A good article Rod has written and many thoughtful replies.
My experience in this hobby only goes back four years so I pulled out my July 2004 copy of S&T that I bought off the newstand and compared it to the latest issue I have today. I am a subscriber to S&T, Astronomy and Astronomy Technology Today. I like magazines. My S&T is 30% smaller with a different binding as has been stated, but I think this may be a response to the economy of the astronomy community.
I have heard but can't speak first hand that astronomy vendors sales are down and as been documented in the CN forums, Meade appears to be fighting for their life. Meade and Celestron had several multipage ads in the July 2004 issue and now Meade has maybe two pages and Celestron only seems to run small ads showing their premier dealers. Those full page glossy ads showing in detail the full line of scopes the big boys carried were great eye candy for a newbie to the hobby. I still scan the pages of both S&T and Astronomy before I read the articles for new ads but I always seem disappointed now.
I think that disposable incomes are down and hobbies (especially somewhat pricey ones like we have) are the first to be curtailed (as they should) when people's budgets get tighter. I don't know what the new publisher's strategic vision is but I can't help but think that economic pressures are causing alot of the "decline" in the publications maybe as much or more so than the internet.
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Re: The Trouble with the Magazines
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