Gaming Mag Circulation Numbers May Not Mean That Much

The regular Game Mag Weasling column at the blog GameSetWatch usually runs down the contents of publications that recently hit the newsstands. This week, blogger Kevin Gifford tackles the thorny subject of falling subscriptions as they apply to game magazines. He references a discussion of falling subscriptions in the magazine publishing industry at large, which notes that a metric just as important as real subscribers is the number of readers-per-copy. Re-reading among friends and the appearance of a magazine in a doctor's office is another important factor to consider in a magazine's success. "Game Informer's [readers-per-copy] audience is 'only' about 68% larger than EGM's, despite having over four times the paid circulation. If you put enough credence to the numbers, it means that GameStop is spending a lot of money printing, mailing, and distributing those two million-odd copies of GI each month, yet not being as efficient in attracting an audience with those printed copies as EGM and GamePro is."

Comments

Maybe if they offered something worth reading...

[Captain Vittles]

I haven't bought a gaming mag since I let my subscription to Nintendo Power expire back in 1996. Amazingly enough, that's the same year I was finally able to get a 'net connection at home. It's not exactly that simple, though, as I was also sick of the way NP hyped many mediocre games to death while ignoring some true gems. The few times I've flipped through any newer mag since then, I've been put off by the ads, the 'articles' that read like ads and the glowing praise of games that I later found to be utter trash.

While it's certainly not news that many magazines are trash, and that print media is being slowly killed by the internet, it's interesting to consider that the target audience for gaming mags are also people who tend to be more tech savvy than the average joe. If they're wondering about their inability to attract their target audience, I guess they haven't realized how much harder they're going to have to work compared to mags that cover other subjects.