Kotaku
Like everywhere else in the world, Australian gaming mags are dying a slow, agonising and painful death. No swift guillotine action for them, oh no. With the yearly readership figures now in, it's grim reading:
Can't say I'm shedding too many tears. Most Aussie mags (aside from Hyper and PC Powerplay) rely/relied too heavily on regurgitated press releases, boring features and, if applicable, purile fanboy baiting, sometimes to the point of lifting entire series of articles from the American or European editions of their magazine. That worth paying money for? Nuh uh.
If you're getting news from the internet and you don't need a coverdisc for demos anymore, the only reason you're going to throw change on the counter for a magazine is if it's got quality editorial content (see Edge for reference). Screen Play's Jason Hill sums it up nicely:
Quality is the only attribute that can combat the internet juggernaut. Content lazily licensed from overseas publications or slapped together from a rag-tag band of underpaid freelancers is not going to help ensure our last few precious gaming mastheads survive.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
More paper cuts [Screen Play]
