Paragon Publishing
 | |
| Ltd | |
| Industry | Magazine publishing |
| Founded | Richard Monteiro and Dianne Taverner (co-founders) |
| Headquarters | Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, UK |
Paragon Publishing Ltd (or Paragon for short) was a magazine publisher in the UK, which published computer games and other entertainment titles from 1991 to 2003.
Brief history
Paragon Publishing Ltd was formed in a small office in Trowbridge, Wiltshire by ex-Future Publishing staff Richard Monteiro and Dianne Taverner. With a small team of staff they began work on their first publication Sega Pro.
With the success of Sega Pro the company began expanding and launched several other titles, hiring more staff to produce these new titles. It was not long before the company moved into new premises in Bournemouth.
The company continued to publish magazines for the video games market as well as other areas for the next decade.
In July 2003 Paragon Publishing and its 30-odd magazine titles were sold to Highbury House Communications for £32m. Imagine Publishing, which was formed by ex-Paragon staff Damian Butt, Steve Boyd and Mark Kendrick, would buy back most of these titles when Highbury themselves went into liquidation in early 2006.
Key Titles
Paragon published many titles during its decade run, mainly computer or video games based, but later moved into other areas of entertainment.
Sega Pro
The company's first magazine publication and a big success. Covering the early 90s explosion in popularity of Sega's Mega Drive as well as the Master System and Game Gear. Well-known names on early issues included Dominic Handy, Les Ellis, Dave Perry, James Scullion and Damian Butt. Ran for many years up until Sega themselves disappeared.
Mega Power
Following the success of Sega Pro, a new title focusing on the Mega Drive and in particular the Mega-CD was launched in 1993. The magazine was the first console publication to include a covermounted CD.
Console XS
A bi-monthly games console tips magazine launched in 1993. Featuring game cheats, tips, and guides for the consoles of the early 90s. After four issues, the title was split into two: Sega XS, which focused solely on Sega platforms, and Super XS, covering Nintendo games.
Games World: The Magazine
Games World was a video games based TV show broadcast on satellite in the early 90s. The show's producers, Hewland International, gave the rights to produce Games World: The Magazine to Paragon. The multi-format magazine content was generally centred on Sega and Nintendo's consoles.
Nintendo Pro
As with Sega Pro, Nintendo Pro focused on the Nintendo range of consoles. It was originally known as N64 Pro and was one of the titles Paragon Publishing acquired with the acquisition of the Macclesfield-based titles of IDG Media.
Play
Launched in 1995 by Paragon with Dave Perry as editor. One of the first PlayStation magazines released covering Sony's PlayStation products, later including the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation 3. It is the UK's longest-running PlayStation magazine, and is currently in its 11th year on sale, published under Imagine Publishing.
PowerStation
Originally a PlayStation magazine and now a PlayStation and Xbox 360 tips magazine launched at the same time as sister title Play by Dave Perry. As with Console XS content included games cheats, tips and guides. Along with its sister title, PowerStation was bought by Imagine Publishing in 2006.
X Gen
A short-lived multi format magazine in the style of ACE and EDGE.
64 Magazine
Launched in 1997, 64 Magazine covered Nintendo's N64 console.
Dreamcast Magazine
Covering Sega's Dreamcast, Dreamcast Magazine was launched in 1999.
DVD Review
Launched in 1999 and later purchased by Future Publishing.
CUBE
Launched in 2001 to cover Nintendo's GameCube console.