I’ve been buying magazines since I was a little squirt. Indeed, when I think back to the first things I bought with ‘my own money’, magazines are on that list. In those days it was mostly the British 8-bit gaming magazines that would find their way – months late – to the Australia newsstands, and I eagerly purchased and devoured the contents of Computer & Video Games, Commodore User and the mighty Zzap!64.
While ostensibly aimed at younger readers, these magazines didn’t simplify their editorial and even when I was 12 I knew the content wasn’t just trash for kids (as compared to another mag I bought, Smash Hits). The UK computer magazines were loaded with content and not easily read in a single sitting, I would invariably read every word including detailed hints or walkthroughs for games I would never own. I wrote to them as well, and sometimes even entered their contests. I suppose I optimistically thought that being on the other side of the world wouldn’t invalidate my entry!
All good things end though, but when I grew older and walked away from the 8-bit computer mags I simply replaced them with another essential purchase: the UK music rags NME and Melody Maker. These were pretentious magazines/newspapers covering all the bands ‘the kids’ (ie. late teenage me) were into. While I rarely read everything I lapped up the frequent content on the goth bands of the era, and even still have cuttings from some of the issues I bought back then! Of course with the rise of grunge in the early 90’s these rags changed their focus and I dropped them like an old shoe.
In these days I was also buying a few others: titles like Goldmine (for record collecting news), other music mags if they had an interview with a band I listened to, the occasional PC gaming mag and every now and then an RPG mag like Dragon, Dungeon or White Dwarf (before it went to a GW-only mag in 1987). These latter ones frustrated me since they weren’t on newsstands and only rarely available in (the very few) games shops I visited. I certainly would have bought them more often had they been more available.
Then came America. I gave away the few mags I still had before leaving Oz and within days of landing in the US I got into console gaming in a big way and very quickly started buying all the local mags like EGM, CGW PSM, Gamefan and (eventually) Next Generation. These were almost all trash: utterly beholden to the industry they covered and walking a very thin line between advertising and editorializing. Of course I knew this, but these were pre-internet days and if you wanted info on upcoming games this was all we had. I bought and read them all for many years.
For many years we also had a subscription to Entertainment Weekly, and even though I’ve never ever watched an episode I feel I have a deep understanding of Friends as a result of the countless articles on the show from that magazine! The RPG magazines were much easier to find here as well and I regularly purchased Dragon and Dungeon until they both folded. I also bought the occasional comic and toy magazines (absolute, utter trash like Wizard and Toyfare) and also some Japanese magazines on otaku topics just to look at pretty pictures 🙂
During these years though, and as a result of the internet, magazines started to die. I recently watched a stream in which a once-editor of classic 8-bit UK computer magazines lamented that it was trivial to make money in the 1980s since no matter what they printed the mags flew off the shelf, but that now it’s almost impossible to make money running a game magazine since the customers are all online and most newsstands won’t devote space to stocking them. In short: the younger generations find magazines quaint and unnecessary in an era of free information online, and the industry hasn’t find a way to counter this yet.
But I still love my magazines, and still eagerly purchase ones I like! Even during covid I’ve managed one or two trips to our local Barnes and Noble bookstore – which contains our only local newsstand of note – and the above photo shows the haul from my last trip. A stamp magazine, a retro-game specific magazine, a comic mag, a trading card magazine and two genre magazines (sci-fi and horror). With the exception of the card and comic ones these are all imported from the UK, and as a result of both covid and Brexit are hellishly expensive now! But I still read them avidly, and I’ll continue to buy them until the day they eventually go under.
I fear that day is sooner than later though, and I imagine magazines will eventually go the way of the DVD or physical game release. But I’ll hope for a renaissance – if vinyl returns surely magazine can as well? – and spend my time happily reading the latest and greatest issue of a magazine entirely devoted to games or movies released decades ago 🙂
No mention of “Warlock”, “Proteus” or “GM”/”GMI”? 🙂
I still love paper magazines, too, but tend to read ’em on my iPad these days as the digital versions are available sooner and cheaper. Also due to the plague restricting my trips to the newsagency (or anywhere else).
“Retro Gamer”, “Edge” and “Official PlayStation Mag (UK)” are all of a much higher standard than the rags of our youth. However, I sometimes think multiformat gaming/programming title “Wireframe”, made by the Raspberry Pi folks and available free as a .pdf, beats the lot.
“DWM” and “SFX” continue to be worth reading. “Wired (US)” sadly not what it once was. “Dragon+” a glorified catalogue, though containing the occasional little gem. I’m rambling so I’ll stop. May magazines never die!
I don’t like Edge much at all; they’re too obsessed with their own relevance and forget that games magazines can only comment on the industry now and not lead it as they once did.
There’s plenty I didn’t mention since I only bought them infrequently, but the two notable omissions were Doctor Who mag (which I have many hundreds of issues of to this day) and Star Wars Insider to which I was subscribed for many years.
Incidentally in researching this article I read the two biggest growing categories of magazine in the USA right now are firearms (Walmart has loads of gun mags on the shelves!) and cannabis mags. Also the industry saw a slight recovery in 2019… but I’d guess 2020 wasn’t too healthy!