PlayStation: The Official Magazine being shuttered, will say farewell with holiday issue

[ECM]

Kresnik said:

man-bear-pig said:
Not surprising. I always wondered how these official magazines made any money, so I just assumed they were subsidised...I guess I was right. Sony is on the brink if collapse, so they NEED to cut costs or they'll die...it's a necessary loss. I wonder how long MS will keep their official Xbox magazine going? Probably a long time given that money is no object, but it still must be a money drain.

Do Sony have any influence in the decisions of a media corporation like Future US?  Aside from allowing them to use the word 'Official', do they actually pay anything towards the magazine?

I'd have thought not, but maybe I'm wrong.

Here's how it works:

*Sony (or whomever) opens up a bidding process for the rights to use the word PlayStation on the cover of a mag.
*The publishing houses will mock-up an issue and also present a monetary bid.
*The winnder of that selection process gets the rights.

And that's basically where it ends. 

They *might*, in the original contract, negotiate some exclusivity, but it generally is not overseen, for lack of a better word, by Sony.

(Old Nintendo Power was, of course, in-house at Nintendo, so that doesn't count.)