More dust to be bitten
Earlier this month I expressed some concern over the future of PC World, what with a couple of its columnists signing off in the December issue.
However bad it may be at PCW, though, it’s worse at rival PC Magazine:
PC Magazine will go the way of the Christian Science Monitor and assorted teen magazines and become a digital-only publication, parent company Ziff Davis Media announced Wednesday.
The print version of the monthly will come to an end with the January issue. In addition, PCMag Network, the online home of the publication, will be renamed PCMag Digital Network. Seven employees of the magazine will lose their jobs.
The more than 600,000 subscribers to the magazine will be offered subscriptions to the monthly digital edition of the magazine. Currently the digital edition has roughly 15,000 subscribers, who pay $15 a year.
Meanwhile, across the way:
Ad pages for the magazine plunged 23% this year to 617, following a 34% slide in 2007, according to IMS/The Auditor. Rival tech title PC World edged out the longtime frontrunner last year, and widened its lead to well over 100 pages in 2008.
I can remember when PC Mag had 617 ad pages in a month. (Of course, they were publishing twice a month in those days.) Here’s the announcement from editor Lance Ulanoff.
If you ask me, and of course you didn’t, the best computer-related stuff Ziff-Davis ever did was the short-lived PC/Computing, which featured the legendary Notebook Torture Tests and a column by Penn Jillette.
MikeSwi... »
23 November 2008 · 4:43 pm
I saw this story in the NY Times the other day and was surprised by this little tidbit – “While most magazines make their money mainly from print advertising, PC Magazine derives most of its profit from its Web site. More than 80 percent of the profit and about 70 percent of the revenue come from the digital business.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/business/media/20mag.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&oref=slogin
I was shocked by that 80% statistic. Things have really changed.
I have a $20 a year subscription to PC World and enjoy that magazine so much more than PC Magazine, though I’ve subscribed to it for years as well and will miss it, though not near as much as if PC World were to go all digital. I like the idea of holding a glossy magazine and reading in bed before the lights go off. Reading it on the computer is just not the same. Though, if PC Magazine came out with a Kindle edition, I would consider that. I thought there was no way I could like a Kindle until all the raves forced me to shell out for one about 5 months ago. Now — I LOVE MY KINDLE!
By the way, I like your new WordPress platform. It looks clean, comments are better and this theme, free of other “stuff”, seems to really highlight your writing. Good job!
McGehee »
23 November 2008 · 5:06 pm
PC|Computing…
Those were the days. My exit from the computer-magazine-reader demographic may well trace its roots to that mag’s demise, now that you mention it.
Craig Ceely »
25 November 2008 · 12:55 pm
Ah yes, the Penn Jillette column, with its gratuitous yet obligatory Uma Thurman references…