While PC mags held their own, MacWorld drops 17% circulation. Mac fanboys can't spin their way out of this bad news. Now we need a death knell for MacWorld.

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RealityCheck wrote:
While PC mags held their own, MacWorld drops 17% circulation. Mac fanboys can't spin their way out of this bad news. Now we need a death knell for MacWorld.

How is this bad news? I'm a Mac fanboy. Not a Macworld fanboy. I suppose oil prices rising is bad news as well, but I don't see it as my responsibility to "spin my way out of it."

I've found myself reading these magazines less and less since coming to pages like this one. 95% of the magazine is now stuff I've already read about weeks before. The feature article is usually useful information since it usually involves tests that web pages don't do, but buying a magazine for one article is not always something I want to do. Which is sad, 'cause they ARE good magazines.

Just my experience...

Did you acctualy read the article? Only 1 of the PC mags went up in ranking the others droped!
Besides with 24 hr news channels on TV and every concievable type of news and information on the web, all print media ends up being old news by the time it is on the newstand, that is why people aren't buying mags not marketshare. Print media is most likely going to be obsolete in our lifetime.

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drjason wrote:
Print media is most likely going to be obsolete in our lifetime.

Well, obsolete in the same way TV made radio obsolete.

Print needs to change, yes, but it won't go away. Can you see men and women giving up "Sports Illustrated" or "Cosmo" just because they could get the same content online? Full page photos of the newest cothing just isn't the same on a computer.

Likewise, even though everything in the newspaper is available for free online, people still subscibe. Why? Because it's more fun to read the comics or the sports section over a big bowl of cereal than it is to read one comic at a time at your desk.

But you're right, print media DOES have to change. This item about Macworld proves that. People don't need to get a magazine to learn the newest iMac specs anymore.

But like I said, I do enjoy their more in depth articles. Articles that compare programs and hardware head to head. Photos that show ways to break into iMacs. And interviews with people at Apple about the future.

Again, these are things that are AVAILABLE online, but not to the extent that basic hardware specs are. If Macworld can concentrate on the Mac news that's not just "new item!" and do the kind of reporting that web pages like this just can't afford to do...

...well then they'll be around for quite a while.

I don't know if this affected their numbers much but they lost a subscriber when the killed MacCentral. MacCentral used to be my first destination for Mac news. It held a coveted spot on my Bookmark bar. No more. I like this site. It is becoming the first site I visit. But it has not yet made it to my Bookmark Bar.

It's a miracle anybody still subscribes to this mag. It has been owned by a completely Windows oriented company for years and regularly spews out anti-Mac FUD disinformation and completely biased crap. Everyone I know stopped their subscriptions years ago. I guess even the diehard Mac fans have given up on this piece of $#!% rag.

each week since June I get a renewal letter with a lower and lower price to renew. I going to wait until they offer it for free. I had let my original subscription expire but bought several Macs and got free subscriptions with them that was added on to my existing. Just the other day I got another renewal pitch in the same mailing as the mag and thought how thin the MacWorld Mag is getting and how thick MacAddict is. Also MacWorld is more of a big book of ads and not much Mac Meat. They have basically abandoned everything Mac, but have zeroed in on only certain products. I have also noticed that the whole tone of the mag is becoming very snotty and the replies to letters from readers are rude.

I use to look forward to getting MacWorld, but now wonder if I should keep the issue or toss it. I keep all my MacAddicts.

I will be renewing my MacAddict subscription, but not MacWorld.

"Total gross revenue for MacWorld fell over US$4.2 million in 2003 to $42.0 million, according to AdAge."

$42 mill ain't nothing to sneeze at. I'm sure that helps IDG cover its overhead.

"Now we need a death knell for MacWorld."

The death knell has been going for what, 10 years now? Don't hold your breath.