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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnnyWilson" data-source="post: 286526" data-attributes="member: 6387">Corrections and ObservationsAs the president of Paizo Publishing, the new publishing company for Dragon and Dungeon, I wanted to clarify some misinformation about WotC periodicals and to offer some research that speaks to one of the issues on this thread, but must be considered with a view toward my personal bias (after all, advertising in Dungeon and Dragon is one of the important revenue streams that keeps my company alive and my family fed).First, allow me to correct some misinformation. A former advertising agency employee stated on these boards that WotC was charged for ads in Dragon and Dungeon. When I arrived in mid-1999, there was an internal charge for advertising. However, this was the height of the Pokemon sales peak and the magazines were considered to be marketing vehicles. So, I said it was stupid to double-charge the brand teams and I removed ALL charges from late 1999 until the beginning of this fiscal year. Why did I start charging again? My ground rules had changed and I was no longer a "marketing vehicle," I was now expected to manage a profit-making (or, minimally, cost neutral) product. So, we charged WotC the bare minimum cost of a page to reflect our new charter. Since part of the agenda for the person posting was to discourage WotC from advertising in Dragon and Dungeon because it still cost them and they were preaching to the choir, I thought I should clarify that from Fall of 1999 until the end of 2001, those WotC ads were absorbed in the expense of creating the magazines and were FREE to the brand teams.Another person posted about remnant ads. Remnant ads are when an advertising salesperson who hasn't met his or her quota decides to offer pages at absolutely absurd money-losing rates in order to tell their bosses that they met the number of pages. I regret to say that because I only received minimal accounting information when I was group publisher at WotC that I did not realize my advertising director was offering $300 pages. As for my losing the ad or running the wrong ad three different times for the posting person's company, I am afraid that this is an embarrassing truth. I was attempting to run the magazines, start the new company and sell advertising all at the same time.Also, I will affirm that Osseum can get you the best rates possible for Dragon and Dungeon. Why? Simply because they can place so many ads at such a frequency that they pre-negotiated a rate before any other ad rep or agency was interested. Finally, the research that I believe is significant. First of all, even though I have a biased reason for sharing it, let me admit that it isn't research from my readers. It is research from the computer game industry. There was a time when advertising agencies were telling entertainment software companies to QUIT advertising in Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer and Computer Games Strategy Plus because they were "preaching to the choir." Here is what the actual computer game customers had to say about the importance of publishers advertising their products in those magazines:If a software publisher advertises their game in a gaming publication, it means...They are committed to it (43%)They are confident about it (30%)Indicating that it is probably of high quality (5%)In short, 78% of those surveyed indicated that advertising indicated something positive about quality.Of course, the flip side is:They are just trying to sell a poor product (9%).The rest were no responses. AND, before we have the usual "baffle 'em with questions" stuff from the experts, let me say that this was a PROJECTABLE survey built off the Polk data base, as well as fielded, tabulated and analyzed by an independent (non-magazine publishing) company specializing in consumer research. Further, the same study (one year earlier) had a group of respondents that stated that advertisements in general computer magazines (56%) and advertisements in computer game magazines (56%) were more instrumental that advertisements in general interest magazines (30%) or advertisements online (37%).Finally, my personal biased opinion: Plenty of ads = an assurance to consumers that the hobby is vibrant. Assurance that hobby is vibrant = a confidence that the consumer will not be stuck with useless hobby junk (ie. dead game systems and unplayed modules). Consumer confidence = more $ spent. More $ spent = more $ for publishers to spend on ads. Spiral continues upward.Less ads = question to consumers whether the hobby is vibrant. Questions and confusion = less confidence. Less confidence = less $ spent. Less $ spent = less $ for publishers to spend on ads. Spiral continues downward.Obviously an oversimplification, BUT it is the way I look at expenditures in other areas as a consumer (movie attendance or video/DVD purchases, book purchases, and collectibles). I don't want to get stuck with the equivalent of my son's baseball card collection in the hobby world. Again, we're not talking about the core of the core gamers. Some of us buy games that we know are going to die and that we know we'll never play. I'm talking about the fringe gamers who can make or break the profitability of our hobby.</blockquote>

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