Yes, print is dying a slow death. Those of us in the trade know this and we see it almost every day. Even the great Ziff Davis is not immune to the boom that is the Internet. According to an official press release, Official PlayStation Magazine is being put down and will be no more after January 2007.
Ziff Davis Game Group, the leading integrated media company focused on the video game sector, today announced that it will discontinue publication of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine after the January 2007 issue. The Game Group is laser-focused on continuing to expand its rapidly growing digital media presence and on further strengthening its multiplatform properties and powerful integrated network. As such, the Game Group has determined that Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, a property licensed from Sony Computer Entertainment America and limited to print, no longer fits its strategic vision.
It's completely obvious that this will be a trend -- and yes, even my precious Metro may one day suffer the same fate -- as audiences continue to get news quicker and faster through the Internet. Even Ziff Davis sees the trend as they have recently shifted focus online to 1UP and GameVideos. You'll notice in the EGM redesign that they made their 1UP name even more noticable. So, how long until all gaming mags are dead? I'd guess around 10 years.
As a huge fan of EGM, I even find myself quickly skimming through the pages because most, if not all, of their content is outdated -- even by weeks with some news. Have gaming magazines and other print formats lost their appeal to you? Do you see a dramatic shift in the next 10 years? Today's reader wants their news now, not once a month. Sadly, magazines can't address this need.
[Via Kotaku]
Contest:
6:17 PM on 11.14.2006
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I realize that I very well could've come across this information online, but it would've required a lot more digging. I appreciate the linear nature of magazines, as I'm actually the sort of person who reads a magazine from cover to cover. As such, perhaps I get more from reading a magazine than I do from visiting a lot of Web sites.
It's a shame, too, because you really only hear about the big-name games on blogs or the main pages of gaming news sites. I would've missed out on a lot had I not picked up that magazine.
Backflip: Nintendo Power is actually a lot better now than it was a few years, although it's obviously still biased. But no more than OPM or X-Box magazine is. It's still kinda skewed towards younger people, but it has some decent features and nice mini-strat guides.