Monday, March 3, 2014

The Magazine Revolution

As many of you are probably already aware, EGM recently experienced a reboot in which an entirely new staff unrelated to the mag's former Ziff Davis crew has assumed the reigns. The newly assembled group aims to rely less on advertisement and circulation numbers for revenue, and instead, on higher prices and higher subscription rates. And in doing so, their updated business model seems to have learned a thing or two from Edge, one of the most successful video game magazines hailing from the UK.

One of the reasons magazines like Edge are still around is because of their dedicated fanbase, and the higher price they're willing to pay for a higher quality, more substantial issue each month.

While EGM plans to use similar tactics, they also plan to incent potential subscribers with a code found in the center of each issue that allows access to EGMi. (How they know whether user A simply ripped out the card at the newsstand is another topic for another day.) EGMi is the online version of EGM that incorporates a few key articles that the mag featured, along with some stellar video content courtesy of the guys formerly of the video game podcast, Co-op.

To "enhance" reader experience with the magazine, EGMi throws in animations and music to accompany the otherwise stale articles originally slated for print. The online magazine is released weekly, and makes evident how aware the new editorial staff are as to what made reading EGM that special experience that it so undeniably was.

EGM's fresh new coat of paint and unusual online integration are welcome innovations in this age of increasingly disappointing "features" dedicated to Xbox 360 avatar clothing options, and progressively lamer and lamer anecdotes, which make for inherently boring reading material, and have readers question the credibility, freedom, and professionalism of writers of a magazine that will go unnamed. (Cough... Cough... OXM... Cough... Man, I can't stop... this coughing... Cough...)

I cannot understate enough how much I hope EGM, with their new aggressive business model, succeed in this age dominated by internet-bound knee-jerk reactions, and "breaking" news stories that in the end, are so inconsequential, no one truly cares to use a keyboard and mouse to aimlessly browse for this month's content, where they could instead have it all in the palm of their hands in one neat, high-quality package, called EGM.

So I say, Godspeed, EGM!

1. June 2010


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