"One of the lesser-known magazine editors in the country can't help but chuckle whenever he says, 'We're almost as big as Oprah.'"
That editor, Game Informer's Andy McNamara, got a little less little-known when he and his magazine were featured in the Washington Post's Style section today. The piece's author, Jose Antonio Vargas, contacted me for the story but didn't use any of my quotes. Not that surprising, considering my responses to his questions were vague, rambling and more than a little confusing.
The piece reveals the rather surprising fact (to me, anyways) that Game Informer sits just outside of the top 25 magazines in the country in terms of circulation. Two million people read the thing... only about half a million less than read the Oprah-fueled O Magazine. Impressive.
The WaPo article correctly identifies GameStop as the main reason for Game Informer's explosive numbers, but fails to mention that $15 gets you a ten-month subscription as well as GameStop's "10-percent-off used games" card (Update 4-19-05, 5:00 EST: Seems the article does mention it in passing, but still doesn't give this fact enough weight, IMO. Also, the $10 price I had was outdated). I wonder how many of those 2 million subscribers would give up their subscription without the added incentive of the retail discount.
The other big surprise in the article came from from EGM's Dan "Shoe" Hsu (who I can barely get through a post without mentioning, it seems):
"Anyone who walks into a GameStop is a possible GI reader," says Hsu. "Just because GI has the highest circulation doesn't necessarily mean it's the best."
Whoa! Them's fighting words, Dan! Esepcially from someone at No. 155 on the circulation list.
The rest of the article is a semi-interesting look at the life of the editor of the country's most popular game magazine, and I have to say... it sounds pretty awesome! Here's to a gaming mag cracking the circulation top 10 sooner than later.
In slightly related news, GameStop announced today that it was buying Electronics Boutique in a 1.44 billion dollar deal. Gamestop obviously has wildly successful Game Informer, so you might wonder what's going to happen to Electronics Boutique's GMR magazine. Oh, wait... GMR announced they were ceasing publication nearly four months ago. Hmmm...
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One of the classic blunders! "The WaPo article correctly identifies GameSpot as the main reason for Game Informer's explosive numbers..." You probably meant GameStop (as you said it elsewhere), but, you know, you never know.
ReplyDeleteWhoops! No one is safe from the GameStop/Gamespot typo! Damn those letter transpositions!
ReplyDeleteIt has been fixed.
First I want to acknowledge the nice turn of phrase here:
ReplyDeleteThat editor, Game Informer's Andy McNamara, got a little less little-known
Very nice.
But I need to call out a mistake:
just outside of the top 25 game magazines in the country in terms of circulation
"Game" should be deleted--it's #26 in circulation across magazines. And I would argue that it's deservedly so, regardless of whether there's a GameStop tie-in or not. GameStop got me to try it, but it's an all-around good magazine.
To give Hsu credit, I believe he wants to take EGM in the same direction as GI, but it takes time. It's hard to transition a magazine geared towards the under 20 male crowd to the more afluent 20/30 year old (still mostly) male market.
--T.
I'm just full of typos today, aren't I? This one has also been fixed.
ReplyDeleteI just got my "last" issue of GameInformer. And yes, the only reason I get it is because of the GameStop discount card.
ReplyDeleteI find the magazine to be full of "puff & fluff", and it would be about as interesting if they compressed it down to just the 10 pages of reviews.
You have to wonder how many of those 2 million people read the magazine, though. I got the mag for about 3 years thanks to my gamestop card, and never read it once. In fact, for some reason I got about three copies every month there for a while.
ReplyDeleteShoe is right, the high circ doesn't say much about quality when a lot of the subs are basically "free."
Then again, I haven't read GI in about 2 years, so I really can't speak on how good or bad they are anymore.
- Sewart
As a computer gamer, GI has nothing for me. The reviews are only of those games that are already so exposed that I know whether or not I am going to buy them.
ReplyDeleteI think that GI has a niche, but it is the casual gamer niche. People subscribe when they pick up a game that their friend told them about, maybe they renew and maybe they don't. These aren't the people who read every preview or follow the development cycle. So, they can use a magazine that just hits the highlights of what is out there and tries not to overdo it.
Of course, almost every game they review (because it is usually a respectable AAA or licensed title) gets at least a 7/10, so your mileage may vary.
I find this very interesting. I thought EGM was quite a bit more influential, even among developers (of which I am one myself). By that, I mean that I barely ever see a game commercial with a GI quote on it.
ReplyDeleteI think GI's reviews are way too loose, as even a bad game will get 5 or 6 out of 10. What I like best about them is their previews section, which goes in depth a lot, with tons of supersized screenshots. All in all it's definitely worth a buck per issue :-)
The $15/year for the the discount card and 12 issues of GI only went into effect at the beginning of March.
ReplyDeleteI find Game Informer to be pretty useless for reviews (I think they only gave Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door a 6. WTF), however some of their features are of interest. The only reason I bother to look at it is because I work at GameStop.
"Here's to a gaming mag cracking the circulation top 10 sooner than later."
ReplyDeleteGame Informer is a good magazine, but but let's only celebrate this when it isn't entirely due to a tie-in with a major game retailer. The conflict-of-interest there is off the charts, and the circulation numbers are barely auditable due to the bundling.
Also, I don't think Game Informer is available anywhere but GameStop, so its "success" is not against other magazines. It has a premium spot at a game store--something shared with GMR, but which no other magazine gets, and placement is everything in the magazine business--and ties in circulation to buying a value-added discount card.
There's a reason that, despite its huge circulation, EGM typically has more ad pages. Everyone knows that circulation number is inflated.
Number of ad pages are usually how magazines are judged, relative to each other. Advertisers go where they believe the most, and best, readers are.
Game Informer is available in major bookstores in Canada. (Maybe because there is no GameStop in Canada...yet...) GMR, on the other hand, was only available in EBGames here.
ReplyDeleteisn't being the house organ of a major game retailer discrediting at all?
ReplyDeletei know you're a fake ombudsman and all as your disclaimer mentioned, but really...this is just pathetic. there won't be anything remotely like a "video game journalist" (outside of people who cover the business angle, like the journalists and editors at crains) because of things like this, barely above the level of trade association magazines.
"Who cares about more ads when they are free or severely discounted."
ReplyDeleteOverstating or mis-projecting your circulation only has a short-term impact. I'm guessing that it was a few freebies for a couple of months, at most.
Even with that incident, people still view EGM's circulation as either more credible or more valuable, as they choose to advertise there more frequently.
Personally, I like Game Informer mostly because I don't feel alienated by it. I'm female and I like to game, and I like to read about games. But magazines like EGM that are geared primarily to under 20-year-old males tend to make my eyes glaze over. There are plenty of resources for the truly xhardcorex to get their gaming news, and I admit I take the GI reviews with a grain a salt. But overall it's an interesting read, and it doesn't make me feel as if its editors and its readers don't realize that a gamer like me exists.
ReplyDelete