I apologise for the naive question. But with all this info in a variety of European magazines recently, I think I'd find it helpful if I could set that info in context. So how exactly did these magazines get their info?

Did they go to Bethesda's studios? Or did people from BGS fly to the various European magazine HQs with whatever it is they were showing?

Did the people from the mags get to play a bit of the game? Or did they get to see someone play the game in real-time? Or did they get to see a video which showed footage? Something else?

I know that the magazines are, at the moment, mostly just acting as Bethesda's hype-machine, but this would help me set claims about Skyrim's "immersiveness' or whatever in a more informative context.

Thanks.

Everyone went to Bethesda, and Bethesda showed them what they felt like showing.

yup

Well, of course Bethesda showed them what they felt like showing them. The question then is: what did Bethesda feel like showing them? Did they say "Ok, here is a bit of the game you're free to play around with", and then they let the magazine guy play around for a bit to find some stuff to write down? Or did they say "You can watch me play through a bit of the game to see what it is like"? Or did they say "Here is a video we've worked up containing various bits of the game"?

They played the demo while the magazine's crew sat watching it.

They showed/played specific parts of the game that were ready. No way did anyone at the magazines have any kind of playtime themselves.