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Two Ziff-Davis Magazines Cancelled

Posted by Zonk on from the dead-tree-media-taking-some-hits dept.

Starsmore writes "IGN is reporting that Ziff-Davis Media has pulled the plug on two of its magazines: Xbox Nation (XBN) and GMR (the collaborative effort with EB Games), for undisclosed reasons. Andrew Pfister (GMR Editor) confirms the report as well via 1up.com " From his post: "The news has broken over the Intraweb, and unfortunately, the documents are real. As of the February issue, GMR is being discontinued. Subscribers will be the only ones to receive the February issue, and all subscribers will have the option to switch over to another Ziff mag."

2 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Excellent! It worked! by MBraynard · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I take full credit for the cancellation of XBN.

    After the election, the 1up newsletter that is affiliated with XBN sent out the following:

    Thanks Ohio! by Kristen Salvatore

    http://gaming.ziffdavis.com/flat/Images/b.gif So I'm assuming that all of you who voted for George Bush will soon be lining up your sons, daughters, and cousins at the local armed services recruitment stations and signing them up for duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, and most likely Africa --because you voted for war.

    To which I sent the following email to Ziff Davis's CFO, vp for comm, and the editor of the 1UP publication:

    Hi,


    Do you really think that anyone subscribes to your video game publications to hear your unoriginal, tired and ignorant commentary on a political matter?

    I currently subscribe to four of your publications. Two of them are business-related (PC Magazine and eWeek). But two of them are for relaxation/amusement (XBN and EGM). I have enjoyed reading them because they are a brief refuge from the contentious world of partisan politics in which I live and work.

    Unfortunately, your decision to breach that refuge with your stupid comment by Kristen Salvatore ("Hey, Thanks Ohio!") has led me to decide to cancel my subscriptions to all four. You guys want to get political and throw insults at me - fine, I simply won't subsidize you doing it anymore.

    This is being sent to the 1UP editor, the director of communications for ZD, and the CFO of ZD since your decision is affecting the bottom line of the corporation.

    Exxxceellleeennntt. Now watch this post get modded down to -5 a$$hole.

  2. GMR Subs were Inflated by superultra · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I worked at EB when we "invented" GMR. We signed up hundreds and hundreds of people per store because we were being given a spiff on each membership sale. It wasn't much, but if you sold well - and most of us at the store I worked at did - you could could away with an extra game or two every month (that's how you can tell I worked at a game store, everything is in number of games bought, not meals or gas gallons). Within a year, EB had taken that spiff away. So why resubscribe if you don't have an EB guy breathing down your neck?

    My guess is that the numbers dropped significantly after EB removed the spiff. GMR was a good magazine, so it's a shame this happened but even the $5.50 an hour retail worker knew that this would happen. Anyone working for GMR knew the deal going in, I would hope.

    As for XBN, which EB had nothing to do with save selling it, it seemed kind of specifically redundant. Good, but the only reason OXM does so well is the demo disc. Without the disc, why buy XBN?

    Nix two magazines. Whatevs. I'm still lamenting the fall of Next Gen.