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anonymous source on Faeit 212 wrote:Your Forgeworld post reminded me of something I learned from one of my GW sources at the weekend: namely, White Dwarf will be getting a new Editor, very soon. My guess is sometime around the 1 year anniversary of the current "new" format (end of this month).

In addition, he confirmed the White Scars supplement is next - and imminent. No surprise there

Was there content in the old white dwarf to edit? I gave up on it years ago, and would only look at them at the flgs, but stopped doing that when they started sealing them in plastic. Maybe a forgeworld editor will come over since they will be merging the website.

I imagine he was brought in to revamp the magazine with a one-year contract. Either he had enough or GW didnt want to cough up the shekels.

Sadly, mega-hottie, Beth-ann is leaving too. The token hot gamer-chick will no longer let us gaze at her most recently mulit-colored locks.

Doesn't surprise me at all.
It really looks like the kind of job where you're given nothing to work with and yet miracles are expected of you, and it ESPECIALLY must suck when any content you could use is taken and sold separately as a digital download.

It'll be a shame, i quite liked Jes' Nid army. That said WD is still a poor effort IMHO and any change will be interesting at the very least.

Next month is the 12th issue since the revamp isnt it? So it wont be long.

Last time I looked at White Dwarf the thing that stood out was all the white space. An awful lot of empty page space and little text. Maybe they think that minimalist look is cool but it just seems they haven't got the content to put in.

The main problem i have of the content is its all usersubmitted/sourced. Its very lazy to just fill your mag with pictures of other peoples models. And whilst some inspiration can be gleaned from these endless parade grounds and army of the month, it is not replacement for a geniuine and indepth hobby article.

Still thats just my view on it.

All the last editor did was Titify WD without taking it in any new (read more comprehensive) direction. I gave it a to for a few issues but I can only assume that it is specifically for new gamers and those that like the model eye candy.

Alas I suspect any new editor will be the same. It could be a good opportunity for a gaming editor to take over rather than a editor that games.

They really need to take a look at what PP does with No Quarter. Yes, it has previews and photos of painted minis, but it's the other bits (like The Gavyn Kaye Files and historical scenarios) that really make it worthwhile.

What does WD need editing for exactly? Make sure the pictures are properly lined up and the glowing reviews of everything are glowing enough?

Well, yes.

Every ship needs a captain to run the deadlines and day-by-day. How much independence they actually have in their role isn't really their call, though.

So, new volunteers needed for turd polishing duty heh?

I've totally given up on WD now - I can't even be bothered to flick through it in the shops anymore.

Doesn't surprise me, I can't imagine working on the WD team as being that conducive to good morale. It seems to be a position with quite a high attrition rate.

Bets on the editor that Jes replaced, who became "deputy editor" returning to the helm?

This would make an reasonable amount of sense. From what I recall, Jes has edited a fair number of high-ish profile magazines before. Being the permanant editor for what is, basically, a small industry catalogue is an utter dead-end career wise. I suspect he got a good pay deal to bring the magazine up to a more modern look, on a short-ish term contract, on a magazine he'd always wanted to edit. I also suspect he's had a blast doing it, especially if he knew he had no intention of staying for good.

"New White Dwarf, now with 200 pages, of which 50 pages show GW store addresses!"

Not sure if the editor did anything after his first issue. 60 pages of new product photos with stupid texts, 12 pages of addresses, always the same JervisJohnson/JeremyVetock/JohnBlanche columns, always the same Big Brother article where every crew member was forced to do public enthusiastic modelling. No valuable content worth reading 2 weeks after release. Only function was to give us blurred leaked preview pics of the upcoming release 2 weeks in advance, which is rather sad.

My biggest gripe is that they seem to forget the previous release(s). Always just the new 'hot' thing.

I hope that means no more green-yellow nids every month.

I think it wasn't necessary to hire a new editor just to give WD some esthetic changes. No content change, no editor. Let's try another one.

I need (and I'm sure I'm not alone) tactical articles. I don't mind how Jervis plans a new rule, I need different ways to use it. And I don't need Jervis telling me the same month after month with slightly different words. We have tons of pictures on the internet, so we need useful text (notice the "useful" word).

I will still buy the WD (IMO it's not 100% crap after all) as I've been doing, but I want more real content.

garrapignado wrote:
I hope that means no more green-yellow nids every month.

I think it wasn't necessary to hire a new editor just to give WD some esthetic changes. No content change, no editor. Let's try another one.

I need (and I'm sure I'm not alone) tactical articles. I don't mind how Jervis plans a new rule, I need different ways to use it. And I don't need Jervis telling me the same month after month with slightly different words. We have tons of pictures on the internet, so we need useful text (notice the "useful" word).

I will still buy the WD (IMO it's not 100% crap after all) as I've been doing, but I want more real content.

The problem is, all those things you want, they have discovered they can sell on itunes for £2-99 an article. They will never go back to being free in the WD.

Which means really, they should just stop it, slap a pdf with all the pretty pictures on the site, charge 99p per download and sell all the words via the appstores and be done with it.

The awful thing now where they pretend they still have a hobby magazine that they charge £5-50 for, and then charge £2-99 for every hobby article they write on top of that is just insulting.

Editor of WD, must be nice to have a job that you just set there a put out what every GW give me. But, I think I get board and leave to for a job I get to you know edit thing, instead of copy paste what the onwers want.

garrapignado wrote:
I hope that means no more green-yellow nids every month.

I think it wasn't necessary to hire a new editor just to give WD some esthetic changes. No content change, no editor. Let's try another one.

I need (and I'm sure I'm not alone) tactical articles. I don't mind how Jervis plans a new rule, I need different ways to use it. And I don't need Jervis telling me the same month after month with slightly different words. We have tons of pictures on the internet, so we need useful text (notice the "useful" word).

I will still buy the WD (IMO it's not 100% crap after all) as I've been doing, but I want more real content.

With reference to the bolded part, I'm not a regular reader, but I have picked up the issues when one of my new factions launches. While reading that article by JJ, I was simultaneously surprised and not at all surprised that he made not one reference to balance in the whole thing.

But, OT, new editor or no, I'm sure it will continue to be the same glorified leaflet, albeit pretty leaflet, it has been since I was a student. It is a other in the list of things that GW could easily change to appeal to both new hobbyists and vets, but bafflingly refuses to do so.

Fellas, ive said it before...
The only reason to publish a magazine in todays age is ADVERTISING.
Thats it.
And WD only shows itself off in that rag they call a hobby magazine.
It is a sinking ship and the rats are jumping off.
Think about it.
No revenue from outside advertisers means the magazine has no outside funds coming in to maintain operating costs.
Its really just too bad...I remember being anxious to buy the new copy of the dwarfer when i was a kid. Now, its just a sad joke...the last issue I bought was the one that had the Fire Prism rules in it. That was like what .. over two years ago???

 FarseerAndyMan wrote:
Fellas, ive said it before...
The only reason to publish a magazine in todays age is ADVERTISING.
Thats it.

I'm sorry, but I couldn't disagree with you more. Of course, the days of the magazine as our only source of information is long gone, but one edge they can (potentially) hold over the internet is the quality of their journalism and content. There is something to be said for someone who writes well and is paid for doing so.

Anyone who has read copy of Rolling Stone or Mojo, Total Film/Empire, New Scientist, Edge to name but a few- not sure if all of those are sold in the US, but I'm sure there are equivalents.
Sadly my two favourites have now passed (Hotdog movie magazine and The Word) but there is still lots of incredibly good stuff out there.

In the gaming world stuff like Wargames Illustrated (or even Ravage) have a lot of worthwhile content - believe it or not WD did at one point too, but you have to back to around issue 300 or so (before the fabled 'Giant Issue') or whatever number that was to find it.

 Pacific wrote:

 FarseerAndyMan wrote:
Fellas, ive said it before...
The only reason to publish a magazine in todays age is ADVERTISING.
Thats it.

I'm sorry, but I couldn't disagree with you more. Of course, the days of the magazine as our only source of information is long gone, but one edge they can (potentially) hold over the internet is the quality of their journalism and content. There is something to be said for someone who writes well and is paid for doing so.

Anyone who has read copy of Rolling Stone or Mojo, Total Film/Empire, New Scientist, Edge to name but a few- not sure if all of those are sold in the US, but I'm sure there are equivalents.
Sadly my two favourites have now passed (Hotdog movie magazine and The Word) but there is still lots of incredibly good stuff out there.

LOL, if only all those magazines did pay people well. I agree they are great titles, altho I"m not entirely objective.

But, in fact, at one time WHite Dwarf had something of the essence of those magazines: the way a publication provides a voice for a community.

I actually don't agree with much of the negative comment on here about GW, I think it's simply misunderstanding what drives a Plc. But the fall in content of WD with the redesign is staggering.

THey have made the classic mistake of thinking that higher production values - spot varnish, perfect binding - will make the magazine better, when it's worse. All the other classic mag mistakes pain me and are things that most 1st year media studies student would avoid: repeating cover lines from issue to issue - so if the mag's on the shelf in Hobbyzone or Boyes, you have actually no idea what's in there, and no driver to buy it. Or the awful columns, mostly vacuous think pieces illustrated by a photo of a fat man. It's risible. It's also bad advertising, if that's the intention, because good advertising can be funny, have a vibe, share values, etc etc.

My wife also works in publishing, designs mags for some cool car brands, and other customer publications - which are advertising. THey are given away; yet they plug the product less overtly than White Dwarf, which you're expected to shell out £5.50 for.

A job advertisement for Assistant Editor of White Dwarf was up on the GW careers site with a closing date of 1 September. If someone is leaving, it's more likely Andrew than Jes.

theresponsibleone wrote:
A job advertisement for Assistant Editor of White Dwarf was up on the GW careers site with a closing date of 1 September. If someone is leaving, it's more likely Andrew than Jes.

Not if Jes leaves and Andrew gets his job

 cybogoblin wrote:
They really need to take a look at what PP does with No Quarter. Yes, it has previews and photos of painted minis, but it's the other bits (like The Gavyn Kaye Files and historical scenarios) that really make it worthwhile.

Or they could just go back to the White Dwarf of 2nd and 3rd edition days, when they had multiple battle reports (that actually adhered to the rules!), fluff articles galore, and the occasional game content (I'd love some new missions). Also, the entire issue wasn't just about new releases (of course, the release schedule was a lot slower back in those days....).

Of the current edition, keep the painting tutorials, as those have been extremely helpful to me. I like the kit bash pieces too. Drop the Jeremy Vetock articles, I can only read so many bland articles about how to "hobby". The "reviews" of black library releases are a waste too (like they are actually allowed to say, "THIS BOOK SUCKED!").

Didn't the problem with WD start when they stopped taking in content from "third party" contributors not working for GW? I don't mean random pictures, I mean the real stuff. Tactica articles. Full army showcases. Tales of X gamers. Stuff like that.

I might be imagining things, but wasn't this the result of a change in regulations that legally prevented GW from paying out with merchandise? Like, they had to either get it for free or pay real money, and there weren't willing to pay so they just cut it down? Or did I just made that up?

I miss Fat Bloke..............not that (most) 40K gamers nowadays know who that is. But those were the days that White Dwarf shone.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
I miss Fat Bloke..............not that (most) 40K gamers nowadays know who that is. But those were the days that White Dwarf shone.

Indeed, I think the general consensus is that Paul Sawyers reign was by far the best. Still got a few of those issues knocking about somewhere.

He's now known as Paulus Maximus and is quite happy working at Warlord Games with a few other ex-GW.

But yeah, I fondly remember their original take on a Tale of Four Gamers, complete with monthly expenses and other off-topic ramblings.