Why 2 Magazines?

[Wicht]

They do. At the end of the month they comile it all and release the compilation as a single "issue." They just also release each article throughout the month, which is common practice in online magazines.

Oh. I hadn't realized they did that, not being a subscriber. Last I had heard, people were complaining that while they had been told there would be compilations, they were late or non-existant in coming. Clearly things have improved (or I was misinformed).

 

[catsclaw227]

Oh. I hadn't realized they did that, not being a subscriber. Last I had heard, people were complaining that while they had been told there would be compilations, they were late or non-existant in coming. Clearly things have improved (or I was misinformed).

And, if you count that they have an editorial calendar, with specific release days on M-W-F, you can considered it a periodical by definition as well. The period just isn't 1 month.

But, yes, the compilations have been coming at the end of the month since the beginning - Dungeon 155 and Dragon 364 for 4e. Currently, January is Dungeon 162 and Dragon 371)

 

[TerraDave]

It was best when it was one magazine*.







*yes, I am an old man.

 

[TerraDave]

I suspect also that, while the idea is that there are a lot of players out there... what players spend on RPG stuff PALES in comparison to what DMs spend. Sure, there might be 4 or 5 times the number of players out there than DMs, but if DMs spend 4 or 5 times the amount of money on RPG products than a single player, does it matter? And if DMs spend MORE than that (which, judging from my own buying habits and the buying habits of other DMs I know, is pretty likely), then doesn't it make more sense to market primarily to DMs anyway?

Its nice to see someone in the industry admit to this.

 

[Scribble]

It was best when it was one magazine*.

*yes, I am an old man.

Now now grandpa settle down, and go back to your pictures... Here let me adjust the blanket for you...

 

[JDJblatherings]

Not according to Merriam-Webster.

magazine - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary


Clearly online publications are called magazines as well.

A neophyte who isn't looking for Dragon is not going to stumble across it on newsstand somewhere or shoved in a rack at a comic store, it's gone. Are they even going to find it online ? I've seen darned little advertising for it. I've seen dozens of periodicals go online and disappear within a year. It's a terrible move that only benefits the bottom line of the publisher, briefly. WoTC gets to brand web content as "Dragon" and "Dungeon" magazine and what they each were is simply no more.

 

[Arivendel]

Personally i would like to see one single magazine, with those like side headers in the page labeling one part of the Mag as Dungeon and the other as Dragon, they can even keep the covers so they can like divide the magazine, that way its one single file but all the content together, then on the Annuals they can simply split the content without renaming because the Dragon Annual would be a compilation of the entire Dragon part and Dungeon Annual would be a compilation of the Dungeon part.

Two Compilations in print but one single file per magazine.

 

[Scribble]

A neophyte who isn't looking for Dragon is not going to stumble across it on newsstand somewhere or shoved in a rack at a comic store, it's gone. Are they even going to find it online ? I've seen darned little advertising for it. I've seen dozens of periodicals go online and disappear within a year. It's a terrible move that only benefits the bottom line of the publisher, briefly. WoTC gets to brand web content as "Dragon" and "Dungeon" magazine and what they each were is simply no more.

And this neophyte is going to do what now?

Dragon/Dungeon are full of info designed to be used for a certain purpose (playing D&D) not just read. Their chances of surviving online are MUCH higher then a magazine solely designed to be read.

Chances are a kid new to D&D is going to pull up google and seach D&D or just log on to the site the book indicates. What do you know! Dragon/Dungeon!

Sure a new kid who knows nothing about D&D might have stumbled across one of the mags in the past and decided to learn al about whatever the heck that mag was about for some reason... But I don't think the number doing that was so high that it's going to harm the game much if they don't exist anymore.

But in the end... thats not really what this post was about.

 

[catsclaw227]

A neophyte who isn't looking for Dragon is not going to stumble across it on newsstand somewhere or shoved in a rack at a comic store, it's gone. Are they even going to find it online ? I've seen darned little advertising for it. I've seen dozens of periodicals go online and disappear within a year. It's a terrible move that only benefits the bottom line of the publisher, briefly. WoTC gets to brand web content as "Dragon" and "Dungeon" magazine and what they each were is simply no more.

That's more a marketing issue for DDI than a conversion from print to digital. I never saw Dungeon or Dragon at a newsstand, at least not in SoCal or at any airports or towns where I traveled for business. Comic book stores? Yea, they will be missed there, and at the FLGS, but then they would be more attracted to D&D by all the advertising at the FLGS than the rack of magazines.

 

[JDJblatherings]

And this neophyte is going to do what now?

Dragon/Dungeon are full of info designed to be used for a certain purpose (playing D&D) not just read. Their chances of surviving online are MUCH higher then a magazine solely designed to be read.

Chances are a kid new to D&D is going to pull up google and seach D&D or just log on to the site the book indicates. What do you know! Dragon/Dungeon!

(

I used to buy 9 or more Dragons a year and a couple of Dungeons a year, now I spend nothing on them.

Dragon was readable by normal humans for years, sure it'd be packed with weird stuff, it's stuff they will not be exposed to now.

I never saw Dungeon or Dragon at a newsstand, at least not in SoCal or at any airports or towns where I traveled for business.

I saw Dragon turn up in my local supermarket for a while. In a camera shop, in a sporting goods store that had a magazine and book rack (it was near a commuter train). It wasn't everywhere but it did turn up here and there, in places it never will in digital form.


Retaining "Dragon" and "Dungeon" is a branding stunt to package online content. There are two now because there were two in print. There were two in print because some folks wanted more pages of adventures in Dragon and some people didn't.