Paper gaming mags
I’m fond of pointing out that these days, Penny Arcade has more reach (and much more street cred!) than many of the print mags. Now comes an article on Gamesindustry.biz giving some hard numbers on just how dire the situation is for print games outlets:
The average circulation of a games mag in the UK is now almost certainly well under 35,000, compared to just over 50,000 a year ago. As one top UK PR put it today, “Jesus Christ. No one used to get out of bed for less than 80k.”
On an individual level, the downside is even more obvious. The benchmark of the British market in recent years is the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine, which has suffered substantially in the 12 months – falling to 100,117 compared to its last audit of 132,069. Unfortunately for the execs in Bath, the number for the same period last year was 133,242; that’s a 24 per cent decrease year-on-year. When looking at those figures, it’s worth bearing in mind that Sony’s sold more than 7 million PS2s in the UK.
Are there things that print mags can provide that the web cannot deliver? One thing is clear: competing on the grounds of reviews, news, and demos is a strategy unlikely to succeed: the Web has both more bandwidth and more timeliness.
Content is king. It’s possible, of course, for a print mag to establish itself as a content provider that is simply unmatched on the Web; discounting the effects of scanned-in articles, there’s always an audience for excellent content. But if the type of content that is provided isn’t broadly appealing enough for financial viability, well, the market is unforgiving. I suspect, for example, that something like The Escapist has the sort of content that many game aficionados would be willing to pay to read, but I strongly doubt that it’s a large enough audience to justify a print magazine.
So are the print mags doomed? Interestingly, there’s launches of MMO print mags (I’ll even have an article in one of them). At first glance, the match-up seems odd; it’s an audience that is by definition ultra-connected and certainly doesn’t need the latest news. The last try was heavy on the opinion pieces and strategy articles. We’ll have to see what the new tries are like.
13 Responses to “Paper gaming mags”
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I hope they’re not doomed. There are just certain places I don’t ever want to browse the web…
I don’t see print mags working for gaming unless someone really goes out on the limb. They’d need to print the things that the big corps don’t want printed, offer high quality visual imaging, and investigate things in a manner that a small operation can’t afford to do. They’d also need columns by folks who are more interested in blogging for careers, no offense to anyone because that’s perfectly alright and good strategy for personal goals.
But unless they really do it right, who’s going to bother? And the cost to risk factor is probably too high for that.
I would love to see it happen, as I love print when it’s well done.
Hmm…
I think that print gaming magazines need to refocus a bit. In my opinion, they seem to focus too much on reviews and news, things someone can find easier and without having to pay for on the Internet.
Print magazines generally have a lot of credibility and should work on using that to their advantage by moving away from focusing too heavily on reviews and news since readers can find a lot of reviews for free on the web and magazines will always be slow on news, unless it’s some exclusive scoop.
By changing their focus to other areas, such as opinions, debates, investigative journalism and with a big dose of criticism, magazines would start to offer more of a value for their prices instead of relying too much on the novelty of holding something physical to read from.
The print mags need among other things some mechanism to build community. The internet, among other things, is an interactive medium that builds community. The print mags, IMO, need to do likewise.
If you look at TV, they have begun to experiment with ways to interact with viewers. Print mags also tried something with attaching Demo CDs and such.
However, for ~$4 per issue or $20 for a yearly subscription I better be getting something worthwhile. For example, if someone publishes an official WoW magazine with promos and premiums I’m sure you can convert 10% of the players to subscribe to the magazine.
Thus, it’s all about an exchange of value. What value can print mag provide to readers?
[…] Paper gaming mags on Raph Koster Paper gaming mags on Raph Koster I’m fond of pointing out that these days, Penny Arcade has more reach (and much more street cred!) than many of the print mags. Now comes an article on Gamesindustry.biz giving some hard numbers on just how dire the situation is for print games outlets: The average circulation of a games mag in the UK is […] via Raph Koster […]
Here’s the dilemna – in order for the print mags to get the early game tests, the hands on reviews, the game demo’s and such, they must be friendly to the game companies. A gamer mag that posts lots of hacks, cheats, and especially criticisms of games isn’t gonna get many exclusives…
So it’s kinda set in stone… we end up with game mags that get cookie cutter interviews and reviews of games that read like a marketing rep from the company wrote em. But we get exclusive screenies, and game demos.
Online game sites might be heavy on player reviews, criticism, hacks and exploits, but very few of them carry much weight, and almost none of them have much from the games producers along the lines of interviews, exclusives, or demos.
as to the specific report, and declining sales of ps2 mag… just look at the developement/production cycle for the console for the next 6 months! very little is coming out, and sony is being quite tightlipped with regards to ps3 facts, launch game info, demos, etc.
Of course readership is down…it will be a downward spiral until the ps3 launches, when it will skyrocket, with a combo of special editions, launch games editions, and the flurry surrounding the final ps2 games, such as the much waited for release of god of war 2
I don’t know…I always find that gaming sites, and I’m talking fansites/networks for MMOs here because I have experience with them, have to rely on good relationships with the devs, and they they are the ones often who have the cookie cutter interviews/information in exchange for screenshots and other content. They either remain on the good side of the game devs, or they’ll have to resort to being the exact opposite (cheats, cracks etc) in order to get readers.
Just from my own experiences.
Was going to comment then I saw that Frank nailed it…
Downside: Sometimes a magazine or book is just nice to have around.
Is there a correlation between the evolution and the advent of multiplayer games, those who play them (and like to provide feedback, build communities, of any type) and decline in print magazines versus online sites?
Single player moves to multiplayer (and engenders certain expectations)
As print (passive) moves to online (active/interactive)
The convergence of the end user lines should’ve crossed at some point obviously but where? 1999-2003? (my guess)
SirBruce?
Interesting story, Raph, though it just refers to EU-based game magazines. Have you seen any recent trendlines of US-based game mags?
I always thought the UK magazines were painfully expensive compared to the amount and level of content.
The biggest Finnish games magazine Mikrobitti has a circulation of over 100k and we only have 5.2 million people living in the whole country – they’re estimating a reach of 32% of their entire target group. Comparing the content of MB to the UK mags, each issue of MB has 3 x the amount of articles and most of them are of readable quality so you can actually spend a hour _reading_ the mag instead of shuffling through a set of pretty pictures.
If a mag is based on content that’s available in the ‘net before the print (read: previews), no wonder the circulation is going down. Hiring a couple more writers to do proper articles might be the thing to do.
The online world just gives us a level of access that print folios can’t. Obviously, the big one that everyone mentions is … let’s call it “instancy”. Print magazines have, what, a four-month lead time? Online is *almost* right now. There’s still a lead time, but I’m sure it’s ridiculously shorter than print.
Also, with teh internets you get things like Raph’s blog. Access to the professionals. Sure, print mags give you interviews and such, but blogs like Raph’s let users “speak directly” to the people who interest gamers the most when it comes to games. Magazines (print or online) are a barrier to that. Blogs like this remove the middle man. And it’s not even a celebrity thing so much as getting direct insight into the dev world even in a general sense (not necessarily focused on a specific game or game company).
The flipside, for me, strangely, is that I actually find print magazines more easily navigable than their online brethren, for the most part. Maybe that’s part of the reason I still like to get actual magazines (gaming or otherwise). I also found, back when I was a working writer, that my archives of periodicals were a much needed resource. Of course, I also come from the age of the pre-Google card-catalog world. As more online sources make their archives more available and searchable, the need for keeping stacks of magazines or tears and clippings around is greatly diminished.
Being largely free doesn’t exactly hurt the online mags either.
Want to start up a print gaming magazine that has a healthy circulation? Create one written largely by the devs. That would get more distribution than hookers’ business cards on the Vegas strip.
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