Larry Flynt Calls It Quits in '96

The always-controversial Larry Flynt has made a lot of money publishing magazines -- you know the kind.  But back in the 1990s, he took a crack run at the video game magazine market with a couple of titles.  Now, video game magazines have always come and gone, but I was intrigued to find this page in Ultimate Gamer's sixth and final issue, circa January 1996:

The magazine wasn't bad -- at least it had a decent lineup of talent, with editors including Chris Bieniek, Frank O'Connor and Tyrone Rodriguez.  And Ultimate Gamer wasn't intended as a limited run, I'm sure.  But it's rather unusual to see a page in a finished issue of a magazine announcing its own impending demise; usually the news comes in the form of a postcard, or the gradual realization that a new issue hasn't arrived in quite a while.

The issue's editorial content says nothing about the cancellation, which implies that the decision was made at the last minute, but at least readers had the option of two different replacement magazines (also published by Flynt's company), and could even apply for a refund on the unused portion of their subscription.

Say what you like about Mr. Flynt, but even when things didn't go well, he treated his subscribers right.

And I'm sure mothers the world over were glad the replacement options were limited, unlike, say, when Electronic Gaming Monthly went temporarily under a year or two back, and substituted subscriptions to Maxim in its place.