Yesterday afternoon my parents mailed me my copy of the latest issue of Nintendo Power, which is a magazine dedicated to bringing the latest news on everything Nintendo, the largest video game company in the world. I've been reading NP for 12 years now, and it's substantially different now than it was then. When I first read this magazine, it had many different creative and interesting sections. There were previews, guides, hints, activity sections, contests, an advice column (for gamers), letters to the editors, polls, and more. The pages themselves often had artsy backgrounds and trivia bits on the side, and each issue had a bonus such as a poster, a demo DVD, or a soundtrack. There were around ten pages of advertisements in each issue, and eight or nine of them were video game-related. The magazine was fun and wonderful, and when I was younger, I looked forward to reading every issue I got. A decade ago, the editors loved their job, worked hard at it, and cared about their readers.
Saying that the editors are now uncaring and greedy may be going too far; however, the magazine has undoubtedly declined in quality in favor of saving time, reducing work, and especially cutting costs in its production. The guides, hints, advice column, activities, and contests are all gone, the other sections are stripped down, and the artsy touches such as the page backgrounds and trivia are replaced by solid colors and empty margins. Posters only come once every 3 or 4 issues, and any other bonus is virtually nonexistent. The worst of it is the previews, which have essentially become extended advertisements for upcoming games. They made up around 15% of the magazine when I started reading it; they now comprise roughly 75% of it. Even though I don't play games as much now, I presently find myself wanting to buy Nintendo's products more often than I did as a child. Though I'd like to believe it's because the games are better, I know it's because the previews are trying to make every game look as appealing as possible with fancy descriptions and shiny screenshots.
Nintendo Power is still a good magazine, but it's become so cheaply produced and so infused with advertisements that it's easy to see that making and saving money is a much larger part of the editors' tasks than it was a decade ago. This is likely true for all magazine editors, but it's still not a pleasant thought. What happens when magazine editors (such as those at NP) need a pay raise again? How many more corners can be cut in a magazine's production? Is there anything readers can do to fight these changes?
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