3 posts tagged “ziff davis”

PC Magazine has been a solid source of information since 1985, a good four years before I was even born. I've been a subscription holder for PC "Mag" for about 4 months, and a casual newsstand buyer for about a year before that. I'm noticing a startling trend.

In the February 13th issue, columnist Michael Miller announced that that issue's column would be his last, but he would still hold a 'columnist's blog' on the PC Mag site? The issue I got today, PC Mag's former editor-in-chief, Bill Machrone announced in his column that he also, was stepping now. However, he wasn't going to be given a blog and a link to it from the PC Mag columnist page, instead, all we know is that all his back-columns are going to be archived on PC Mag.com.

In Machrone's final column, he mentions the growing upset between internet tech media and print media. He's not alone. Ziff Davis, PC Mag's parent company, is attempting to sell the Game Group, which consists of two gaming magazines (Electronic Gaming Monthy and Games for Windows) and a "mega" website 1UP.com.

According to another blogger, 1UP.com is the crown jewel of the game group, with several hundred game-junkie teenagers who go there every day, and worship their editors with an almost cult-like following (which is only helped by 1UP's collection of weekly podcast and video podcasts, which, if intentional or not, promote the game journalists has hip, trendy, superstars).

However, the two print magazines, according to the blogger, are what is holding up MTV or a TelCo from grabbing up this lucrative "MySpace-meets-Gamespot" website. With PC Mag cutting down on its time-honored columnists, and ZD's game group being held down by two print magazines, is print media dead?

Don't forget, a few months ago I got all hot and bothered over 1UP's sale of the Official Playstation Magazine. It now appears, that ZD may have canceled that magazine to make the sale more lucrative to a potential buyer.

Is print media dead? Well, I don't think so. I enjoy reading magazines, and I currently get Ziff-Davis' Electronic Gaming Monthy and Future Publishing's PC Gamer, in addition to ZD's PC Mag. However, I appear to be in a majority.

Technology and gaming magazines are in a hard spot, because their target audience, is, quiet frankly, almost all high-end technology power users who spend most of their time on the internet. Why wait a month for a magazine to have old news when blogs, podcasts, and AJAX-powered headline RSS feeds can give you up to the minute information?

A few months back on an "EGM Live" podcast (on the 1UP Radio Network, a lovely name), Electronic Gaming Month's Dan "Shoe" Hsu said that he wanted to make his magazine's content more high-end. Maybe they'll have an exclusive interview with a rare Japanese video game developer, or have a special early review that even beats the internet.

However, Hsu was very honest, and admitted that the general stuff, like gaming news and most reviews, will be beat to consumers by the internet.

Hsu's not the only one that recognizes the advent of the internet age. PC Mag has almost ALL of its material that is in the magazine on its website, PCMag.com, even the highly-ancipated John C. Dvorak columns. And unlike the New York Times, the articles are printed in the whole, without the need to enter a subscription number, or register for their online service.

The only problem with PC Mag's strategy, is that, the information doesn't come up until the issue is published. So, its still a month-hold. The only thing worse than a magazine with old info, is a website with old info. Compared to CNET.com, PCMag.com might has well be from the stone ages.

I, personally, hope, this isn't the end of print media. No 24" LCD monitor or tablet PC can replicate the feel of that paper in your fingers. However, I think the battle is over. I am the only one of my gamer/tech junkie friends who pays for a tech or gaming magazine. The others wait for the info to hit the net.

In the case of exclusive interviews, my friends replied, "I'll just get the .pdf through BitTorrent."

Today, Ziff-Davis Media (magazine publisher, former owner of TechTV, well, ZDTV), announced they were closing the doors on OPM, the Official Playstation Magazine. I'm going to assume on why.

Despite popular belief, ZD pays Sony a regular annual fee to use the "Official Playstation" name and logos, and thats where it ends. They might get one or two stories a day or two early, but they are very.. unofficial, less so than people think. If I wanted to start an unofficial Atari 2600 magazine, I could, as long has I just said it was being made without permission of Codemasters or whoever owns Atari now.

I'm going to guess that Sony raised the price of the Official Playstation for the PS3. Why? Because, they're retarded. Sony is honestly, one of the stupidest companies right now. That whole battery crap, their design choices in the PS3, that overpriced and overpowered Cell Processor, and I could go on and on.

Now, I haven't spent my time crawling the Ziff Davis stock reports, but I would bargain that OPM was the lowest magazine on their subscription, but still, it looked good for Ziff and got the Playstation name. ZD's game magazine group in way in the hole, they've spent like over a million their budget, I believe., and Sony raising their price was too much.

If the PS3 looks bad this holiday season, look to rumors of Mitsubishi or some other big Japanese Conglomerate buying Sony. Personally, I hope they do. Sony needs the good press.

Well, let me just make a short note, ATI and AMD announced they're working on a CPU/GPU hyrid, called Fusion. Fusion, is one of my favorite words. For English class, we had to do a creative writing thing, and I wrote this 100-page SAGA where I was the CEO of a video game/internet property/media company called Fusion. I think AMD should pay me royalties.

Yeah, right. Well, I have no idea how this Fusion thing will work, they'll have to have some special chipset on the motherboard, or have their own motherboard. If they have the GPU PCI based or something, then they'll need some kind of chipset, if its integrated into the motherboard, they'll need their own motherboard which AMD isn't into. It'll be interesting to see what they'll do. I'm a bit of a NVIDA and Intel fanboy, so I hope these AMD and ATI... or AMD/ATI... or just AMD goes bankrupt, but whatever, the unbiased part of me wants to see how, technically, they pull this "Fusion" off.

This wasn't the point of my post. The point is, Sony's Playstation 3, Microsoft Vista Home Premium or Apple's iTV? Which will become THE way to watch computer based content on the television?

Faults? The Playstation 3 will only stream off of the PSP, if I'm right, and thats bad. For Vista, you need a whole computer set up to your TV, which isn't a good deal. iTV? Well, no one knows how it'll work at this point. Steve Jobs' keynote, while it was "revolutionary" because Apple announced it this far out (very un-Apple), was very cryptic.

My pick? Well, the Media Center will do the most, basically because its a whole PC connected to your TV. The one that'll do it the easiest simplest? The iTV? The one that most people will have in their homes and most likely use in this fashion? The Playstation 3.

Now, I'm a Xbox fanboy, so I dislike the PS3, but the Playstation brand is insanely popular. The name "Playstation" is what "Nintendo" was in the 90's. My grandma doesn't say "Do you want a new Nintendo game for Christmas?" like she did with my cousins, she says , "Do you want a new Playstation game for Christmas?". The odd thing is, my cousins didn't own a Nintendo (Sega Genesis all the way) and I don't own a Playstation.

The two names are buzzwords with a generic gaming console with non-gamers. Not to mention the following that the PS brand has. I remember when the PS2 came out. Friends of my dad, who weren't really big gamers, they had Madden and few other games on their PS1, but were excited for the PS2.

Despite all its flaws, the high-price, the janky controller, the blu-ray format (which WILL fail, mark my words. I'd promise a future blog on the subject, but I don't seem to be keeping up on those promises.), the PS3 will sell like hot cakes, and some people will use their PS3 in a media... convergence... thing?

Me? Why would you want to watch YouTube clips on a TV? Sure, if you buy a movie, then it'll be cool, but I don't... and if I did, I'd settle for my 21" Samsung LCD monitor. Sigh, I don't understand people.

Robert Heron over at Ziff-Davis predicted that one day, we won't have a PC, we'll have 10 computers, in various different household items, including a car. I don't like the idea. Don't get me wrong, I like having little computers in TV's, Cars, whatever, but no base computer? How will you surf the net? Through your TV? On a tablet on your nightstand or near your sofa? Meh, we'll have to see.

Nevertheless, today, we are enjoying technology today that was not even being DREAMED up 20 years ago. I'm not fond of the "free thinkers" who say we're living in the second Renaissance, but honestly, aren't we? The first Renaissance brought about new ideas in modern science, medicine, architecture, art and music. In 500 years, will my relatives talk about how this era brought in new ideas in computing? Will they look upon men like Jobs, Gates, Laporte, Ellison and Kildall in the same light has da Vinci, Shakespeare, Copernicus, Clouet and others?

Its a radical idea, but I think we're there.

Congratulations, my friends. We're Renaissance men.

1340

2006