Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: What Good Print Media Is Left?
guises writes: "A recent story discussing the cover of Byte Magazine reminded me of just how much we've lost with the death of print media. The Internet isn't what took down Byte, but a lot of other really excellent publications have fallen by the wayside as a result of the shift away from the printed page. We're not quite there yet, though. There seem to still be some holdouts, so I'm asking Slashdot: what magazines (or zines, or newsletters, or newspapers) are still hanging around that are worth subscribing to?"
The Economist. Still worth reading.
funnytimes.com
All I need.
Very good photography, good enough writing.
They haven't started making digital toilet paper yet.
Nowhere else will you find detailed reporting regarding events and issues that may actually impact your life. Some have said that social media will kill local newspapers but I find that real news is still better covered by a reporter than by hearsay on my Facebook wall. Local reporters work hard to produce a paper every day (or every week, depending on your community), the least we can do is subscribe to their publication to help foot the bill of good reporting.
Lots of good stuff. Byte could have morphed itself into this magazine.
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
TFA has it all wrong from the start.
The problem is, from a cybernetic perspective, the internet is just words, pictures and video at the presentation layer...
**its not inherently different** The **channel** for the information is different, but it's the same type of information
both a print & digital news requires a *reporter* and *editor*
a blog can never be the "paper of record"...it has to be an institutional entity with accountability
yes, of course the transition to digital formats was **mismanaged** by the non-journalism side of most news operations, but that is because the businesspeople made the same mistake TFA makes...thinking a digital news story is somehow inherently different b/c the channel is different
Thank you Dave Raggett
Disclaimer: I've worked for 2 newspapers, and currently work for a media company (in the online division).
Why? Because a local newspaper is going to cover more relevant info, with more details, than numerous other mediums. It's an at-your-leisure consumption device, too.
I get the Sat. & Sun. local papers here. The Sat. for general weekend news, and the Sun. for big feature stories. Our paper frequently has some amazing local content; I recall a great 2 page spread on a local barbershop, and when one of the historic buildings burned down, they had almost daily coverage on the progress.
Plus, it's great for information on important city council stuff. Our city has been having the Great Trash Debate for some time, and now it's finally coming to a close (trying to figure out if trash pickup should be privatized, or if they should increase the cost of trash stickers to cover rising costs of maintenance for the trucks).
If you live in a major metro area, seek out the smaller hyper-local publications for your area.
"Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
The last of the general interest genre.
I write for and read a niche publication related to an obscure hobby of mine (related to model trains) and it actually sells very well and they still pay well for contributions. Mostly because the target audience is retirees who are of a generation that are used to and comfortable reading the printed page, and are happy to pay for it. Many of these people also supplement their subscription with online forum discussions, which has changed the nature of the magazine. The primary focus is on lengthy how-to articles that people would not normally compile for free and post online due to the time and effort involved, but are happy to put into print because they (and I) are being paid for it. Club announcements and updates and stuff are less needed thanks to online forums.
The one thing the magazine has not done is embraced a digital version and made their archives available digitally. One magazine that has done this to great effect is Model Railroader. Rather than collect stacks of back issues, you can now get the whole set online or on discs. One of the main issues depends on what the original contract with the writers looked like. If it did not have a 'and all future media' type clause, you would have to seek individual permission from each contributor to make the back issues available digitally. That has been one of the things holding back the particular magazine I write for. I myself am all in favor of making back issues available digitally. At the very least they could sell a digital edition beginning with new issues, with a new contract for the writers that includes it.
As far as mainstream periodicals, I occasionally like to pick up a Wall Street Journal or a New York Times when at an Airport, but 99.9% of my current news intake happens online these days. Financial Times of London is a good one, but again can be had online.
what I do read exclusively in printed form is books. I just like them, and I like to keep the best ones for re-reading later. Mine will be among the last generation to prefer this most likely.
Make and WIRED are my two current print subscriptions. (W.I.R.E.D. is fantastically infuriating to type)
My local newspaper is down to printing only three days a week. Not too many years ago they printed two editions per day seven days a week. I subscribe to just the Sunday edition, but that's just to get the ads and the sports columns.
I would classify New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com) as an excellent subscription magazine. The quality of the printed pictures and graphs is a great addition to nice science articles.
At least according to Rush.
Saveur
. . . the last time I checked, the Economist was not a US publication. Does the BBC World News have a, "US centric perspective," too?
I still take home books from our local small-town library (it's an original Carnegie Library) and read them in the bathtub and on the toilet and in bed and with The Simpsons on mute in our living room.
Doh.
it pays for itself with the first delivery. saved $8 this week. but i blew it all of it on a flash drive.
The Jamaica Gleaner has excellent writing, actually employs professional reporters and fact checkers, and keeps an NPOV. The problem is, it only covers Jamaica.
There's a digital edition too, but I presume that doesn't exclude the print edition, or your list will be empty.
The Economist
Harper's Magazine
The Atlantic
Lapham's Quarterly
Foreign Affairs
Here is my current list:
Analog
The New Yorker
American Rifleman
Shotgun News
Practical Sailor
Cruising World
Good Old Boat
Shortest of these subscriptions ? 7 years
Longest ? 25 years (Analog)
Do they have websites ? Sure, but the print media is what I seriously read.
The New Yorker website is quite good, but many of their articles can only be found in the real print magazine. They don't appear online. Plus, there's something *better* about the print version of the New Yorker with its classic very readable three column layout, its well designed typeface, inimitable New Yorker cartoons sprinkled about each issue, and even the tiny little illustrations that dot the articles and follow some clever theme in each issue. I know there's an iPad/Tablet version of the New Yorker (which I have never read) but the print magazine is still pretty nice. And I have not even mentioned the expensive ads.
"I like Archaeology, it's pretty old school,..."
It usually is.
A little crazy is a good thing.
I've been trying to maintain an e-subscription to to Analog for some time now, mostly because I've run out of room for books in my hose and I've reached the point where, for every paper book that comes into the house, I need to find a book to throw out. It has been an exercise in frustration. e-subscriptions are handled by independent businesses, not by the publisher (as paper ones seem to be). And they've been closing one after another. First fictionwise closed, apparently subsumed by Barnes & Noble, which sells only within the US. I switch to Sony despite their reputation with rootkits. Then the Sony reader drops my subscription so I have to resubscribe, and a few months later the reader store closes to North American subscribers. They've handed over their customers to Kobo, which in OK for books (I read my books on a Kobo device anyway), but they abandoned their magazine subscribers. Kobo, on the other hand, treats Analog like most epublishers treat magazines, that is, as throwaway items. They even delete your magazines as a service when they're a certain number of months old. I'm told it's possible to take some action to keep them around longer, but I have no idea what that is.
Not to mention the ever-present DRM.
Publishers need to get their act together if e-publication is to work for readers. Tor and Baen seem to have figured it out. Few others.
Why is it that the ads in mags like Byte were a key part of the reason I bought the magazine -- but banners and online ads have become little more than annoyance and irritation?
The old print-media ads were informative and didn't slow down my reading in anyway so I guess they were excellent "secondary" content.
There's no way I'll patronize any site that uses full-page interstitial advertising -- yet the full-page ads in Byte and other printed mags were things I often read from start to finish.
Is it just me or have others had the same experience?
You know, the organisation that worked with Snowden to reveal government overreach to the world? The one whose journalists just won a Pulitzer?
The weekly edition is delivered worldwide. The condensed format is great for catching up on what's happening beyond the boundaries of Murdouche's empire..
This kinda sounds like an advertisement, but it's really not. It's just that print news media here in Australia ranges from mediocre to outright political propaganda. The Guardian is my lifeline on sanity in this environment.
Published "As We May Think" soon after WWII, today is "web first" and quite timely. Perhaps a bit fluffier than it once was, but still doesn't care what you think, but cares desperately that you do think.
davecb@spamcop.net
All of those are a pleasure to read.
I knew some people would call out the Economist, and I used to subscribe to it some years back - but unfortunately they dumbed it down quite a bit several years ago in a push to increase their subscription base... and it looks like they succeeded.
Yup. Scientific American.
I don't respond to AC's.
Long live Byte. Goodbye, Byte, Circuit Cellar, Pournelle, and so many other characters. Long live Ars Technica, Wired, GigaOm, and dozens of other sites like NetworkWorld, InfoWorld, The Register, and so forth. Print will never come back. You won't feel it in your hands until your foldable smartphone makes this comfy some day in the future-- to do again.
I loved reading Byte! starting from the beginning. Reading what hardware and software hackers, who followed hacker ethics not the criminals called hackers in the press today, were doing was terrific. My two favorite columns were Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, which is now a compleat magazine of it's own, and Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor.
Falcon Wolf
Should there be a Law?
Harper’s (not to be confused with Harper’s Bazaar, which is an especially boring fashion magazine,) The Believer, and The Baffler all have good literary and art coverage as well as long-form lefty political journalism. The New Yorker is good too, and not as New York City centric as you might think, aside from the theater/music/event listings, but it’s weekly, so kinda expensive and easy to fall behind on. There’s some good stuff in Rolling Stone and Playboy from time to time but I wouldn’t keep either one on the coffee table where people could see them.
I love The Week. It's a reasonably objective collection of the best news articles/opinions each week. Each Sunday, I sit down with a cup of coffee for a half hour and get a broad overview of what happened in the world that week, and what people said about it.
It's basically a printed new aggregator, showing only the most insightful and informative opinions (from all sides) each week -- the exact opposite of the Internet news I consume daily.
Internet is yet to obliterate Asian - especially Indian -magazines.
Caravan - http://www.caravanmagazine.in/
Open - http://www.openthemagazine.com...
The above two are new ventures, here are some older ones...
India Today - http://indiatoday.intoday.in/
Frontline - http://www.frontline.in/
And no one has mentioned New Yorker - probably the best over the years.
Tat Tvam Asi
I still read Mad Magazine.
It's changed some since I first discovered it (and guffawed at it) decades ago, but it still has some pretty good writing and I get enough chuckles out of it to justify the sub.
The problem with Mad is that Mad will never be as funny as it was when you first discovered it - and it doesn't matter when that was. To me the funniest Mad articles are from the '80s. My Dad read it in the '60s, and thinks those are the best years. I have the whole run on DVD, and the '60s stuff doesn't strike me as funny as the '80s stuff.
The other problem with Mad is that pop culture has become self-parodying, which makes the parodist's job much more difficult.
(Mad isn't a news publication. But the question didn't specify that the periodicals be USEFUL, just worth reading!)
Any newspaper that doesn NOT carry a horoscope and limits sports coverage to a single page (2, tops) must have a sensible set of priorities. In addition it takes the reaslistic view that pretty much everything of importance has a business or financial driver or consequence (though it does cover natural disasters and upheaval in non-financial terms, usually with a much more level-headed and unsensationalised tone, too).
The weekend FT, especially, is the closest I've ever seen to a well-balanced, non-partisan, grown-up (more in-context F-words and nudity than any other newspaper manages, but it all fits in with the mature nature of the writing) content than you'll find elsewhere.
And full-sized newspapers are so much better than tiny little tablets or even PC screens for getting the BIG picture
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Did you guilt them into a discount? I got a renewal for some stupid amount, $24/yr or so, and I called and told them it was over. The phone rep caved and I got an $11/yr renewal.
So I have now only missed Vol1 No1. The streak continues. And it is still worth reading, since they appear to have stamped out may of the gratuitous optical gimmicks that rendered it virtually unreadable in the early 00s. Migraine effects, which now only show up once or twice an issue. I'm still convinced they design around whatever press ink is in the 'oops' bin at the distributor, or on clearance.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.