Forum - View topicNEWS: Newtype USA to Cease Publication
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FullmetalCJ
Industry Insider
 Posts: 62 Location: Atlanta, GA |
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This is a bit off topic now... but while bloggers being beholden to no one can be an asset, it can also be a strike against them. There's something to be said, I think, for journalistic integrity and the permanence of news reported via print. And most publishers/broadcasters have ethics standards in place that need to be adhered to, whereas bloggers do not. Anyway, I still think an anime publisher owning an anime magazine is not a bad thing at all. In the end, the reader decides if it's worth their time. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16935 |
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It couldn't possibly be because maybe in this ever evolving technological era more people are using their computers for everything from news to paying bills? Nah, that would just make too much sense now wouldn't it? It also couldn't possibly be related at all because by going online they can check news feeds whenever they want and not just during scheduled tv airings now could it? Again, that would just make too much sense and we prefer wild assumptions and conspiracy theories here.  You seem to just generally have a bias and a problem with any sort of big corporation in regards to entertainment period. Just remember the government is really out to get YOU!
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Batman3777
 Posts: 160 Location: Down the Shore, NJ |
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Unless a publication or broadcast is free and does not expect a profit, bias, or the "POTENTIAL" for bias in a "media" outlet always exists, regardless of who owns it. A publisher needs to make money and, therefore, needs to slant content in one direction or another to appeal to as large an audience as possible given the subject matter. This is why companies do market analysis surveys and readership studies. No publisher cares about pleasing everyone, just as many people as possible. That is business. If you do not like, do not read it, watch it, or sleep with it. As long as we live in a system based on business and profit, then that is how things will be. This is precisely why ADV had no serious influence on the magazine (Yes, NT did mention and some ADV titles; it’s kind of hard not to since they are one of the US’s MAJOR anime licensees!). Such influence would be immediately noticed and readership would plummet. But then there are the extreme critics who see even just one mention of ADV in the magazine and go all ape-crap over it.
For example, if I owned a magazine, it would be geared toward people with my interests. Anyone who does not share my interests would find the magazine biased. In my not-so-humble opinion, AMD products are better than Intel. Any facts I give are based on my experiences. That is a bias. Am I wrong? Not according to my computers, but for other people, it depends on what there experiences are. That being said, Newtype always published news as news, no slants of any kind, which is more than I can say for most media outlets. For example, Newtype never had an article about an upcoming release that said "ADV tried to get the license for this, but those jerks over at Geneon (RIP) were sneaky and pulled all kinds of dirty tricks to get it instead." Upcoming titles were discussed as enthusiastically as the editorial crew could be, regardless of whose license it was. In terms of editorial reviews, a while back a poster in this thread said "[NewType] made it sound like everything had its audience" or something to that effect. Well, is that not true, though? Doesn't everything have its audience? Again, its publication, they need to make money, too. If there are too many ripping reviews, they will not be allowed to publish them anymore, which would reduce readership. Critics always face the same criticisms: either too many good reviews, or too many bad ones, anyway. That is why I do not bother reading them much, and when I do, I take them with a grain of salt. That is what made the sample DVDs so great. I found more flops and more keepers through that than any amount of reviews anywhere, including Amazon. What is my point in all of my long-winded babble? NT was a well-balanced publication, which is precisely where they wanted to be. There are always critical zealots. Unless you can formulate a specific list of issues you had with… specific issues of NT (sorry for the pun), you have no case, and you cannot go for a ride on some non-existent moral high horse just because of who owned the magazine. 
Now, where can I get a copy of PA? I would like to read an issue before I decide to subscribe. 
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Aromatic Grass
 Posts: 2424 Location: Raleigh, NC |
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Now why is it that I can never get this across in my own posts? Is my grip on the axe too tight? 
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6171 Location: USA |
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Well, this is some news. I wonder if we're still going to be able to pick up the new subscription after the old one ceases?
I wonder what the reason there is for ending it? |
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Batman3777
Posts: 160 Location: Down the Shore, NJ |
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Seeing as how soon after NT ends PiQ will begin, it seems like NTUSA was cancelled due to licensing issues with NT Japan. Most likely ADV wants to reduce the costs of the magazine and to lose some of the other restrictions placed on it by the license. This may prove useful, as I think the new magazine should be at least somewhat less expensive than NTUSA... I hope. I just lost my job last month, so I could not afford to renew. 
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Batman3777
Posts: 160 Location: Down the Shore, NJ |
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::Takes a bow:: Thanks. it's nice to be recognized
I actually have been formulating that response for about 3 days now, so it took a lot of editing. I was afraid people would give up and stop posting before I had a chance to post my reply! 
As far as your axe grip goes, remember, you have to let it slide in your hands a little during the swing. That way the moment of inertia in the axehead will be greatest when striking. Hmmm, I'm not sure if that came out right or not... Seriously though, I sometimes wonder if people just choose to disagree simple for the sake of doing so, rather than actually having a complaint. To embarrass myself a bit, I did not know until 2 years into my subscription that NTUSA was owned by ADV. 
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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It's true, I've never actually read Newtype USA at all... But discussions are so much more interesting when you have more viewpoints. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar Posts: 16935 |
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So you've been arguing and making points about a magazine that you admit to never having read before? Well, that's real professional and nice of you. You might as well go on to tell us how say generic bag powder tea is better then loose tea though you have no experience with tea since all you drink is soda. Last edited by Redbeard 101 on Mon Jan 14, 2008 8:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Batman3777
Posts: 160 Location: Down the Shore, NJ |
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Indeed, that's taking it bit far. My point was that ADV had so little influence on the mag that I didn't even know it was owned by them. But I have read it for 4 years solid now. So my viewpoint was at least VALID, unlike someone whose never read it before.
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Aromatic Grass
Posts: 2424 Location: Raleigh, NC |
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Sounds good to me. I'm the kind to squeeze the handle as hard as I can and strike as fast as I can. Then I think to myself, Whoops, that might have been a really bad idea...
Oh, Christ. That's why I should be ignoring these arguments, but I can't help it. I'll accept valid viewpoints that are different from my own, but seriously. Just for the sake of disagreement/different viewpoints?! This is what creates ignorance and gives people false ideas. If people feel like that's okay to do, then I don't know what's wrong with the world. 
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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If you go back and read my posts, you'll see i never accused newtype of any bias at all. I was commenting on the PERCEPTION of bias, and why i thought that was detrimental. The fact that I hadn't ever read the magazine and yet was fully aware that many people considered it biased only adds to my argument, in my opinion.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Well, I mean, if the internet has taught us anything it's that there are a whole lot of uninformed people with strong opinions that they hold and argue vehemently in spite of being misinformed and often ignorant. Giving in to their unfair demands only strengthens their sense of self-righteousness, which is usually built on a house of cards anyway. Some vocal people consider Newtype to have been biased toward ADV. There are also people who sincerely believe Ron Paul is going to be the next president and people who honestly think the government staged 9-11. No reason to give any credence to those people or pander to them. |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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What you interpret as "giving in to their demands", I claim was a suggestion for "minimizing their impact". And I realize you are notorious for this sort of hyperbole, but your 9-11 conspiracy argument is totally off-base. If I've never read newtype, and I knew it was owned by ADV, it is perfectly reasonable (although ignorant) to believe it might be biased. If I think 9-11 was staged by the government, then I am both ignorant AND not reasonable. You're trying to confuse ignorance with insanity. If you think that the perception of newtype as being biased was limited only to those crazies who post in forums like these than I suggest you get out more into the general anime populace... I've heard that sentiment at cons, in anime clubs, from people on the internet... and it's all bred simply from ignorance of the facts, and a presumption of guilt when it comes to these sorts of things. Ron Paul and 9-11 conspirators are similar in origin, but require a bit more insanity than this. |
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Anime World Order
 Posts: 389 Location: Florida |
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Actually, even though that's the tagline the lion's share of OUSA's fandom-related coverage is focused more on what's going on in Japan (Comiket, Wonderfest, J-Pop/Rock, etc). I think the articles currently up on the OUSA website are a good representative of the magazine's content since they're all either from previous issues or website-exclusive supplementals written by the same people who write for the magazine. I know someone said earlier in the thread that my feature on The Third wasn't that great, but upon a second look, my writeup of The Third is totally freaking awesome. Among other things, I got to make references to Ayaka's Surprise English Lessons, Gundoh Musashi, Lupin the Third, Fandora, Hokuto no Ken thugs, and To-Y. All highly contemporary stuff, that! Oh, also what the show was about and what I thought of it. Admittedly, on this subject I'm a bit TOO biased, so as Levar Burton says you don't have to take MY word for it. This, incidentally, brings us to the actual subject at hand:
And that's my cue!
Precisely! The actual bias of this publication was not that it was pro-ADV, but pro-EVERYTHING, per their own admission. They certainly have the right to do this. In fact, when it comes to reviewing titles, I want the reviewer to have a pronounced bias either for or against something, provided they don't deny it's there.
If I'm reading you right, and perhaps I'm not, you essentially stated that because NTUSA reported news objectively and that all of their reviews were positive, it was therefore balanced. I contend that it would have to have both positive as well as negative reviews to be considered balanced, provided the news reporting was still objective. But according to the quote in my previous post, I don't think being balanced was or ever has been NT's objective anyway, either in Japan or America, so it's a moot point.
See, here's the thing. I don't actually think it unreasonable to wonder about potential undeclared conflicts of interest with regards to media ownership, especially now that there's so much media consolidation. In fact, I think it's a very important question to ask because the potential for abuse by way of misinformation is great. I don't read the Wall Street Journal, but it was a big story when they were recently acquired by NewsCorp due to the potential for outside forces influencing the content of the paper. On a subject more personally applicable to me as a podcaster: there’s a pretty popular video podcast called AnimeTV. It's made by BangZoom! Entertainment, and not only is a great deal of the things AnimeTV reviews of titles BangZoom! worked on, practically every review they do is positive. To me, this looks like it's a gigantic conflict of interest, a matter directly brought up when Zac interviewed their president. This part is particularly relevant:
The ease at which one could perceive a conflict of interest existing when an industry publication is released by an entity directly involved with said industry is exactly what samuelp has been talking about these last few pages as everyone's been calling him a nutcase. I don't think it's THAT crazy for someone to worry about a similar possible conflict existing between ADV and NTUSA (even if it turns out to not be there), since each ADV DVD released within the last few years has frontloaded ads for The Anime Network and Newtype USA. In light of this, it's not entering into "Loose Change" territory to think some level of collusion could conceivably take place, even if it's not true. Again, Newtype gave everything a good review, not just ADV stuff. Even when it was Gundam SEED Destiny. I'm sure that PiQ will be subject to the same allegations as NTUSA, and people should at least ask the questions. Still, what concerns me far more than that is the wording of that email which got sent out. I get the feeling that the anime and manga coverage in PiQ will take a backseat to all of the other stuff it's presumably going to cover; that the anime/manga stuff will be de-emphasized to just its one section in favor of talking about videogames, American TV shows/movies, US comicbooks, or whatever it is they're going with (all of the above?) in the hopes of appealing to a larger group of people and reflecting what seems to be the prevailing interests of most anime convention attendees at this point. It's just a wild guess, but in the event that turns out to be true I’m not sure how happy the former Newtype USA subscribers will be. Guess we'll know in a few weeks. |
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