PC World magazine ceases print

In 2008, PC Magazine went strictly online. They were the Time magazine of computer publications, smart and current. Today I picked up my August issue of PC World, only to find the cover trumpeting that they, too, were ceasing print, but I could carry on reading online or on my tablet! Yay. Not.

I stopped reading PC Magazine; reading on a screen is no fun. They wanted an unjustifiable (to me) fee. Interestingly, I just re-upped for PC World not two weeks ago. They coulda told me what was about to happen.

I won't be reading any electronic magazine in a serious way until the tablets and portable devices available to us improve to the point of actual useability. That is, ultra-thin, probably foldable, full-color e-ink, large format. Large enough to read a full magazine page on. Reading on a 7" device is difficult; reading on a 10" heavy device I find annoying.

I've cancelled my subscription to PC World.

HelperGuy wrote:
That is, ultra-thin, probably foldable, full-color e-ink, large format. Large enough to read a full magazine page on. PC World.

Gee - do you want it to pour your coffee and stir it too:D ! What happened to Byte, are they still around? I stay away from too much tech stuff, ever since the medical world discovered that messing around with electronics and computers is the number one cause of hemmaeroids. ( I know the spelling is wrong, I just didn't want to google it and have images pop up  )

I can wait for the technology.

Byte went away long ago although Chaos Manner has moved to Pournelle website but is mostly non computer stuff these days. Remember Ciarra Cellar (sp)?  I guess all we have now is Maximum PC and that is pretty game oriented but they have good hardware reviews. I miss PC magazine as it was twice a months most of the time.  It was something to look forward to. 

Z

The first PC World was the thickest premiere of any magazine ever. Remember when Computer Shopper was a Life-magazine sized, almost phonebook thick, monthly? I specialized in desktop publishing for a long time, and Publish magazine, which was completely computer produced (unheard of in those days) and printed at 300 dpi, was started by David Bunnell, part of the PC World gang, who later specialized in exercise magazines. So many good magazines are gone now, some out of a lack of audience, but only recently due to high costs of production.

Too bad. I still subscribe to a half dozen print magazines - I don't want to read them on a tablet - and definitely not on my PC. I do get the NY Times on my kindle - and I think they have done a nice job of formatting - sans pictures. But most non fiction and all magazines - I really do want to be able to pick up and put down not turn on and off - regretfully their business model probably requires more money to stay in business than they will make if they continue with print subscriptions.......

PC World gives you a mobile subscription as part of your plan. Maximum PC makes you pay extra. Max PC is full of photos and diagrams that require a lot bigger page than a small tablet, and that's no good for me.

I seem to remember that Maximum PC use to be called "Boot"?  Am I remembering correctly? In the US PC magazine was usually much thicker than PC world and I always like the format better than PC world.

Z

Yep, was called Boot. PC Magazine was usually way thicker than PC World, except at the beginning. And Computer Shopper was gigantic. We also had magazines for the TI 99-4A, and Atari, and the Radio Shack models, and the Osborne computers... there were stacks and stacks. Now the market seems to be held exclusively in England, with some mighty-fine glossy mags.