Rate 4e Dragon Magazine
- Thread starter MerricB
- Start date
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
I agree with you. The lack of advertising is a huge thing that I don't think many people are comparing fairly with the print version.
Mind you some people enjoyed those ads, and some of the in-house stuff is now taken care of via the website (such as previews, etc...) but it's still a noticible bit.
One of the things that I think going web has hurt Dragon is in the funnies. The animated bits are enjoyable but I miss the actual comics they used to have and some of my favorites are already online so I don't see how they'd do Dragon and their own bits.
Imaro
Legend
You know I just pulled a sample of my Dragon print magazines down and their page count ranges from around 98 to 100+ pages, so I'm not sure the lack of advertising is really being used to give more bang for your buck. Now I could be wrong, since I didn't count how many of those extra 20+ pages were used for ads...but I don't think there's an increase in the amount of stuff in the PDF's.
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Man, when I'm defending Dragon/Dungeon, something is wrong...
How could it possibly not be more bang for the buck at the price of 0?
And for both mags it's going to be like $4.95 (or more depending on your subscription.)
Now mind you, I think that the fonts/layout/art etc... have eaten up a lot of material and word count I would suspect is much lower so on that front, I'll agree with you but on a page per page? No way. PDF has it all over the print. Heck, looking at Dragon 323, 28 pages, not counting the 16 page buyer guide.
Shroomy
Adventurer
You'd be surprised. The percentage of ads relative to content in your average magazine approaches 50% of the page count (if you look around it ranges from around 25% at the low end to around 60%). That said, I haven't really done an analysis to say one way or another, but they are probably comparable in content.
Imaro
Legend
Till we start factoring in full color printing costs and such. As for it being $0 that's about to be over and I was talking as far as actually paying for it.
So in 323 which is 130 pgs...minus 16 for the buyer guide...114 then subtract 28 for advertisements...is 86 pgs of real material.
Let's see in the PDF Dragon's we got the following...
#366 87 pgs
#365 80 pgs
#364 85 pgs... again don't see there not being advertisements making a difference??
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
I wasn't counting stuff like the interor reaer cover page (which would add 2 pages of ads), letters pages (which are not in the PDFs correct?), the half-page ads like those on 28-29 for Nodwick and Moorcock, etc...How about cartons that are missing? Something like 60+ pages if you count that so from 130 to 70 pages. Argue it out if you want to go on.
And if we're talking about WoTC printing cost, stop. Whole different conversation as that involves paper vs PDF. Heck, where do the animated cartoons fall? That's got to go against stuff like where people store the mags when they have them at home and I don't think anyone's going to be counting a bookshelves as part of the cost of the magazine right, utility of PDF in terms of search and print only what you need, etc... Mind you I prefer paper mags myself but they take up space and aren't as easy to use and suffer wear and tear and require replacement if they get damaged.
Imaro
Legend
Yeah, and I didn't count the rear cover page in the total so it's a null point. Now...really with the couple of half page ads well let's check the fonts on the two mags and I betcha this offsets most of that in favor of the print mags. As far as cartoons and letters...they're an enjoyable part of the magazine, not advertisements...so what is your point? I mean this isstarting to go into what "Joe likes" territory as opposed to comparing advertisement content vs. non-advertisement content.
Huh? I'm talking about my cost to print them out. You brought this line of reasoning up when you decided to compare prices as having to print it up is a factor of the digital price.
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
I agree with you on the font issue. I suspect that's because their trying to make it easier to read/use.
In terms of a page comparission, it should be pointed out. If there are no letters and cartoons in one, is it "fair" to compare it to the pages consumed on the print side? I'd say no. Now if we do see letters pages and toons latter on and they do take up space at the expense of other articles and the overall page count stays the same, I'll concede the point.
I must be missing something because I didn't mention anything on comparing prices with printing it out as the part of the digital price. I mentioned that if you go that route, then it becomes PDF vs paper which I didn't think my arguement was about. That's another conversation and if you want to fork away, fork away you must!
After all, I started with arguing against Dragon magazine being "thin".
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