The New York Game Awards will be held on 1/23/24 at SVA Theatre in Manhattan. Get your tickets here.

The New York Videogame Critics Circle is proud to announce that lauded journalist and editor James Ledbetter will present our Knickerbocker Award for Best Journalism at the 13th annual New York Game Awards on 1/23 at SVA Theatre.

James Ledbetter has had a storied career in the world of journalism and was considered one of the great media critics in New York City during his tenure penning the “Press Clips” column in the 1990s for The Village Voice.

He later was editor at The Industry Standard, was the first opinion editor for Reuters, was a senior editor at Time, and currently, is the executive editor at Observer.

His books are stunningly deep yet eminently readable, particularly “Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex.” His book, “One Nation Under Gold” was called “weird and wonderful” by Forbes.

In an article for Observer, Heidi Moore, one of The Guardian’s editors, said, “He is one of the best editors I have ever worked with. He would pick up on the things we’d say casually that we didn’t even know were journalism, and he’d make it journalism.”

Jack Schafer, now Politico’s columnist and quoted in the same story, called Ledbetter “the best editor I’ve ever written for.”

Ledbetter has always professed an interest in the world of video games, so much so that he hired Circle founder Harold Goldberg as a writer during his tenure at Slate’s The Big Money, and most recently, at Observer. “I’m thrilled to have James Ledbetter with us on Awards night,” said Goldberg. “When it comes to editing and writing, James really is one of the finest, most caring, editors working in the country today. He’s a great guy as well.”

We are completely honored to have James Ledbetter with us on 1/23, New York Game Awards Night.