As you may have already read on his blog, longtime friend and coworker Dan Hsu (shoe) announced today that after 12 years of being with Ziff Davis he's going to be leaving the company for a change in his life. Wow.
When shoe first told me he would be leaving, I wished he was just messing around (as he often tends to)...but I knew he wasn't. I didn't know what say, other than that it was hard to picture this place without him. Outside of a brief period in 2000 when he left Ziff in search of Internet Money, we'd been working together almost nine straight years. During that time I learned well not to attempt to outdrink or outprank him, and certainly never to hold anything he'd hand you. We worked hard and had a lot of great times along the way.
But it was actually the time before I was here at Ziff that I want to thank him for most. It was because of shoe and other guys like Mark, John D, John R, Chris, and Shawn, etc. -- all who have now sadly moved onto new things -- that I came to Ziff Davis in the first place. These were the guys who made me realize that this is where I needed to be.
When I was a still a late teen and starting my first gaming fan site, my one dream was to someday work at EGM and run its website. Just a few years later, after working with shoe on EGM and John on OPM, I was starting up 1UP.com. I guess it just goes to show that if you really believe in things and work hard enough, anything can happen. But especially when there are great people to help you out along the way.
Shoe, I'll miss you, man.
The other part of this blog is to then address my new role as a result of shoe's departure. As he mentioned, in addition to Site Director for the 1UP Network I'm now also taking on the responsibilities of Editorial Director. Now, I won't delve into editorial philosophies or anything like that right now -- there will be plenty of time to talk about ideas in the coming months -- but to those of you who'd ask if this means any big changes for the network, I'd say not really. First order of business is to make sure we're upholding the same editorial values and principles we've always had at Ziff -- just like Shoe had previously done and John Davison had done for many years before handing the reigns to shoe last fall. And, to be honest, just like what I had done as Editor-in-Chief of 1UP for the last four years. Are we all of the sudden going to be biased toward one platform over another? Well, I've been labeled pro-Microsoft , pro-Sony, and pro-Nintendo, so take your pick.
No, our editorial is not going to suddenly change. But I and our VP of Content Simon Cox will be continually working our hardest to ensure that we have the absolute best editorial in the business. And with Milky as Editor-in-Chief of Videogames for the group and Jeff Green as Editor-in-Chief of PC Games for the group, I cannot think of any two people who would be better to lead our PC and videogame content teams -- period. Not to put words in shoe's mouth, but I think one of the reasons he felt like he could leave now is that EGM is in such good hands with Milky as its Editor-in-Chief. We also have -- hands-down -- the best editorial team we've ever had working at 1UP. Don't get me wrong, there are people who've moved on over the years whose faces and talents are definitely missed, but we've never had so many brilliant people working on this floor as we do now. Some of them you already know; others you will know soon. I guarantee it.
And one piece of good news is that most of the people who have left us in the past have remained part of the family in some fashion or another. In cases like Mark or John, while they're off chasing other dreams, they've also continued to lend a hand, pitching in on the occasional review, podcast, or video show. I'd hope the case will be the same with shoe (Halo Editor? Please?).
But I tell you, the strange thing with shoe leaving is that I start to look around the floor and realize that I'm now one of the guys who's been here the longest (9 incredible years). What does that mean for me? Is it also time to start thinking about a change?
Not for me, not now.
As Site Director and Editorial Director, there's far too much to be done still. I started 1UP about four and a half years ago with a staff of two people. Now, we have a team that takes up almost an entire floor and we've grown into a network that reaches 15 million gamers each month. It's been a wild ride. But it's one that I feel is far from over. I don't know, hearing all the incredible article and show ideas from the teams each day and seeing all of the fantastic things we're going to be doing with our sites, I can't help but feel like we're still just getting things going.
Writing that with such enthusiasm now, I guess part of me realizes the torch really has been passed.
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