community on that side are less progressive or liberal in general. It's not some secret or false advertising when a majority participating in that poll don't care about Rowling's comments in regards to the games.
Basically, I'm not sure what people like this actually want or expect.
That sounds like a pretty good amount for the time for the firldy. I had offers in the bay area around that time in the high 30 - 40kish range for journalism work. It's a historically underpaid field and even more so when you're in non-union work. Even today you have threads on the same subject, media pay, and you see people at the forefront of huge brands posting their pay in the 50-60k range when working for major publishers in places like NYC.
OP conveniently ignoring all context around Patrick's tweet - including the fact that this was nearly a decade ago, and bringing in baseless speculation about premium subscription money. Thread was clearly made in bad faith. "I'm a GB fan I swear".. k.
I was referring to the Bon Appetit thread, where people were justifiably discussing how much Sohla makes compared to other staff members.
Bon Appetit EIC, Adam Rapoport, caught in Brownface; Only white BA editors paid for video appearances. [Up: Resigns]
Nuyorican specifically. Apparently ppl popping off on Twitter that BA is not the most inclusive workplace. Man, everyone getting exposed lol. Can't say I feel bad for these folks.
www.resetera.com
You also don't know what GB pays its employees now, because your only data point is one salary offered to one employee when they were a startup roughly a decade ago.
If GB is paying its workers peanuts, I hope they get exposed. But this thread is obviously bullshit.
Patrick Klepek Responds
A few things:
1) 65k wasn't great but it was workable money at the time that I lived in San Francisco.
2) I went into the job with open eyes. It was less money than I'd made at my previous employer, EGM, a place I famously had a bad experience with, and I was desperate to be happy at work again. I interviewed at a few different places at the time, while I waited to see if Giant Bomb could hire me, including GamePro, IGN, and some others that I've since forgotten. Giant Bomb made the most sense for me at the time, and I credit that experience with both making lifelong friends and boosting my platform and career. I don't regret any of it. You make all these kinds of trade-offs when going between jobs.
3) As I said in another tweet, I do not think there was some systemic attempt to depress my salary. I never asked for a raise at Giant Bomb until I had an offer letter from Kotaku, at which point CBS/Giant Bomb matched the offer.
4) It's also true that at no point was I offered a pay raise, which means there was no system at Whiskey Media or CBS in place to reward employees (or match cost of living) who continued to put in good work. That's bad, and punishes employees who don't go out of their way to demand a raise. That's a management issue, but also reliably in line with every other gaming media outlet at the time.
1) 65k wasn't great but it was workable money at the time that I lived in San Francisco.
2) I went into the job with open eyes. It was less money than I'd made at my previous employer, EGM, a place I famously had a bad experience with, and I was desperate to be happy at work again. I interviewed at a few different places at the time, while I waited to see if Giant Bomb could hire me, including GamePro, IGN, and some others that I've since forgotten. Giant Bomb made the most sense for me at the time, and I credit that experience with both making lifelong friends and boosting my platform and career. I don't regret any of it. You make all these kinds of trade-offs when going between jobs.
3) As I said in another tweet, I do not think there was some systemic attempt to depress my salary. I never asked for a raise at Giant Bomb until I had an offer letter from Kotaku, at which point CBS/Giant Bomb matched the offer.
4) It's also true that at no point was I offered a pay raise, which means there was no system at Whiskey Media or CBS in place to reward employees (or match cost of living) who continued to put in good work. That's bad, and punishes employees who don't go out of their way to demand a raise. That's a management issue, but also reliably in line with every other gaming media outlet at the time.
He's on paternity leave right now. He, Rob, and Cato run vice games together.