Magazine subscriptions

[Normand]

Just wondering (gotta be careful with that one)

If magazine subscriptions (any magazine, not just fly tying/fishing ones) were made available online using a simple PDF format and a password to retrieve the issue, would you opt for that convenience vs receiving a paper magazine in the mail??? (Everybody has Adobe Reader installed on their PC's these days). Production of the magazine should be on a computers and creating the PDF document would be very simple.

I like the idea that i could archive the issues on my computers hard drive vs searching all over the place for that issue! No more dust collecting magazines on a bookshelf.

No more scanning of pages to save a particular article!

You could store a few issues on a thumb drive and read it on your laptop computer while traveling!

Saves a few trees from being cut down to make the paper the magazine will be printed on! Going green isn't a bad thing!

The bad is that you cant take it to the throne room and read it there! [Frown]

Just a thought! Whats yours??

[MikieFinn]

The problem with that is a copyright.

With PDF all anyone needs to do is click "Print" and with abundance of printers magazines are "afraid to go that way".

Copying the "hard" pages requires high quality copier which are difficult to find.


Although I'm sure that sooner or later technology will catch up.

Mabe soething like Amazon's Kindle will do the trick... Who knows?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846

For something like that the price would hace to be a lot lower...

[Rick Z]

I am not sure I would like it. I take the magazines home to read many times.

I also think the publishers would worry that one person would get a subscription and the copy and email it to several other folks.

Rick

[J Castwell]

Would you want to see the whole 2004 July issue, or be able to 'search' through everything (on line) that they EVER published on 'mending' or any other subject. Here we archive by subject.

[chewydog]

The bad is that you cant take it to the throne room and read it there! [Frown]

Laptop.

[Normand]

I also think the publishers would worry that one person would get a subscription and the copy and email it to several other folks.

Rick

i'm sure there are technological ways of blocking that. it would have to be imbeded into the the issue that allows you to only print 1 copy, similar to some of the music download places.

[Normand]

The problem with that is a copyright.

With PDF all anyone needs to do is click "Print" and with abundance of printers magazines are "afraid to go that way".

Copying the "hard" pages requires high quality copier which are difficult to find.

when somebody scans a document or whatever (using an electronic scanner), isnt that a copyright infringement???

see my answer to rick on printing PDF.

another question

how is it any different than buying an audio book online from itunes or wherever???

[WarrenP]

Not sure the magazine companies would like it because they would lose their advertisers which are the ones supporting the magazine in the first place. Just a thought...

[MikieFinn]

Magazines are making their money in two ways. Sales of their copies and advertising. So far this does not translate very well into the electronic media although many are trying. The file format of the stuff yopu buy from "iTunes" and such binds the copy to your machine. When you copy it to another computer the file is useless. The same protection is hard to find for written or graphics files since you can always use "Print Screen" function to override it. But many companies are trying to figuire this one out. Trust me as soon as there is money to be made here we will have digital magazines and papers everywhere. So far paper generates more revenue.

PS. Switch to digital media will also have wider impact on economy since it would eliminate "normal distribution channels" ie shipping companies, retail etc.

Since digtal solution would be a lot "greener" I hope that shift of this sort will happen soon.

[Wild One]

Honestly, I think it would be much nicer. Adobe reader has a "Find"function that could be extremely helpful in retrieving information that you read 3 months ago and want to reference again without reading through the whole file again. Additionally, without the aid of other software (which I don't know about) you cannot copy text from a .pdf. You can highlight things and copy the image of the text, but you couldn't really reproduce that. Also, if someone emailing a copy of an article or even the whole magazine to a buddy or a bunch of buddies and you are concerned with copyright-couldn't a reader just (as Norm mentioned) scan a copy of the paper mag and email it out. Or scan it and save it to his PC and then give the magazine to a buddy to do the same. Potentially, one purchaser could supply 500 people with the entire magazine without any of them paying the original producer or owner of the copyright for their copy.

You can put it in a .pdf and email the .pdf or link to the .pdf with a secured login screen to someone who has paid for the subscription and require those individuals to register the IP address of the network or PC they're on. Then they could only view the mag through that PC (going forward) unless they saved it and transferred it to another device which, as has been established, is no different than copying and lending the magazine to a friend to read.

I've seen some online magazines that are done this way and honestly, is probably the way most "cutting edge" subject magazines will go. The mags that I've seen were rock and ice climbing magazines.