Reports have it that America's longest-running videogame magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) - which started its publication in March 1989 - is shutting down, barely two months before its 20th anniversary. The January issue of the magazine, which is issue no.
236, is reportedly its last one.

The exit of EGM would leave only three monthly multi-platform videogame magazines in the US -GamePro, Game Informer, and Play.

According to news, a corporate deck shuffling at Ziff-Davis resulted in the closure of EGM - the publishing company having recently declared the sale of its 1UP network of sites to the Hearst Corporation, which is the owner of a gaming portal - UGO Entertainment.

An email, reportedly sent by Jason Young, CEO Ziff-Davis, read: "After a comprehensive process, this morning we completed a deal with Hearst Interactive, the owner and operator of UGO Entertainment. 1UP. com, MyCheats. com, Gamevideos. com, and Gametab. com will now all be part of the UGO Entertainment business. Many of our employees travel with this business and become part of the UGO team."

The email also said that, as a result of its transaction with Hearst, the company had made the decision to discontinue publication of EGM.

In a 1UP story that announced the deal, UGO flaunted the acquisition of "tenured editorial personalities." However, at present, Hearst Corp intends keeping the two sites as separate entities, and many of the acquired site's editorial personalities are expected to remain.