So Long To Scrye

By John Freeman on February 2, 2009

More bad news in the niche magazine market with word via ICv2 that F&W Media has decided to end publication of Scrye magazine with its April 2009 issue (#131).

Founded back in 1993, Scrye is the longest running periodical reporting on the collectible game market. As with other niche magazines that have folded of late, the rising cost of producing the magazine along with declining subscriber and advertising bases cited as reasons by current Scrye editor Joyce Greenholdt for shutting down the magazine.

Scrye is not the first game-related publication that F&W has shuttered, having closed down the Comics & Games Retailer trade magazine way back in 2007.

ICV2 comments: “the demise of Scrye testifies to continuing softness in the collectible card game market and to the overall effect that the current recession is having on magazines of all types,” echoing concerns about the magazine and comics market made elsewhere in the difficult economic times. The title follows other niche titles such as Realms of Fantasy to the Magazine Graveyard, which will also close with its April issue.

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.