MacWorld print edition going away

[jcarter]

Ive subscribed to MacWorld for many many years. I do like the print version, and have many people who I give them to when Im finished.
They go into my dentist's waiting room too.

Oh, well, I still will have Mac|Home

[jchuzi]

And another development:  IDG cancels Macworld/iWorld 2015 conference, says show 'going on hiatus'.

[Raven]

Digital MacWorld? Ugh!   
       I read several magazines monthly and MacWorld is my favourite. I don’t read each issue cover to cover at one time. Sometimes it gets read in the living room during TV commercials. Sometimes at the breakfast table, in the bathroom(!), and in my bed before I go to sleep. I underline articles of interest, tear out pages that I want to keep as reference, and mark covers that I want to keep for for future use. I’ve even taken a magazine along to the doctor’s waiting room to kill time. It’s easier and more convenient to read a magazine on a plane than read an article on a 15” laptop between two tight seats!
   I use an iMac for my design business, a MacBook Pro when I do work out of town, and an iPhone that I use everywhere I go. None of these devices are convenient to read a technical magazine. The iPhone screen is too small. The iMac restricts me to my office. And the laptop is cumbersome to turn on and off to find the magazine and the page I was at last.
Enlarging a page to comfortably read it on a laptop screen and having to scroll, find the arrows to click back and forth to turn the page is a nuisance and irritating.  Give me paper!
   There may be economic reasons why MacWorld believes digital will supersede paper, but they've done a disservice to many readers. And what’s that worth?

[jcarter]

You certainly have explained this well. Ive been getting that magazine for many years. Its always about money, guess they laid off some employees too.
I always have given my copies away to anybody who wants them, actually our dentist asks for them and our doctor too.

Also I carry the magazine around the house too, and some of the older ones end up in the car and the grandkids take them.
And on the coffee table when somebody in the family is watching a boring TV show, and I want to be in the living room by the fireplace.

I too, used to tear out a page that I wanted to save and try something fun.

For many years, I used to subscribe it for our high school library, until the graphic arts teacher(a neighbor) retired last year.

Yes I sure miss it. The digital version is open on my other Mac, but I forget to read it.

[Raven]

Are MacWorld editors listening? I can't even find an editorial page to send them a letter of complaint. Wonder how the advertisers will analyse this and track the eyeballs?

[jcarter]

I hope that Mac|Life doesnt do the same, but their new issue was quite fat and full of good stuff, so I hope they stick with their Magazine.  I bet their subscriptions have gone up recently. I think I might let my MacWorld one lapse when it runs out next summer.  Unless I can remember to read it on the computer, and I keep forgetting.

[Xairbusdriver]

Not sure where or how they are publishing the digital version, but your complaints about that format don't seem to apply to the books/articles I've read on my iPad or the Kindle apps. Every e-reader app I've used has prefs or settings for selecting font sizes/font family/background color/etc.. 'Pages' are flipped by swiping, not touching/clicking on arrows. 'Pages' can be bookmarked very simply and found easily. They can also be deleted if you only want to use one to mark where you last read. However, bookmarks can also be used to create your own "index" of items you want to view repeatedly. Access to images/video/related info/etc. are actual 'links' that can be used to go directly to that extra material, as long as you have Internet access. As far as I know, you can't do any of that with paper.

e-Books are basically just a stripped down version of html. So links are links, scrolling is scrolling, etc. But html, itself, has a great deal of limitations. For books/print, the biggest one, in my humble opinion, is the lack of available fonts. Most great fonts cost money to license, so the fewer included with any reader, the cheaper it is. Of course, an e-book reader usually has at least five or 10 fonts to choose from, paper has one. And, every time an editor decides to change the normal font, there are hundreds of complaints!

Images are often extremely important, but e-readers have limited memory and pixels, not to mention colors, available unless you pay for an iPad or expensive tablet. Of course, an image might be replaced with "a thousand words"!

As for Macworld, I stopped reading the magazine quite a while ago. Reviews were always months out-of-date. Tutorials usually lacked enough images and could never match a video. There was very little input from real users. Answers to problem was always limited to a small handful of specific topics which were further limited to the most common apps/hardware which may not have applied to me, at all. Technology simply moves too fast for a typesetter to keep up. Then there is the time delays of printing and mailing, not to mention the damages that can be done by the USPS, assuming they even deliver the magazine to the correct address...

Have we come to the cost of paper and ink, yet? Hey, you want printed paper? Buy a printer! See how much that will cost you. And it won't cost me anything for your copy!

BTW, an iPad will work in most bathrooms...

[jcarter]

Digital version is on Zinio, and its very nice on the 27 inch screen. But I like to read in our livingroom by our lovely fireplace with Lilly and my husband.

I really dont like sitting here reading a magazine or book on my computer.
Tho I have a Kindle. Am I getting too old for the comforts of reading paper?

[Xairbusdriver]

I used Zinio for a few months, did not care for its UI. Dumped it. I now use Calibre for most e-books/pdfs/etc. It allows for some editing of non-DRMed books.

[jcarter]

To read MacWorld, we are forced to use it.
Sometimes particular technology is not what we want, but what is the alternative?
Mac|Life!  I think they will take up where MacWorld left many people in the lurch.

[Raven]

Xairbusdrive,
We could have a long discussion about the merits of reading on a screen vs paper. Seeing a full page of MacWorld at one glance with a few ads and a side bar is different than reading one page of a book. As I don't want an iPad (already have all the other Mac devices), it will be interesting to see how this shakes out. I received my first digital version of MacWorld today. I already find it inconvenient trying to read it in my home office.
Also makes me wonder if the mag is not on the shelf at a convenience store or airport, how do they attract new readers? YOU are probably at the far end of the bell curve as a Mac user. The other 80% are far behind, including me. ;-)

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

I received my first digital version of MacWorld today. I already find it inconvenient trying to read it in my home office.

If you have to use Zinio, I can understand your frustrations. I'm sure they use that to prevent non-subscribers to view it. However, I found Zinio a poor substitute for e-reading, even though it did offer publishers more latitude in style choices. If Zinio is all that e-readers offered, paper magazine would still be increasing!

I suspect the much higher cost of magazine stand issues did lead to many subscriptions. However, the fact remains that paper is a much higher cost medium, even when subsidized by ads. Ad rates are closely tied to circulation numbers, so as those came down, so did the ad rates, which led to smaller editions, which meant less coverage, which led to lower purchases, which...

Even for those with questions, there are literally hundreds of faster ways to get answers... without waiting for months and hoping your question even gets published. For detailed help and even instruction on particular apps or hardware, there are very well written and current books. Many come in both paper and digital versions with links to files and videos. Of course, most have digital versions and a web site for errata and corrections.

I still haunt brick & mortar book stores (both new and used), but not so much for up-to-date reference info. By the way, TidBITS.com publishes an extensive number of titles that should be of use to anyone who has questions from general to specific. They often have bundle sales that make their normal $10 price even better! Of course, updates are easy and free.

Your choice of what hardware to buy is not what is driving paper away from magazines. BTW, I consider magazines and books as two very different media; I seldom throw away a paper book after reading it!

[jcarter]

I never throw a book away, lend it, give it, take it to the book section of the thrift shop, take it to the senior center.

Magazines like MacWorld, Nat Geo, Smithsonian, Science news and others we get, mostly get passed on to family or friends.  And the thrift shop takes these too.

I certainly agree, I dislike to see anything wasted.