Don't want to come over like the uberdick but why does this site goes silent on weekends? I know, people have lifes and time to game and the family, good ol fam, needs you too, but still? Maybe it would be good to prepare some articles, storys or catchy headlines in advance and launch them on weekends. It would keep one's busy, instead of reading newspaper at breakfast or while the rest of the family is underway :p
VG24/5 ... ?
(13 posts)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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Not a bad idea, but it's not hard to understand why they do it like this.
I imagine the salaries aren't sky high for a business like this, which is probably reflected in the business it's doing, so shutting down for two days can be a pretty essential part of sparing the manpower, and the money.
They could hire a few freelancers, but then I don't know how efficient that is, or whether there are really freelancers worth hiring.
Maybe the thing would be to make a "weekend edition", like the newspapers. Keep all the editorials, opinions and articles for the weekend and give people a bunch of stuff to read/build the hype for.
Provided that you aren't looking at an extremely current exclusive, it wouldn't hurt.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I'm sure Pat would have a snarky reply for this... If it wasn't a Sunday the lazy sod ;-)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hmm, the "weekend edition" is a good idea and just what I meant, if they can manage to do it by themselfs. Probably its just like you said and it would eat up a good bunch of their "regular" time, which then is intended to bring us the news on weekdays...
Posted 1 year ago # -
They could either save up all their editorials and such for weekends, and keep the weeks themselves "news only", with the opinions, reports and editorials saved for the weekend.
Or they could ask user to pitch in. Some must have something to say?
Posted 1 year ago # -
I can't really speak too much to this as I'm obviously only a freelancer/contributor... These thoughts are mine and not Pat's/VG247's, but I'd point out that I think it's rather crazy to have a Sunday (and to a lesser extent Saturday) spot for actual news; news is so dead on a weekend that the person would be sitting around not doing a ton.
Joe Anderson (now of ShopTo news) did Sundays for a while and that was the case there. It was either really dead with few posts, or worse he was having to grasp at straws to find 'news' like a lot of gaming news sites do. The last thing I'd want to see - as a reader, as I was then and still am now - is for VG247 to turn into another site that posts any old pap. Even on a weekend.
I'm sure you guys hit the nail on the head in saying that a weekend edition and more features spread out across the weekend would be cool, but features obviously eat into time the guys spend in the week bringing you the actual news which is the most important thing about this site. Mimicking the Sunday Newspaper model a little more with that stuff WOULD be awesome, but not at the cost of the laser-focus on news in the week, I reckon.
Let's not forget how much more opinion content this place is kicking out on a regular basis than it was. Brenna writes incredible opinion bits all the time, and Pat does a ton of editorials too - so there's no shortage of it. Would you want it held back for the weekend though? I dunno that I would.
The above is all my opinion on the matter, obviously, and nothing to do with the site's stance. I consider myself as much of a reader and a fan as the rest of you, though. I'm sure Pat'll have an official answer in the week.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Seems to me that it's a bit much to start asking VG24/7 staffers to work on the weekend as well. Maybe it might be an idea to stick some user content up, like user reviews or opinion pieces or whatever. Just a thought.
Also, when the news is coming in thick and fast like through E3 or whatever, I think it really is coming in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so this may just be a slow news season lull.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I can only speak for myself, but I think the in-depth stuff and weekends are an obvious match.
I'm not saying it needs to be one or the other, but I'm far more likely to take my time reading something if there's absolutely nothing else to do. I'm pretty sure that's why newspapers prioritize the way they do as well.
The weekend is when you want a big slab of newspaper all about book reviews and socio-philosophical musings.
On an average skim through I'm not likely to give them the attention they deserve, but I totally agree, VG247 can't get enough pieces like that. Between Pat, Nathan and Brenna you have a cross section of perspectives that are usually extremely sharp.
Posted 1 year ago # -
In all fairness to Pat and the guys, it's not like they haven't tried solving the quiet weekend problem before. Joe hardly ever had anything to post for the Sunday shift, and for some reason no one used to read Nathan's entertaining weekly news round-up.
Maybe part of the problem is that the readership becomes so accustomed to not having anything to read on a Sunday that they don't bother visiting the site when there actually happens to be something interesting posted.
Either way, I bet the team's primary focus right now would be covering E3 so I'm sure we'll see a few features on that.
Posted 1 year ago # -
If they aren't time-critical and need to get out ASAP, what would be the downside of launching some gems at weekends?
Just to make things clear, I haven't asked for staffers to also work on their weekends. And of course, there are some weekends, mainly around the big shows of the year, where we get proper *news*. But my initial post wasn't about laser-sharp news.
Alex, the "opinion bits" that Brenna and all the others (Nathan with his "dropping the ball on mobile games coverage", Pat's great "Xbox story") wrote, are awesome stuff and at least for me, very welcome. They are, what this site makes it a warm place to stay. Gaming news happen everywhere but most sites lack soul. These opinion bits, editorials, articles, storys, shortstorys, questions or whatever you name them, deserve special attention imo. Thats not say, you should focus on storys for the weekend but if you have one or two things we could chew on, wouldn't be bad either. If the staffers don't have the time for that or need to roll out their storys ASAP, its ok, never mind no problemo, was just saying.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The problem there might be that if those news pieces get released on the weekend, maybe only a fraction of the readership sees them, which would be a waste and a shame considering what goes into making them...
Number 1 thing in my book though is this: I get all of this shit for free, so I don't want Pat, Brenna, Johnny et al to feel under-appreciated by asking for more. I am thoroughly satisfied. Don't kill yourselves guys!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Well to tell you the truth, i think they dont need to do a VG24 weekends edition, because i dont see news about games on the weekends, mostly i spend my time playing games and watching anime, i know iam not everybody, but i think a lot of this site regulars, do not come here on weekends either, therefore i think it is ok.
Posted 1 year ago # -
To everyone saying if those articles get released at the weekends, not many will read them. Well they will begin to read them if they get used to visiting on the weekends ;)
Posted 1 year ago #
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