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It's official: TV Guide will drop local editions and be relaunched as 'new' magazine October 17th!

Re: It's official: TV Guide will drop local editions and be relaunched as 'new' magazine October 17th!

This is going to end badly. TV Guide will become a second-rate Entertainment Weekly, which is a second-rate magazine in itself. All of the elderly viewers who don't use the Internet and don't have on-screen guides will cancel their subscriptions.

I give the magazine two years and it will be gone. Maybe they'll license the name to some company that actually wants to do TV listings.
 
Re: It's official: TV Guide will drop local editions and be relaunched as 'new' magazine October 17th!

All I can say is poor Frank Costanza.
 
Re: It's official: TV Guide will drop local editions and be relaunched as 'new' magazine October 17th!

My TV Guide subscription runs out in October...how convenient!
 
Re: It's official: TV Guide will drop local editions and be relaunched as 'new' magazine October 17th!

TV Guide has been on decline for the past several years. I let my subscription run out last year when they switched to those awful grid listings.

Not that long ago, I used to look forward to the new TV Guide coming each week. I used to like when they had detailed listings of almost all shows, and told you what was or wasn't a repeat.

I have to imagine that demographics has quite a bit to do with the switch. Only Readers Digest likely has as old of a reader base. Within 5 years, this over five decade old magazine will likely be dead. Very Sad.


> This was bound to happen
htt> p://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050726/ap_on_en_tv/tv_guide_revamp
>
 
Re: It's official: TV Guide will drop local editions and be relaunched as 'new' magazine October 17th!

> This is going to end badly. TV Guide will become a
> second-rate Entertainment Weekly, which is a second-rate
> magazine in itself. All of the elderly viewers who don't
> use the Internet and don't have on-screen guides will cancel
> their subscriptions.
>
> I give the magazine two years and it will be gone. Maybe
> they'll license the name to some company that actually wants
> to do TV listings.
>
More than likely, depending on each market area, this is going benefit the local newspaper TV weeklies (which, depending on the newspaper, are mostly second-rate). My grandmother has had TV Guide as long as I can remember and I always looked forward to read the newest copy of TV Guide. But like the story metioned, with the access to online TV listings plus the on-screen guide with those with digital cable, Dish, or DirecTV, sadly TV Guide has become irrelevant, and what's more irrelevant is the TV Guide Channel.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by ShawnHill on 07/26/05 05:00 PM.</FONT></P>
 
Re: It's official: TV Guide will drop local editions and be relaunched as 'new' magazine October 17th!

> This was bound to happen
htt> p://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050726/ap_on_en_tv/tv_guide_revamp
>
OK, so how am I to get my local TV listings? In the daily paper, I guess
(including Sunday TV magazine) and online.

I used to subscribe to TVG years ago but it was for the TV listings not so much the features. National edition, with networks only instead of local channels?
If I were a subscriber _now_, I'd drop it and just refer to the listings in
the paper.
 
TV GUIDE HAS LOST THEIR MINDS!!!!

http://wcbs880.com/entertainment/TVGuide-Revamp-ae/resources_news_html


I read the story and I have never seen such a successful magazine do everything in it's power to completely sabotage itself! That is... UNTIL NOW!
Goodbye TV Guide. Through the years you've helped me decide. Now we must part ways. You just arn't the same anymore.

Your constant offers of Cheap Tote bags arn't going to sway me to re-subscribe to this piece of garbage either! So save your stamps.



John<P ID="signature">______________
Awsome Voiceovers for your station.
JohnChartier.com
206-600-2629
</P>
 
Re: TV GUIDE HAS LOST THEIR MINDS!!!!

I have to agree. While I know that the television landscape has changed in recent years (more channels, on-screen and on-line listings, etc.), it seems TV Guide has done as much to do itself in as the changing television environment in general has done.

I always liked the fact that TV Guide had the most accurate, 24/7 printed listings. The 24/7 listings were done away with last year. There is not even a Channels Listed page in most editions anymore. I also always liked the fact that most editions covered several markets and it was easy to compare what the stations in each market were doing.

I simply don't see why TV Guide thinks being an almost soley entertainment magazine is going to help them out, circulation-wise. There are already a ton of entertainment or entertainment-related magazines out there. I wrote to TV Guide within the last year complaining about the changes they had made up to that point, and I told them if I wanted "Entertainment Weekly" I would subscribe to EW. I, of course, got no response.

It's the end of an era.
 
Re: TV Guide and TV Listings

I would think TV Guide, even if eliminating local editions, would have to print four time-zone specific editions (Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific), more if you include Alaska and Hawaii.

It's also interesting to note that the change will take place in October. Perhaps they wanted to print one last Fall Preview issue (sometime in early-to-mid-September) with the "old" format of extensive local program listings. The Fall Preview is TV Guide's biggest issue of the year (in terms of number of pages) and traditionaly the magazine's biggest-selling single issue of the year.

As regards the issue of fewer places to get printed TV listings, it's not just TV Guide.

It's harder to get printed TV listings anywhere.

Here in the Boston area, the Boston Herald stopped publishing their Sunday TV supplement a few weeks ago. They now only have prime-time listings in the daily (and Sunday) editions for what's on that night. In the Monday-through-Saturday editions, the Herald has only published prime-time TV listings for several years now.

The Boston Globe just re-formatted their daily arts and entertainment sections into a pullout section called "Sidekick". Prior to "Sidekick"'s launch, the Globe used to have a full page of TV listings, showing schedule grids for daytime, prime-time and late-night. Now, only prime-time TV listings are printed in "Sidekick".

Although the Boston Globe still publishes a Sunday TV supplement, the paper will likely cease publishing it sometime in the next few months, substituting prime-time listings for Sundays somewhere in their Sunday edition.

And the freebie Boston Metro used to publish prime-time TV listings; now they only publish a "Best Bets On TV" column with no listings at all.

I suspect that a lot of newspapers in most other cities have reduced their daily TV listings to prime-time hours and ceased (or are about to cease) publishing Sunday TV supplements.

Printed TV listings may be a memory within a year or two.

And I personally think it's a shame because of all those channels out there, people might find comprehensive printed listings very helpful.

TV Guide has dropped the ball.
 
Re: TV Guide and TV Listings

> TV Guide has dropped the ball.
>

I couldn't agree more about the whole case reguarding TV Guide. And you think TV Guide is bad, check out the TV Guide Channel. Useless TV programming, like "Seeing Stars" like h*ll I wouldn't. Besides, I'll just surf the web and go to a site like Zap2it.com or the AOL TV Listings.
 
Re: TV Guide and TV Listings

> > TV Guide has dropped the ball.
> >
>
> I couldn't agree more about the whole case reguarding TV
> Guide. And you think TV Guide is bad, check out the TV Guide
> Channel. Useless TV programming, like "Seeing Stars" like
> h*ll I wouldn't. Besides, I'll just surf the web and go to a
> site like Zap2it.com or the AOL TV Listings.
>
> I think,in my opinion,Inside TV Magazine will pass the TV Listings Torch when TV Guide:)()dies!
 
Re: It's official: TV Guide will drop local editions and be relaunched as 'new' magazine October 17th!

> This was bound to happen

They should take it out behind the barn and shoot it. TV Guide has been a pile of crap for over 20 years now. In the 60's and 70's it was a useful publication with intelligently written articles, but ownership changes in the 80's sent it down the toilet.

Viewers get more complete listings elsewhere these days. TV Guide is a relic and a pathetic shadow of its former self. Let it die.
 
Re: It's official: TV Guide will drop local editions and be relaunched as 'new' magazine October 17th!

> My TV Guide subscription runs out in October
> ...how convenient!

You've kept it this long? Why?

You must have a good use for those
@#$% sports bags! ;-)
 
Re: It's official: TV Guide will drop local editions and be relaunched as 'new' magazine October 17th!

I collect TV Guides. I would have let my subscription run out last year, but I wanted 20 years worth.
 
Re: TV Guide and TV Listings

> > > TV Guide has dropped the ball.
> > >
> >
> > I couldn't agree more about the whole case reguarding TV
> > Guide. And you think TV Guide is bad, check out the TV
> Guide
> > Channel. Useless TV programming, like "Seeing Stars" like
> > h*ll I wouldn't. Besides, I'll just surf the web and go to
> a
> > site like Zap2it.com or the AOL TV Listings.
> >
> > I think,in my opinion,Inside TV Magazine will pass the TV
> Listings Torch when TV Guide:)()dies!
>
I lived in about a half-dozen different cities when I was
growing up, had relatives in North Carolina and Florida who
knew about my interest in television and would send me their
local editions, and my dad traveled the country and brought
back the local edition(s) from wherever he'd been that week.
Consequently, I always enjoyed comparing different markets
and what the local stations were doing.

But now, without the channel charts, I hardly know what
stations I'm looking at, plus the listings have been truncated
(no late-night, nothing before 9 AM on weekends, "various programs"
throughout the daytime grids). And now, no more local editions.
I have one subscription left, to an out-of-state edition,
and I may get rid of it before it runs out in March.

One suggestion, however. You can make your own TV Guide by
going to www.titantv.com. There you can put together any combination
of stations, anywhere in the country, that you want.

In the meantime, I feel a part of my life is ending. Remember
when TV Guide was 15 cents and you got plenty of information about
the workings of the industry, as well as listings from several
markets in one book? Getting TV Guide was the highlight of my
week in the '60s and '70s. Now it's what, $2.49? And mostly
pictures. I can walk right past it in the store and not bother
to look at it.
 
Re: TV Guide and TV Listings

> One suggestion, however. You can make your own TV Guide by
> going to www.titantv.com. There you can put together any
> combination
> of stations, anywhere in the country, that you want.

I really like TitanTV, I like the way the website is designed and the ability to customize guides is nice too.

However they are Notroiously inaccurate in their listings. I report all the mistakes I see, but sometimes it has been four or five per 'night'.

They're getting a lot better, but they still have them.

I still would go to them before I went to AOL TV.
 
Re: TV Guide and TV Listings

> > One suggestion, however. You can make your own TV Guide
> by
> > going to www.titantv.com. There you can put together any
> > combination
> > of stations, anywhere in the country, that you want.
>
> I really like TitanTV, I like the way the website is
> designed and the ability to customize guides is nice too.
>
> However they are Notroiously inaccurate in their listings. I
> report all the mistakes I see, but sometimes it has been
> four or five per 'night'.
>
> They're getting a lot better, but they still have them.
>
> I still would go to them before I went to AOL TV.
>


This whole thing is reflective of what they think viewers/readers want.."star" interviews and features. TV Guide used to be a big part of my week from 1965 on..In compiling different TV Guides for the Classic TV "Retro" schedules I was struck by how interesting the TV Guide Articles were. In the early years they had writers who would report on the local scene for each edition, As well as New York and Hollywood Teletype. In summary TV Guide has gone the way of The medium they write about..Shallow and about 90% bland entertainment..
 
Re: TV Guide and TV Listings

> > > One suggestion, however. You can make your own TV Guide
>
> > by
> > > going to www.titantv.com. There you can put together
> any
> > > combination
> > > of stations, anywhere in the country, that you want.
> >


For those of you who like look at listings in other markets, I'd suggest tv.yahoo.com. (I just rediscovered it a few months ago; in its infancy, it was pathetic.) Not only can you get cable/satellite listings for your individual zip code, but it will give you an alternative of choosing broadcast listings from markets within several hundred miles of that zip.

I guess that's my new choice for listings now.
 
Re: TV GUIDE HAS LOST THEIR MINDS!!!!

http://wcb> s880.com/entertainment/TVGuide-Revamp-ae/resources_news_html
>
>
>
> I read the story and I have never seen such a successful
> magazine do everything in it's power to completely sabotage
> itself! That is... UNTIL NOW!
> Goodbye TV Guide. Through the years you've helped me decide.
> Now we must part ways. You just arn't the same anymore.
>
> Your constant offers of Cheap Tote bags arn't going to sway
> me to re-subscribe to this piece of garbage either! So save
> your stamps.
>
>
>
> John
>
Of course they're not the same anymore, neither is TV. There was a time and a place for printed listings, and that lasted for several generations. But that time has passed--and this is just a recognition of that unavoidable fact.
 
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