Financial health of Mac publications

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baldprof

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I read this article this morning, which was a bit of a shock:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=4993

I have been a reader of this magazine since its inception. Does this event signify anything Mac users should be concerned about, even thought this concerns a PC publication?
And what about the financial health of the major Mac cpublications? your thoughts?:confused:
 
I haven't read the article in too much detail, but here in the UK I am guessing at least one of the Mac mags are gonna drop eventually.

There are 3: MacUser, MacWorld, and MacFormat. But the main reason I see one of them dropping, is:

A. Three's a crowd (depending on what room of the house your in!:D )
B. Over the last 4 years many major Apple resellers have gone bust (Camelot, MacLine, etc.)... thus ending up with less advertising revenue.

Point B is the deciding factor I think.
 
I wont buy any of these magazines anymore as 80 % of the magazines are filled with Adverts. You have to hunt for the reviews of products it quicker to do this on the net. Don't get me wrong I prefer to read thses articles in magazines but the magazines have become trade papers.

Starbuck
 
Funny, I only get them to drool at the adverts:D :D

But this is a computer mag thing anyway. I only occassionally buy them if they do something like Dreamweaver MX vs GoLive (recent MacUser article which swung me from GoLive to DW!)

But all the reviews, news etc... we get here before anywhere else (or the Mac rumour sites at least:rolleyes: )
 
I live in the US but I am subscribing to UK's Mac Format. It's simply the best Mac mag out there. MacWorld is extremely poorly put together and lacks content. I have subscribed to MacWorld for many years and when I discovered MacFormat, there just was no going back.

On the other hand, MacFormat has a much higher content value. They have detailed step-by-step tutorials, in-depth reviews with significant numbers of screen shots, etc. It comes with 2 CDs full of demos, shareware, and usually a free copy of one software package (sometimes an older copy, sometimes a "light" version of a more popular software).
They also have systematic reviews of shareware programs, which is a nice touch.

If you use a school analogy to compare levels, I would say that MacWorld is at the K-12 level, whereas MacFormat is at the college level.

If you want more specialization after that you have to subscribe to other magazines, and there is unfortunately not much out there: I find Design Graphics magazine but that's not a US magazine and it's targeted at graphics designers. MacTech is good for mac programming (and the only mag on that topic) but again you have to ask yourself whether a printed mag is a good format to discuss programming....

I would love to see a magazine that goes to the "Professional level". The content would be about how to make you and your Mac more productive, network administration, specs, new computer technologies that (could) affect the mac, performance tests (in depth, not the superficial MacWorld crap), really technical stuff, that would be of value to the Pro users. Maybe a new thread could be started about that.

In any case, I would strongly recommend MacFormat as a general Mac magazine to subscribe to.

PS: Isn't it weird that there is just not one serious Mac magazine in the US and that you have to go to the UK or Australia to find something worth the paper it's printed on?!:confused:
 
Marmotton, you should check out MacUser, it's probably the most design orientated mag. (Comes out every two weeks, but has no CD.)

Check out www.macuser.co.uk

There are a few decent design-computer mags: Computer Arts (but they seem pro Windows!... Digit, as well.)
 
Originally posted by baldprof
I read this article this morning, which was a bit of a shock:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=4993

I have been a reader of this magazine since its inception. Does this event signify anything Mac users should be concerned about, even thought this concerns a PC publication?
And what about the financial health of the major Mac cpublications? your thoughts?:confused:
Click to expand...

From where I sit, Mac magazines seem to be doing quite well. I subsribe to Macworld, MacHome, MacDesign, and MacAddict. Of the four, only Macworld seems to be losing pages. Militantly pro-Mac, anti-Wintel MacDesign seems to be growing in leaps and bounds. On the other hand, Wintel-centric Computer Shopper is a mere shadow of its former self. It used to be as big as medium-sized city's phone book. Now, it is not much larger than Macworld.

We must bear in mind that technically-oriented general interest magazines are losing pages. Wintel-centric publications are leading that trend. We can also take pride in the fact than Mac-centric magazines are bucking it.
 
I hate mags containing CDs, as long as they only contain free-/shareware, as they're rarely up to date. They should rather _evaluate_ some free-/shareware they would put on the CD instead of just filling the CDs with lots of crap.

The CDs have been a great source of free- and shareware in the past, when I simply _had_ no access to the net (I was always looking forward to the newest Graphics Converter updates back then...) and was using System 7.x.

But basically, yes, the mags are having hard times. But not only them. In Germany there's a new mag called MacProfessional, which I find much more interesting, as it's much more design oriented. But then again there's the 'Page' magazine, which may also contain some Windows related articles, but is a much more interesting read if you're into professional graphics design.

The 'old school' Macintosh magazines have had their time, I guess. They _really_ have been replaced by the 'net. Now that you can get soso-lala reviews about everything online, too, they should simply hire better people. I wouldn't mind reading a decent review/article in a magazine, even if I _have_ the info already from the net, if they would _ADD_ good information. But mostly it seems to be only a wrap-up of what I already know (and more in-depth instead the other way round).

Two German magazines which never fail to entertain & teach me: c't and iX. -> http://heise.de

And I like iX's ad: "You might not understand everything in it. But you can still brag with it."
 
I'm gonna have ot say that MacDesign is quite possibly the best Mac publication out there. Not only is is handy having design tips and tutorials saved in hadcopy for reference, but the mag i a blast to read. Anybody familar with Scott Kelby will understand this. The magazine is a great PC bashing experience similar to Kelby's must read, Macintosh the Naked Truth. It has a design and layout unlike any other magazine ou there, testament ot the proud design tradtiions of the Mac. I cna reccommend few other publications as highly as I can MacDesign. My only gripe is that it only comes out every other week.
 
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