Patrick Klepek Reveals He Only Made $65K at Giant Bomb in SF [Up: Klepek responds, see threadmarks]

[Relic]

- 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.

 

[Patrick Klepek]

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.