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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zaruthustran" data-source="post: 4037861" data-attributes="member: 1457">I don't think there's any big idea behind the shutdown of the print magazines other than simple dollars and cents. WotC felt they could make more money by putting that content online, than by putting it in a magazine. Makes sense to me. Say Dragon prints 100,000 copies of any issue, and sends it out to stores and subscribers (note: made-up figure). Any content produced in that magazine could be seen by 100,000 people, max. Sure, a few could share copies or whatnot, but realistically the max is about 100,000 people: one person for every copy of the magazine. Even if every single copy is bought and read cover to cover, it's just 100,000.Compare to the Internet, where the max potential audience is: every English-speaking person who is connected to the Internet. And hey, if it turns out 200,000 people want that content, no problem--they can have it. No need for a costly new print run. Just go to the site. And if it turns out only 10,000 people want that content, no big deal. It's not like you just wasted money printing and shipping 90,000 unsold physical copies.If the purpose of that content is to stimulate discussion & play of D&D (and generate sales for D&D books), then online is simply better. There's no comparison. Even if the site makes zero direct income and operates entirely in the red, it's still better than the small positive income from magazine sales because WotC can consider the whole thing a marketing expense; I bet the positive income from increased book sales will far overcome the costs of the site, and far exceed the print income. I imagine this is what they want:Player: "Hey, Bob User at Enworld is talking about trolls and linked to a new Ecology article on dragon online. Click. Huh, interesting. Hey, a banner ad for WotC's new book. Click. Ooo, the description of this books sounds cool, I'm going to buy it. Click. Yay it'll be at my house tomorrow."If you're reading that same article on a printed page, in a magazine, while in the bathroom, and see that same ad in the margin, well--so what? You can't click on it. There's no potential of WotC generating a sale from that ad 30 seconds after you see it. Sure, you may vaguely remember that ad two weeks later when you're in the bookstore, but... not likely. Anyway, I've heard complaints about the shutdown and all kinds of conspiracy theories, but it seems like a fairly straightforward business decision to me. -z</blockquote>

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