I first started reading Computer Gaming World when I was in college back in the mid-80’s, and for most of the time it’s been in print I’ve been a regular reader, sometimes subscribing and sometimes picking it up off magazine racks. It’s only been over the past 3-4 years that I stopped reading it altogether, and I guess I’m part of the problem, as the editor recently announced the end of the print magazine. The sad truth is the web has completely displaced magazine for most sources of information for me, and I guess for enough others that it was no longer economically viable. The good news is the editor, Jeff Green, and several of the other regular writers still have a job with the publisher, writing web content for the 1up.com web portal that’s the umbrella site for a lot of the print publications, and they’ll still be producing their excellent podcast, GFW Radio. I hope this works out from an economic standpoint, though I have to admit that I’m worried based on what I know of the situation with newspaper publishing, the decline of print revenue, and their inability to scale up their web presences and the ad dollars they make from them to replace the income lost from the print side. Here’s hoping those equations work differently in the magazine business and for 1up, because Jeff and crew are talented and funny folks and it would be a shame to see them broken up. Meanwhile, a tip of the virtual cap to an old friend – so long Computer Gaming World, loved ya while you lasted, mostly.
Oh, and here’s also hoping they abandon ‘Games For Windows’ and revert to Computer Gaming World…I never liked that switch, for obvious reasons.
Dave's Place/Metamusing 
Sorry to hear that. I used to be a magazine hound but now I rarely get them. With the prices and the volume of trash they create it’s just not worth it compared with what you can find on the web. Good riddance to those remarkably annoying subscription inserts. And I won’t miss the endless “last chance to renew” mail that starts showing up with 6 months left on a subscription either. Plus I still get junk mail from their having sold my name and address to a dozen lists.
The best thing about mags IMO was always their portability and I’m hoping to someday get some sort of portable reader to enjoy that luxury again. Have you tried any of the ones currently available?
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This type of scenario is inevitable. Quite simply the cost of magazines will slowly drive them under. Unless of course they are ridiculously cheap, Bike mags Nick? hehehehe
It gets hard to justify the money for mag subscriptions when you can usually turn to the web for the same info for free.
My Windows IT Pro mag sub is kind of spendy but I have managed to pawn that cost off onto places of employment for a long time. It looks like that may be over though.
You still can’t beat a magazine for good old reading material in the “reading room” though. 🙂
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A Nintendo DS beats any magazine in the ‘reading room’ is my 2 cents 😉
I have been trying two portable readers, the kindle and the sony ebook reader. I’ll post about them after I’ve spent some actual time with them, but my off the cuff reaction is, no color and slow user interface, but beautiful readable screens.
Oh, and those damned resubscription notices start coming literally the month after you pay for the subscription, it is intensely annoying.
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