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Is PC World Still Worth the Subscription?
alexwcovington asks: "I've subscribed to PC World magazine since 1996, but my subscription is up for renewal this year, and I'm not sure if I need it anymore. I love reading the Stephen Manes rants and hoarding back issues in my closet, but I find myself getting virtually all the hard information I used to turn to PC World for from the Internet. What's the relevance of a print IT publication in modern times?"
How should I know wheither you should subscribe to a magazine or not? What's next? Ask Slashdot: should I wear my green T-shirt or my yellow one? Make up your own mind! We're all different! :)
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Most of those mags are readable online. Online suppliers advertise products more cheaply than those in the magazine, and I don't have any more respect for the reviewers in the mag than online, because you're trusting people who are likely to not want to upset the manufacturers and retailers who supply the magazine with review kit that they can subsequently keep, rather than people online who've bought the stuff with their own money and used it - often for extended periods of time. Also, you get much more in depth reviews, with much more accurate information online, especially if you surf around and check out a few sites. Finally, you're left with a few hundred pages of paper to through away at the end of the month. I see no point in buying computer magazines any longer.
In my opinion, no. I quit reading compuer magazines in mid-90-ies because they do not really give anything new that is not present in the Internet. And besides, the magazines publich everything on the internet as well. Plus on internet you have various sites like Slashdot that first, filter only the most interesting articles, and second, provide very insightfull and witty discussion, third, help you understand whether article is a genuine news article or a hidden advertising for one big company or another.
Well I now read a weekly magazine (Micromart, a UK computer magazine), mostly for buses and planes. Monthly magazines are just too old now, everything has been reported/reviewed elsewhere long before.
My little Linux and tech blog
In the current world, and in the near future, printed news, magazines and humor is going to be completely superceded by online sources simply because the internet is cheaper, updated more frequently and available 24 hours a day.
You'll have your hold-outs who desire a physical product, or the aesthetics/tactile feedback of paper, but with the coming advances in e-ink and e-paper, it's only a matter of time before paper media will be relegated to the realm of the courier on horseback riding from town to town to deliver the news.
Want some advice? Register http://www.theredcoatsarecoming.com/ as soon as you can!
'Nuff said.
I haven't subscribed to any computer magazines in about a decade.
Subscribe to a real magazine! Say...New Scientist! Once a week...incredibly up to date. There's been MANY times where I read something in it to hear it on the news a few days later. Seems to be a source that everyone (including Slashdot) seems to use.
PC World was/is a great magazine if you are a novice. I learned a lot when I started from PC's because of my subscription, and I can see how it can help a lot of people. I just outgrew it eventually, and it didn't hit the more technical details I needed. It just depends on what you are looking for out of it.
You didn't mention if you have a laptop that you can balance skillfully on your knees. What are you going to read in the bathroom?
I don't know about PC World. I think if I ran Windows, it might be worthwhile, but I don't know.
I really like linux magazines, and I think they offer good counter examples to the print dynamic that a lot of people describe. Yes, it's true the web is free, and yes, it's updated all the time. But I find that print magazines tend to point out things to me I hadn't noticed before, and that they often have pretty good writeups.
It's not that you can't find information about some software project on the web -- it's that you might have heard of that project before, so you don't know to google it. The magazines do a good job of flagging interesting new stuff.
My main problem with these mags is that the ones from Europe are priced at insane levels here in the States. I was looking at one the other day on the newsstand, and I wanted it, but it was something like $15.99. It comes with a DVD, but what's that worth when you have broadband?
The problem isn't that the content isn't good, and the problem isn't that $16 is a huge amount of money in the scheme of things. The problem is that you sort of feel taken advantage of at that price. No one wants to feel like a chump, but at $16, that's where you end up.
But a linux journal subscription, which is something like $25 for a year, is a great deal.
I gave up on PC World back in about 1993. Back then it was a pile of commercial shite. I'm certain it's devolved even further on the evolutionary ladder since then.
I miss Byte magazine. It was vastly better than PCMag.
-=Maggie Leber=-
D
My god.
You managed to get your question submitted to Ask Slashdot? Did your Son help you?
What possible insight can/could a magazine offer you these days? There's 4000 million blogger out there, all with lame arse opinions about nothing (yes, I am one of these 4000 m bloggers) - Why on EARTH would you pay to read some jerk's sponsered opinion?
AND THEN "Ask Slashdot" about it?
People, WAKE UP!
This is not a real "Ask Slashdot" - It's just Slashdot trolling for some fuel to print mags about how "relevant" they are. Which they're not, after Digg. Bugger.
Here (New Zealand) about a year ago IDG publishing, who own PC World, restructured the pcworld.co.nz website and took off all the localally produced content. So yes if you want to read the local articles then you have to subscribe. You can of course read much of the magazines content from the U.S websites.
Another reason why it's better to get the printed magazine here is that in NZ we have data usage caps (1GB/5GB/10GB per month)imposed by the phone and cable companies so any stuff you can get on cover CDs means you don't have to download it, game demos, patches and so on.
I'd expect telcos in other countries to start imposing harsher fair use policies in the form of usage caps in the future.
And the reason is simple. A magazine is the perfect size to take into the toilet with you. Unless you want to sit there with a laptop? A magazine is the ultimate in portability, as well.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
You wouldn't steal a magazine, would you? Downloading information from the Internet is no different than walking into a magazine store, stuffing a magazine in your pocket, and walking out without paying for it. What you do hurts the magazine industry. With the new legislation (paid by the Magazine Industry Association of America), you can (and will) be sued in criminal court.
Remember, kids: downloading information from the Internet is stealing.
The only magazines I still carry a subscription on are IEEE Spectrum (comes with the IEEE membership), IEEE Computer (the IEEE computer society magazine), and IEEE Micro (the IEEE computer society mag dedicated to microprocessors).. The rest just seem pointless. The IEEE publications are available online as well so even those are not necessary, but I like to read em while dropping off friends at the pool.
I used to have a subscription for sysadmin magazine, which I enjoyed, but I dropped it because whoever they had billing it was far too pushy for my taste.
thanks lenovo! :-p
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
The fact that this guy actually needs to PAY for his subscription shows that he's a mark; if you're anybody with any purchasing power, your subscription will be free. (In fact, it's really hard to get publishers to QUIT mailing you their rags.)
I think its equally odd that there's a market for computer books in 2006, but that's another story...
I think the computer print media is dead. Quite simply, the magazines that I used to read have really devolved into advertisement-fests with little to no real content. Plus, by the time the magazine hits the streets the information contained therein is actually quite seriously out of date. Said information is quite freely available online at various news sites... and so long as you don't limit yourself to a single news source for technology (like Slashdot!) then you'll get most of the information you require.
:)
I have a list of sites I check daily (of which Slash is one), and sites I check bi-weekly (like arstechnica). There's also a few Apple specific sites I check up on occasionally being a Mac user (appleinsider, macrumours etc.). I get a pretty well-rounded viewpoint I think on most upcoming tech, and I can make a decision on my future direction in technology from this.
I might point out I've not purchased a computer magazine for the better part of 5-6 years. However, I do occasionally pick up and read a copy at the local coffee shop when I'm sipping on my caffeine... much less hassle (and less distracting) than opening up my laptop.
So long as you can deal with the distraction of a computer, reading stuff on the web is a decent source of info.
Having said that, for anything other than technology your mileage may vary. I still routinely buy hard magazines of "Plane & Pilot" (though I also check aero-news.net every day) because the online media for pilots is not nearly as good as you can get in a print magazine. Yet. I also buy "New Scientist", "Skeptic" and "Fortean Times" for the same reasons; all stuff I'm interested in that I can't find a good source for online.
Oh, and for news? Well, I buy the sunday paper mostly for the ads... anything beyond that I can get on the Internet quite easily.
Didn't this question come up on Slashdot years ago? Probably should have
I used to work as a computer technician and towards the end of that job I was givin about a years worth of PC World by one of my clients. I'm not usually into magazines, but I do read a lot about tech.
Anyway, I got nothing out of the magazines I looked at. The information within was rather scant and I found my own experience with a lot of the equipment reviewed proved only that the reviewers weren't spending enough time with the requipment to write very informative reviews (the article I am thinking of in question compared Linksys and Netgear routers with a number of "competing" home or small business devices).
In anycase, I gradually started leaving these magazines at the office of my current job (HP) and all the guys I worked with just started paying the magazines out telling me they are just chocked with ads and no useful information. I ended up throwing the rest of them out because all the guys at work just bitched if they saw them, I didn't want to read them and no one seemed to want to take them off my hands.
Having said all that, the client I got the magazines off I still work for and because he gets them he typically gets an opportunity to talk up to my level when we're deciding on how he is going to grow his home IT and which brand to purchase, so I guess they are good for brand awareness.... but then, so is the junk mail I guess.
It's like Architectural Digest: not meant to be read, per se, but placed on a coffee table nonchalantly so as to impress guests. Do you think anyone who has had their house featured in AD actually *subscribes* to AD? What little leisure they have is spent reading the targeted trade magazines for whatever industry they are captains of.
Anyone who is so "technorati" as to be within Wired's alleged target audience is not reading paper.
i like to keep em around to read while im on the crapper, i dont have web access in there yet
Over the last month its been 'renewal time' - I swear, I tell them "No thank you, I don't read it" they put me on the "pester til he caves" list. (I haven't yet, though)
ALL I DO IS RECYCLE THE DAMNED THINGS! (Maybe I'll just say that...)
"But sir, our magazine is full of informa..." "I don't read it."
AAAARRRGGGHHHH
What really annoys me about computer magazines nowadays (apart from them being mostly spam you have to pay for) is that they do seem to arrive from the future, but carry news from the past. Every single one seems to arrive a few months before its time and carries `news' you could have read on the internet a few months earlier. Nevertheless, there are occasionally interesting articles, but for actual information they're often not the best source. I would not go for a subscription on any of them at the moment, but do buy them occasionally.
If the editors are good, they find the things I and others are interested in, and filter out the dreck. Their magazines are worthwhile.
If they'e not, all you're paying for is a bundle of ads (;-))
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
I've subscribed to Linux Journal for almost 13 years, and long ago bought up all the back issues I could so I have a near-complete collection. For years it's been the only worthwhile print computer magazine around.
I gave up the paper copy of PC World in 1995, and many others since. I used to get 8-10 mags a month but I am now down to one. The reason is simple, the internet has replaced the paper. Articles are now timely and places like Slashdot make it even more timely. And if I want the article at work I don't have to go home to get it, just remember where I saw it.
I do have a grievance with some old time online publishers with their insatiable popups and "overadvertised" presentations. I understand the need for advertising but some go far too far with it. For those, I just don't visit as their content tends also to be fluffy. I figure my limits to online avertising is simple, use the side bars and an odd block in the middle, but if represents much more that 25% of the screen space the article has to be extra good interest to keep me there.
I even go as far as to block some well known advertising sites too. I do it as at one point or another they have load music or get too pervasive.
And I subscribe to very few. In fact, Slashdot is the only one right now. Slashdot is what people think, not just one persons opinion which blows away miopic articles payed for by vendors. It is part of Slashdots success.
In (Calgary) Canada we seem to get two types of UK/European magazines: ones printed there that sell for upwards of $25cdn and arrive about 3 weeks late; and ones that appear to have been printed here in North America as they come out about 6 weeks late but only cost about $15cdn - and they have identical content and discs. Chapters is a good source for these cheaper titles, while the smaller shops tend to carry only the overseas editions.
The magazine is entirely about new expensive stuff to buy. Therefore it is not worth printing let alone buying.
Wouldn't it be great if there were a magazine in the wintel world that actually told you how to do interesting things, not what to buy? but no, those only seem to exist in the Linux/UNIX and Mac worlds (to a much lesser degree). Even in photography there are few newsstand titles that are anything more than salespitches for new products.
Almost all computer, stereo, car, photography, etc magazines are worthless.
Most of those mags are readable online.
And with fewer ads. I counted a PC World once, and it's around 70% full page ads. That means that 70% of the pages are nothing but ads. The remaining 30% is composed of full pages of content and half content/half ad pages.
What is PC World?
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
When the dot com boom was at its height, all the major publishers got fanatical that print was dead, everyone was going to read everything on the net, and it was time to readjust. Byte arbitrarily canceled my subscription, since they were going to a web only base. The rest of them shrank to half the page number, and what was left was mostly advertising. Even the trade rags got rid of most of their decent columnists, since they somehow concluded nobody wanted opinion pieces, basically making them boring and worthless. The only print mag I read now is Smart Computing, since they have some interesting tips and good reviews every now and again.
No, I didn't leave print mags, they left me...
Dreamers, shapers, singers, makers... Elric, the Techno-Mage
I'm personally against computer magazines like PC World, they're like the IT version of sensationalist "a current affairs" shows (Today Tonight/20-20/60 Minutes/Hard Copy?).. and if you had no other access to news you could read them and try and work out the truth from them.. but since you have the internet there's very little point, sites like slashdot are much more in depth (even if they are quite sensationalistic)
Commodore64_love: I don't comprehend people who're so frightened of death that they'll bankrupt themselves to stay alive
I remember PCW when it had a section devoted to assembler subroutines, proper programming tutorials, a column about numbers/problem solving etc
I remember when Byte magazine was a printed magazine and would subscribe in a heart beat if it in print again.
even fiction. Not it's just glossy photographs of Dell keyboards and mobile phones.
I especially loved the columns in "Byte", Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor and Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar , which now is his own magazine.
Oh, and don't forget the CD full of shareware. That's something you can't get very easily elsewhere.
I see many magazines that include cds, and now dvds. Most don't but many still include disks.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I remember in the "old days" magazines used to have courses on programming, and really much more thorough reviews.
Like the print edition of Byte magazine ?
Its a shame, because I do appreciate having something physical to read in my hands, but the peak of content has passed.
Same here. If I'm going to read something more than a page I'd rather it be hard copy not on my monitor. Admittedly my monitor is a CRT and LCDs may be better but I don't know if they are. I'm hoping to get one by the end of the year so I may find out then, I've been looking around at what's available in stores but I haven't seen many that are bigger than 19" or 20" and I want to get one at least 23". I also want to buy it from a brick and mortor store so if there's a problem it will be simple to take back, either for servicing, replacement, or return.
FalconShould there be a Law?
(Would I even want to take the laptop at all to the vacation destination?)
Would you even be allowed to bring a laptop on board with you? I'd love to be able to take my laptop and have WiMax access while on vacation, but unless I were allowed to bring it with me into the passenger cabin I'd leave it at home. I wouldn't put it into cargo, even if airlines covered damage but we aren't now.
Now, as for reading, I'd rather have the book or magazine to read.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I think its equally odd that there's a market for computer books in 2006, but that's another story...
Unlike some, you maybe, I prefer to read hardcopy, a book, if it's more than a page. Even when I read something online if it is more than a page in length I will print it out to read. Unless and until displays are as easy on my eyes as paper I will continue to prefer books. Even when they get that way I'll still prefer reading books, I don't need to have a computer running to read a book, and I take easily put a book on one of my book shelfs for easy access and reference. Last week I got a new pc with linux installed and I'll definitely be getting a book for it. As I'm also thinking of setting it up as a dualboot to try out Ubuntu, if I do I'll also get a book for that. I've already picked out the books for both. And I plan on installing GIMP as well, because I don't know it I'll get a book for it also. Then if it's not capable of what I want to do as a photographer, when I am able to get Photoshop I'll get a Photoshop book too. Also with said books I can make notes in book.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Ah, another one who misses "Byte, the small and homebuilt computers magazine". Gosh it seems like ages ago when I first read it, back in the mid to late '70s. I really liked Steve Ciarcia's "Circuit Cellar" and Jerry Pournelle's "Chaos Manor". If "Byte" started a print edition again I'd subscribe in a heartbeat.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I do agree that that Byte in its last years was a mere shadow of its heyday (Circuit Cellar era).
Hey, at least Steve Ciarcia publishes "Circuit Cellar" as a magazine itself now. Only if Jerry Pournelle came out with a "Chaos Manor" magazine.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I have a list of sites I check daily (of which Slash is one), and sites I check bi-weekly (like arstechnica). There's also a few Apple specific sites I check up on occasionally being a Mac user (appleinsider, macrumours etc.). I get a pretty well-rounded viewpoint I think on most upcoming tech, and I can make a decision on my future direction in technology from this.
Question, will those websites still be open if the magazine folds? I plan on switching to Macs and get a MacBook Pro when Apple releases one with the new Merom Core 2 Duos installed and when I do I'll go ahead and subscribe to at least one Mac magazine. Maybe "Mac Format" or "Macworld".
FalconShould there be a Law?
New Scientist is a good one, I second the economist as a teatime reader.
The Economist? Hard to take them seriously. They predicted $5 per barrel oil when price was $10. And now it's north of $60. And before anyone says "9/11", or "Iraq war", this chart shows that their article pretty much called the absolute bottom. Oil went from $10 to $30 between their article and 9/11. The Economist just overlooked the fact that India and China were growing and would need increased supplies of oil. Duh.
Crimeny! I never subscribed to it so I never had to decide to suspend a subscription, but I even stopped buying PC World off the newsstand backin the mid/late-80s. I thought it starting sucking even back then. Byte lasted a couple of years longer before it wasn't worth the money (i.e., it started being less and less about microcomputing in general but, instead, mostly about Windows). I'm not sure what you're looking for in a hardcopy magazine. Product Reviews? Programming tips? Tutorials? I can't imagine continuing a subscription merely to read a single columnist. I found that PC World lost interest in covering most anything technical at all well over a decade ago. Perhaps they changed after I gave up on them. I'm doubting it, though. I'd spend my money on something other than PC World. (That pretty much goes for PC Week as well.)
I find that SysAdmin is frequently worth the subscription (even though some issues are so Solaris-centric I can barely stand to read them -- and that's even though I use and admin it a fair amount at work) because I'm interested in the nuts-n-bolts aspects of UNIX and related operating systems. Many Linux magazines are still worth paying for for the same reason. (Yes, I understand that most of those are available online but I like a paper version if you're going somewhere where there's no access to online versions.)
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
I used to be a supporter of PC World. But things have changed.. The fact that every week i'm annoyed with RENEW NOW, LAST ISSUE! Drives me nuts.. I will not renew. Bah, alcohol/ :-P
The Economist just overlooked the fact that India and China were growing and would need increased supplies of oil.
That's hilarious. I've found it very difficult to find consistantly good articles on economics. A lot of hacks out there with degrees churning out intelligent *SOUNDING* crap and economics is such a complex field that they can hide for years and never be found out.
I'd say no. It's not a particularly specialized mag. Generic hardware and software reviews are a dime a dozen.
The Economist? Hard to take them seriously. They predicted $5 per barrel oil when price was $10.
What? They've been writing for 150 years and it's hard to take them seriously because in 1999 they once guessed wrong about the future? You ignore, of course, that they owned up to the mistake by the end of the year. They examined the reasons behind it, and looked at several other mistaken predictions as well in an article titled, "Goofs: We wuz wrong".
Personally, I think it's great that they're willing to be contrarian, to make clear predictions about the future, and to own up when they get it wrong. A lot of the value in The Economist comes from their willingness to think about the news that they're reporting. A magazine that speculates on future possibilities and gets it 100% right means that they're being far too conservative to be interesting or useful to me. I want them to challenge me to think and give me facts to do it with, not be magically right all the time.
Of course, their other big prediction that year that failed to pan out was that the tech bubble was overdue to burst, at a time when many business magazines were still in a "OMG Dow 40000!!! Free ponies for all!" frenzy. That one they nailed, so perhaps they should get a little credit there.
A good question, but one that the magazine publishers need to ask instead of the readers. It's really down to them to find a new business model, one that works in the modern age. If not, there are plenty of other sources of information that you can go to. Are the sites I mentioned associated with a magazine? Hmm...
I don't know if the sites you cite have print mags, but some like the subject of this article, "PC World", is a print magazine. While print is "old" and websites can be kept up to date many of us prefer print. I know if I read more than a page online, my eyes start bothering me. I can get eye aches and headaches, print doesn't do this. And I've heard the same from others. Also because my memory isn't good, one of the symptoms of a disability I have, I also find it easier having printed material to use for reference.
In part I wanted to wait for Merom-based MBP's as well, but I knew that it'd be a while before I'd actually buy one after they were first released. I needed a laptop when I bought it, not another six months from now. (yes, I know they're out in a few weeks... just don't buy first run of anything... wait a month or two).
Luckily I didn't need a laptop right away, otherwise I might of bought the MacBook Pro when it came out. I've also told some Apple people I'd be very pissed if I bought one only to have Apple release a MacBook with Merom within a month or two. Currently I'm using a pc with WinME that's almost 7 years old, and I'm constantly having trouble with it. It keeps on acting erratically. So I finally broke down last week and bought a cheapo pc with Linux installed hoping it will make do until I get a MacBook. Unfortunately I haven't compleated the setup of the pc or setup a network to transfer all the files I have.
I needed a laptop when I bought it, not another six months from now. (yes, I know they're out in a few weeks... just don't buy first run of anything... wait a month or two).
Yes, I've heard that about Mac with new architectures, wait until the third generation so they get all the bugs worked out. However since the switch to Intels that's not feasible unless you want to be a generation or more behind pcs. With PPCs Apple didn't have to constantly upgrade the hardware but now they will, if for no other reason than because of the risk of falling behind pc manufacturers, it's a lot easier to compare Macs to pcs now.
Oh, one bit of advice? Max out the ram immediately. I put 1Gb of RAM in this when I got it, but once you get a few apps running at once you'll chow down RAM quickly. I'd also recommend dropping Office 2004 quickly and use NeoOffice (a version of OpenOffice compiled for Mac natively)...
Well, the MacBook Pro comes with 1GB RAM in one slot but I'll probably order it with 2GB. What really gets me is that Apple only includes a 7200 rmp 100GB harddrive, or if you want a bigger hd then a 5400 rpm 120GB hd is available. I'd rather a bigger 7200 rpm drive. The PC I'm using now has two hds, one is 120GB and the other is 40GB and between the two I have maybe 10GB free space left. Unless Apple includes a bigger hd or I can setup my new linux box as a server I'll need to get a external hd. I'd rather not have to pay or need to carry it around. Trying to break into photography, because of my disability I'm on disability and don't work, a large hd will be very handy.
You mention Office and NeoOffice, I will not get Office! I'll try OpenOffice and maybe NeoOffice. I'll also give GIMP a shot, but if it doesn't do what I need I'll get Photoshop. I also want an app like XMLSpy, however though I've looked I haven't found any for Macs so I plan on getting Crossover Mac. Along with trying to get into photography I also am thinking of developing websites for photographers, I met several who're interested in having a website if for no other purpose than to use as a portfolio. I met them in college when, though my major there was web programming, I took photography also.
FalconShould there be a Law?
A subscription to Linux Journal would be worthwhile for me if I traveled and were away from the computer a lot. But the newstand price is too high. Linux Magazine? meh. Both Journal and Magazine, but more with Magazine, being full of "carrier grade" advertisements left and right, leave a lot to be desired. And Magazine is a bit thin. Take out the "carrier grade" ads and the "carrier grade" articles they seem to be forced to put out to support those "carrier grade" ads and there isn't much left to Linux Magazine.
Linux Journal has had some very good articles in the past, in addition to good tips and tricks. But again, the news stand price is too high and the subscription not worth it unless you travel and are away from the computer so you can't get the same info online. As for the other post about buying up old issues to build a complete back issue library, I believe you can get all the back issues on CD or DVD now, though it isn't the same as the hard copies. But with the CD/DVD with back issues, I imagine you could perform searches for articles, keywords, and more which you can't do with the hard copies. I have many back issues of Linux Journal, fewer Linux Magazine issues, and each time I go through the old issues I always find some new or forgotten tip or trick which comes in handy in everyday use. And reading the clustering articles having to do with motion picture production or satellite image rendering, enabling the subject companies to saves tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on monthly leases for hardware/software that would otherwise be wasted on Sun equipment leases or other dinosaur proprietary Unix hardware companies never fails to warm my cockles.
Besides, as others have observed, taking a laptop into the crapper sucks, especially if you've ever had one fall into the crapper before flushing.
I've subscribed to PCW and PCM since around 2001 (and have retail copies from around '97), and let my subscription expire just last month.
Both magazines used to be jam packed with good articles about actually new stuff coming out. But, in the case of PC World especially, the quality has gone downhill. Most issues now focus on trivial Windows tweaks and rating off-the-rack PCs. Their news sections are dominated by warnings about holes, patches and viruses.
When I put them on my shelf of archived magazines, you can see them shrink in size over time. Issues from 1997 are about 2-3X thicker than the current ones, and they had nearly the same content-to-ad ratio.
It's lost the nerdy quality, instead, it tries to appeal to a less tech savvy group. Kinda like how TechTV lost it's audience. Just like The Screen Savers chick who got implants, PC World tried a redesign a few years back. It sucks, all it serves to do is make the articles harder to read.
I am allowing all of my computer magazine subscriptions to lapse, because, as others here have noted, the printed news is obsolete by the time it is delivered. I continue to enjoy reading books for my regular intake of vicarious horror, fantasy, and gatuitous sex and violence. My imagination is a much better creepshow than anything I have ever seen on any screen or any print media, for that matter!
Goddamned kids! Get off my lawn!
I can't see what they would provide in terms of useful knowledge. That said, if you purpose is simply to have something to read on a topic that interests in certain cituations (Subway, waiting outside, etc) its as good as any.