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The Zapper!: "Print Media Flies"
Posted: Thursday March 15th, 2007
by
A report at Gamasutra indicates that magazine publisher The Globe has shut down two of its print publications: Computer Games Magazine and Massive Magazine. The reports seems to point a finger at The Globe's recent lawsuit may be to blame. Apparently the The Globe was responsible for spamming members of MySpace. The Globe claims total damages under [the CAN-SPAM Act] could range between $40-120 Million. Though GU considers Gamasutra a trustable source, we were unable to locate any official anouncements regarding the closures.
Source: Gamasutra [ more info ]
Game magazine fly fodder for the Zapper might be a new thing in the comic, but with the Official Playstation Magazine closing this past January and Ziff-Davis still shopping around their "Game Group" properties (without success) which include Electronic Gaming Monthly and Games for Windows, we may very well see more of them hit the table top.
GU has it's own experiences with both CGM and Massive. CGM asked for, and received, permission to run several GU strips in their magazine. After I complained about them removing my logo, they didn't ask for any more. And, last year GU approached Massive about producing comics for their publication. When they overvalued the trade equivalent of their pages, so I declined their final offer.
Those issues considered, I bear no ill will for either publication. I don't like the idea of people losing their jobs. The real point of the comic is to address a larger issue: is print media doomed because of the popularity, ease of use, and lack of cost of internet publications?
Newspaper circulation has been on the decline for more than 20 years. This was initiated by the relative popularity of televised news but was exacerbated by the internet's 24-hour availability. And, with gaming news blooming online (even though blog news tends to be something less than diligent in their fact checking) we have to assume that the same decline is true of gaming print publications.
I'll admit, I love having something tangible to read. But, readily available information has an appeal all it's own, especially since I have a bad habit of not wanting to throw away tangible objects and with the internet journalism there's nothing to throw away. That being said, I think I'd be devastated if Maximum PC ever went out of print. (Taks calls it my porn)
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Source: Gamasutra [ more info ]
Game magazine fly fodder for the Zapper might be a new thing in the comic, but with the Official Playstation Magazine closing this past January and Ziff-Davis still shopping around their "Game Group" properties (without success) which include Electronic Gaming Monthly and Games for Windows, we may very well see more of them hit the table top.
GU has it's own experiences with both CGM and Massive. CGM asked for, and received, permission to run several GU strips in their magazine. After I complained about them removing my logo, they didn't ask for any more. And, last year GU approached Massive about producing comics for their publication. When they overvalued the trade equivalent of their pages, so I declined their final offer.
Those issues considered, I bear no ill will for either publication. I don't like the idea of people losing their jobs. The real point of the comic is to address a larger issue: is print media doomed because of the popularity, ease of use, and lack of cost of internet publications?
Newspaper circulation has been on the decline for more than 20 years. This was initiated by the relative popularity of televised news but was exacerbated by the internet's 24-hour availability. And, with gaming news blooming online (even though blog news tends to be something less than diligent in their fact checking) we have to assume that the same decline is true of gaming print publications.
I'll admit, I love having something tangible to read. But, readily available information has an appeal all it's own, especially since I have a bad habit of not wanting to throw away tangible objects and with the internet journalism there's nothing to throw away. That being said, I think I'd be devastated if Maximum PC ever went out of print. (Taks calls it my porn)
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