Magazines Not Dead… Oh Wait
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Article written by Raen in PS3 News, Xbox 360 News, on Friday, August 14, 2009 at 14:15.
You know, statistics can be made to say almost anything. For example 100% of women polled said I’m the handsomest man they’d ever seen (note – sample consists entirely of my mother). So when it came to light that Imagine Publishing’s figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) showed that their X360 magazine had risen over the past six months I was more than a little curious. I mean after all, isn’t print dead? Well not quite. For the past six months it seems that X360’s circulation has risen a stellar, wait for it, 0.1 percent. That’s right they’ve gained an extra 24 readers compared to the previous six-months rising from 26,068 to 26,092. Sadly this massive rise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as the same figures also show a year-on-year drop of 13.6 percent. Oh dear, what did I just say about statistics?
At the same time it seems that there’s no hope for 360 magazine as it has lost 11.4 percent in its year-on-year figures with no silver lining. Their readership now sits at a meager 11,518. This makes me extra sad as I absolutely love 360 magazine, and am considering getting a subscription once I have some hard-earned cash in my pocket. If you care about 360 news at all I advise you go pick it up, it’s like TSA but in print form. Hopefully these figure don’t spell the end for either magazine, although I do predict a possible merger between the two with X360 absorbing its less successful sister publication. These frankly dreadful figures don’t exactly bode well for independent magazines in general, particularly given the news yesterday that Future Publishing’s PlayStation World title is no more. However with the rumours flying about of an EGM revival things may be looking up for print media in the near future. A man can dream can’t he?
Source: MCV
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
td_rules | 14/08/2009 14:17
Member
147 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
Id like to see foigures for OPM UK, I think theyre doing great. The only way print will sell is with exclusives which OPM has a shit tonne of its crazy.
You will know that whenever OPM drops into subscribers hands its on N4G within minutes.
and Playstation World was shite…
colmshan1990 | 14/08/2009 14:19
Member
945 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
I wonder what the figures for the Official Playstation Magazine are? I always found it an interesting read but very expensive because of the demo disc. I know a lot of people only bought it for the disc, but now with demos on the PSN for free, I wonder how many ‘readers’ they’ve lost?
fogcity94 | 14/08/2009 14:48
Member
240 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
Demo disks are great for me because I only have 3GB of download per month.
So I can still get all the demos that a couldn’t download.
fogcity94 | 14/08/2009 14:44
Member
240 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
32% of statistics are just made up on the spot.
Including this one /\
seriously though, I like to get the OPS still, because I always learn about a game which I hadn’t known about before, and probaly wouldn’t have known about until near release.
Or a feature on an awesome game that I didn’t previously care about that makes me want that game.
LiquidLarsson | 14/08/2009 15:06
Member
11 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
I doubt Nuts is affected
Paranoimia | 14/08/2009 16:50
Member
402 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
I subscribe to OPM, and I actually take their review score above all others, for the simple reason that – over the years since I got the original mag for my PS1 – I’ve always found that their opinions on games match mine most of the time.
I don’t buy a game because they say it’s good (they gave Arkham Asylum a 9, but I’m just not interested in games based on comic book superheroes), but if I’m interested in a game and they give it a good review, I’m far more likely to buy it.
Demibeard | 14/08/2009 19:46
Member
332 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
I just cancelled my subscription to OPM, I’d been a subscriber since OP2M, but I’d been buying it since my PlayStation (1) days (I have a LOT of demo discs).
Reason being, I never read it, not really, it would get a flick though when it got delivered, but that’s it. The demo disc, got flicked over, in the hope of an exclusive demo or some other PS3 centric wallpapers/themes, but nope, nothing extra. The odd article I did read was quite interesting, but nothing I can’t get here, and this has the added bonus of a very pleasant community too.
Charmed_Fanatic | 14/08/2009 21:55
Member
406 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
Will someone pleeeease think of the chiiildren??!?!
What is it going to be like in the future? No magazines, no free gifts to make you buy, no paper….
I used to look forward to each month when my OPM2 would drop into my house, spend most the day reading it and playing the demo’s.
Now i use the internet for game reviews and download the demo’s, however i think this is a bad thing for our kids as they will probably never experience this.
Hopefully there will be atleast one magazine left for each console [OPM, ONM and OXM]
DarthSharkey | 15/08/2009 09:49
Member
1038 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
With internet sites easily available I only buy a magazine if i’m on a long journey. I used to always buy OPM since it’s first PS3 release.
I stopped buying it because I was flicking through it then leaving it because there was nothing new.
bunimomike | 15/08/2009 19:40
Member
3374 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Bought four issues of OPM this year as the cover disc saved me hammering my sub-1MBit connection for PSN downloads. However, my connection is now a smidge faster and I soon recognised the fact that OPM had so much repetition when it came to what was on the disc. I appreciate it might be tricky to fill it with 100% new content each month but close to half was old-hat. Not on!
cags | 16/08/2009 08:27
Member
125 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
At the risk of stirring up a hornets nest by mentioning a PC on a console site… I’m been subscribed to PC Gamer for years now and I don’t plan on stopping. Sure you can get most of the information online free, and ahead of time, but the editors do a good job of filtering out (the majority) of bs and inaccuracies that you normally get online.
Raen | 16/08/2009 11:59
Team TSA: Writer
3449 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
I agree with your general point, print is (normally) the superior medium for accuracy. It’s more that they have the time to fact check and filter whereas at the pace which onlines moves this is almost impossible
cc_star | 16/08/2009 12:08
Team TSA: Writer
5869 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Whole-heartedly agree with you cags, but the online medium requires updates throughout the day, every day, this often means articles which are written are later fine tuned into the actual story when the full details are released days or sometimes weeks later, or in some cases evaporates in to nothing.
If a website was subscription based, with full-time paid journalists and updated one a month would there be parity between online & print?
I like both, so I hope print is around for many years to come.