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ÌÉ        ALL MAGS ARE ALIKE!
Ê------------------------------------
ËÉby ÊThe Q/Power House

ÉAre there too many diskmags?

ÈThe  simple  answer to this question
has  got to be ....  YES!  There are
now  at  least  30  disk mags on the
scene   from  different  crews,  all
covering the same basic topics.

I'm  not saying that disk mags are a
bad thing, in fact I'm the editor of
one  myself,  but  having so many is
damaging  to the higher quality mags
around.   The sceneÉ NEEDSÈ disk mags,
but  not  a  mag  from every crew in
existence!

ÉTHE MAGS LOOK THE SAME
Ê----------------------
ÈThe  main  problem with the majority
of  disk  mags  is  that if you look
beyond the presentation and the menu
system,  they  are ALL basically the
same.    They   all   feature  party
reports,  news  (if  you  can really
call it that - it's merely a list of
who's  in what crew for the month!),
tasteless   jokes,   some   software
reviews,   interviews   (which   are
usually  nothing  more than "What is
your      favourite      food/drink/
coder/musician/demo/disk   mag"  and
other  pointless  questions),  party
reports  (mainly of interest only to
those   who  went!)  and  the  scene
reports  which  are little more than
glorified  lists  of  what crews are
active in a particular country.

Not very inspiring is it?  Okay, you
do  get non-Amiga articles, but they
shouldn't  really  appear  in  scene
mags  anyway!   There are exceptions
to  this,  but  ultimately the scene
consists  of  about 30 mags with the
above contents.

ÉTHE BEST MAGS
Ê-------------
ÈObviously,  the "Big" magazines like
ÉZINE,   ICE,   RAW,   STOLEN   DATA,
GRAPEVINEÈ  and  a few others need to
stay  around  as  they  have  always
managed to offer a good selection of
articles  both  about  the scene and
non-Amiga   stuff,   but  ultimately
there are too many!

ÉWRITE FOR THE BIG MAGS!
Ê-----------------------
ÈI  would  urge  anyone  thinking  of
creating  a disk mag to think again.
It  would be far better for everyone
concerned   if   you  wrote  for  an
existing  mag instead.  Don't try to
make  your  crew more famous than it
is  by  creating  a  crap  disk mag.
It's a well known fact that many new
or  relatively  unknown crews launch
disk  mags  in  order to become more
popular.    It  may  help  lift  the
crew's  image,  but  it does no good
for the scene whatsoever.  You would
better  help the scene if you worked
on  someone else's disk mag, leaving
them  with  all  the  hard  work  of
editing  and producing it!  Think of
it  this  way;  disk mag editors are
ÉALWAYSÈ in need of articles and other
contributions and in most cases will
use  material  from whoever sends it
in.   With more writers, the mag has
more  variety  and  is, therefore, a
better mag all round.

Recently,  while looking through the
news section in Grapevine, I noticed
that  there  were ÉAT LEASTÈ five more
crews  starting their own mags.  Now
if  you  are being realistic, you've
got  to  admit that this is starting
to  get out of hand!  If just two or
three  crews  decide to launch a mag
every  month,  that  will  mean that
there  will  be at Éleast 20 new disk
mags being released EVERY year!!È

ÉMERGE
Ê-----
ÈIf    you    already    produce    a
lesser-known  mag,  why  not  get in
touch  with  the  editor  of another
smaller  mag  and É mergeÈ  with them?
The  benefits  are obvious - one mag
is created with the combined writing
and  editorial  staff  of  two mags,
there  is one less mag on the scene,
the  mag  will  be  better known and
will have the readers of the old two
mags and finally the mag itself will
be  better  because  there  will  be
extra  writers  working  on  it.  If
just  half  of  the disk mag editors
out  there  decided  to merge with a
rival  mag, the scene would be a lot
brighter  for  all of us.  If any of
you  want to do this, I'm willing to
help out any mags who write to me at
the  address  at  the  end  of  this
article.



ÉBE ORIGINAL
Ê-----------
ÈHowever,  if  you insist on creating
your  own  mag,  then why not try to
create  something  ORIGINAL?  A disk
mag  doesn't  have  to  be about the
scene  to be a success.  There are a
growing number of disk mags that are
taking  on  board  new  subjects  to
cover.   These  mags  are often more
interesting  to read as they contain
all  new  material  and fresh ideas.
Why  not  give  it  a  try.  So far,
there  have been a few people to try
this   including  the  fiction  mag,
SCENE  LYRICS,  Bjorn  Lynne's music
mag  AM/FM and my Star Trek disk mag
     Ê                 < Flip Page>
ÿ