BREAKING: R.I.P. Wizard Magazine - Shuts Down Immediately

[RedKat]

We heard some startling but unsurprising whispers that made the rumor rounds this morning and now Bleeding Cool is confirming that Wizard Magazine is shutting its doors immediately. According to Bleeding Cool, all the Wizard staff has been laid off and the magazine will cease publication immediately. This has not yet been confirmed by Wizard editorial or their public relations folks

 

read the rest here,

http://toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=1&itemid=16812

[cjflan32]

That's unfortunate but that's what happens when you turn your comic book magazine into a pop-culture rag.

[Dragon66]

I saw this coming over the past couple of years as the price went up and the size of the magazine kept getting smaller and smaller. I used to buy the issues and visit the Wizarduniverse site all of the time, but I couldn't justify spending $6-7 dollars every month for a magazine that had shrunk to just over the size of your average comic book. When their website changed to WzardWorld last year or the year before, I stop visiting it because it just became a promotional tool for their Cons and store. I still bought Toyfare up until about 6 months when their size started to dwindle and the coverage was starting to fall behind. Well 20 years is a pretty good run and I wish them luck with their ComicCon business.

[Wheeljack35]

Oh if true this is sad I loved Toy Fare

[cjflan32]

I forgot when I cancelled my subscription but it was around 4-5 years ago and the year before that it was just awful.

 

I recall Wizard making a list of the all-time sexiest women on TV and Hayden Panettiere of Heroes fame was ranked No. 1. I must have flipped through this at the comic store because I definitely wasn't subscribing in 2008.

 

I understand that controversy creates cash but that was just ridiculous. One of my first thoughts was NBC paid them to do this. It explained a lot.

 

Anyway the articles became garbage, they seemed too afraid to piss off Marvel and DC (particularly Marvel) and more importantly they stopped focusing on comics.

[cjflan32]

Oh if true this is sad I loved Toy Fare

 

The only reason I read ToyFare was for glimpses of new figures.

 

That became irrelevant when 1. I stopped collecting action figures en masse and 2. I can't believe I'm saying this, but people like JayC did a good job publishing the info on their respective sites.

[Draven79]

Im not shocked! Said it was coming! 4 months ago I started having the hardest time getting Toyfair! The mag was no where to be seen in any book store near me, they never got it. Found it at TRU a month later. Then the last 2 issues I have not been able to find at any stores locally. Sad because I loved it!

Draven

[gruntcast]

Im not shocked! Said it was coming! 4 months ago I started having the hardest time getting Toyfair! The mag was no where to be seen in any book store near me, they never got it. Found it at TRU a month later. Then the last 2 issues I have not been able to find at any stores locally. Sad because I loved it!

Draven

 

Damm it, I love toyfare, it was funny , and I like seeing the new stuff.

[CaptainTriumph]

Wizard hasn't been the best magazine in awhile....I like Toyfare but I still get two other toy magazines.

 

I guess I'm going to save some money!

[Rollo Tomassi]

So does anyone know what the last issue is/was?

 

I posted regularly on their forums before they unceremoniously shut them down in the fall of 2009. We all figured the writing was on the wall. I'm surprised it lasted another full year, honestly. Gareb Shamus only sees comics as a way to make money. He isn't a fan in any sense of the word.

 

And now he wants people to PAY for his online magazine. The same information people can get for free at any other website? Yeah, that sounds like a douche money grab move Shamus would make. Good luck with that.

[JayC]

 

And now he wants people to PAY for his online magazine. The same information people can get for free at any other website? Yeah, that sounds like a douche money grab move Shamus would make. Good luck with that.

 

I'm not going to spend a lot of time coming to the defense of a Gareb Shamus, but at the same time when I read statements like this it somewhat irks me. You act like because someone is trying to find a way to make money from their business it's a bad thing or that somehow it makes them less of fan? Or that you are somehow owed these things for free. Here is a newsflash, Wizard which even with it's many faults has provided fans of both comics and action figures many years of content to digest. Content that required writers, and editors and so forth. IT COSTS MONEY TO RUN A BUSINESS AND PAY THOSE PEOPLE. People don't and shouldn't have to do it for nothing.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I understand we aren't "owed" free things, but if I have a choice where I can go to a website like TNI, or Newsarama, or CBR which are staffed by people who are actually passionate about that which they cover FOR FREE. Or pay a subscription to a guy like Gareb Shamus, whose only in it to try and make a buck, to read the exact same news content, I believe I'll stick with the former.

I understand the business model of companies buying advertising space on websites. I've used them from time to time, and when I have I've mentioned the site I saw them advertise at.

[JayC]

I understand we aren't "owed" free things, but if I have a choice where I can go to a website like TNI, or Newsarama, or CBR which are staffed by people who are actually passionate about that which they cover FOR FREE. Or pay a subscription to a guy like Gareb Shamus, whose only in it to try and make a buck, to read the exact same news content, I believe I'll stick with the former.

I understand the business model of companies buying advertising space on websites. I've used them from time to time, and when I have I've mentioned the site I saw them advertise at.

 

Yes but even TNI, Newsarama and CBR are all businesses. We all have to find ways to make money to to support ourselves, the people who work for us and the vendors we use. Its hard to be passionate about something when you aren't making enough money to put food on the table which is a problem many journalist face today. We online are further handicapped because of this perception that we can't charge for our content while we are left competing with large media corporations more and more. Even a Newsarama is now owned by a Corporation just as sites like IGN or MTV and many others. We all have to rely on advertising, which I can tell you isn't a whole lot for us small independently owned websites.

 

I am not saying you should start paying for online content (though I think as you see more and more media corporations taking over and especially as people move more and more to apps and such through mobile devices that paying for content online is going to be more a norm) but keep in mind most these places including wizard where a lot of good people lost their jobs this week HAVE to make money somehow to survive and being passionate only takes you so far and unfortunately doesn't pay bills or salaries.

[cjflan32]

One of the reasons the New York Times and a lot of other publications are in so much trouble is because they opened Web Sites and made the content free for years, meaning no one bought the paper. What Shamus is doing is learning from other companies mistakes.

However, the difference is people need to read the NYT. No one needs to read Wizard and apparently given this recent news no one wants to.

Shamus turned Wizard Magazine from a must-read publication to expensive toilet paper. If he wants to charge people for content that's his problem.

[Hordak Rules]

I actually hadn't heard about this. I stopped reading Wizard a few months ago, but collected it for years. When they changed their format to that silly countdown style, I lost all interest. I had also gotten very annoyed at the way they would advertise something on their cover, but the actual article was either very much of a let down or almost non-existant. Wizard in the day was great read and always had amazing covers.

 

Toyfare I was still collecting, but I had just decided that the last issue I bought would be my last, because other then the MOTU Catra figure, I had already seen all the figures they talked about online. I didn't think my last issue would be the LAST issue though.