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?"
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
Done right digital versions offer some advantages print cannot. Does print offer any advantage over digital beyond not needing a powered device?
One small disadvantage: When I was a kid, I remember a HUGE stack of National Geographic magazines that stat around my grandparents' house. Many of them dated back to IIRC the 1940's and 50's, and some older still... I could sit around as a kid in the 1970's and leaf through them, no problem.
Would we be able to, 30-40 years hence, be able to even open some of these digital mags without paying (again) for the privilege of doing so? What if the website dies off? What if archive.org didn't, well, archive it?
Paper may be inefficient at many things, but even magazine publishers that died off a long-assed time ago likely still have one or two copies of their editions floating around somewhere (even if it's sitting in a flea market or antique store...)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
It's also not so easy to put a revision on history when it's in physical copy to be referred to whenever needed. When all your historical documents are digital... how long before it's really possible to claim "Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia"? That would be doubleplus ungood.