Print may not yet be dead, but it’s sadly looking like Fangoria is.

*UPDATE: FANGORIA HAS RELEASED AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT ABOUT THEIR FUTURE*

Hanging on a wall in my office is a framed issue of Fangoria Magazine; a destructive Godzilla is on the cover, and most horror fans would immediately recognize it as the historic first issue of the magazine, published in 1979. The influence of Fangoria on several generations of horror fans is undeniable – whether you hungrily ingested the magazine in its heyday or have only heard stories from those who did, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that you, like myself, will forever respect the brand for its game-changing contributions to the genre. Particularly in a pre-internet world, Fangoria was THE source for information on upcoming horror films, its eye-catching covers responsible for tossing countless readers down the proverbial rabbit hole of horror.

But the reality is that here in 2017, magazines are falling by the wayside at an increasingly steady clip. When you can get horror news the instant it breaks on sites like this one and incredibly in-depth analyses of your favorite movies on numerous sites and blogs across the web, well, there’s just not that much incentive to drop nearly $10 on a magazine. And Fangoria has been very publicly going through its own share of troubles in recent years, on top of the inherent issues that come along with trying to run a magazine in an internet-dominated world.

From editors departing to ownership changes and stories of writers being unpaid for their work, Fangoria has been having a rough go at it in recent years; their last print issue hit shelves back in October of 2015, and only a small handful of digital issues have been released since then. You could say the writing has been on the walls for a while, and it seems Fangoria may now be dead.

Ken Hanley, the magazine’s most recent editor-in-chief, took to Twitter last night to break some depressing news. In a series of tweets, Hanley revealed:

Been waiting a long time to say it, but I can finally say: I am no longer involved with FANGORIA. I’ve been on hiatus from the company in mid-December. I’ll always be grateful for the time and opportunity there, so it’s a fucking bummer. For those wondering: there will likely never be another issue of FANGORIA, especially in print, unless there’s new ownership. As for the odds of that happening, there’s a minuscule chance as something was (is?) in the cards, but I’ve personally given up hope.

He added:

I wish for the best for those remaining at FANGO, for however long that may be, especially the Musick team.

We would also like to wish the best of luck to Fangoria and everyone involved with the brand. If this is the end of an era (nothing has been officially reported at this time, so it’s hard to know if it’s truly the end), at least one thing cannot ever be taken away: it was one hell of an era.

Without Fangoria, I’m not sure the horror genre would be as strong as it is today.