Unqualified in Print.
Original Draft:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=8318647070
Published article:
http://www.unitedgames.co.uk/files/mcv-penetrable.jpg
Copy'n'Paste from Facebook:
MCV Opinion Column - State of Games Media
12:51am Wednesday, Feb 13
Elly's necklace might yet appear in print.
"Are you going to do a feature on videogame ad revenue spend?" I asked the presumably well endowed Mr Long.
"No, we're not, but could you write us a poorly researched, and heavily opinionated piece on why you think valentines day's ABCs are gonna be crap?" the Editor of MCV might have responded.
"Certainly," replied Andrew, throwing all his business plan work out of the window for the only spare day he had prior to his trip to London.
"And can you make it 450 words?" asked Neil.
"Can I bollocks..." said Andrew, promptly wasting the day on an 866 word piece....
Here's the submission, pre-subbing, and far too long - a Facebook exclusive! ^_^ Rar-rar....
============
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine was once the third best selling mens' magazine in the country. Both it and its predecessor rode the crest of the PlayStation wave - the excitement of home 3D gaming.
Whilst the Wii surges in popularity during PS2's decline, PSW editor Ian Dean didn't think the Wii would provide a new crest for the industry to ride on, criticising the poor software attach rate of the Wii's casual gamer installed base. Indeed, last year's ABCs were all about Xbox360 magazines excelling at providing journalism for the hardcore. But as David Amor of Relentless Software said at Develop 07: "I've been making games for 17 years, the last 14 of them were making games for the same set of teenage boys, ...what I find exciting now is we're beginning to make games that reach out to a different set of people...people who don't usually play videogames, but are starting to get into the habit of doing that".
Ironically, I find recent games magazines more nerdy and impenetrable than ever, whereas my favourite games mags of the 90s, would often start articles with pop culture references or everyday anecdotes, to draw readers in. Former publisher Tim Ponting explains: "...we were all just good writers who fell into games because there was nowhere else exciting to go".
Now it's the other way around - gamers falling into writing - and writing for their own kind instead of following the games industry in accommodating new demographics.
I'm not suggesting magazines abandon their core market, nor write without fan-passion, but rather be mindful of the potential to grow the audience.
Videogames is a growing market. Amidst fears of a US recession, videogame related sales were up by 43% (NPD figures from http://spong.com/article/14623).
Yet UK magazine sales are not following suit.
Subscriptions expert Peter Hobday spoke out on the InCirculation forums, of the dilemma facing the news-stand: "Most magazine circulations will take a hit with dropping ABCs because publishers haven't been promoting enough. Meanwhile, newstrade wastage is rising, newstrade sales are dropping, publishers are putting prices up to compensate ....[this] constitutes a triple 'whammy'. Only a nutter, ignoramus or very unlucky person would fall into that kind of scenario".
And those currently in this predicament may find it difficult to risk the funds required to both bring quality content, pursue new sales channels, and create their own marketing buzz, instead of riding piggy back on market trends, tying their fortunes to how well PS3 did last Christmas, and the likelihood of their target audience to even look for them on the news-stand when doing the weekly shopping.
It's a similar dilemma as development faces. Risks need to be taken for the market to evolve.
Monocle magazine did just that, described by The Independent as "...a title that spends serious money on sending writers and photographers to find the best stories on every continent and opposes armchair journalism".
Meanwhile, womens' magazine Psychologies, was the Atonement to the metaphorical Hollywood of the gossip and celeb based titles - boasting the highest growth rate during last summer's ABCs.
The climate isn't necessarily favourable for experimentation in videogame magazines however. During a golden age of the late 90s, CVG was able to reduce to £1.50 under Paul Davies, and Future launched Videogamer for only 99p targeting the mainstream, whilst experimenting with the FHM-esque Arcade. Following a difficult transition period though, during which ad revenue and audiences shifted online, publishers have become risk adverse. But the term 360 doesn't just apply to an Xbox - it's a buzz word for media spanning print, web, and broadcast in a complementary fashion, with publishers' online presence creating awareness (and sales) of magazines. One newsdesk. Multiple channels. One brand pushed across multiple mediums.
Whilst print is in decline, it perpetuates a myth to continually blame the internet. Similar circulation figures to today can be found in pre-internet times for games mags, whilst Official PlayStation 2 Magazine's boom was during rampant broadband uptake. Print can exist despite online pressures, and it is possible to find a profitable niche. But for real growth publishers need to take a financial risk and invest in their own market, or risk it becoming inhospitable as DAB became for GCap.
It's questionable whether the news-stand is the most rewarding channel to hurl capital behind though. US title Game Informer, uses in-store promotions with parent company GameStop, to grow a subscriptions base, selling subs at cost or even loss, or even giving them away with store cards, so as to make money from the ad revenue their high circulation can attract. They've over 2 million subscribers, yet the news-stand contributes only circa 22,000 single copy sales. Far less than many modest UK games mags.
All these points inform my opinion that videogame print mags need to stop bemoaning online competition, use the net to their advantage, invest in good print content, look for sales channels beyond the overcrowded news-stands, actively promote gaming instead of leeching off of it, and make its titles more accessible to the growing audience the rest of this industry is currently embracing.
For anyone currently publishing games mags though - respect. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it. ^_^
================
Digital copy of published piece:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=8318647070
Published article:
http://www.unitedgames.co.uk/files/mcv-penetrable.jpg
Copy'n'Paste from Facebook:
MCV Opinion Column - State of Games Media
12:51am Wednesday, Feb 13
Elly's necklace might yet appear in print.
"Are you going to do a feature on videogame ad revenue spend?" I asked the presumably well endowed Mr Long.
"No, we're not, but could you write us a poorly researched, and heavily opinionated piece on why you think valentines day's ABCs are gonna be crap?" the Editor of MCV might have responded.
"Certainly," replied Andrew, throwing all his business plan work out of the window for the only spare day he had prior to his trip to London.
"And can you make it 450 words?" asked Neil.
"Can I bollocks..." said Andrew, promptly wasting the day on an 866 word piece....
Here's the submission, pre-subbing, and far too long - a Facebook exclusive! ^_^ Rar-rar....
============
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine was once the third best selling mens' magazine in the country. Both it and its predecessor rode the crest of the PlayStation wave - the excitement of home 3D gaming.
Whilst the Wii surges in popularity during PS2's decline, PSW editor Ian Dean didn't think the Wii would provide a new crest for the industry to ride on, criticising the poor software attach rate of the Wii's casual gamer installed base. Indeed, last year's ABCs were all about Xbox360 magazines excelling at providing journalism for the hardcore. But as David Amor of Relentless Software said at Develop 07: "I've been making games for 17 years, the last 14 of them were making games for the same set of teenage boys, ...what I find exciting now is we're beginning to make games that reach out to a different set of people...people who don't usually play videogames, but are starting to get into the habit of doing that".
Ironically, I find recent games magazines more nerdy and impenetrable than ever, whereas my favourite games mags of the 90s, would often start articles with pop culture references or everyday anecdotes, to draw readers in. Former publisher Tim Ponting explains: "...we were all just good writers who fell into games because there was nowhere else exciting to go".
Now it's the other way around - gamers falling into writing - and writing for their own kind instead of following the games industry in accommodating new demographics.
I'm not suggesting magazines abandon their core market, nor write without fan-passion, but rather be mindful of the potential to grow the audience.
Videogames is a growing market. Amidst fears of a US recession, videogame related sales were up by 43% (NPD figures from http://spong.com/article/14623).
Yet UK magazine sales are not following suit.
Subscriptions expert Peter Hobday spoke out on the InCirculation forums, of the dilemma facing the news-stand: "Most magazine circulations will take a hit with dropping ABCs because publishers haven't been promoting enough. Meanwhile, newstrade wastage is rising, newstrade sales are dropping, publishers are putting prices up to compensate ....[this] constitutes a triple 'whammy'. Only a nutter, ignoramus or very unlucky person would fall into that kind of scenario".
And those currently in this predicament may find it difficult to risk the funds required to both bring quality content, pursue new sales channels, and create their own marketing buzz, instead of riding piggy back on market trends, tying their fortunes to how well PS3 did last Christmas, and the likelihood of their target audience to even look for them on the news-stand when doing the weekly shopping.
It's a similar dilemma as development faces. Risks need to be taken for the market to evolve.
Monocle magazine did just that, described by The Independent as "...a title that spends serious money on sending writers and photographers to find the best stories on every continent and opposes armchair journalism".
Meanwhile, womens' magazine Psychologies, was the Atonement to the metaphorical Hollywood of the gossip and celeb based titles - boasting the highest growth rate during last summer's ABCs.
The climate isn't necessarily favourable for experimentation in videogame magazines however. During a golden age of the late 90s, CVG was able to reduce to £1.50 under Paul Davies, and Future launched Videogamer for only 99p targeting the mainstream, whilst experimenting with the FHM-esque Arcade. Following a difficult transition period though, during which ad revenue and audiences shifted online, publishers have become risk adverse. But the term 360 doesn't just apply to an Xbox - it's a buzz word for media spanning print, web, and broadcast in a complementary fashion, with publishers' online presence creating awareness (and sales) of magazines. One newsdesk. Multiple channels. One brand pushed across multiple mediums.
Whilst print is in decline, it perpetuates a myth to continually blame the internet. Similar circulation figures to today can be found in pre-internet times for games mags, whilst Official PlayStation 2 Magazine's boom was during rampant broadband uptake. Print can exist despite online pressures, and it is possible to find a profitable niche. But for real growth publishers need to take a financial risk and invest in their own market, or risk it becoming inhospitable as DAB became for GCap.
It's questionable whether the news-stand is the most rewarding channel to hurl capital behind though. US title Game Informer, uses in-store promotions with parent company GameStop, to grow a subscriptions base, selling subs at cost or even loss, or even giving them away with store cards, so as to make money from the ad revenue their high circulation can attract. They've over 2 million subscribers, yet the news-stand contributes only circa 22,000 single copy sales. Far less than many modest UK games mags.
All these points inform my opinion that videogame print mags need to stop bemoaning online competition, use the net to their advantage, invest in good print content, look for sales channels beyond the overcrowded news-stands, actively promote gaming instead of leeching off of it, and make its titles more accessible to the growing audience the rest of this industry is currently embracing.
For anyone currently publishing games mags though - respect. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it. ^_^
================
Digital copy of published piece: