Breaking News: NEWTYPE Ceases US Publication

Representatives from NEWTYPE USA, one of the foremost anime magazines in North America, based on the widely popular Japanese counterpart, announced today that February's issue of NEWTYPE, will be the last.

The magazine is expected to be replaced, however, under the same publisher.

The magazine was one of the first on the market meant specifically for the genre, and is notably famous for being unflipped (the front cover opens from the right), usually containing a DVD featuring previews of upcoming anime for release, typically over two hundered pages every issue (going way beyond what some anime magazines feature), and... its newsstand cover price.

Recently, NEWTYPE came into competition with another publication, the bimonthly Otaku USA *(added link), which, although lighter on information compared to NEWTYPE, also contains many of the same features NEWTYPE did, including a DVD in every issue, for less of a cover price.

In terms of numbers, NEWTYPE had been rivaling Anime Insider (Kip's #1 magazine) in terms of sales despite the extras the NEWTYPEs have. As Anime News Network says, Sales are "similar to competing publication Anime Insider's, somewhere between 50,000 and 75,000 copies per month." Both publications celebrated milestones recently, in November, AI released its 50th issue, while NT proclaimed its fifth year in publication.
It should be noted, ANN has its own magazine affiliation as well: Protoculture Addicts, which is published in Canada.

It is suggested that the March issue, due in late February, may be the intended last issue -therefore a potential issue #66- but there is no word comfirming that yet.

Personally, I find this a bad move by a well established name (and a famous one to boot) to end its publication. The title refers to the name given to the class of humans in the Gundam universe who are said to have evolved to the next stage of evolutionary progression. A fitting name for one of the cutting edge staples in the anime news world.

If you have a favorite anime magazine in your country that is not listed here, please leave us a comment about it.

Don't worry, I've already alerted the Wikipedia...