Krause Publications just issued the following news:
F+W Announces Closure of Comics Buyer's Guide
January 9, 2013 – Krause Publications, a division of F+W Media, Inc., announced today the closure of Comics Buyer's Guide effective with the March 2013 issue. The Company cited general poor market conditions and forces working against the title’s sustainability including the downturn in print advertising and the proliferation of free content available online for this highly specialized industry.
“We continuously evaluate our portfolio and analyze our content strategy to determine how well we are meeting consumer and Company goals,” said David Blansfield, President. ”We take into consideration the marketplace we serve and the opportunities available for each of our magazine titles. After much analysis and deliberation, we have determined to cease publication of Comics Buyer’s Guide.”
Current subscribers to the magazine will receive a one-for-one conversion to CBG sister publication Antique Trader: a biweekly that has served the antiques and collectibles community since 1957. The www.CBGXtra.com site and its Facebook page will exist as an archived resource administered by Antique Trader.
F+W Media, Inc., the leading enthusiast media Company, serves more than 20 niche consumer and B-to-B communities through its vast portfolio of events, ecommerce, online education, ebooks, emags, print media and more. www.fwmedia.com
I'll no doubt publish here in the CapCom Forum the final two columns (the one that appeared in CBG #1699 and the one I'd written for #1700) in the near future, assuming the CBG website is also being shut down. Those will probably be the final two columns for Ask Mr. Silver Age.
I've been in every issue for almost 10 years and in many of those in the previous 11 years. It was a heckuva lot of fun! I
-- MSA
Replies
Wow. I've been a subscriber since ... 1983? 1982, maybe?
I have to admit, though, that I never enjoyed the monthly magazine format a tenth as much as the weekly newspaper.
It would be a colossal understatement to say that I'm "not pleased" at the notion that my CBG subscription will be converted into a subscription to Antique Trader rather than ... oh, say, just giving me my darn money back. While I'm sure it's a fine magazine, it would be both physically and metaphysically impossible for me to be any less interested in having a subscription to it.
What Doc said.
This shocks me, although it is not completely unexpected.
And I just re-upped for another 3 years.
I just got booted out of my Newsweek subscription after 35 years, but at least they're continuing online. But online, I'm not sure I need to pay to get what Newsweek can give me.
These days, I don't think I'd buy any magazines subscription for more than a year, unless they're giving a refund when requested.
-- MSA
Dang! I subscribed to this publication for over 20 years! I have had several letters printed in there and I've been quoted a few times. But more than anything, it gave me my weekly (then monthly) fix of comics! Trends, analysis, thoughts and ideas flowed freely. It was like visiting a local shop that stretched across the globe. I'll miss it dearly!
Would you believe I used to write for CBG, back in the day?
Don't worry, Mr. S.A., you'll always have a home here....for your columns...and other stuff...
Very sad news. I got into CBG fairly late (2001) as opposed to others here. I did enjoy the newspaper but liked the monthly as well. But one could not help but notice its shrinking page count.
I will miss it as I do Wizard, Toyfare and, of course, Amazing Heroes.
My wife and I used old copies of CBG to pack our dishes when moving in 1987...and it turned out to be a mistake. The ink had not soaked into the newsprint, and so our hands had turned blackened by crumpling the handling the newspaper. Go figure!
Amazing Heroes was a great fan magazine. I still have all my issues, which is nearly a complete run. The combination of news, interviews and articles on old comics was a nice blend.
That was back in the days when there weren't many other ways to get information besides magazines, so it was always fun. I also really enjoyed The Comic Reader. Don Rosa's Information Center was a big influence on me.
Kirk, when were you writing for CBG? A lot of people on Facebook have been popping up to say they wrote some articles, and considering the size of some of the weekly issues and the 40-year history, that's not surprising.
-- MSA
Having been a Comics Buyer's Guide reader since issue 700(!), it is with heavy heart that I took the news of CBG's cancellation. I presume March will at least allow the magazine to go out with issue 1700? Or will it be (NCC) 1701?
In any event, between being taking over by the current owners, the switch in formats, doing away with the forums on the CBG website (shouldn't those "technical problems" have been fixed long before now?) and the ever dwindling page count, it just wasn't my CBG. Do you folks know what I mean?
I hope everyone who is/was working for the magazine goes on to "greener pastures" and better things. (Could some of them wind up here?)
But the Comics Buyer's Guide (especially the way it was) will be sorely missed!
I was a CBG subscriber from issue #1 (it just showed up in my mailbox unsolicited; paid subs didn't happen until much later), lost enthusiasm when it switched to the monthly magazine format, and finally let my sub lapse when the page count started dropping. To me the weekly frequency was an essential element of CBG. I had a long-running tradition of spending my Friday lunch hour reading the new CBG. When it changed formats my time spent with it dropped from an hour a week to maybe half an hour a month.
I've still got boxes of many of the early issues packed away somewhere in the basement. I'll have to dig them out and treat myself to a time capsule of the comics collecting hobby.
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