Part of the hobby died the day Dragon and Dungeon magazines ended their print run. It was a ubiquitous element of D&D for decades, it was something that could be found on magazine racks in places beyond the FLGS, it was also very often where people got their first start in RPG writing (like me!) and it served to find and nurture new talent.
To a large extent we no longer have that. I'm not angry, but there was something lost when they went away.
Mind you, they didn't truly go away completely. We still have the online versions, but the content has dropped rather heavily since they went online till now, and it really doesn't seem to serve the same niches that the printed Dragon and Dungeon did. They're more like the free online articles that appeared in 3e with a bit extra work put into it, more art, etc. But they really don't operate in the same sense that they did as proper print magazines, and it's a shame.
Now I do think they could reclaim some of that niche (though indeed, being online only some of that is lost by virtue of the medium) by trying to become more of the farm system for talent they used to be. But being behind a paywall really, really hurts that since much of the former audience might not ever see it. You can't read a copy on the rack and then buy it like before, you can't borrow a copy from a friend and later get an issue or two, or even a subscription. If they moved to a pay-per-article model you might see more talk about certain pieces, I'm not sure, but I suspect it.
There used to be threads here and elsewhere about each month's issue back when it was in print. Now there's a deafening silence, even on the WotC forums for the most part.
I was lucky enough to get into both magazines when they were in print, and that got me opportunities later on elsewhere with Paizo and others, and earlier this year I had a piece in the e-zine too. I still pay attention to them, and I just pitched several things (and I encourage others to do so as well), but I really lament having that tangible magazine. PDFs have utility, and I love them for quick reference versus physical books, but as a replacement for the magazines it's not the same.
I suppose it's a pipe dream to see them come back into print. However there's also Kobold Quarterly which serves as something of a spiritual successor, since it's still in print, and it covers multiple editions/systems as well. We lost the print versions, and we've gained a number of things in the fallout, but I still miss the magazines in the mail each month.
