No more "Gameroom Magazine"

Dammit! I was hoping to finish my gameroom sometime next year and submit it as Gameroom of the Month. This does really suck. I was a subscriber for a couple of years in the mid-2000s and then started again last year. I was really enjoying it recently. Maybe they can switch to quarterly issues and still publish this if there wasn't enough content to put it out every month.
 
Another option would be to publish this as an electronic-only issue (like PC Magazine and others have done). This would obviously eliminate the printing and distribution costs. Even though I would prefer a paper publication, a PDF issue would be better than nothing. I'm going to suggest this to them.
 
I know for a fact that Kevin tried REAL REAL REAL hard to sell the magazine and even had someone interested right up until last week when the interested party exhausted all options as far as financing is concerned.

If there are any writers/publishers here interested, I am sure Kevin would be willing to hear from you. The investment isn't that much, and I even CONSIDERED it for a half second... but I am not a writer/editor... and frankly, you're not going to make much profit from it... it's more a labor of love.
 
Another option would be to publish this as an electronic-only issue (like PC Magazine and others have done). This would obviously eliminate the printing and distribution costs. Even though I would prefer a paper publication, a PDF issue would be better than nothing. I'm going to suggest this to them.
I'm sure they already thought of doing an electronic version.
In my experience, for electronic versions there really is no money in them, people don't want to pay for the content and advertisers don't want to advertise in them, or want to pay very little for space.
 
The thing about a hard copy of the magazine is that it lays around and the ad is alllllways there. An electronic version would get deleted and never read again, nobody wants to advertise in that. There's a ton of work in making a magazine, and very little of it is in the actual printing of the magazine, it's all in setting up the art and articles, etc. which you would still have to do for even the pdf version.
 
WTF MAN!!! that sucks.. are there any other mags like that out there or was it the only one? I just resubbed a few mos ago.. BOOOOOO!!!


( didnt mean to shoot the messenger troy :D )

Just heard about the end of gameroom magazine. This sucks for many reasons, one, because i have been a subscriber for several years and look forward to getting the magazine. I always enjoyed the articles, (i did read the magazine, i didnt just look at the pictures).

http://www.gameroommag.com/

Also, i hav ebeen preparing to write an article about a bunch of one of a kind items that i have came into, Items that will be available to the public for the first time ever (not any games, just literature that has never been seen) so this stuff is going to be very interesting and the way to let many see about it was to write up an article for GRM.

However, i am not happy about the fact that i just paid for my subscription a little over a month ago and wont be getting that refunded. The website says that everyone will be getting a cd of the past years, but honestly, that is not something i want. Exspecially when someone that only had one month of their subscription left will be getting the same things as myself that hasnt even recieved the first issue after paying for my subscription.

Im grateful that someone was able to publish a magazine like GRM, so dont take it that way. However, GRM was not a charity, so my donation to them was not willing. I paid a subscription for a magazine, so in essence, i invested in the company
 
I want to add I feel like the biggest horses ass right now for bragging about how good the magazine was and repeatedly trying to talk people into subscribing...
 
Well, I for one subscribed for (I think) three years. Yes, magazines fold. It happens to all of the mags in print it seems. I can name 4 titles I have subscribed to that have folded and offered some sort of consolation/refund over the past few years. I hope I am not the one carrying the bad juju that caused it to fold. Best of luck to Kevin and I hope that somebody else can pick up where he left off. I for one look forward to my copy of the back issues.
 
I want to add I feel like the biggest horses ass right now for bragging about how good the magazine was and repeatedly trying to talk people into subscribing...

Well, I did the same thing... but you shouldn't feel bad.

The bottom line was the magazine was a good read... and we had no idea it was going under... and once I suspected it (ie: the website not allowing subscription) I stopped pimping it.

Shit happens and Kevin was losing money and didn't have the dough to even publish the last issue. The fault lies with the advertisers and potential advertisers as well as the subscribers who didn't utilize the advertisers, etc.

A magazine can not survive without advertising... period. Gameroom's ad rates were ABSURDLY inexpensive... yet some of the big namers didn't participate (I am looking directly at YOU GARY STERN)...

No advertising = no magazine... that simple.
 
I bought some of the back issues from their gigantic sale, but to be honest I didn't find it a very interesting read. This forum is much more interesting than that magazine, but maybe it got better in the later years and I haven't read those yet, lol.
 
Another option would be to publish this as an electronic-only issue (like PC Magazine and others have done). This would obviously eliminate the printing and distribution costs. Even though I would prefer a paper publication, a PDF issue would be better than nothing. I'm going to suggest this to them.

+1. A blog with really good editorial control could replace Gameroom mag. As someone else said, there's enough content on these forums to drive it; we just need someone to aggregate it, fix all the typos and push it out on WordPress or BlogSpot.

John
 
Gameroom's ad rates were ABSURDLY inexpensive... yet some of the big namers didn't participate (I am looking directly at YOU GARY STERN)...

No advertising = no magazine... that simple.

Right on!

Everytime I go to the Chicago Pinball Expo, Stern is NEVER there! Why? It's in their own back yard!

Stern can't bring four of the newest machines, two people in Stern polo shirts and khakis, with a banner? I dunno, basic trade show/marketing if you ask me...

I SAW Gary Stern there once for the dinner, possibly he is there all the time, but a booth should be there too.
 
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Damn....that is really crappy news as I REALLY enjoyed my subscription. I was looking forward to sending in an article for my home arcade and all the silly amounts of effort I have put into it. Gameroom Magazine was just a nice way to 'verify' I was not crazy and there were other folks out there like myself doing the same thing. ;)

I have a handful of articles I'd be willing to write if somebody picks this up....

:(
 
Stern didn't "need" to advertise in Gameroom, he had one of his resellers (PinballSales?) do a full page on the back cover of I think just about every issue I have showing nice full color pictures of his games (not to mention the coverage/reviews that his new pins got in the articles, along with the pictures of his products in peoples gamerooms, etc) Ultimately he got plenty of free advertising from the mag. it really sucks that he didn't "want" to do it though, that he didn't want to give something back for the benefits he has gotten...
 
Doubt it.
No offense to him, but what purpose would his posting here serve. I suppose he could explain his decision to discontinue it, but I would guess it would only foster more bad feelings about the situation.
But we already know that the magazine is dead, and he is offering an alternative to issuing everyone who ordered a refund. What more needs to be said?

I just thought maybe for a bit of the backstory or a more personal story about the discontinuation. Frizz already posted a little bit of the backstory, though.
 
+1. A blog with really good editorial control could replace Gameroom mag. As someone else said, there's enough content on these forums to drive it; we just need someone to aggregate it, fix all the typos and push it out on WordPress or BlogSpot.

John

A blog could replace GameRoom? That simple? Let me know when you get that up and running...oh, and when it's successful.

I'm pretty sure Kevin's subscribers wanted something physical to hold in their hands as opposed to something on a blog. If it was that simple to retain subscribers w/out all the overhead, he would've done it already.
 
I gotta say, after the other thread about their clearence sale and a few in the thread pointing out that you couldn't renew subscriptions, I kinda had a thought that they didn't have much time left. Sorry to see it go. Great magazine.
 
I gotta say, after the other thread about their clearence sale and a few in the thread pointing out that you couldn't renew subscriptions, I kinda had a thought that they didn't have much time left. Sorry to see it go. Great magazine.

What sucks is I got an email from them right after it was posted you couldn't renew stating that it was a glitch and that the subscription link was working again. Since my subscription was up in Oct. I believed their BS and resubscribed for 2 years!:mad:
 
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