Video game magazines vs. the internet

While I think about my own magazine archiving project, which is still on hold until I have much more time to spend in PA, I find myself wondering how it is that we can still have so many print video game-centered magazines on the market.

How is this even sustainable? I know ads are probably their main source of revenue over subscription rates, but it still means somebody must be reading them for it to be worth publishing. Other than free magazines from bandit's threads, I don't really bother with any of them these days.

Without solid features, I don't think they can really make a good argument in favor of reading them. The news is always old, minus the exclusive every few months, which always hits the internet the same day the magazine hits, or earlier. Unless you're after a packaged demo disc (which XBL and PS3's online services are quickly making pointless), what's the use of buying a magazine? Need something to read on the can?

I'd like to see if anyone who writes for gaming media (or any media at all), be it print or internet, has anything to weigh in on the issue. Or, to readers who continue and those who have given up on the magazines, why?

Part of me just thinks I'm getting old and will never like any magazine as much as EGMs from the early 90s, GameFan and Ultra Game Players as a result of this. At the same time, though, I can't help but feel like there's less of a need for these magazines, especially ones lacking in both personality and general editorial quality as those out there today seem to have.

i get all my news from internet, and the mags i subscribe too are just like you said - bathroom material, nothing more. Usually the writing is so bad anyway i should just wipe my ass with it.

The rag's days are numbered, Ziff Davis can't get a bite for its magazine line but they're forcing them on anyone who wants to buy 1up.com.

Magazines are so 2002.

This thread made me remember Hardcore Gamer. Is that magazine still around?

If people continue to subscribe through those free offers, they will continue to exist. Hell, even when your subscription is done you will still receive them in the mail so they can use you in their figures every time they are showing off the readership to future ad-space buyers. They can only charge so much depending on the subscribers.

In reality, giving you a free year subscription of a magazine gets them more money than you buying the magazine from the newsstand or paying for your own sub. It's the reason why I continued to recieve Gamepro for seven years even after my subscription had expired in grammar school. EGM is following suit.

I read them rarely, but I mostly toss them once I pick up my mail.

TNL should endeavor in a print mag, imo. TNL F-CHAN SUPERREVIEW

I'll buy a mag if I've got a long plane ride or something. They can be entertaining and all. But they rarely have anything exciting and new that would compel me to subscribe.

I used to have subs to EGM and PC Gamer back in the 90's. Later on in the decade I had subs to PCXL and Next Gen. Now all I've got is that free GFW sub.

I buy Games, and occasionally Retro Gamer. I do subscribe to EGM for toilet fodder but that's about it.