When did the paper quality of the magazine get so terrible?

[RuySan]

I used to buy the magazine religiously until the nr.100 or so, but due to lack of space I've been subscribing to digital.

I bought nº200 and now the nº212 due to the lovely Monkey Island cover and I'm appalled by the quality of the paper. It's so thin and flimsy that it feels it's of the verge of tearing every time I read it. For something that is supposed to be stored and collected this is inexcusable. There's no comparison with the old issues from 10 years ago.

I bought a car magazine for 1€ the other day and I'm not joking when I say the paper quality is way better than current Retro Gamer.

[psj3809]

Think the paper quality has changed tons but i've never had extra 'rips' or anything, presume the papers changed as they may be using some recycled type of one which is fine by me. But no rips here

[ely]

There's no doubt that different magazines use differing paper, I get 3 different mags a month (RetroGamer, EVO and Edge) and RG is probably the least weighty in that regards, but it's never been a problem for me and I've not noticed a change in recent times. Certainly I never have an issue with pages ripping, even when reading it in the bath

I'm curious what car magazine you bought for 1€?

[NorthWay]

They use paper that I think can't take the ink too well - it gets too saturated by it and becomes more or less "wet". The result is that you get a warping effect to it.

[bounty bob]

I think the paper quality changed within a few months after Future Publishing took over from Imagine 4 years ago. There was a few forum posts about it at the time

[rinzwind]

True paper certainly changed few years back. Paperweight went down. Sad but what can you do... especially since its a magazine that does not age...