Dan 'Shoe' Hsu Takes Over GamesBeat as Publication Plans ExpansionVentureBeat has been a publication IndustryGamers has always admired, and now we can exclusively report that it's expanding with two key hirings. Former Ziff Davis Media editorial director and Bitmob founder Dan "Shoe" Hsu is joining to steer operations as Editor-in-Chief of the GamesBeat section while Ben Popper - a founding editor of Betabeat, the Silicon Alley blog from The New York Observer - will become VentureBeat's East Coast Editor.
The plan is to significantly expand the games channel and Shoe will lead that charge. GamesBeat will also benefit by integrating Bitmob's content and passionate community.
"Shoe will oversee VentureBeat's first channel expansion with GamesBeat, whose coverage of disruptive social game companies Zynga and CrowdStar and established giants Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, will get a turbocharge with the integration of Bitmob.com's content and passionate community of users in the coming months. Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer for GamesBeat, and Sebastian Haley, Review Editor and Executive Video Producer for GamesBeat, will report to Shoe," said VentureBeat CEO Matt Marshall.
"To be honest, I am a little freaked out about being Dean Takahashi's boss." - Shoe
Shoe has been in the games media business for 16 years now, having started as an associate editor at Electronic Gaming Monthly. That said, Takahashi is a true force to be reckoned with in the journalism field, and we were a little surprised to hear that he would be handing over the reigns of a site that he built from the ground up. In fact, Marshall told IndustryGamers that Takahashi actually requested it.
"It was actually Dean who came to me and asked me to hire Shoe as Editor-in-Chief. Dean wants to keep killing it on the reporting front, and so wanted Shoe to run things. Dean is still Mr. Games. Nothing changed there," Marshall said. "And your're right. He absolutely did get GamesBeat off the ground. But he's also smart enough to know that bringing in Shoe is going to make for an amazing combination. We're totally psyched at VB about this."
Takahashi added, "I am thrilled to have Shoe on board, not only because he enjoys the finer points of handling payroll, but also.because he is an excellent editor with a great track record for communicating well and managing big teams. Everyone in gaming knows and respects Shoe."
For Shoe's part, he's seemingly a little nervous about overseeing Takahashi, but he's up for the task and is excited to grow the publication by integrating his own Bitmob.
"To be honest, I am a little freaked out about being Dean Takahashi's boss," Shoe admitted to us. "He's a well-respected industry veteran, and I've been following his work for almost a decade. Who am I to scold him if he doesn't fill out his TPS reports? But everything worked out nicely. Dean loves writing, reporting, and covering the news beat and doesn't necessarily have the bandwidth to manage and edit a team of writers. I've been an editor for 16 years now and have managed teams at EGM, 1UP, Gamers.com, and Bitmob.com, so that's a perfect fit. I'm very much looking forward to bringing the Bitmob crowd over and working with Dean and everyone else at VentureBeat!"
