Yesterday was no fun at all as I found out two of my favorite comic and toy-related magazines have just bit the bullet. Wizard Magazine and Toy Fare are both officially dead...as in "instantly". No warning, no explanation, just canceled.
While I'm the first to admit Wizard Magazine passed its heyday a year or more ago (thanks to the new format they adopted), it was still a highlight of my month to see it arrive in the mail around the 26th. I found a lot of really cool stuff in there, and especially liked some of the articles.
The real bummer here is the death of Toy Fare. I really just discovered the book in 2009 and had a subscription since (I had grabbed the occasional issue, but nothing constant until then). I can't count the number of statues and toys I've rushed to the computer to pre-order after seeing them in full-color in the book. They seemed to have a jump on Previews and just about anywhere else. I have no idea where to go from here to get my statue and toy news fix.
The unfortunate thing is that Toy Fare seemed to stay strong in content. While Wizard suffered and seemed to really just be printing filler crap there towards the end, Toy Fare consistently had good information.
All of this as Wizard Entertainment announced they'd be continuing the Wizard World Conventions...but now that they've killed the advertising monster they had every month in print I have no idea how they intend to get the word out there about it. They are still planning on going with a digital magazine called "Wizard World" starting next month, but I guess I'm still old school because I prefer my magazines in print. I don't mind reading blog posts and such, but an entire magazine on my computer doesn't appeal to me. And no, I don't own an iPad--and this won't be the thing that sways me to drop $600 on one either.
So now we have a gaping void out there. Who will rush to fill it...or has the internet truly killed the market for print magazines?
Sad news indeed. And I agree that Wizard's format change was weak. Especially since they're competing with the Internet, content more than ever is king.
ReplyDeleteNow let's see how they make-good to their exisitng subscribers.
Between 2001 and 2004 when I had stopped collecting, Wizard was still a fun read. When I got back in, it was invaluable to me in helping me to find decent stories I missed.
ReplyDeleteI agree the format change hurt and that Toyfare still seemed strong until the end.