While it's not fantasy football season yet, the preparations for the popular gaming industry normally would be well underway at this point in most years, but thanks to the NFL lockout, those plans are on hold -- or scrapped entirely -- this year. ESPN became the first major media company to cancel an annual preseason fantasy preview magazine. The magazine normally would have hit newsstands this month. Kevin Ota, a spokesman for ESPN digital media, told the Washington Post the company didn't feel comfortable producing the magazine in light of the uncertainty around the NFL. "If and when things straighten themselves out, the data and the information that would go into that publication would be out of date, inaccurate or otherwise," he told the paper. Source: USAToday
It's those publications that are going to get hit the hardest. If the lockout goes that deep, they might start seeing it more serious. The website hosts will be fine. Once the season is announced, people will be right in it. It'ss the publications that will hurt the most...a good idea to try to make some of that money up by offering online subscriptions instead of the magazine. Or offer a free update. They'd still sell the magazines, not as many, but if they offered free online updates, it may help sell a little more.
