WIZARD FIRES EDITOR IN CHIEF

**MattBrady** · 11-30-2006, 09:41 AM

According to various sources throughout the industry, Wizard Entertainment yesterday fired Senior Vice President/Editor in Chief Pat McCallum. The firing was, reprotedly, met with shock among the company's staff.

While not a founder of the original magazine, McCallum was one of the very few original Wizard staffers still working at the company who were there when the business was founded by Gareb Shamus in the early '90s. By mid to late 1996, according to insiders, the comics/pop culture magazine has been under McCallum’s control, along with the company’s other magazines and website. McCallum also wrote Shadow Reavers of Wizard’s Black Bull comics line.

As Newsarama has reported, this year has been one of change for Wizard, as two long-time Wizard Convention staffers, Stewart Morales - Director/Strategic Planning and Marketing for Wizard Conventions, Inc, and Gabe Fieramosco, Manager of Business Development for Wizard Conventions, Inc. were let go from the company after this year’s Chicago convention. Those firings followed a round of lay-offs in May that affected all departments.

The magazine itself has also gone through many changes over the past decade, with direct market sales numbers (which do not include subscriptions or newsstand sales, but can still be seen as a valid sales indicator) – which used to hover near the 100,000 mark in the late ‘90s, now coming in at approximately half of that, according to estimates (October '98's issue #87 was the last to reach 100,000, while October of '06 direct market estimate was 50,600). Other observers have pointed to the dwindling number of outside advertisements in the core magazine, although, the recent change in format, from a more comic sized publication to a traditional magazine trim and shift to cover a braoder range of popular culture seems to have attracted some new advertisers.

Some observers are viewing McCallum's unexpected departure as perhaps one of the final steps of a de facto reorganization of the company, whose roots can be traced back to the hiring of Jim Silver as the new Publisher and Rob Felton being named Associate Publisher at the company in March of this year.

Wizard has issued a press release about the changes, which reads:

Wizard Entertainment today announced several staffing changes, including the addition of several new hires to the publishing and Wizard World tour divisions. Recent additions to the company include; Marketing Director John Ko; General Manager Keith Patrick; General Manager for Dealer Relations Peter Katz; Programming Manager for Wizard Conventions Inc. Adam Dickstein; and Sales Account Executive Bart Sciarraba. Additionally, Wizard announced that Editor-in-Chief Pat McCallum and Wizard Entertainment have parted ways.

“In an effort to grow the company and evolve with our customers, Wizard has made a number of aggressive changes over the past nine months,” said Fred Pierce, president and COO for Wizard Entertainment. “We have had a record year for both the publishing division and the Wizard World tours, and these staffing changes will ensure even greater success in 2007.”

Throughout 2006, Wizard leadership has been making moves to strengthen the company. In March, toy industry veteran Jim Silver joined the company as Publisher, while Wizard’s own Rob Felton was promoted to Vice President and Associate Publisher. In September, Wizard introduced a new format for its flagship publication, Wizard Magazine, growing it from comic book size to conventional magazine size. In October, the recently re-launched WizardUniverse.com welcomed a record 2 million visitors. Additionally, the annual Wizard World tour closed its tenth year in November with record-setting attendance and a continuously expanding variety of exhibitors, adding such partners as Spike TV, Video Games Live and International Fight League. 2007 looks to be another exceptional year, with several planned pop culture crossovers in Hollywood, comics and anime, and another action-packed Wizard World tour.

Howard · 11-30-2006, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattBrady

the recent change in format, from a comic sized publication to a more traditional magazine format seems to have attracted some new advertisers.

It's been a long time since I bought an issue of Wizard, but was it ever a comic sized publication? I seem to remember it always being in the magazine format, but I may be interpreting what Matt said wrong. Either way, off to buy some IFL stock....

Bugaboo-X · 11-30-2006, 09:56 AM

Gee. That's too bad. Because Wizard has always been such a high-quality publication.

deathmasterj · 11-30-2006, 10:06 AM

Would it be wrong of me to reply in THIS thread telling everyone to check out Comics International every month instead?

http://www.comicsinternational.com/

KoozyK · 11-30-2006, 10:08 AM

I stopped buying the 'Marvel Hype Machine', I mean, Wizard Magazine, almost 6 months ago. There's just no point. I get the same news weeks earlier online.

jza1218 · 11-30-2006, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Howard

It's been a long time since I bought an issue of Wizard, but was it ever a comic sized publication? I seem to remember it always being in the magazine format, but I may be interpreting what Matt said wrong. Either way, off to buy some IFL stock....

It changed its dimension to a larger more traditional magazine size with staples. Originally, it was about the same cover size as a regular comic book but thicker and bound with glue.

EvilErnie13 · 11-30-2006, 10:11 AM

I tired of dick and fart jokes (but I'm a huge Kevin Smith fan...) and Wizard's writing staff has been lacking in the past few years. I haven't bought a Wizard in months, but I do steal my friends' Wizard to see if they will mature. Probably not.
Plus, why do I need Wizard when I have Newsarama.com?

deathmasterj · 11-30-2006, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KoozyK

I stopped buying the 'Marvel Hype Machine', I mean, Wizard Magazine, almost 6 months ago. There's just no point. I get the same news weeks earlier online.

I stopped buying it years ago when it was a DC hype machine. How times have changed hahahaha

immortus · 11-30-2006, 10:18 AM

The chimpanzee talent pool is pretty bad these days, I don't know if they can get a good replacement.

Boxful · 11-30-2006, 10:27 AM

Exactly. Why bother publishing that magazine when you've got websites like Newsarama and CBR? They'll need a lot more than just shuffling around a few workers to get that dinosaur out of it's grave. Even their website is cluttered and useless.

RIP Wizard. Be gone.

defjoe · 11-30-2006, 10:30 AM

wizard has gone down so much over the years. It's a shell of it's former self. now the whole magazine is a paid advertisment. This comes as no surprise but firing Pat is not going to help. they need to look back on what got them started in the first place. Use that as a model.

I am MODOK · 11-30-2006, 10:31 AM

I wonder if they'd be better off having a kick ass website and focusing on their conventions?

Eison · 11-30-2006, 10:32 AM

Well despite a lot of people's thoughts and criticisms of Wizard, I hope all of these changes are not signals of the beginning of the end for the magazine/company. Was it everyone’s idea of the perfect comic book magazine? No, of course not. But is having a magazine like it good for comics? Yes, of course it is.

sequart · 11-30-2006, 10:45 AM

Who've they hired to replace the guy? I would love to step in and take the job. I've been Editor-in-Chief over at Sequart.com for a year now.

jasonbradley · 11-30-2006, 10:52 AM

I think magazines in general are soon to be a thing of the past. Once the older (I ain't usin' no goldanged computer) generation is gone so will be magazines, newspapers and any form of published news.

AntManArmy · 11-30-2006, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eison

Well despite a lot of people's thoughts and criticisms of Wizard, I hope all of these changes are not signals of the beginning of the end for the magazine/company. Was it everyone’s idea of the perfect comic book magazine? No, of course not. But is having a magazine like it good for comics? Yes, of course it is.

No, not really. Actually, no not at all.

Eison · 11-30-2006, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AntManArmy

No, not really. Actually, no not at all.

Want to offer an explanation of why?

fast eddie · 11-30-2006, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KoozyK

I stopped buying the 'Marvel Hype Machine', I mean, Wizard Magazine, almost 6 months ago. There's just no point. I get the same news weeks earlier online.

I agree 100%. By the time Wizard hits the stands, I've read most the same stuff online weeks earlier. I suppose though, that this would be true of most magazines. Anyway, I think in order for them to survive, the really need to focus on "soft" news and articles as opposed to trying to stay timely with "hard" news articles. I mean, don't get me wrong, I hate the "who has bigger boobs?" and "who would win in a pie eating contest" features but perhaps more interviews, historical articles and critical reviews are needed. When I say reviews, I mean REAL reviews. Not just ass-kissing positive reviews. I understand that Wizard doesn't want to piss off their core advertisers (i.e. Marvel, DC) but a bit of justified criticism on a certain book here and there wouldn't hurt. Let's face it. Marvel and DC are not going to stop advertising in Wizard just because of a few not so nice words. If it makes business sense, they'll continue to buy advertising space.

deathmasterj · 11-30-2006, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eison

Want to offer an explanation of why?

Probably because it just enchances the immature stereotypical fanboy image that most comic readers want to get away from.

Kal*el · 11-30-2006, 11:25 AM

I've still subscribed, but only out of habit and the occasional sneak peak at a comic. As someone above said, you really don't need it when Newsarama gets all the same news, only quicker.

The format change was the final nail in the coffin though. I can't even keep my comics magazine in my comic boxes anymore. Maybe that's trivial, but it really annoys me.

Barry Strange · 11-30-2006, 11:30 AM

Wizard

Wit's End

Wizen?

Nakedmanatee · 11-30-2006, 11:35 AM

I remember buying the first issue of Wizard. It tapped into my geeky need to read ANYTHING about my favorite medium. I was starved for comics-related material. As I grew older, however, the juvenile tone became more pronounced and I couldn't justify paying 5 bucks for getting comics news that read like it was put out by junior high kids. "Wizard" humor is the lowest form of humor, right below untalented radio morning show djs.
And, yeah, Newsarama provides more variety, more in-depth articles, and is just quicker than a monolithic, monthly publication. And oh, yeah, I don't have to pay 6 bucks for it!
Having said that, I don't come to bury Wizard...I hope that they are able to retool and find a new place in the industry.

yr. buddy,
David

mrbones · 11-30-2006, 11:41 AM

I grew up on Wizard. It was a permanent fixture in my childhood. I would Hate for it to go under, It still seems irrelevant today except for the price guide. (In which everything seems to be in the red nowadays, sigh.) Anyway, Goodbye Pat, I enjoyed your witty banter and look forward to hearing about your future endeavors.

Eison · 11-30-2006, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deathmasterj

Probably because it just enchances the immature stereotypical fanboy image that most comic readers want to get away from.

I guess we should give Stuff, FHM and Maxim a call to help clean up the image of men as well while we are at it.

Scorned1 · 11-30-2006, 11:43 AM

Damn it, a better title of this headline would of been "MARVEL FIRES EDITOR IN CHIEF"