Sovereign Media Inc. has announced a new magazine called Otaku USA Magazine. The magazine will "cover manga, anime, computer games and J-Pop, and it will be written by an American staff from an American point of view." According to the announcement, the new magazine's Editor-in-Chief will be Patrick Macias.

Source: ANN

Shueisha has announced that its shonen magazine Monthly Shonen Jump will cease publication as of the July issue, on sale June 6th. According to Shueisha, the suspension is due to Monthly Jump's declining sales, which have dropped 30% since its peak.

Also, Shueisha's Public Relations Department stated that a new magazine is currently being planned to replace Monthly Shonen Jump: "We plan on creating a new magazine that is more in tune with the times, tentatively slated for a launch this fall."

Monthly Shonen Jump was launched in December of 1969 as a sister magazine of Weekly Shonen Jump. In 1989, the magazine's circulation reached 1,400,000, while last year only 420,000 copies were printed. Series serialized in Monthly Shonen Jump include Claymore by Norihiro Yagi, Beet the Vandel Buster by Riki Sanjo & Koji Inada, Captain by Akio Chiba, Mahou Tsukai Kurohime, and more. There has been no announcement regarding the future of manga currently serialized in Monthly Shonen Jump.

Source: Yahoo! Japan

The first issue of a new magazine from Aoba Shuppan called Comic Junk will be released on February 26th. The monthly magazine will be sold for 390 yen, and will feature series such as Shin Naniwa Kinyudo by Yuji Aoki.

Also released on January 26th are two adult manga magazines:

- Young Dokan by Akebono Shuppan
- H na OL Daisuki! by Touen Shobo

A new manga magazine called Lottery Manga Monthly was recently released in Taiwan by Bohai Publishing. Lottery Manga Monthly is one of the recipient of the "1996 Comic Periodical Publications Grant," and receives 300,000 Taiwan dollars each month, for up to 12 months. Lottery Manga Monthly will serialize original manga series created by Taiwan artists.

A new British magazine called Monocle will be released this month. While the magazine will focus on global affairs, business, culture and design, it will also serialize a political thriller manga series, commissioned in Japan, featuring the Monocle hero Niels Watanabe.

Source: MangaBlog

Kadokawa Shoten will release a new bi-weekly seinen magazine titled Comic Charge in March. The first issue will come out on March 20th and sell for 290 yen. Comic Charge is Kadokawa Group's first manga magazine aimed at adult men, with its target audience being businessmen between the ages of 30 and 50.

Source: Animaxis

Celebrating Corocoro Comic's 30th anniversary, a special event will be held by Shogakukan at the Suginami Animation Museum in Tokyo from February 27 to May 27. Events will include screenings, autograph signings and displays of original manuscripts from Corocoro Comic.

Source: Toon Zone

During the 25th Next Generation World Hobby Fair held in the University of Tokyo's Association Hall from January 20 to 21, Shogakukan announced a new magazine titled Nekketsu!! Coro Coro Densetsu that's aimed at "adults in their 20's-30's and [will] collect and compile classic [...] manga from the 1970's through the mid 1990's." The first volume will be released on May 25th, current lineup includes Doraemon, Dodge Danpei, Obake no Q-taro and Bikkuriman. (Note this year also marks the 30th anniversary of Shogakukan's Monthly Coro Coro Comics)

Source: ANS

Manga Jouhou translates an article from Tokyo Newspaper on the free manga magazine Comic Gumbo, and how it will affect the publication industry.

The first issue of a new shojo manga magazine from Futabasha was released on 1/24.

The magazine, titled Comic Mahou no iland (Island) (COMIC?????????i?????????), will serialize manga based on popular mobile novels (cellular phone novels).

The magazine will be released on the 24th of every month, at the price of 550 yen.