What ever happened to the japanpunchtokyoweekendertokyojournaltokyoclassifie ds?

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][/floatl]
English mags approach milestone, crossroads
--Gianni Simone begins his look at the past and future of Japan's English periodicals--
The Japan Times | April 26, 2011
Those members of the expat community in Japan who are addicted to their weekly or monthly fix of English-language magazines will have surely noticed all the changes going on lately. These are troubled and exciting times and, just as it has in the past, the local media world is trying to rise to the challenge by adapting and innovating.
You've come a long way, baby: The front cover of the July 1878 edition of The Japan Punch, the country's first magazine. Next year will be the 150th anniversary of the birth of the first English-language magazine in Japan...
...Corky Alexander - a long-time newspaper man who had previously worked for Stars and Stripes - and writer and editor Sue Scully launched The Tokyo Weekender...
...The Weekender went on ruling the capital's scene until Tokyo Journal came about in 1981...
... Tokyo Journal's website hasn't been updated since 2009 and e-mails sent to the contact address were returned. What everybody seems to agree on is the reason for the likely demise of what for many years had been a beloved and well-respected publication: the appearance of Tokyo Classified.
...more...
(Part 1 of 2 part series)

[Mulboyne]

I don't think the writer quite captures the transition. Tokyo Classified eventually killed Tokyo Journal because it was free but he leaves the question open of what market TJ found that Tokyo Weekender, which was also free, didn't. After all, Tokyo Weekender outlived the newcomer.

It was partly just a changing of the guard. Many of the new foreign arrivals didn't feel part of the audience which Tokyo Weekender used to serve and Corky seemed quite happy ruling the roost in his own world. Tokyo Journal seemed to have a half-decent English listings guide, pointed people to new restaurants and had a number of decent features about subjects your Japanese colleagues and friends would know about.

Tokyo Classified/Metropolis not only took readers away from Tokyo Journal but it also in the end did for Tokyo Weekender.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Personally, I think Tokyo Reporter shites on them all...

Nonetheless, I find this really ironic running in the Japan Times, which is a bit rich questioning publications at a crossroads.

[sublight]

Fun game: open up a Metropolis and count how many ads aren't for places located in Minato-ku, Meguro-ku or Shibuya. Take out Shinjuku as well, and you can count them on one hand and still have enough fingers left over for Noriko. That pretty much leaves me out in the cold.

Between Metropolis and the Weekender, you're catering to the clueless FOBs wandering Roppongi every weekend and the ex-pat lapdogs hiding away in the American Club. As long as there's 2ch, Tokyo Reporter and FG, I've got everything I need.