Ferret: I happen to agree with your whole "lull" take on things. Coming from the newspaper industry, readership for every media seems to be very bad right now. I'm working much harder than ever before on trying to do some damage control for my own paper. I also agree that expansion risks running us into the ground with "skript kiddie" visitors. Anyone who disagrees with your take on expansion need only look at video game message boards. With one glance, you'll wonder if diapers come free with every account. However...
Spidey: I tend to agree that something needs to be done as there is an actual problem going on here, and it does appear to be more than a lull (though a lull is certainly at least partially to blame). We need to do something to fix the problem, but we need to be cautious about it, because Ferret has a good point about being too drastic with change.
Let's look at what is working: Magicthegathering.com, Sideboard, Star City, and Brainburst. Forum-wise, I guess you could say MTGNews is living, but their content could be a rotting carcass and nobody would notice the difference. Look at the quality of articles, and the quantity, on the four sites that are living, and you'll notice there does indeed seem to be a lull going on. Or, at least it appears that way to me. However, they live on. Bye-bye Grimmore, and other niche sites out there. We have four bastions that live, and others flounder.
The two Wizards sites live on because they're from Wizards. MTG.com at least, provides content you can't get from anywhere else, with all the inside tidbits. Sideboard has the event coverage and the tourney info. In my opinion, though, if they didn't have the WotC bankroll, I would have absolute confidence in saying they would be dead right now. They live somewhat because of their content, and somewhat because of their backing...
That leaves two strong tourney sites, Star City and Brainburst, as the only real things left. Two friggen tourney sites...
On Brainburst, we see forum threads on the front page. On Star City, we see forum threads on the front page. On both, we see a definite increase in editorial wish for readers to chime in via forums.
From my experience in newspapering, when editorial says "Readers, we really want to know what you think" it really means "Readers, we need you to submit filler." Yeah, they're floundering, too, but at least they're not lingering on Death's door.
Why? I think its because they overspecialized. I think Ferret is wrong on what killed Dojo. It wasn't expansion, it was overspecialization. Getting rid of the humor area and stiffling casual articles, and a tighter focus on hardcore tourney coverage destroyed them. We see it with Star City and Brainburst now.
Heh heh.
What does any of this mean? How the hell should I know. It just means the whole thing isn't doing too well, thanks to many outside influences such as economy, and inside influences such as a pretty-much sharp shift towards tourney Magic (look at WotC's push for casual players to "at least try out" tourneys...after all "You can WIN WIN WIN. Enter, play WIN. It's that easy, Mr. Dupe...I mean, Mr. Casual.")
We have the right seating to make a casual comeback, as its an interest for all of us. And trust me, junk like "House of Cards" on MTG.com is not support for casual players, its just bait for them to come closer to the tourney propaganda. Every living site out there cares only for tourneys, which is their weakness.
The problem with casual, though, is it has no focus whatsoever. Everyone has their take on "how to really play casual." Everyone and their dogs makes up stupid formats (myself included...anybody remember Type X?) that have no purpose except to waste the reader's time. Its only the formats that get money backing (5 Color) or the ones which WotC backs (Highlander/Casual Format One) stick around for anybody to actually try out, and work out the kinks so they're worth playing.
What do we do? I dunno. Every take on "house rules" rather than lame new formats has already been done. Nothing new under the sun, until a new set comes out...so what is a casual writer supposed to do? Its not like we have the hook of "the money maker deck" like tourney sites do.
Just a few observations...my brain is on empty, sorry.
You're the one who appears to be the advocate for remaining just Magic, I think you oughta do something