WotC, really? No...really? You can't maintain a publishing schedule?

[delericho]

Please, WotC....if you're going to make these magazines...at least do a good job with them.

Agreed.

IMO, what Wizards should have done with the magazines when they moved them online was to continue producing them in exactly the same manner as in print, just in an electronic format. This would mean setting a fixed release date each month, and providing all of the content for the month on that date. It would mean accepting submissions from anyone who wished to submit, and not restricting it to the chosen few. Hell, they should even have maintained "Prison Mail" (or an equivalent), guaranteeing at least some regular feedback from the designers to the community!

(They also should have put in place dedicated staff, whose only job was to ensure that the magazines were available on time, were properly edited, and were, in short, a top-quality product. Just before they went online, both Dragon and Dungeon were regarded extremely highly, and in something of a "Silver Age". eDragon and eDungeon should have at least matched that quality. Again, IMO.)

However...

All of the above is just my opinion, and of course WotC were free to do whatever they wish with the magazines that they own. The only real question is this: is what they are offering now enough for DDI subscribers to maintain their subscription? (And, given that I'm not now, nor will I ever be, a DDI subscriber, I really have no opinion on that matter. )

I would be very wary, though. It's a very short step from "unfixed deadlines within the calendar month" to "oh, we had more important things to deal with, so this article will be late". I will be surprised if we get to the end of the year without at least one, and probably several, articles failing to appear in the month they are promised.

 

[El Mahdi]

...I think this says it all since the articles must be taking a back-seat to something else and cannot get started in time to have them ready and edited to make a proper deadline.

Not getting into the discussion of how WotC should or shouldn't produce their magazines, but I think shadzar has hit the bullseye here.

With changes/deletions to their publishing schedule of upcoming products, and now this statement, I think it's now undeniable that something is going on at WotC. I don't know what that something is. I could speculate and conjecture, but I'll leave that to the rest of the internet.

But I think it's now certain that something is afoot.

 

[knifie_sp00nie]

So no one read far enough to hear that WotC is folding the magazine content into their full content-vetting process? That means it gets the same attention as a full book. Find the link yourselves.

Also, my understanding is that WotC chose not to renew the magazine license with Paizo after it expired. Revoked is a pretty loaded term.

But don't let things like details keep the sky from falling.

 

[Nagol]

So no one read far enough to hear that WotC is folding the magazine content into their full content-vetting process? That means it gets the same attention as a full book. Find the link yourselves.

Also, my understanding is that WotC chose not to renew the magazine license with Paizo after it expired. Revoked is a pretty loaded term.

But don't let things like details keep the sky from falling.

Isn't that pretty much what they said in 2008?

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[delericho]

So no one read far enough to hear that WotC is folding the magazine content into their full content-vetting process? That means it gets the same attention as a full book.

Great! Presumably, then, they won't need to issue corrections for the contents of the articles after they have been published? Oh, wait...

Also, my understanding is that WotC chose not to renew the magazine license with Paizo after it expired. Revoked is a pretty loaded term.

You are, however, exactly right about this. It's fairly silly to be bitter about something that was just a business decision made for business reasons. (Especially since, in fact, WotC actually granted Paizo a short extension to the license to finish out the "Savage Tide" Adventure Path!)

 

[Pour]

I know this won't go over big, I'm wondering if those products taken off the catalog aren't now being parsed and disseminated between Dungeon and Dragon magazines as part of a new initiative of quality and content. I mean it would probably help with the vetting delays, too, using what parts of these books are done firstly.

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium is basically a year's worth of Dragon articles, the best of which can then be put in an annual for publication. Same for Champions of the Heroic Tier and Heroes of Sword and Spell. The Nentir Gazeteer is perfect for Dungeon, also possible for annual publication and the seeds of untold amounts of adventures. Not to say all of the magazine's content would come from these books, but I wouldn't mind seeing them in there.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Since they've laid off so many people in the last few years, they are probably too understaffed to maintain any kind of schedule.

Newsrooms across the world can maintain regular schedules with fewer writers than WotC has at its disposal, including papers as small as one person.

It's not a manpower issue.

 

[JoeGKushner]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjMfQG4DejQ]YouTube - Roy Orbison - It's Over[/ame]

 

[Erik Mona]

Wait. If they were print magazines, we'd get a compiled issue at the end of each month. We still get that right now - the only issue is with the scheduling of individual articles throughout the month, something that is essentially a benefit over the previous approach.

I just happened to read Bill's latest Ampersand column (posted today) because of the news that they are no longer going to produce painted minis sets (one of the things I still regularly buy from WotC) beyond special collector sets, and noticed the text below:

"Finally, I wanted to let you know that we’re making a change to the way we handle D&D Insider content. Subscriber data informs us that the vast majority of you consume our articles individually, when they are posted, as opposed to downloading the monthly compilations. So, starting this month, we’re just providing the articles. There won’t be any more monthly downloadable compilations. This is not a reduction in content, just a clarification of presentation and putting the emphasis where the majority of you are using it. Corrections and updates to articles which used to appear only in the compilations will now be made to the individual articles a few weeks after the original posting."

Here's a direct link to the column in question.

So it looks like the monthly compilations are done, too. I wonder if that means that they're moving away from the idea of the collected content being "issues" of the magazines, which would indeed be a bit of a milestone. I'm not an Insider subscriber, though, and I'm no expert on the electronic versions of the magazines. It's possible that Bill is referring to non-magazine Insider articles or something, but it seemed germane to this topic.

--Erik

 

[Aberzanzorax]

First, thanks to Shadzar who remembered Wolfstar's name...he was another very invested newsguide at that time (and may still be, but I don't know).

Second...they're dropping the compilations? Perhaps some customers did not use these, but I myself did. I used them exclusively.


Third, and a bit more history:

When the magazines originally came out it became VERY clear that the articles were being published very shortly after being received. Often times articles would be cancelled last minute, postponed by a month, or, most frequently, the articles would all come out in a big clump toward the end of the week or month (presumably when the editors said "give it to us now or forget it"). That last bit was the impression most of the forums had at the time when discussing it.

In my opinion, a real magazine has their articles in hand (perhaps with a bit of development or editing to do) before releasing the table of contents of that magazine. WotC's ezine used to (and I fear will soon again) be a "what have we got to publish today?....oh, the article is late...well tomorrow then."

This is not how a professional publication is run. It is not even how my high school newspaper and website was run.


I'll also add in response to "it's the tools you pay for, the rest is gravy" two retorts:

1. Remember release of 4e? THERE WERE NO TOOLS...only the magazines. That, and the spin they had was that the magazines were going to be as vibrant and awesome (or was it "cool"?) as they'd always been.

2. Long ago, when the magazines took over, they'd released at least two, maybe more, statements saying that in addition to the magazines there would be a robust free section for those who wanted to enjoy the game, explore WotC's offerings etc. Now it seems that, once again, there are far and few free items, and the magazines are again becoming far less than what most people would dare to define as a magazine...and even an ezine.