PiQ magazine, A.D. Vision’s replacement for Newtype USA, is ending with July’s Issue 4.
The news first hit the Internet last night, and was confirmed this morning by one of the magazine’s contributors, Lesley Smith, who posted the email editor Kevin Gifford sent to free-lancers:
“It’s with great regret that I have to announce that PiQ magazine has closed its doors. The July issue on newsstands right now is going to be the final one; we have already vacated the office. As a freelancer, you will be paid for any outstanding work I requested and you submitted, including that for the unpublished August issue. Thank you very much for all the hard work you’ve done for us. Hopefully we’ll be able to work together again in the future.”
PiQ launched in mid-March, a month after ADV pulled the plug on Newtype USA, the English-language version of the popular Japanese anime, manga and collectibles magazine. PiQ broadened its coverage to include music, TV shows, RPGs and the like.
Update: A (very) brief announcement now appears on the PiQ website:
They said it couldn’t be done …
…and maybe they were right.
The current issue of PiQ (now available in stores) will be our last. More information will be available next week.
Update 2: That message has since been removed from the website.
Update 3: A different, longer statement now appears:
The current issue of PiQ (Issue 4, July 2008) will be our last.
It’s unfortunate that we’ll never get a chance to see how successful PiQ could have been, but a combination of low advertising revenue, poor business management and a lack of proper marketing and promotion all hamstrung the magazine from the start. We, the editorial/creative/production staff, did the best we could to put together a quality publication, but as we’ve discovered, without a good financial backing, it’s all an exercise in futility.
For those readers that were just starting to get behind the magazine, the staff of PiQ gives a hearty “thank you” to all of you for your support. To those of you who subscribed (or were formerly subscribed to NTUSA), more details will be coming soon.
June 15th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Wow that was fast - I actually picked up the first 3 issues and was liking the design and the scope not being a hardcore otaku, I liked the easy slide in to different anime and manga via other pop culture stories.
But I understand how old Newtype readers would be pissed. Its kind of like how I feel with the last year’s worth of Wizard’s having been a reader from the early issues…obviously the pop culture niche has to be broadened to get more ad dollars.
If I want niche I read blogs like this one who get the news and stories out first anyways. This, added with the TP news the post before this, shows the power of the web and maybe the truth of the US recession…?
July 27th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Where is my money? NTUSA and PIQ cancelled and refuse to refund my money. It has been months (since February - March).
August 14th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
To those of you who subscribed (or were formerly subscribed to NTUSA), more details will be coming soon……what is that all about? i had to go to THIS website to find out why i haven’t received the last two issues. i think they could have atleast sent me my issues that i paid for….i mean, they did send them out to the stores. and who knows how long they’ll be sitting there collecting dust. i do miss ntusa…but the way they are handling the closing of PiQ is just irritating.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Are you kidding me? I subscribed to NTUSA when there was only one issue left. (Why I wasn’t notified of that when I subscribed I’l never know.)
So that was rolled over to Piq for two years, and know that is defunct.
Unbelievable.