Rolling Stone's Take on Guitar Hero

Rolling Stone magazine’s break with tradition continues.

Seven months after scrapping its iconic oversized format, the biweekly publication will enter the video game business with the May 26 release of Rolling Stone: Drum King, produced by 505 Games for the Nintendo Wii.

Drum King, a rhythm-action game in the same vein as Guitar Hero, is part of an effort by the biweekly magazine to hitch its brand to a growing medium at a time when print is contracting. In the first quarter magazines tracked by Publishers Information Bureau sold nearly 26 percent fewer ad pages than the same period last year. Rolling Stone’s pages fell 22.5 percent for the period.

Lately the Wenner Media title has been pushing its name elsewhere to offset declines in revenue from the magazine. After Barack Obama was elected, the publisher sold some 300,000 “bookazines,” glossy compilations of its coverage of the Presidential race, at $9.95 apiece.

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