As more and more long-established games publications shrink, vanish, or consolidate, an ongoing rise in independent journalism is working hard to keep the fire lit.

Today, we’ve got a brand new publication on the block; a trade publication, to be precise. It’s called Vertical Slice, and it’s run by long-time investigative games reporter Chris Kerr.

Kerr’s been reporting about games for 15 years, on the trade beat for about 13, and at Game Developer for around 11, concluding as its senior news editor. He left the publication at the end of last month, trading the (relative) stability of a full-time role for the great unknown of owning his own website.

As someone currently enjoying the former type of stability, I had to know…why?

“I feel like I can do my best work outside the confines of a publication that is owned by a globally traded corporation with wildly different commercial interests,” Kerr said. “Often those interests can overlap. That’s not always the case. I suspect that is true of many publications that have a corporate backer. And, you know, there are many positives to being corporate-owned, right? It offers you more security. I had a pension. That was great…But I feel like in order to produce journalism that is as punchy as it can be, properly fearless. You need to potentially go it alone, depending on your circumstances.”

Eschewing that stability then, how is this possible? Kerr is funding this with his own savings, saying he’s been “quite sensible” with his money over the last decade.

Source link