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Linux Journal Goes — Surprise! — Digital
Mr_Perl writes "Linux Journal sent out an email to subscribers today announcing that they are going 100% digital. Subscribers signed on for a paper version of the journal, and now have been switched to an electronic version, apparently at the exact same subscription rate. No news yet on why they did it, and no sign of any offers to reimburse unused subscriptions for subscribers who are disappointed."
I like having hard copies of journals, books, and magazines. I don't want to read stuff on a fucking tablet of some sort.
People go on and on about how paper is fragile, but it's a lot more durable than the shitty Chinese-made devices that you have to use to read this "e-content". It gets worse when the publishers and vendors can arbitrarily delete material from your device, even after you've paid for it. Fuck that.
Why the fuck would I pay the same amount of money and not get something physical in return? No thanks.
I just started buying this magazine at the news stand to take with me places I can't bring electronics. Now I guess I'll stop reading it.
If you let a paper subscription lapse, you don't have to return the books that you paid for under the subscription. It might be hard to find articles or search them, but you can keep a copy for as long as your copy survives! With reasonable treatment and storage conditions, that's upwards of 50 years.
If you have a digital version... they have the ability to pull the old issues at any time; e.g. 10 years from now they might decide to "archive old articles", so you can no longer find them. Also if you let your subscription lapse, when your web account is disabled, you lose access to ALL issues, even ones put out last month when you had a subscription to the periodical.
Also, if they go out of business and their website goes away, you lose access to all the articles you got under the subscription, and will have to pay more if you ever want to see them again, probably exorbitant fees to a database service or other archival service.
Loss of articles may hurt you if you remember/kept a tab of it, and want to use the info. either to help you, to show someone else, or for research/paper writing purposes
with Borders closing.
Nullius in verba
Of any periodicals, I think Linux-oriented rags are excellent candidates to go all digital. I think I'm pretty safe in assuming that the readership is on-line enough that getting their subscription material on-line is a natural step. They are probably more likely to have a tablet of some sort, even the rumored (gasp) non-Apple tablets.
On the flip side: even if they increase their subscriber base, advertisers may lose eyeballs that would have flipped through an issue on the newsstand, or on a friend's coffee table/desk. Advertisers LOVE newsstand sales because the readers typically consume more of the content. Finally, I'm not surprised, but not pleased, that the subscription rate doesn't reflect the fact that major expenses will be eliminated: the post-layout printing and distribution costs.
Luke, help me take this mask off
When I sit down with a dead tree version of anything, I read it with as much full attention as I can muster. I don't know why, but I really have to make a conscious effort not to get distracted when reading online and I want to skim. And then there's the read an article, see what's on /., read part of an article, go to Fark, read some more ....etc ....
It's annoying but I find that my bad habits from online reading are moving over to the "real" world - I'm skimming more. I'm getting lazy with my reading habits. If the point isn't made in the first paragraph, I loose interest.
The whole World is becoming tl;dr
A license printed in the book that allows if your the owner to have a copy printed. If most magazines did this it would be wonderful. A cottage industry would then appear for local printers for print copies. More expensive for those that want all printed copies but I think great in the long run for those that want to archive. Print and keep around six months of copies and recycle after that. Have another copy printed if you really want/need a printed copy later. Also have your copies made in the best quality your willing to pay for.
Yeah, we could print it ourselves. But that's not what we want. Doing so would be a costly pain the arse. That's why we're buying paper copies in the first place!
When we buy paper newspapers and magazines, part of the cost covers the creation of the content, and the rest covers the creation and delivery of the physical product.
Like the GP says, why would we want to pay the same price, but only get a fraction of what we want? We aren't Apple users here. We won't waste perfectly good money on some inferior electronic product. We want the real deal, and we'd rather go without than pay for something that isn't exactly what we want.
Doc Searls writes: "Ever since I discovered HTML, it’s been my preferred format for writing. Every word of mine that’s gone into Linux Journal, since I started in 1996, has been written and delivered in HTML. That’s because my writing has been normalized to hypertext, and to pixels rather than print. What’s different for me this time is that I’m not paying attention to my monthly 900-word limit (or less if images are involved). While a word limit does impose the discipline of brevity, the fact remains that brevity is not the only virtue of good writing. Yes, it’s a good one to have when your column appears on the last page of a print magazine. But when that magazine is no longer confined by the dimensions of printed pages, you’re free to go longer—or shorter, as the case may be. My case this month is for the all-digital version of Linux Journal. Yes, we lose a lot, but we stand to gain much more. Let me explain. We’ve fought to stay in print ever since the dot-com crash nearly killed us, 11 years ago. Before that crash, we were fat with ads from well-funded startups. When the bust hit, many advertisers vanished without a trace, owing us literally $millions we never collected. After that crash, getting and keeping advertisers for a print trade publication was much harder. The costs of printing and mailing also went up, and continued to go up. Meanwhile, Linux succeeded in the marketplace and is now the most widely used operating system. Yet, while Linux continues to spread, the population of pure-Linux geeks—the kind who subscribe to Linux Journal—has remained a core that has grown very little. We continue to serve that core. That’s our mission, and we’re sticking to it. The question is, what’s the best way? Today, it’s hard to say print is that best way, especially with more and more people spending more and more time reading glowing rectangles rather than paper. But, we are by nature and practice a print magazine, and we have done our best to remain one, even as the world has changed around us. So I want to congratulate the publishing side of our house for keeping our print operation going, against stupendous odds, and for never selling out. (And believe me, there were many offers, mostly from entities that are now gone.) Our team did the impossible for as long as it could. Yet, consider this. We also always have been a digital publication, starting with the first CD digest of issues in 1994. And, digital publishing has done nothing but grow from the beginning. So has advertising in the digital realm, which is inherently limitless. Something else also has started to happen in digital publishing. It has become easier, and more acceptable, for people to pay for goods that also are available for free. There has been much experimentation here, and we are among the many doing the experimenting. One advantage for us is that we’ve always had paying subscribers. Maybe it’s crazy to think they’ll stick with us after we go all-digital. But, I don’t think so. I’m a big believer in the willingness of people to pay for value, provided the means are there. We have some means today, and we will have better ones tomorrow, especially if you help us think those through—while also helping us improve our editorial methods and materials. Every magazine has a periodical heartbeat. Ours always has been monthly. That won’t change. What will change is how much time passes between what we write and when it appears. A production cycle that took several months will now take just weeks. (So for this issue, I am writing this on August 1st for a September publication date.) Much more of our stuff will be current, or as close to now as we can get. We always will remain a print publica- tion at heart (and in that respect, we will be no different from the rest of journalism), but we won’t remain contained by the print medium. That medium, where nearly all of our contributors grew up, has legacy values (fairness, trans
Track IP - Remotely track the IP address of a machine via email or MySQL.
At least I can wipe my ass with it after I take a big shit. I'm not even joking. Magazines and newspapers make great toilet paper substitutes.
I disagree. Glossy paper just smears the shit around and newspaper gets ink all over your ass. You're better off with a sock.
...that whole "digital magazine" thing has been done already.
It's called the Linux Gazette.
While it's been nice to have PDFs of the LJ, I am not happy to see the hard copy go away.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I guess need to find something else to read when in the "library" at work..
That really sucks for the subscribers who either don't have access to or don't know how to use a computer.
I completely agree, a e-reader would probably make better toilet paper then the glossy stuff they use for mags.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
It's all command-line anyway; how much resolution do you really need?
#DeleteChrome
One of the nice things about printed magazines, is they add literal visibility of Linux being popular. One of the reasons I subscribed.
I subscribed to Linux Journal because I wanted to support a Linux publication. I can get everything I cared about from Linux Journal from a variety of blogs that I already subscribe to, for free, via RSS.
Agree - this makes me think maybe the reason the price isn't changing is because they know ad sales are going to plummet.
The email I received started me thinking - they are implementing an additional system to one pdf. I hope it's more user-friendly than a magazine being available through EBSCO at your library, where you have to click on 70 links to get the whole magazine.
Part of the problem I have with the one-pdf is some of the ads have a crapload of image and text boxes - unvectorized, unrasterized. They take too long to load. I can't nicely split the pdf into 4-6 easy-to-load sections unless I want to run Acrobat Professional...
The August 2011 issue marks our last print run for Linux Journal, but it is not our last edition. We will continue publishing our monthly magazine in digital form, in fact greatly building upon it, while continuing to present fresh material every day on the Web.
Many of you have been with us since Linux Journal began, in 1994. Ever since our first issue, Linux Journal has been the premier Linux monthly, showing up on newsstands all over the world, as well as in your mailboxes. But, we now consume information vastly differently from the way we did 17 years ago, and it's time to embrace the fact that Linux Journal needs to adapt and conform to you, our readers, with formats and platforms that best fit into your digital, online and mobile lives.
We understand that many readers still prefer hard-copy magazines. But, we also have seen many long-standing, excellent publications either come to an end or grow very thin due to drastic increases in printing costs and decreases in print advertising budgets. We don't want either of those things to happen to Linux Journal, and we are making this change so we can continue delivering the quality content our readers enjoy. We have a core readership that has stuck with us -- and stuck with Linux -- for a generation. You, our readers, are at the very heart of Linux, and always have been. We want to keep that heart beating.
Beginning with the September 2011 edition of Linux Journal, issue number 209, all subscribers will be offered Linux Journal Digital Edition.
Our editorial coverage will not change, only the format. You'll enjoy the same, familiar experience as thumbing through a print magazine, dwelling over stories, and following the flow of the magazine's layout with these added benefits:
* Timely delivery: each issue will arrive in your e-mail inbox automatically on the first day of every month.
* Off-line reading: you can download one article or the entire magazine and conveniently take with you. You also can print any pages you want.
* Easy navigation: the live table of contents, embedded page links, and phrase search and highlighting make it quick and easy to go to the articles you want to read most.
* Save, clip, share: clip pages and save them, or even forward them to friends and colleagues to share ideas and information.
* Interactivity: we'll be incorporating rich media in future issues so you can look forward to reading a product review and watching our editors introduce the product hands-on in a video.
As our current subscriber, we will send you the PDF edition every month. We also have a new format-- an Enhanced Digital Edition. Starting with the October issue, if you would like to receive the Enhanced Digital Edition, we need you to visit linuxjournal.com/updateaccount and select Enhanced Digital Edition as the format you wish to receive. We realize that you may have paid more than our new subscription rate ($29.50 USD), so your current subscription term will be extended based on the remaining value of your subscription. For example, if your current remaining subscription value is $20.00 USD, the term will be extended by 8 issues based on the issue value of $2.56.
Coming in September, you'll also be able to access Linux Journal through iPhone, iPad and Android mobile applications. Now anywhere you go, Linux Journal will go with you. We'll notify our paid subscribers of the application availability come September.
We welcome your input and participation in making Linux Journal the magazine you want it to be. We have set up a forum for conversation with subscribers. If you have other questions regarding your subscription, please reply to this email and include your Subscription ID XXXXXXXX within the message. To help in that direction, visit our FAQ at linuxjournal.com/digital-faq.
Linux Journal is your magazine. You're the ones who pay for it, and you're the ones
How am i supposed to read the journal, when I can't take it with me?
Of any periodicals, I think Linux-oriented rags are excellent candidates to go all digital. I think I'm pretty safe in assuming that the readership is on-line enough that getting their subscription material on-line is a natural step.
Maybe... but the next natural step when they're on-line enough, is to get their 'article fix' from free sources such as blogs, and skip on the pay subscriptions.
How many people actually read it since Doc Searls decided to make the magazine articles more shallow and "approachable" ?
Like Dr. Dobbs Journal, it was really already gone when it went "100% Digital". Same as BYTE Magazine, by the time it was "100% Digital" all that was left was single mildly entertaining column.
and, as I live in Brazil, paid extra for international shipping.
I wouldn't mind (much) the change if they honor my current subscription and send me the magazines I already paid for! I just sent an email demanding a refund and cancelation.
Scientia est Potentia
the rate everything is going digital, pretty soon I won't have anything to read when on the porcelain throne.
Hello.
Your Car of the Decade Club used to entitle you to a Camry. However, management has decided it only entitles you to Corolla now.
Best Wishes,
--Toyota
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Sorry, I'm tired of this. Marginal cost of production, that is, the cost incurred to make one copy of the magazine is NOT equivalent to the actual cost of creating that copy. There is a fixed cost involved with making the master copy. Granted, that cost is fixed, and because it is fixed, as the number of issues produced increases, the contribution of the fixed cost goes to zero.
But asymptotic to zero isn't the same thing as zero. There are costs to be recouped, ROI to be realized, and salaries to be paid. I'm not about to argue that Linux magazine is correct in charging the same amount for print issues as digital, but "free to make and distribute" is ridiculous.
ceci n'est pas un sig.
PC Mag went digital, subscription is up, I didn't renew. That's the way I intend to treat each magazine every time that happens. I pay money for a magazine, not a download. Do not enjoy reading on a monitor.
Sorry, I'm tired of this. Marginal cost of production, that is, the cost incurred to make one copy of the magazine is NOT equivalent to the actual cost of creating that copy. There is a fixed cost involved with making the master copy. Granted, that cost is fixed, and because it is fixed, as the number of issues produced increases, the contribution of the fixed cost goes to zero.
But asymptotic to zero isn't the same thing as zero. There are costs to be recouped, ROI to be realized, and salaries to be paid. I'm not about to argue that Linux magazine is correct in charging the same amount for print issues as digital, but "free to make and distribute" is ridiculous.
ceci n'est pas un sig.
you can put "click-tracked" URLs in a PDF, 1990s boy.
As a member of an organization that also has a publishing arm that includes a periodical (I'm on the Publishing Committee), I can tell you that the costs of publishing and distributing dead-tree copies is astronomical (pun intended), and unless your subscription fees are stupid-high or you have enough advertisers to off-set most of the costs, you will be drowning in a sea of red ink. We had to make the tough decisions to 1.) allow limited advertising, and 2.) go to all digital, with printed copies provided for an additional nominal fee for those that desired them. For those with their fingers in their ears chanting "na-na-na-can't-hear-you", good riddance. Commercial organizations have to pay writers, freelancers, printers, the postal service, utility bills, rents, taxes etc. I'm surprised that so many have survived this long. As a non-profit, we operate on a shoe-string budget. Those of you who begrudge commercial periodicals their meagre margins and who have made the tough decision to keep publishing and keep employing writers, fuck you. Fuck you to Heck. Get with the 21st century or go away. You won't be missed.
History repeats itself. Welcome to the '90s!
I assume this was a matter of near-term survival, which LJ's message to subscribers hinted at but didn't state quite so bluntly (unless my skim-read overlooked it). From a practical perspective, LJ's subscribers probably had two choices: continue to receive a paper publication whose life expectancy was measured in months (at most), or receive a digital edition for hopefully somewhat longer.
I also assume that going digital with no (or minimal, or easily removed) DRM will mean that LJ will be readily available on filesharing sites within minutes of the release of each issue. That may already be the case, though - I haven't checked.Hopefully the impact of piracy on LJ will be mitigated by the fact that most of their subscribers are probably motivated to pay them out of a wish to support their philosophy, not because they had no way of getting the same information elsewhere for free. I know virtually all of my media spending these days works that way. I'm paying for it because I want to support the creators, not because I can't get it for free.
-Zirbert, Linux user since 2009
Just curious, how so?
Why would I lose all my files in an HDD crash?
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
I'm glad they're doing this. For a long while I wondered how to change over, now they did it already. Great News> PS My PC fits in the bathroom.....
This is like the only magazine I would find interesting when browsing for something to read on a train trip.
I used to be a subscriber, but it got a bit expensive with shipping to Finland. I will dearly miss this magazine and will now go and encase my hard copies in lucite.
Bot Assisted Blogging
I gave up reading it online six years ago when it became obvious the anti-Linux astroturfers in the comment threads were being deliberately recruited to be article authors and editors. It became the "Linux-suxxors Journal."
Did they ever turn that around?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I have been using Linux since 1996, and a Linux Journal subscriber for a very long time.
While I do have a Nook Color, I have no desire to read a magazine on it, nor on my desktop.
If I have to go to the Web for something, it it will be a specific article or googled link, not to download a magazine as pdf.
I want a refund.
This
Maybe it's not the devices themselves, but your brain coping with information overload.
And I find myself skimming to get to the freaking point. Many writers are ****ing verbose.
With that, I'll deposit this here:
http://www.cla.wayne.edu/polisci/kdk/general/sources/zinsser.htm
This will *not* be at the same rate. It was clear enough in the mail, people will get en extention of their current subscription in par with the remaining amount they subscribed at, now at a rate of 2.46$/copy. You mail -- read it.
...are gross.
Do your business then get out.
Why you want to catch up on the latest build of OpenSSL while sitting in a cloud of feces stench is beyond me.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Putting "e-" in front of everything. Although, to be more accurate, these days it's more of putting "i" in front of everything (I'm looking at a certain fruity electronics company.)
Oh, yeah, DDJ makes 2 of these that I haven't resubscribed to...
I just don't know how that's going to work out. For example I am getting a lot of free subscriptions to industry-specific magazines that used to be print, now digital-only. While I occasionally read an issue here and there, it certainly is far less than it used to be with the dead-tree edition.
.jpg image of it in iTunes. Yes, the information is there, but arguably it is much less of the immersive experience that it may have previously been; not that I am against digital, just pointing out that in the cost-cutting frenzy most haven't figured out how to replace the very experience provided by what they had with something that has the same impact (beyond the mere information contained in the article or just the song in the case of an LP). So for example in LJ's case, if they are in fact thinking that this is a good move, they should come up with innovative indexing features that allow the reader to have access to the information and browse articles a bit better than clunky .pdf files.
While I understand that they have to go with the times, it seems to me that going digital-only has its own set of challenges, and that very few publishers have really bridged the gap that will make their digital publication attractive, with features that make it easy to search, cross-reference and with the types of niceties that would make someone want to pay for it, like a bonus yearly archive or something of that sort.
Honestly I am not sure that I will be renewing under those circumstances, just because I find that - for better or for worse - I tend to read less of those digital editions that I would if the same magazine was still in physical form.
There are many areas of our lives that this digital revolution has been totally restructuring, but while the cost-cutting and efficiency measures do make a great deal of sense when looking at it from the standpoint of a publication's survival, the way the customers relate to this new product is sometimes profoundly less of a pleasurable experience.
Another prime example of that is the tactile difference between holding a full LP sleeve in your hand, and looking at the
All of this cost-saving is great, but I sort of deplore that what replaces it doesn't nearly have the same level of convenience and friendliness yet. The challenge is therefore for digital publishers to come up with new killer features and ways to organize the information they are presenting in a way that leverages the platform they are on rather than using it as a crutch, and which will ultimately motivate their readership to subscribe. Make it a compelling upgrade, not a letdown!
I cancelled my subscription because of this. The irony is that I had just signed up - subscription to start Oct 01 :-)
Personally I _want_ a magazine that can sit on the table in my lounge, *cough* or on top of the toilet cistern. I do wonder how many subscribers they're going to lose because of this. Im sure they did a survey and decided the benefit was worth it.
Heh, LinuxJournal deathclock anyone?
Medraut
Newsstand purchases are verifiable and serve as an indication of reader interest in the magazine. A magazine with strong newsstand sales has high reader interest.
Ken
They've decided to devolve to a premium website, just as accessible as a free website, but will their content support $2.56/month?
And their content will update monthly?
Ken
I stopped subscribing to Linux Journal about ten years ago.. then last year I resubscribed because I'm starting to get interested in Linux again.
It's sad the publishing industry is jumping so hard and fast on the digital bandwagon. I suspect in the future we're going to see a reverse digital movement - companies who set up shop solely to take online content and put it print form. It'll be a novelty and a niche industry, similar to vinyl records. The headlines in 2030 could very well read something like "Printed books have best selling year since 2010."
I like my words printed on dead trees.
----- obSig
They did not say anything about giving me a computer monitor with sufficient pixel density that the magazine reads as well as paper. Sadly, that means I won't be reading the magazine (I paid for a subscription, now the subscription is useless). For me, they just went out of business. Period.
An electronic subscription is essentially worthless to me. This means I paid for something I'm not going to get, and I'm not real pleased about the thieves.
I'll admit that I already didn't read all of it, but this way I'm not going to read any. Reading on a monitor is much more stressful than reading a book or a magazine, and not even worth it for fiction.
Article reading is a quite different activity from "looking something up", which is something I do on a monitor. I don't, however, follow ANY on-line magazine. And I don't read on-line books. Or pdfs. If I try, all I get out of it is a headache. And as for those who say I should get a Kindel, you are just bat-shit crazy. I'm not going to invest in something where after I've bought something the vendor can yank it back without my consent. And I'm not about to consent. Because of that I'm not likely to ever find out if the claims that it's screen is clear enough that it won't cause eye-strain are correct. And without proof I'm not about to believe it. (Younger eyes tend to be more flexible, so what works for an average 20 year old can't reasonably be expected to be evidence that it would work for me.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
But I'll never read it again. Seriously. I like hardcopy.
Not true that click tracking avoidable just because javascript isn't on
there are other ways the noscript to track clicking. In the dot-com boom, I worked for a company for which people voluntarily signed up to get e-mail deals from vendors in specific categories. You could, for instance, check "sporting goods" and get coupons from sports shoe makers; or check "automotive maintenance" and get coupons and deals for oil changes or brake jobs. Anyway, the users agreed to marketing tracking. We made each URL in emails unique, put in "beacon pixels" in both emails and web pages, correlated web logs, cookied, etc. etc. Some of those things didn't depend on javascript. we could even tell if someone forwarded email to someone else, who responded to "campaigns",.