After twenty years Electronic Gaming Monthly is closing its doors, and the January 2009 issue will be its last.

In the long rumored buyout, Ziff Davis Media sold its 1UP Digital Network to UGO Entertainment and shut down EGM, its last remaining print publication after Games For Windows magazine, the rebirth of Computer Gaming World, ended last April.

At least 30 Ziff Davis staff members were laid off, and everyone else now works exclusively for the online network, which includes 1UP.com, MyCheats.com, GameVideos.com and GameTab.com. The 1UP video podcast is terminated, and the state of the other podcasts is unknown.

That’s the news story, and here’s what it means: the games industry just lost one of the last refuges of intelligent, professional writers and editors.

Of course, this was a long time coming. Gaming journalism, especially print journalism, had a lot of problems. One was the generally greater degree of tech saavy among gamers, or at least gamers who care enough about the industry to read news. Those took to the Internet, where content came immediately and was easy to find, rather than to the magazine rack.

Another problem was with the magazines themselves. Game journalists had buddied up with gaming companies to ensure they got exclusive news, which meant that previews were sycophantic and unreliable, and journalists often bailed for jobs at game developers and publishers.

Game magazines bled to death, losing readers to the Web and writers to game companies and online publications, which are now the only option for news.

Web content versus print publication is a big issue among journalists. Web writers usually spend less time per story, since immediacy and volume are more important than detail. They have less time than their print counterparts to nitpick details, do serious investigative reporting, and write articles that matter and have a point and a literary voice.

All that matters online is getting an article up on the feed and moving to the next one. If its a rewrite of the press release without any additional information, so be it. Timeliness is all that matters for most blurbs, not care or message.

I first read EGM in 2000 not long after they hit the 100 issue mark. It had Unreal Tournament on the cover, and inside a Majora’s Mask review, funny letters, cosplay pictures, and a feature on games that were canceled en development. I loved it, and I’ve taken the thumb to every issue since.

I’ll miss the magazine’s professional insights, its wit and candor, its humor. I’ll miss reading news that has a distinct voice, and reviews that I can trust since they come from people who have been in the industry for ages and who I have agreed with in the past. Some of that is available online, but most is lost in the dash to the finish of online journalism.