Valnet, the self-proclaimed “leading digital media investment company” behind the likes of Polygon, GameRant, OpenCritic, Collider, and over a dozen more gaming, technology, and lifestyle websites, isn’t known for paying its freelance writers well. But new “Pay Per Session” contracts issued to writers and editors at TheGamer on May 21 threaten to break new ground when it comes to click-mill-style exploitation.
According to details outlined in TheGamer’s Slack, these new terms, mandated by Valnet management, would “reward top-performing articles.” However, Kotaku last learned, based on the details outlined in the newly issued contracts, that the proposed “performance structure” would also result in writers not being paid at all if their articles do not exceed a minimum threshold of views.
Valnet was founded by Hassan Youssef and Sam Youssef, who were previously the owners of Canadian pornographic production company Brazzers and the “silent partners” of Pornhub, in 2012. The company has since earned a negative reputation over the years for the way it treats staff and freelance writers, with one former Collider employee describing it as “a content mill, borderline like almost sweatshop-level” during an interview with TheWrap in 2025 (I briefly freelanced for TheGamer from 2022 to 2023).
Despite the rise of Valnet’s reach and prominence, you’d be hard-pressed to find a positive word about the company from those who work in its newsrooms. Valnet has previously been accused of copyright striking YouTube videos that include negative statements about it and blacklisting writers who complain about how little they’re paid.
One of those writers is Lex Luddy, the editor in chief of Startmenu and a former junior editor at TheGamer, who stated earlier today in a post on Bluesky that “permalance” staff at the site were recently issued new contracts. The revised agreements require “a minimum article viewership threshold for payment,” and some staff at the site are accusing these new contracts of being a form of “soft-layoffs.”
“Pay per view bonuses in the previous contracts were additive to base pay,” stated Luddy’s post. “New contacts would see pay based solely on viewership with a minimum amount of clicks needed before any pay was granted[…]Details of these contracts were not flagged to anyone on [TheGamer] management before being sent out. After a day-long revolt in the company Slack, many of TG’s permalance *staff* believe that the issuing of these contracts are a form of “soft-layoffs”, as most would rather leave than sign.”
Kotaku was able to view a copy of the newly outlined contracts issued to staff in TheGamer’s official Slack. The “new and exciting, performance-based bonus system” was revealed to staff on May 21, but immediately went into effect the next day on May 22. Writers will now earn $5 per 1,000 “sessions” (clicks) and editors will earn $3 per 1,000 sessions. This rate also only applies to the first “15 days per post,” which means that any views accumulated after the fact will not earn the staff any extra money.
Of course, the real issue here is the “per 1k sessions” part. While TheGamer’s upper management has tried to spin this as a way for “strong-performing content” to earn extra money, it also means that, should an article get fewer than 1,000 sessions, staff at the site will not be paid for them.
It gets worse when you take into account exactly how many of TheGamer’s writers and editors are actually on permalance-style contracts. Kotaku spoke to Lex Luddy, who stated that “almost everyone,” from listicle writers to senior editors, is technically classified as a freelancer at TheGamer, and therefore could be subject to the newly issued contracts. “Almost everyone is a contract ‘freelancer,’” they said. “One or two might be employees. Not all of the editors received these contracts on Thursday, but it was shared in Slack and discussed openly.”
Luddy also confirmed to me that half of the writers at TheGamer are currently in “open revolt” with the site’s upper management, while others are instead desperately trying “to make contact with Valnet representatives” in search of a justification for the newly issued contracts.
“A lot of games media written word sites are hemorrhaging hits right now, and that is a combined factor of Google SEO changes, which I understand hit TheGamer quite hard,” Luddy said. “The prevalence of AI search engines, and the fact that Google just this week announced it was shifting its search engine to an AI chatbot-type interface, further decimating click-through rates.”
Effective freelancing rates under these new agreements would be unlivable for some at TheGamer, leading to speculation that this is a way by Valent to “voluntarily” reduce headcount and have freelancers bail rather than be cut. “Whether it be because they can’t afford to work in a system where eight hours of work might not gain traction and result in zero pay, or because of their ethical objections to such a model,” Luddy said.
Valent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
