Computerworld:
On June 23, we will publish the last print issue of Computerworld.
It was 47 years ago, almost to the day, that Computerworld’s very first issue rolled off the presses: June 21, 1967. The newspaper’s first publisher was the late Patrick J. McGovern, who was the founder and chairman of International Data Group (IDG), Computerworld’s parent company.
It’s sad to lose anything that has endured so long. But we are merely taking part in the natural evolution of the media industry, like so many great publications before us. Trains, after all, were once powered by coal and steam; Computerworld is moving from paper to electrons.
I think Macworld magazine is IDG’s last that still appears in print form. Anyone think the print edition of Macworld will be around in five years? I don’t.
I hope MacWorld is around in 5 years. I still subscribe, and I prefer my bathroom reading material to be paper, and disposable. (No slight against them, it’s just where I read it,)
I don’t think it’ll last five years. I’d bet on three tops. I do also miss reading actual printed magazines and being in the printing industry I don’t want printed media going anywhere. But, to be honest, I didn’t even know Macworld was still being printed!
That would be sad. I subscribe specifically so I can have copies of MacWorld in my waiting room.
Agree, not in five years (nice Bowie reference btw), likely not even in three.
Print (and its ecological impact) should be reserved for things with a much longer half-life than news, reviews or 5,000 tricks to revive Windows.
The average issue of Macworld arrives with “news” that hit the Internet 6-8 weeks earlier. It still has a few articles worth reading, but if you subtract old news, tons of ads and reformatted press releases from the mix, you look at not even 10 pages of content (and I am trying to be nice here). And even those often contain stuff that would be better covered in a short video or with more detailed images. All things the Internet wins at every single time.
I actually heard that song tonight!
I think the wild card here is that there is more than one Mac-specific magazine on the shelves in all the markets where Macworld is published (and that Macworld USA is not the only Macworld magazine). The iOS halo effect (formerly the iPod halo effect) means more newbies need more help and for a certain market, that help comes from magazines. Will all the current Mac magazines survive in print form in 5 years? I think that is unlikely. Will one of them do so? I think the odds are good and Macworld (USA) has the best shot of the bunch. I also don’t think IDG will pull Macworld out of print while MacLife is still in print, because then you would be leaving money on the table for a competitor.
“there is more than one Mac-specific magazine on the shelves in all the markets where Macworld is published…”
But that was/is true of Computerworld, too. And IDG shuttered that print edition.
WRT to the sleazy Maclife magazine, I assure you, IDG/Macworld does not see them as a “competitor”.