D&D 5E How would you improve Dragon+, WotC's Online Magazine?

[Dire Bare]

I don't really remember what video it was, but for one of the Q&A for his magazine Arcadia, Matt Colville spoke on why a print magazine for his product is unfeasible, and even why WotC likely would never do one again too.

That said, I don't know why White Dwarf is profitable. That magazine has been running largely uninterrupted since the 1980s with a fairly dedicated readership, which would be unlike a D&D magazine which would have to start an audience from the ground up. They might be able to pull it off but I find it unlikely that WotC would try.

Can you link to or explain why a print version of Dragon Magazine isn't possible? Because I have near my desk a copy of White Dwarf and I'm wondering why WotC can't do it if GW can at $9 an issue.

Every article I've read on the topic of print media says that general interest magazines are losing subscribers and advertising but niche magazines (which is what Dragon Magazine would be) are doing very well. It's still a $22.9 billion industry.

White Dwarf is a very different beast from Dragon Magazine. Also, while clearly Games Workshop feels that continuing the magazine is worthwhile, for now, how much profit do they make on the magazine? Is it a loss leader? It wasn't all that long ago that GW was doing some pretty significant experiments with the format of WD, so things haven't been all roses all the time for their infamous house organ.

White Dwarf does do a pretty good job (currently) of showcasing the Warhammer hobby and does provide new gaming content, lore content, and advice content each month. But, while Warhammer certainly has a robust online fan community, it doesn't have a D&D Beyond or DMsGuild.com to support the game(s).

 

[Dire Bare]

That is my recollection as well (in fact people complained about on these forums). The usable content definitely went up. However, I do feel that more recently there have been more advertising-type promotional fluff pieces.

There's more D&D content to advertise now, both from WotC and from various licensed partners.

 

[Zaukrie]

I think the issue is that D&D Beyond has co-opted a lot of what Dragon (and Dragon+) did/was supposed to do.

Articles on advice for DMs and PCs?
Interviews and discussion about new rules and books?
Preview content?
Streaming D&D?

That's all on DnDB's front page, not WotC's.

It is true, D&D Beyond is a good replacement for some of what Dragon magazine did. The advice articles for DMs and PCs are quite good, especially for beginners.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

White Dwarf is a very different beast from Dragon Magazine. Also, while clearly Games Workshop feels that continuing the magazine is worthwhile, for now, how much profit do they make on the magazine? Is it a loss leader? It wasn't all that long ago that GW was doing some pretty significant experiments with the format of WD, so things haven't been all roses all the time for their infamous house organ.

White Dwarf does do a pretty good job (currently) of showcasing the Warhammer hobby and does provide new gaming content, lore content, and advice content each month. But, while Warhammer certainly has a robust online fan community, it doesn't have a D&D Beyond or DMsGuild.com to support the game(s).

Well, I wouldn't quite agree with the no online support... GW has actually made some apps for army building and painting, and their website https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-us/ is extremely well curated. They have 5 new articles up just for today, and they consistently push out two articles a day.

I'll add, this is all extremely new on the GW side. They used to have essentially no online support, no community outreach, nothing. But this new approach has been extremely successful for them, and I think could be a good model for D&D to emulate (though not 100% replicate).

 

[Stormonu]

Another thing to note is that White Dwarf, to my knowledge, has never been out of print and probably has subscribers all the way back to the 80s and 90s. Dungeon and Dragon were subletted to Paizo, who when the physical magazine ended Paizo was able to leverage those subscribers to their product. Essentially, WotC let go of the readership and lost all of their subscribers at the time. If WotC were to revive a print magazine, they would have to start their readership from scratch, building up a following before it would be profitable.

Also, for several years White Dwarf content atrophied, until it was little more than a GW miniatures/game catalog that they convinced folks to buy, rather than give out for free. Somewhat ingenious, get your customers to buy the catalog. Though lately I have heard they have gone back to adding in new content these days.

 

[Dire Bare]

Well, I wouldn't quite agree with the no online support... GW has actually made some apps for army building and painting, and their website https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-us/ is extremely well curated. They have 5 new articles up just for today, and they consistently push out two articles a day.

I'll add, this is all extremely new on the GW side. They used to have essentially no online support, no community outreach, nothing. But this new approach has been extremely successful for them, and I think could be a good model for D&D to emulate (though not 100% replicate).

Oh, I agree that GW has made massive improvements over the past few years. The Warhammer Community site is pretty cool, but it's not a community-driven site like the DMsGuild (neither is D&DBeyond, of course). And the Warhammer Community site, like White Dwarf, is mostly advertising with some content thrown in. I'm currently irritated with the available apps, they suck, but they are the best apps GW has ever put out and they are constantly improving them. Maybe they won't suck sometime soon . . . .

I don't mean to say we shouldn't compare GW to WotC, or White Dwarf to Dragon . . . there certainly are a lot of similarities in the companies, games, and communities . . . . but also lots of differences, so it's hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison, IMO.

 

[robus]

I hate the app format (and I’m an app developer!), navigation is abysmal. Just give me a damn PDF and let me read in peace. (oh and include some content worth my time )

 

[Rob Kuntz]

My recollection is that the opposite is true. When it launched it was very much just a promotional fluff piece, but over time it came to have more useful content.

In that case where does it stand now @Morrus ?

 

[Morrus]

In that case where does it stand now @Morrus ?

I haven’t read an issue in a long time, I’m afraid. I couldn’t say!

 

[ART!]

Semi-random thought: IF they did want to do a print mag again, they could include a sample one in every new boxed set they come out with (as well as instructions on how to subscribe), just so more people know it exists.