Gamespot editor's nemesis on way out of CNET

Owen Thomas — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:00:00 EDT

At CNET, the heads keep rolling, nearly a year after Gamespot editorial director Jeff Gerstmann was sacked. Stephen Colvin, an executive who oversaw Gamespot, is out of the company, a tipster tells us. Gerstmann's firing came after a negative review of an advertiser's game, which made him a cause célèbre among gamers. What Gerstmann's fans will say: That Colvin and other suits are getting what they deserved for ruining the CNET-owned gaming site's editorial credibility. Josh Larson left CNET, now owned by CBS, in April. Colvin, a former magazine executive who was Larson's boss, joined CNET a year ago, shortly before the Gerstmann incident. His exit comes as CBS rejiggers CNET's generous benefits, our tipster says:

Former president of Dennis Publishing (Maxim, Blender, etc) Steven Colvin will soon be leaving his year-old postion as head of CNET / CBS Interactive entertainment and lifestyle division (Gamespot, mp3.com, tv.com, Chow, etc). Within the department, Colvin is widely believed to be the "brains" behind Jeff Gerstman's unceremonious canning last December. Just before the firing, Colvin spent hours in a meeting with Eidos attempting to salvage the relationship after Gerstman's negative review of Kane and Lynch. No word on if this departure is volunary or not, but his role is being taken over by CBSi COO Steve Snyder, which might be indicative of hardly-unexpected "restructuring" occuring sooner rather than later. Control of one of the department's largest assets, tv.com, was recently transfered out of the department.

There was also an annoucement today that CNET's extremely generous vacation hours package will be discontinued after this year, sick time hours will be reduced, health care providers will be changed, and benefits cut for "opposite-sex domestic partners", in order to be "consistent with CBS' company-wide poilcy".

On the plus side, parking fees can now be paid pre-tax.

Jeff Gerstman's executioner at CNET replaced by ex-Yahoo Shawn Rose

Jackson West — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Who'll be the new man atop CNET's GameSpot come April 10, replacing newly fired Josh Larson? According to a tipster, it's Shawn Rose, currently at CNET's TV.com. And the description of Rose's leadership abilities don't exactly inspire confidence.

the terrible irony, shawn rose should never have been hired to run tv in the first place, as he talks and talks his way into all kinds of crazy shit. now another suit replaces the suit they booted, and this one's wearing purple. he literally got nothing done at Y, and to date, has done nothing at CNET

Ineffectual managers from Yahoo? I've never heard the like! Anyone who's worked with Rose, let us know how accurate the description is. There's much more after the jump.

another examaple of how over-puffed-up yahoos wiggle into new digs and maintain that same level of low-productivity and paper pushing...
i'm a former cneter with friends at both companies, and it's just sad to see a good (though embroiled) talent like Larson go, for a sucker like Rose - all my contacts on the inside are literally scratching their heads... totally blindsided the team... they feel like chumps because no one told them this was coming

if Rose gets you in a room, he doesn't shut up... talks and talks, and his claim to fame that he'll invariably bring up to everyone he meets, is that he created some search engine that he sold to AltaVista some 10 years ago. Something I'm sure he made a few bucks on, enough to buy a small bit of vineyard up north, but something that is so entirely irrelevant to any current internet job it's laughable

Gawker: valleywag, josh larson

Gamespot editor's nemesis on way out of CNET

Jeff Gerstman's executioner at CNET replaced by ex-Yahoo Shawn Rose