Startrek.com staff canned

[GVardaman]

Wow, everyone over at Startrek.com was fired today. CBS Interactive Entertainment is restructuring and they told the startrek.com team "You're out, effective immediately."

Pretty harsh!

Paramount digital Entertainment, where the site was created did the same thing 2 years ago, but CBS.com stepped in at the last minute and saved the Trek team. Guess it was a temporary reprieve.

We'll see what happens after the movie next year. If it's a hit, they'll probably want all trek stuff back.

My friend Marc got one last post up before he left the building on their main page, saying, basically, "goodbye."

Got a few email addresses for those interested in protesting:
Quincy Smith is the head of CBS Interactive
quincy@cbs.com

Jason Korfine is the CBS Consumer Products brand manager for Star Trek
jason.korfine@cbs.com -- He was a supporter of the group and might collect and pass along remarks.

 

[GothTrek]

No. THey won't want the trek team back. This is a clear move that they are no longer interested in producing any more TV Trek shows. Think about the logistics of what led to this.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Maybe they want Domain name for the new movie.

 

[SeerSGB]

Completely expected, and right about when I expected it: A new movie, a new team.

Still a shame, some of those guys were around from day one.

 

[mattwitz]

Am I the only one who thinks that this might be a good thing? Just like star trek in general over the past couple of years, startrek.com has stagnated. I for one was always amazed at how little effort went into the site. Maybe now they'll put something interesting on the site.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

mattwitz said:
Am I the only one who thinks that this might be a good thing? Just like star trek in general over the past couple of years, startrek.com has stagnated. I for one was always amazed at how little effort went into the site. Maybe now they'll put something interesting on the site.

Well, I don't think it's a good thing that they lost their jobs, but I will agree that whenever I'm looking around for a piece of Trek information, Startrek.com is not even in the top twenty of places I would check. I certainly welcome a revamp and upgrade of the site, though I would've preferred that that didn't come at the expense of the staff.

 

[Dale]

Think clean slate, burned bridges, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if existing Trek goes into the CBS/Paramount version of the "Disney Vault" soon. They want to clear the decks for the new incarnation of Star Trek and they don't want the fanbase split. They don't want us to have the option of waxing nostalgic for what was... they want us captive to what's coming.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Merry Christmas from CBS. Sheesh! Even Xmas Temps get to work out a few weeks notice into January...

While the forum is an offensive waste of space, Star Trek.com - the site is invaluable for us non-US Trekkers to view trailers and read the latest news. I visit it 10x a week more than other ST sites. I still have the ENT page bookmarked out of sentiment.

I'm glad I returned my TOS HD/DVD set now. They clearly don't need my custom no more.

 

[glindros]

I don't have the web resources, but can anyone make a mirror of the site? I imagine it will go down soon, and it would be a shame to loose this reference source.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

This is sad news. While not the greatest site in the world (I use far better sites these days, including this one), when I first started to go online to look at Trek related stuff, that was the first site I went to and it was very useful. It's a shame that others might not have that resource for trek news and information.

 

[SeerSGB]

merry CHRISTmas said:
Think clean slate, burned bridges, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if existing Trek goes into the CBS/Paramount version of the "Disney Vault" soon. They want to clear the decks for the new incarnation of Star Trek and they don't want the fanbase split. They don't want us to have the option of waxing nostalgic for what was... they want us captive to what's coming.

While I don't agree with the statement about existing 'Trek being vaulted-- still money to be made with it, I do agree that they're trying to "purge" and make STXI look more prominent. So they'll just scrap the old site and convert it over for STXI. After all, about 90% of that stuff on the current st.com isn't really needed from a marketing point-of-view.

I'm betting we'll see a new version of the site on or just after 1/18/08 (IRC, that's when the STXI trailer comes out)

 

[indranee]

there goes Meanves again, wielding his beloved hatchet. screw him and CBS. we don't need them.

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

If they are planning to RE-VAMP the site, but with a different staff, then that's OK with me (although do I feel for anyone who loses their job.)

If they plan on closing down the site for good -- or ANY extended period of time -- then it imay be a bad decision. Since this site is owned by CBS, who owns the rights to all Star Trek TV shows, and this site provides a level of "advertising through exposure" for those Star Trek TV shows. But trying to tangilbly quantify (as a dollar figure or a ratings figure) the amount of exposure this site generates for the various Star Trek TV shows is cerataly difficult to do, and is possibly one of the reasons for the staff getting sacked.

However, I'm not ready to say this is a bad business decision, because I'm not privy to the earnings and expenditures of this particular site. If for instance the site presently cannot generate enough revenue (through advertising, merchandise, etc) to cover their expenses (staff salaries, other overhead, etc.), and can't demonstrate that they are improving the ratings of the CBS-owned Star Trek TV shows, then it probably is a good business decision to hire a new staff to create a better site to see if they can generate revenue (or at least break even).

Maybe this particular site could not generate enough revenue to stay afloat, but that doesn't mean another incarnation of 'startrek.com' cannot.

 

[Plutodawn]

Oh no, this is horrible news.

Guess they have given up on making new star trek series after all.

 

[KennyB]

Hello @Plutodawn please look at the dates before you post. This post is from TEN years ago. It is generally frowned upon to resurrect a thread older than 12 months........

 

[SPCTRE]

Oh no, this is horrible news.

Guess they have given up on making new star trek series after all.

 

[Tosk]

How does one "accidentally" post in a decade-old thread anyway?

 

[The Old Mixer]

Some recommended reading:
http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/rules-a-short-guide-to-posting-on-the-bbs.282269/

Resurrecting dead threads. If you find a thread that has not had a post in it in over a year, don't post in it. Start a new thread instead. You can, if necessary, link back to the old thread if something crucial is in the thread.