1:22 AM

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Rick Thornquist swan song

Mister Nizz

,

Sayanora, Rick



I just read the announcement from Rick Thornquist, the editor of BOARDGAMING NEWS, that he will no longer be at the helm of that site as a general editor, and will be stepping down immediately:


I have come to the decision I’m going to retire from the game news business.

Why? Well, there are quite a few reasons. One major one is that I’ve been doing it for almost five years now and I feel I’ve done everything that I can do on the boardgaming news front. There are a number of personal reasons as well.

Note that this is different from my decision to leave Gamefest. With Gamefest I was dissatisfied with Gamefest itself, but still keen on doing the job. With this I’ve decided to leave the job altogether.

What does this mean for Boardgame News? Well, much to my surprise and delight, someone has stepped forward and volunteered to take over the reins of the site and that someone is Eric Martin. This is great news - I didn’t want the site to disappear and Eric is eminently qualified to take over. I will be handing over everything to Eric today - Sunday, November 19th.

Personally, I will be relinquishing my weekly column and will now contribute as an ‘at large’ columnist. I may do some other things, but that will be up to the discretion of the new editor.

(comments copyright Rick Thornquist)

That's really too bad. I'm seeing a general decline in the concept of sponsor supported gaming news and commentary sites-- I think the Games Journal was the last to go, and now this (although BN will continue under new management). I wonder if its a simple economic problem. "Gaming Journalist" always struck me as kind of a dream job in some respects, jetting off to Essen, the Chicago Toy Fair, Las Vegas for the GAMA trade show, etc.. Maybe it's not all its cracked up to be. It's hard to fathom making more than a nickel and a dime doing it, so the love has got to be there first-- if you can't make that happen, you might as well give it up.