[PlayerOneCJ]

I guess we find out more tomorrow. But if such a story was up on a media business website (and it's still up on their RSS feed -- I just checked), it can't be looking good.

http://www.whattheyplay.com/blog/2009/01/6...agazine-closes/

WhatTheyPlay said:

1UP sold to Hearst, EGM magazine closes?

By John Davison, January 6, 2009

Media business website paidcontent.org posted a story this morning with the headline "Ziff Davis sells 1UP digital network to Hearst, shutters EGM" but has since removed the piece from its website. The original content of the text is still visible using an RSS reader, and it stated,

Looking to conserve its resources for its PC Mag Digital business, Ziff Davis Media has sold off the 1UP Digital Network, its collection of video game sites, to Hearst Corp., which will fold it into the UGO Entertainment division, the companies said. In conjunction with the sale, the related print mag Electronic Gaming Monthly will publish its last issue this month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Since finishing up its Chapter 11 proceedings last summer, Ziff Davis has sought to devote more energy to building up the PC Mag online network. Before this, Ziff Davis' biggest step in the streamlining process involved the shuttering of PC Mag as a print product in November. As for Hearst's UGO, the addition of 1UP's sites is designed to further consolidate its efforts to build up content for gamers since Hearst bought the 11-year-old male-centric entertainment company in July 2007.

We tried to reach representatives from Ziff Davis for an official comment, but none was forthcoming. We'll continue to do some digging, and find out what might be going on - and whether the paidcontent story is, in fact, true.

Update: Sources have indicated that details will be forthcoming as to the validity of the story by tomorrow morning.

[probune]

It'll be interesting (and sad) to see what happens to 1UP if this is true. UGO is a terrible, terrible web site and I'm pretty sure that if EGM is gone, there's a lot of people at 1UP that will be gone, too.

[Mudron]

If John Davison is posting this, the shuttering of EGM is a lock.

Damn, man. Seriously.

[PlayerOneCJ]

Yeah that's what I think too. If Davison's reporting it (and he's not actually, he's just mirroring the paidcontent story), he's got reason to believe it's correct. This would, btw, confirm things I've heard from a couple different sources over the past few months.

Not to mention, it was pretty obvious when Milk took EGM off the rails that it was a last-ditch, dying-breath kind of thing. A very COOL last-ditch, dying-breath kind of thing, but still.

BTW, February is EGM's 20th anniversary.

[Mudron]

PlayerOneCJ, on Jan 6 2009, 02:39 PM, said:

Yeah that's what I think too. If Davison's reporting it (and he's not actually, he's just mirroring the paidcontent story), he's got reason to believe it's correct. This would, btw, confirm things I've heard from various sources over the past few months.

I hadn't heard anything from the inside of EGM offices myself (I'd been talking with a few people about doing some more illustrations for the magazine this spring, but no dice), but yeah, the lack of subscription cards in the last issue and the overdue news of what the February cover story would be was pretty suspicious in of itself. Blergh.

[levitynyc]

Good riddance to print.

[PlayerOneCJ]

I've said it before and all, but there's a permanence to print. There's credibility and accountability built there that is not present online. Plus, there's nothing like going back and looking through those old magazines to see "how it wuz" ads and all. You cannot do that online.

[Tigerriot]

PlayerOneCJ, on Jan 6 2009, 04:57 PM, said:

I've said it before and all, but there's a permanence to print. There's credibility and accountability built there that is not present online. Plus, there's nothing like going back and looking through those old magazines to see "how it wuz" ads and all. You cannot do that online.

Yeah, I still see a value to print as well. I like getting my few magazines a month.

[levitynyc]

Death to Print!

Google Cache is your friend.

[GTRat]

EGM, the death of an icon.

I have been reading it since the beginning, sad to see it go.

[PlayerOneCJ]

Some of the most valuable things I have in my collection are the first years of Next Generation and Game Fan. And they are completely and totally awesome to look through and reference.

[GTRat]

PlayerOneCJ, on Jan 6 2009, 06:14 PM, said:

Some of the most valuable things I have in my collection are the first years of Next Generation and Game Fan. And they are completely and totally awesome to look through and reference.

Yeah, i recently found an old dreamcast mag and a gamefan. It is really cool to take a look back and see what was state of the art in its time.

[probune]

levitynyc, on Jan 6 2009, 06:10 PM, said:

Death to Print!

Google Cache is your friend.

People are going to lose their jobs. I'm not a fan of print either, but I'm not going to celebrate about this news.

[levitynyc]

No point in keeping a failing business open because it was relevant 15-20 years ago. Your reasons of "Oh its great to look back" dont hold water for a company in the present.

I understand its sad to see people lose their jobs, but its just the reality of the print field.

[PlayerOneCJ]

Hopefully everyone will land safely. I'm sure they will but it would suck to not have a job in this economy.

[Mudron]

probune, on Jan 6 2009, 03:17 PM, said:

People are going to lose their jobs. I'm not a fan of print either, but I'm not going to celebrate about this news.

Exactly. The people celebrating (or acting archingly-indifferent) about these kinds of things are either fools or have no idea how stuff like this impacts lots of people in the real world.

[PlayerOneCJ]

It doesn't just affect editors, either. It affects print production staff at Ziff, ad sales people, freelancers that relied on EGM for work/steady paychecks, and folks that work at the printing presses where issues of EGM are produced, among others. There's a trickle down to any business 'closing.' Especially in print, there's a stack of dominos.

[Mudron]

PlayerOneCJ, on Jan 6 2009, 03:24 PM, said:

It doesn't just affect editors, either. It affects print production staff at Ziff, ad sales people, freelancers that relied on EGM for work/steady paychecks, and folks that work at the printing presses where issues of EGM are produced, among others. There's a trickle down to any business 'closing.' Especially in print, there's a stack of dominos.

You forgot Seanbaby! How is he going to pay for all that hair dye now?

[levitynyc]

It does suck that people are losing their jobs, but at some point, you cant squeeze blood from a stone and you have to close down.

[Mudron]

levitynyc, on Jan 6 2009, 03:27 PM, said:

It does suck that people are losing their jobs, but at some point, you cant squeeze blood from a stone and you have to close down.

Yeah. No one is arguing that a publication should remain in print just to keep it's staff employed, but that don't make the death of a games-journalism legacy hurt any less.

[PlayerOneCJ]

There's a difference between EGM closing and "let's dance on the grave of print." IMO, print does still have a place. Just as newspapers adapted when radio showed up, radio adapted when TV showed up, TV adapted when cable showed up, magazines are still in the process of adapting. With a ship like EGM you've got a huge legacy and a huge subscriber base making it necessary to sell ads to keep things afloat. And advertising alone just cannot sustain a print magazine of EGM's size that easily anymore.

But I still buy magazines like EDGE and Nintendo Power and expect to in the future. It's how I often find out about games that I previously didn't know about or wouldn't have clicked on a preview to read about.

[Mudron]

I'm amused to see that over at NeoGaf, most people are only aware of the Hearst family/corporation by way of Deadwood. And they say that TV ain't educational!

[levitynyc]

Radio reacted to TV, not by limiting content.

Back in the day EGM used to be a much thicker magazine, but in order to maintain cost level, they decided to offer less content for the same price. How did they expect to maintain subscribers by offering wafer thin magaszine and then to shit on paid subscribers, just reprint reviews from 1up.com Then they had the balls to review 6 month old BluRays to fill up pages.

Why not offer better content to entice new subscribers rather than cut content and pray to keep subscribers? Its just a failed business model

[Mudron]

levitynyc, on Jan 6 2009, 03:39 PM, said:

Radio reacted to TV, not by limiting content.

Back in the day EGM used to be a much thicker magazine, but in order to maintain cost level, they decided to offer less content for the same price. How did they expect to maintain subscribers by offering wafer thin magaszine and then to shit on paid subscribers, just reprint reviews from 1up.com Then they had the balls to review 6 month old BluRays to fill up pages.

Why not offer better content entice subscribers rather than cut content and pray to keep subscribers? Its just a failed business model

Between Ziff being broke and the 1up/EGM staff being constantly shuffled around like hockypucks during the last 18 months or so, I don't think they had the resources to generate better content. I think the staff did about as well as they could with what they had to work with, but what they had to work with (a perpetually bankrupt backer and an inability to hold onto it's senior/coordinative staff) wasn't much.

[Guy Legend]

Sad to see EGM going. Looking online isn't completely the same as grabbing a print issue for leisure. I still have my old EGM, Next Gen, Official Xbox and Dreamcast, and Game Players issues from the periods of time when I was a subscriber. It's fun to look back at old past issues and see what the fuss was about certain games or the consoles of the time.

Any idea what they will do for EGM subsribers? Would they just say tough luck or give us something else. I imagine people who paid for subscriptions wouln't be too happy if they got jipped...


Also, 1up has posted the news, no mention of EGM. http://www.1up.com/d...ory?cId=3172156

[mjmunden]

Sad day for Video game press. Now the only multi-console US specific mag is Game Informer...this sucks

Guy Legend, on Jan 6 2009, 04:54 PM, said:

Any idea what they will do for EGM subsribers? Would they just say tough luck or give us something else. I imagine people who paid for subscriptions wouln't be too happy if they got jipped...

Either they refund the rest of the bill or they start an online membership fee like IGN has.

[levitynyc]

Its pretty much TS for subscribers. Subs are definitely out of the money picture. They dont want to upset subscribers, but what leverage do subscribers have? A lawsuit? You can't please blood from a stone.

They are bankrupt and need to pay creditors before paying any subscribers. Its like buying a gift card to a retail store that goes out of business.

[Guy Legend]

Leaked email to 1up, courtesy of Gamasutra:

[UPDATE: Gamasutra has obtained a copy of the internal email sent to Ziff Davis employees by CEO Jason Young following the announcement, as follows

"Team:

We are announcing today the sale of our 1UP digital business to UGO Entertainment, a dvision of Hearst Corporation.

Over the course of the last 4 years we have built the 1UP sites into a top tier gaming digital destination. While our growth has been sharp, it has become apparent that more scale is necessary to effectively compete in this market segment.

We made the decision that the best path to putting our award winning 1UP brand and content in a more competitive position was to combine it with the operations of another publisher. We received much interest from other parties.

After a comprehensive process, this morning we completed a deal with Hearst Interactive, the owner and operator of UGO Entertainment. 1UP.com, MyCheats.com, Gamevideos.com, and Gametab.com will now all be part of the UGO Entertainment business. Many of our employees will travel with this business and become part of the UGO team.

With this transaction happening, we have also made the decision to discontinue publication of EGM. The January 2009 issue will be the final issue of the publication. With demand for print continuing to decline amongst both advertisers and readers and the content being produced by 1UP no longer available for use in the publication, it simply did not make sense for us to move forward with this business any longer.

We will continue to operate the Filefront business as a part of the PCMag Digital Network. In the coming months we will determine the best ways to leverage the scale and functionality of this digital property to expand our business position.

The Ziff Davis position in the gaming market has been significant and important to our company and the market itself. While many of our assets in the PCMag Digital Network (including Filefront now) will continue to cover this market, it's important that we celebrate all that we have achieved over the last 25 years.

Our leadership in print for decades with titles like Computer Gaming World and EGM which in turn translated into the build out of one of the leading digital gaming media assets in 1UP are prime examples of the skill, passion, and expertise of our teams.and what they achieved.

It's incredible to compare the 1UP.com of today versus that of 12 months ago. I want to thank everybody in our Game Group for their important contributions over the years.

For Ziff Davis Media, our attention and focus now shifts squarely to the PC Mag Digital Network. The proceeds from this transaction will be used to pay down debt. One of the primary objectives of our business plan is ensuring that we have plenty of room to service our debt obligations into the future, and manage for growth in what will be a challenging year in the advertising market.

While the market will be tough, we are confident our position is well aligned to where the demand is most active. We move forward as a 100% digital business with tenured brand position, and powerful capabilities to drive results for our customers. I look forward to sharing more updates in the coming weeks.

http://www.gamasutra...php?story=21759

[Guy Legend]

mjmunden, on Jan 6 2009, 05:59 PM, said:

Sad day for Video game press. Now the only multi-console US specific mag is Game Informer...this sucks

Gamepro is still around.

[Mudron]

So the January issue of EGM was it's last? What a lousy way to go out, one month shy of your 20th anniversary and with a muddy/pixelated picture of Wolverine on the very last cover. Double phooey.

[SaitoH]

Not unexpected, but sad news to hear.

[PlayerOneCJ]

Sad that the February 2009 issue won't see print. Kevin Gifford wrote up an EGM retrospective for that issue ('cuz it would've been the 20th anniversary issue).

[Cerulean Blue]

It will be interesting to see which employees go with UGO and the future of the 1UP podcasts. I'll especially miss Seanbaby.

[mjmunden]

Guy Legend, on Jan 6 2009, 05:05 PM, said:

Gamepro is still around.

Oh yeah...I forgot about that one...how the hell have they not gone under, too?

[probune]

Guy Legend, on Jan 6 2009, 07:05 PM, said:

Leaked email to 1up, courtesy of Gamasutra:

Leaked? Hmm...

[GUNBLADER]

I'm now only subscribed to one magazine worth reading, EDGE.

[PlayerOneCJ]

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/01/magwea..._reportedly.php

Last issue to be distributed digitally.

When EGM bought "Video Games" magazine from Larry Flynt (and shut it down) they'd done an issue that never saw print. I got to look at printouts from it.

BTW, re: subscribers -- it's possible that EGM will sell their subscriber list and you'd get the remainder of your subscription with some other magazine. That is if another company wants to buy that reader base.

[Wenny]

levitynyc, on Jan 6 2009, 06:39 PM, said:

Radio reacted to TV, not by limiting content.

Really? Where are all the radio dramas then?

[probune]

Looks like the entire video team just got laid off. This is awful.

[Mudron]

According to a Luke Smith post over at the Gaf, over 30 people have been let go. Among these are Ryan O'Donnell, which may mean that the 1up Show is getting canned as well. This ain't just an EGM thing anymore.