Magazines of all sorts have a long shot at succeeding, we know this, but when media giant Ziff Davis is feeling the burn, you know something's up.
Earlier this year their print mag Games for Windows went online only after 27 years, having been struggling for some time, and now the news is in the same will happen with another of their publications -- PC Magazine (also after 27 years). The circulation has been declining since the late 1990s (when computers got cool, as it were), where its peak was 1.2 million. This year it's about half. The last print issue will be for January 2009.
“The viability for us to continue to publish in print just isn’t there anymore,” Jason Young, chief executive of Ziff Davis, said in an interview.
So what's happening exactly? Three main things: advertisers are doing less advertising (December issues are down 17% from last year), printing costs have increased, and demand is shifting to the Internet.
“Obviously, the macroeconomic condition is putting pretty significant pressure on all forms of advertising,” Mr. Young said.
As it stands, magazines are shutting down printing operations all over the place.
“If you look at the list of the magazines that have gone to online, almost all of them have been magazines in trouble,” said John Fennell, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. “Magazines in general are going to be dependent on print advertising for a long time into the future,” he said.
PC Magazine gets most of its profit (80+%) from its website anyway, and has for awhile, so there won't be much adjustment necessary.
“All content goes online first, and print has been cherry-picking for some time what it wants for the print edition,” said Lance Ulanoff, the editor of the PCMag Digital Network.
Seven production, circulation and advertising employees who worked on the website and print publication will be cut out of about 140.
Effectively, this leaves Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) as the only print publication left under the Ziff Davis banner, and they're considering chopping down that tree, too (ironically).
The future looks bleak for print and bright for online video game journalism, but there are advantages to this shift (more stories, increased length, immediacy of news, uncut interviews, more media, fewer costs, environmental friendliness, etc.), though of course there are disadvantages too (see: The state of the preview). Anyway, it's what most of us want, isn't it?
