We wrote about Valnet’s low pay rates in a previous article about how underpaid freelancers are propping up games journalism. Today, new reporting by The Wrap shines more light on what’s going on behind the scenes of the owner of sites such as GameRant, The Gamer, and DualShockers.
The Wrap’s article focuses more on Valnet’s entertainment sites than gaming, talking to people who’ve written for sites like Collider and MovieWeb. A former Valnet contributor told The Wrap that Valnet "present themselves as a safe haven for young and experienced writers, but they end up paying bargain-basement rates and forcing contractors to create junky clickbait.”
The Wrap reports that Valnet maintains a spreadsheet of “blacklisted freelancers,” which for 2025 contains over 400 names of writers barred from writing for the company for offenses such as posting Valnet rates on social media, calling rates “abysmal,” and suggesting Valnet put rates in job listings.
The Wrap also writes that, after a Valnet contributor filed a lawsuit against the company’s labor practices, Valnet asked contractors to sign releases promising not to join any class actions against the company. In exchange, they would receive $100. After few people accepted, Valnet bumped the offer to $200.
It’s no surprise that Valnet relies on a network of low-paid freelancers, a depressingly common practice across plenty of online sites. People who spoke to The Wrap say that after Valnet acquired their sites, freelance rates dropped dramatically, and that “access to health insurance and benefits evaporated as full-time employees were rehired as at-will contractors.”
Valnet built its name on acquiring sites and continues to seek more, The Wrap reports, another common strategy in online media these days. Nothing in here is particularly surprising, which is what makes it so depressing. As journalism jobs dwindle, especially in games journalism, these kinds of practices may unfortunately become even more prevalent.
It’s hard to know what to do around any of this, especially when writing jobs are so thin on the ground and the cost of living continues to rise. If you're looking for a place to start, the Freelance Solidarity Project has guides and resources for freelancers, and some states and cities have passed “freelance isn’t free” acts that strive to protect freelancers from misclassifications, delayed payments, and more.
