Pathfinder 1E Paizo: What the Heck? (Amazing and Undefeated???)

[shady]

It looks like Paizo have more problems than just Amazing and Undefeated - basically theres loads of Subscribers to Dungeon/Dragon magazine in Europe who have not had any magazines in months. Theres many angry customers (including myself) on the forums trying to find out what is happening... not good PR for the company really.

While this is very annoying, I wouldn't read anything into it from the point of view of Paizo's fortunes. I have had at work corporate subscriptions to stuff like Wired, Business2.0 etc., and they typically last about 4 months before the publisher decides to stop honouring them. It seems to be typical (or not unusual) of American magazines so I always buy stuff at newsagents (or in this case the FLGS).

 

[amaterasu]

Collective thread for Paizo problems

I have started a new thread to collect all problems with Paizo to organize an united approach to solve these: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1948649#post1948649.

 

[Samothdm]

Your list of answers bypasses one of the most important reasons. Subscriptions mean guaranteed future circulation. And advertising, which is usually sold in multi-issue contracts, depends heavily on the ability to guarantee readers for those issues.

This is true, but it's not a clear-cut black-and-white issue as to which is better: subscriptions or newsstand circulation (from an advertiser's perspective).

A newsstand purchase is usually considered more of an impulse buy, so the thinking is that you know the person who just bought that particular issue is going to read it and therefore be exposed to the advertising. The person also pays full price for the magazine, so there's a greater chance that he/she will read it.

A subscriber, on the other hand, while cosidered a "loyal" reader (because he obviously paid for the subscription, unless it was a gift), tends to be a little more lax about reading a particular issue right away, and advertisers sometimes worry a little more about subscribers being exposed to the advertising because if that particular issue's cover doesn't grab the attention of the subscriber, they might not read it. For those of you who only pick up magazines on the newsstand based on what the cover says is in it, think about whether you would read all of the issues if you subscribed. Probably not. But, those people are all counted as part of the magazine's audience.

So, it's a little tricky.

There could be lots of things involved. They mention that it was "unexpectedly successful" which could indicate that they just don't have the man-power to print and distribute as many issue per month as they need. If they all of the sudden got triple the number of readers than they had expected, that would increase their printing costs, and would also affect how much they are able to charge advertisers.

But, who knows? Sounds like there just isn't enough information to figure out what's going on.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

I was finally able to pick up an issue of Amazing last week, and it's a damned shame if they're canning it, because I found it to be pretty enjoyable.

I've never seen Undefeated anywhere. Ever.

 

[Drakos_Bloodscale]

While I am definitely bummed, I don't want to totally dismiss what the editor is saying out of hand. I'm sure that he's putting a happy spin on whatever's going on, but it is possible for too much success to hurt a publisher. If demand for a magazine outstrips their capability to supply it, they have to either spend a lot more money to get their supply up on short notice or admit that they're sold out and some people who want their stuff can't get it -- both of which hurt the magazine.

I also know that it's been really tough to find Amazing on magazine racks, and that almost all the sales of the magazine have come from people signing up with subscriptions. This'd seem wonderful, but if I'm remembering a talk at WorldCon correctly, most magazine publishers would rather that people buy a magazine every month off the rack instead of signing up for a subscription, because they make more money off the rack. If they have a special introductory deal (which they did, I think) on their subscriptions, and a lot of people signed up, and that's the only money coming in because they had trouble getting on magazine racks, then it's possible that the success of having a ton of people sign up for subscriptions ended up making Paizo take a loss.

Sorry if I'm not saying that well. I know just enough economics to know that I don't understand economics, but that was what I heard at the convention from a bunch of magazine publishers -- "We ended up going out of business because so many people who bought us off the rack subscribed... and stopped buying us off the rack." That may have something to do with it.

Or, possibly, Tacky's mystic curse strikes again, and publishing my fiction has caused the magazine to fold... :\

I doubt highly that it's your fiction. It's probably like you said. Less income from subscriptions. That's what has caused plenty of magazine publishers to belly up. It could also be that they have another BIG project on the books and haven't quite gotten all the funding for it, hence the miniature ads. They get a cut for advertising in their magazines. Since there are more subscriptions being gotten than rack magazines purchased they had to resort to it.

 

[grankless]

I doubt highly that it's your fiction. It's probably like you said. Less income from subscriptions. That's what has caused plenty of magazine publishers to belly up. It could also be that they have another BIG project on the books and haven't quite gotten all the funding for it, hence the miniature ads. They get a cut for advertising in their magazines. Since there are more subscriptions being gotten than rack magazines purchased they had to resort to it.

This thread is almost 20 years old. They did end up with a big project, it's called "Pathfinder" and "Starfinder". They don't even have magazines anymore.

 

[GreyLord]

This thread is almost 20 years old. They did end up with a big project, it's called "Pathfinder" and "Starfinder". They don't even have magazines anymore.

Magazine, PF or SF AP, basically very similar things.

"They are periodical publication containing articles and illustrations generally covering a subject or area of interest."

They are magazines in all but name. They even are numbered in ascending order!

The articles in the back of the adventure used to be more abundant (and had small fiction for a time as well), but it still is there to a smaller degree.

I see it more as a natural progression from Dragon Magazine, to Dragon Magazine's APs (Shackled City, Age of Worms, Savage Tide), to the Pathfinder APs.

Now talking about it...Wish more of their APs would come out in a consolidated Hardback form (like Shackled City, Rise of the Runelords, Crimson Throne, Kingmaker).

On that note, I wonder what my Shackled City Hardback is going for these days...

Woah...on ebay it looks like a pretty penny...which means when I die my kids will probably sell it at a yard sale for 50 cents. When I die hopefully everyone here gets to figure out where the yard sale is because it will be huge with stuff for REALLY cheap prices most likely.

 

[Davies]

Now talking about it...Wish more of their APs would come out in a consolidated Hardback form (like Shackled City, Rise of the Runelords, Crimson Throne, Kingmaker).

As you wish, so be it.

In the last year, two compiled versions of shorter 2e adventure paths, Abomination Vaults and Fists of the Ruby Phoenix have been released. I think there's an excellent chance that Quest for the Frozen Flame, Outlaws of Alkenstar and Gatewalkers will get this treatment eventually.

At the same time, the first compiled Starfinder Adventure Path, Dead Suns came out last year.

 

[GreyLord]

As you wish, so be it.

In the last year, two compiled versions of shorter 2e adventure paths, Abomination Vaults and Fists of the Ruby Phoenix have been released. I think there's an excellent chance that Quest for the Frozen Flame, Outlaws of Alkenstar and Gatewalkers will get this treatment eventually.

At the same time, the first compiled Starfinder Adventure Path, Dead Suns came out last year.

I picked up Abomination Vaults (also Crown of the Kobold King which technically isn't an AP...but did have some modules connected). Hadn't heard of Fists of the Ruby Phoenix, I'll have to look that up.

 

[Davies]

And this is just speculation, but, given how well the Wrath of the Righteous crpg is doing, I would be surprised if, once Paizo decides how it wants to update the mythic rules, they did not publish a compiled and updated version of that AP as well. Could happen sometime in 2024, if all goes well.