End of an Era -- S&M Sniper Ceases Publication
Well, I must say, this came as quite a shock.The well-known magazine, S&M Sniper, has ceased publication after a near 30-year run in business. I don't have any inside information but it's pretty easy to arrive at some conclusions which are probably correct.
First, there's the economic situation. I won't recount the data (because it's too depressing), but Japan has been particularly hard hit.
Then, of course, there is this new paradigm we seem to be experiencing where a lot of print publications are going under, or hanging on by the skin of their teeth. When a newspaper like the New York Times starts losing money, you start to really wonder what's going on.
Things are moving to the web. S&M Sniper is no exception. They've had a web presence for a long time. So it looks like they're going to try to make a go of it as a web-only publication.
I used to know someone over there but I'm not sure if he still works there or not. I sent an email. If I get any more info, I'll pass it along here.
In the meantime, best of luck to S&M Sniper on the web.
Update: That was fast! It turns out my contact is now the editor-in-chief of Web Sniper. He confirms that Sniper is now a web publication. A long article originally in Japanese has been translated into English. It's a little rough but I am posting it here in its entirety. You will need to use your imagination a bit, but this is fascinating reading.
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