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Electronic News Is Shutting Its Doors

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the closing-down dept.

ahess247 writes "You probably missed it, but last week, the publication that helped give Silicon Valley its name announced that it will be shutting down its paper edition next month. Electronic News is one of the oldest trade publications covering the electronics and semiconductor industries. Launched in 1957, it predates its main competitor EETimes by more than a decade. One of its main claims to fame is it was the first publication to ever use the phrase "Silicon Valley" in print. A reporter for the weekly paper, the late Don Hoefler wrote a series of stories entitled "Silicon Valley, USA" that started the week of Jan. 11, 1971. The name, as we all know, stuck. It was also within the pages of Electronic News that Intel Corp. first advertised its 4004 Microprocessor. Once considered the bible of the electronics industry, its last printed issue will go out to subscribers on Dec. 2. According to this press release from its current owner, Reed Business, the publication will shift to an "all digital format." All but three staffers have been let go, and they will produce what essentially amounts to an online newsletter. Not a fitting end for a publication with such an important place in the history of the semiconductors industry."

24 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. hey by redshift-systems · · Score: 2, Insightful

    what is wrong with that?

  2. Altair? by mbogosian · · Score: 2

    Wasn't this the publication which was also, in part (at least from the "advertising", responsible for the widespread popularity of the Altair as well?

    --

    moto411.com
  3. Fitting? by DoctorFrog · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Not a fitting end for a publication with such an important place in the history of the semiconductors industry."

    Or perhaps it is...

  4. Poetic? by BoBaBrain · · Score: 5, Interesting

    [Electronic News] will produce what essentially amounts to an online newsletter. Not a fitting end for a publication with such an important place in the history of the semiconductors industry.


    Call it irony or call it poetry, but isn't this the most fitting end imaginable?

    --
    I am a Karma Library.
  5. Re:Here it comes... by mbogosian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We are in the age of information, electronic information for that matter. This could be the start of a very big trend. Publicationscan save millions by providing their pubs online with a nominal subscription fee. Of course there will always be those who prefer their hard copy.

    I don't think the point of the post was that EETimes is going "online only"...it's that they're in financial trouble and are (slowly) shutting things down.

    --

    moto411.com
  6. Oh no :( by EmagGeek · · Score: 4, Interesting
    How am I going to goof off while pretending to work now? Now I have one fewer thing to do to distract myself from my real work :(

    All joking aside, I liked electronic news a LOT more than I liked EETimes. EN actually sent me relevant, interesting stories whereas EETimes only publishes articles based on the IEEE's agenda du jour

    Am I the only one who notices that EETimes articles are almost always political in nature whereas EN just reports the facts? I will miss EN for sure.

  7. all in the game by katalyst · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is typical of the IT industry. IBM - the pioneers of the homePC lost out to other companies like Dell/Compaq/HP. The GUI pioneered by Xerox (poor sods) lost it to Apple and then finally to Microsoft. Even the console market - Sega and Nintendo are losing out to the playstations and maybe the Xbox(still to be seen). SO why not a newspaper ?

    --
    |/________
    |\A|ALYS|
    1. Re:all in the game by hype7 · · Score: 2, Offtopic
      The GUI pioneered by Xerox (poor sods) lost it to Apple


      this makes me mad.

      From woz.org:
      Q From e-mail: ... I also have one question; did Apple "steal" the GUI from Xerox (at PARC), or did they develop it themselves?

      WOZ: Apple worked with Xerox openly to bring their developments to a mass audience. That's what Steve portrayed Apple as being good at. Xerox got a lot of Apple stock for it too, it was an agreement.
      Apple stole *nothing*. It was a deal. Whether it was a smart deal... doesn't matter. Both companies agreed.

      As for MS stealing from Apple... well, that's another story entirely.

      -- james
  8. First article? by Zapper · · Score: 2, Funny

    1957? I can just imagine the first "Hardware Review":
    We started our review of this machine several years ago and we are pleased to unveil our 3Dmark results for the IBM 608...

    --
    So much to do, so little bandwidth.
    --
    Try Mozilla
  9. It's as fitting an end as could be imagined by edhall · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Change, and the new superseding the old, is what the Silicon Valley is all about. Yes, companies come and go, but it isn't the companies, per se, that make SV what it is. It's the human infrastructure, the critical mass of talent that is always ready to move on and create the next "great thing."

    -Ed
  10. Before they shut down by rikkards · · Score: 2, Funny

    It would be nice if they straightened out who can call themselves Silicon Valley North; Calgary, Ottawa, Seattle, Portland or Markham (Toronto)?

    1. Re:Before they shut down by CaseyB · · Score: 2
      Let Google decide: " 'silicon valley north' and *** "

      • Calgary: 542
      • Ottawa: 4860
      • Seattle: 533
      • Portland: 136
      • Markham: 183
      • Toronto: 3880
      I first heard it used with reference to Ottawa.
    2. Re:Before they shut down by NetFu · · Score: 2

      All this Silicon Valley North/South/East, Silicon Alley, etc. crap is ridiculous. Come up with your own f*ckin' name because using an offshoot of Silicon Valley just makes you look like a weak wanna-be, which is exactly the opposite of what I'm sure you're going for.

  11. Re:Here it comes... by TechnoVooDooDaddy · · Score: 2

    I don't think the point of the post was that EETimes is going "online only"...it's that they're in financial trouble and are (slowly) shutting things down.

    of course they are... if the public weren't so slow, MOST if not ALL print publications would be in financial trouble. This is the way things are heading, and publication companies are realizing that you can publish the equivelant of an online newsletter or magazine with a MUCH smaller staff and MUCH cheaper costs than a dead tree version.

    Pull out the horse-drawn carraige similies if you must, but technology and human advancement marches on..

  12. Industry-specific publications... by buckeyeguy · · Score: 4, Interesting
    are the stuff that fills corporate ref libraries, which are themselves falling prey to the 'online is better' notion. Never read EN, but I'm guessing that it's something like Aviation Week, a publication my dad could not do without in his days at a major aerospace supplier; if you had a subscription, you knew what was going on in the industry. Now they have an online presence. It's probably just a natural evolution for mags like these, the ref library of the future will merely be a collection of links and content subscriptions. Hope that's not true, but that's the way it's shaping up.

    And, online versions mean that you don't have to toss out a pile of mags every so often.

    --
    I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
    1. Re:Industry-specific publications... by anonymous+loser · · Score: 2

      I still get the print version of Aviation Week every, uh...week. While some of the stories in aviationnow.com and the magazine overlap, they each have unique material that makes both versions relevant and useful.

      Although now that I have 802.11b and can carry my notebook/PDA into the toilet and still maintain a good internet connection, their days might be numbered. ;-)

    2. Re:Industry-specific publications... by gaudior · · Score: 2

      Not all online versions are better than their dead tree predecessors. Byte magazine, until it's last few years was an excellent publication. They started to suck when they stopped publishing hardware projects and source listings. The online version now is jsut more marketing crap, like PC mag.

    3. Re:Industry-specific publications... by buckeyeguy · · Score: 2

      Actually, I can't think of any online versions that are really superior to their print counterparts... and while Byte was more of a general computing mag than a industry/trade mag, it did have its niche. In the end, I only read it for Jerry Pournelle's end-user-oriented column (and then sometimes only to see what he and Niven were up to ;)

      --
      I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
  13. Re:Isn't this a happy story? by JPelorat · · Score: 2

    Oddly enough, those trees you think it's cute to anthropomorphise are also made up of those same 14 billion year old recycled electrons.

    --
    Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
  14. Who reads this? by Cap'n+Canuck · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not talking about Electronic News, I'm talking about this particular reply.

    Look at the numbers - barely a quarter of the normal replies, and a tenth if it was a story about William Shatner doing an interview. That tells me two things:
    1) This article does not belong in /.
    2) It's no surprise that EN is dying.

    I did read EN back in the 80's and 90's (it was good), but I haven't picked up a copy since then.

    BTW - it would come as no surprise to me that this is neither read, replied to, or moderated, but you can prove me wrong. Go ahead.

  15. Had to go digital... by Mannerism · · Score: 2

    It was inevitable. Faithfully following Moore's law, the volume of semiconductor news has been doubling every 18 months since the invention of the integrated circuit. The last issue of the Electronic News was about 43 billion pages long, and the print run consumed the entire output of the British Columbia pulp and paper industry.

    --
    Please donate your spare CPU cycles to help fight cancer and other diseases
  16. Great article in Electronic News by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 2


    If something bad is happening, why is Electronic News publishing great articles, like this one about the conversion of cars from 12 volt systems to 42 volt systems: Gearing Up to 42V?

  17. Everything I know is wrong by slickwillie · · Score: 2

    I always thought Silicon Gulch predated Silicon Valley.

  18. The future of all publications by Felinoid · · Score: 2

    Way back I asked myself "How can anyone stay in business publishing on paper with the printing costs etc with the net?"
    I got my answer more recently with the dot com bust.
    Not enough readership is online. Advertising isn't priced right and advertisers fear online media.
    But thats changing.
    For Electronic News it's already changed. It's readership is totally online by now with out exception.
    The advertisers aren't affrade.. Microsoft, IBM etc all cutting edge companys use electronic marketting and prefer it to print.
    It's priced right. They are premiuim ad space in the e space but not so much in the paper world.
    Your subscription to your local newspaper covers some of the printing costs.
    Ads take up the bulk of the papers operating costs. Those ads have to be pricy to pay for everything.
    That's how it works.
    With free web publishing your publishing costs are slashed to a much more managable price level but unless you can pull in the same money with e-ads the transition dosen't pay.

    --
    I don't actually exist.