Relating to previous news, the Ziff Davis mag Games for Windows (GFW) has gone the way of the web after 27 years, shutting down its print operations. Part of the 1UP network, its vice president for content Simon Cox sat down with Gamespot and discussed the reasons behind it, and also why it's inevitable even for magazines as big as EGM.

In short, the reasons behind the decision are relatively simple, and center around pretty much one thing: readers are moving online. Cox is clearly passionate about his publication, and expressed his saddened sentiments:

"This is a sad day here, no doubt about that. A 27-year old magazine has gone away and it's sad, and people are definitely pissed off here about it, but we're also kind of going, 'You know what, we kind of saw it coming. It makes sense, and it's where the business needs to go.' It was really hard for me to watch these guys work their a**es off month after month [on a magazine] that fewer and fewer people were reading and fewer and fewer advertisers were advertising in. It was very tough to watch that."

Kind of sounds like Dylan going electric, or the switch from vinyl to CD. It's a shame in a way new technology is so efficient, because, largely, I miss getting all my gaming information from a print mag, and I adore vinyl, and all things like this, but it's just so much easier to forget about it, without even trying. But, I give serious props to the people keeping these things alive, because the day vinyl and print mags go extinct, that will be a sad day indeed. From one perspective though, it seems only natural, as its much easier (and generally, cheaper) to publish content online, and well, you know, think of the trees!

So, readers are moving online, and that's depressing in its own right. But, the really bright side of this is saying what? That readers want more information and they want it faster. This is great news! Hopefully things work out for GFW, because they seem very passionate and the more passion in this industry the better. At this point it's just a matter of putting the right content where it belongs, it seems.

As a result of all this shifting, when asked of the possibility of PC coverage appearing in EGM, he said "that's something we're kicking around."

On the note of EGM, Cox says it's certainly viable now, but one day it will go the same route:

"We have advertiser support, and the newsstand was not as bad as with GFW. Newsstand has slipped a little bit, but it's nowhere near the downturn we saw with GFW in the past year. Will EGM be around forever? No. When will it, kind of, cease to be? When there's not enough advertising or enough people reading it...particularly with information-based magazine publishing. If you're in the business of publishing a magazine that gives timely information to readers, the Internet is going to kill you at some point one day. It's just a question of when, and with GFW that day was today, and with EGM, that day will be some time in the future, but not for a good while."

On a final note, while the times they are a changin', there has never been a better time to be optimistic; journalists and publishers here have an opportunity to offer the most they can offer their readers, and GFW is one outlet that's taking up that opportunity. Here's to the future.