Tech & Biz

PC Magazine ends print magazine after 26 years

by Jason Sanders | November 19, 2008 at 12:03 pm

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Ziff Davis' premier PC magazine, um, PC Magazine just ended its 26 year print run in the real world, and has gone digital. The latest victim of the rising distribution and raw material costs, and falling economy, PC Mag is cutting seven jobs as they transfer to a pure play model in December. The last dead tree copy will come out in December, as the January 2009 edition.

On the online side, he wouldn’t disclose the revenues for the PCMag brand, but said it was in “tens and tens of millions” of dollars. He said the revenues on the online side have grown an average of 42 percent yearly since 2001; digital is about 70 percent of the revenues for the PCMag brand, and overall is profitable. He said that despite the economic situation, the PCMag brand revenues grew about 18 percent in Q308, and thinks that it will hold up despite advertising downturn due to the power of the brand. Of course competition is heavy for those shrinking ad dollars, from everyone including other established brands like CNET, to newer ones like Engadget and others.

As for the status of its gaming group, which consists of its 1Up online brand and other gaming sites and EGM print magazine (the only print book left within Ziff Davis), Young said it is considering strategic options for the division. Same is true for its now shuttered DigitalLife consumer tech expo event. The company has tried to sell the gaming division before as well but was not able to find the right buyer then, our sources say.

Update: PCMag will continue to be published as an electronic/digital edition, as editor Lance Ulanoff explains here.