On Thu, 18 Dec 2003, woodelf wrote: > > Well, i'll presume that Dragon is now a self-supporting entity--i > believe the editor has said as much--since i don't think Paizo has > any non-magazine game revenue to prop it up with. But for the > majority of its history, scuttlebut has it that it was a money-loser. > Ditto for every other RPG mag out there that has ever been--they were > all kept afloat by profits from other ventures, due to the perceived > gains in advertising, market presence, attracting new players, > keeping fans/consumers happy, etc. (or, at least, that's what i've > always been told, sometimes by people in the know). Except Arcane. > Which, probably coincidentally, was the most generalist mag of any of > them that i've seen--the only one to *focus on* non-system-specific > articles, including an entire scenario in every issue that was > written up entirely without game stats (the game stats for several > systems were then tacked on at the end).
I've been told more than once that Shadis would have been a successful self-sustaining entity if all of the companies that took out ads in it actually paid their bills. I've been told similar stories (different only in which companies were the deadbeats) in relation to other failed magazines. As for Shadis (or any other magazine) only being maintained as a parent company advertising venue, or a loss-leader to attract new players, or as a tax dodge, or whatever, remember, for a number of years Shadis was the only product that Alderac put out, and it had to sustain itself. Same with White Wolf magazine, which was around for a number of years before Vampire came out. Spike Y Jones _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
