[OP-ED] How Can Gaming Magazines Stay Afloat?

MEGA-COOL!

This past week I got a relatively random e-mail asking me if I wanted a free copy of the latest issue of Nintendo Power, which contained exclusive Kid Icarus: Uprising AR cards. I figured “Why the hell not?” and gave them my address, only to get the magazine a few days later and sit around baffled as to how I was going to turn this into an article. Some people would say “Think about this before you give them your address, Austin!”, but I’m more of a ‘Get free stuff now, figure out the article later’ kind of guy.

So I e-mailed the guy last night and asked if there was anything in particular he wanted me to showcase, and he said not to worry about it and just write whatever I want. So here I am, writing whatever I want and realizing how much I like magazines. I’m not currently subscribed to any, and there aren’t really any out there I want to be subscribed to all that much, but just the idea of a magazine is cool. A physical booklet filled with information about something you know and love? Something you can carry with you anywhere and have something to read when you’re stuck waiting for a train or lounging about during break time at work? I think that’s so great. I really do. But with the internet, can those types of things really survive?

I say yes, but they need to start approaching it differently.

I’m just trying to break up the space, so here’s a picture.

See, essentially what’s happening with the internet is that people can pirate anything. They can pirate music and movies, but likewise they can, in a sense, “pirate” news. It used to be that you had to pay for a newspaper, some magazines, or the guy on the soapbox downtown to get your reliable news about niche subjects like video games. That’s not the case anymore. Now it’s all (relatively) free. We can pirate it. We can go online and get free news, just like we can get free music and free movies. This isn’t a bad thing, but it means that companies who formerly thrived on being one of the few sources to provide a certain service need to rethink their business model. You can’t thrive in many industries today using tactics you implemented 30 years ago. I know you’d like to- because it’s cheaper and easier- but you can’t. It just doesn’t work anymore because you’re no longer providing a unique service. So what do you do?

You have to start providing a unique service again.

I love Nintendo Power and hope to one day have an op-ed published in a similar magazine, but they are- in my unprofessional opinion- taking too long to totally convert from news magazine to edgy opinion magazine. They have great and talented writers, but the focus of their writing is on things we can learn online. There are very few people who want to read previews and “news” in magazines anymore, because you can get the same thing online a hell of a lot quicker- and a hell of a lot cheaper. Ergo, they need to shift their focus away from news and towards something that readers won’t be able to get elsewhere: Op-Eds, reviews, and interviews.

Op-Eds (essentially just opinion pieces) are the biggest part of this, because absolutely everybody in the world needs someone to give an opinion to them. I wish that wasn’t the case, but we all crave someone to validate- or attack- something we believe. So the first step to getting magazines a bigger audience again is to hire the most talented, opinionated, funny, unique writers they can find to give readers something they won’t get anywhere else. You can find news about the latest Mario game anywhere, but can you find an angry desk-nerd writing a huge piece on why Mario is an outdated piece of crap everywhere? Not if you do it right, no.

I mean, really, as I flip through this issue of Nintendo Power, do you want to know which parts I read and which parts I skip? I read the fan-mail because it’s funny, I look at their awesome statistics charts because they’re interesting, I glance over their reviews just because, and I read their monthly interview. Unless I’m trying to waste time on the toilet or forget that I’m totally bored, I don’t really ever look over the things that say “Here’s a game that’s coming and here’s a game that’s coming and here’s another game and here’s some more stuff you can find out online for free”. And I mean that in the best possible way. The interesting bits of Nintendo Power are the features, the opinion pieces, and the interviews. That’s why I subscribed to NP for so long, and why- if I ever do- I would re-subscribe. Not because of the news.

I’m still trying to break up the words a bit, so here’s a happy cat.

Though, let me play devil’s advocate for a second here: Nintendo Power is actually not doing a terrible job. I haven’t gotten and issue of it in around half a year, but as I take a look at this one in particular, the ideas are there. At least half of the magazine is devoted to interviews, opinion pieces, or reviews- but there’s more they could do. They need to ‘edge’ it up, if you will, and get writers who think outside the box of being traditional. They get great interviews and great op-eds, but they’re very careful and very safe. They are what people refer to as “good quality journalism”, and as anyone who knows me at all is aware, I say to hell with “good quality journalism”. I want something unique, honest, and subjective- not something tame, safe, and objective.

So, anyway: Get some great writers to write truly unique content, throw in some high-class (and unique) interviews, and give people reviews as always because people love reviews, and you’ll reel a lot of people in I’d imagine. See, the key to becoming successful in any business isn’t to find a working model and to stagnate- it’s always allowing yourself to change. It’s recognizing what people don’t have any giving it to them. It’s providing a service they can’t get anywhere else. That’s the philosophy I try and use while writing for NE, and that’s the way business will have to go if they want to continue thriving in a constantly connected world.

Though, I’m just a dude who writes things on the internet. My opinion is not universal, and I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who enjoy ‘tame’ and ‘safe’ over ‘slightly offensive’ and ‘openly honest’. So… what do I know anyway?

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Anyone else like magazines? Subscribe to any? Have any advice for them to keep succeeding slash not fail? We do have a comments section for a reason. ;]

Also, shameless plug, you can totally get the latest issue of Nintendo Power- which talks about Epic Mickey 2 and Mario Tennis n stuff- right now. And it has free AR Cards. So do it. Seriously.