Here are some thoughts about the future
offering a first class subscription to people in the US. This would cost about 40/year for 6 issues
offering an online sub to people in the US
dropping retail distribution. This is close to a loser for magazines such as View Camera.
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steve simmons
I know from even large magazines that news stand sales are a wash, but do they not attract customers to become subscribers? Or is a that not so important for niche magazines that serve a well defined and informed community?
About online magazines.....I might feel differently if I had a huge computer screen, but I don't......I still vastly prefer a real magazine to an online magazine. A print magazine is much more user friendly and portable. There are places I like to read that a laptop is just not very handy.....
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
As my interest in the contents of View Camera varies from issue to issue, being able to only purchase the ones I'm interested in has been a good thing. Removing it from retail stores will make a niche magazine even more obscure (I have doubts about LensWork's decision to do that), and I wonder if out-of-sight will lead to out-of-mind completely, let alone being completely invisible to first time buyers who are also unfamiliar with this website.
As to charging $6.67 per issue for a first class mail delivery, if that's an improvement over the current delivery mode, it'll likely be very welcome.
From what i recall of Magnachrom's on-line offering, though it was beautifully made, it was a pain to scroll through in PDF form. Besides, there are some favorite reading places that aren't available with an on-line magazine.
My online service is dial up. I don’t see that changing for many years. An online magazine becomes slow and painful. I will vote for the current system.
Bill Kumpf
They are if you go wireless.Originally Posted by John Voss
Besides, there are some favorite reading places that aren't available with an on-line magazine.
Here we go again. First Lenswork and now View Camera. I buy directly from the news stand aka local bookstore. I want to see what I'm paying for before I put down the dollars. That way I have control of what I'm spending my money on and getting the information that I wish to have.
If View Camera does go the route of pdf files. It will be no big loss to me as I buy maybe 4 issues or less a year. What I do hope is that Steve will do as Brooks Jensen did and have a email flyer of what the next issue will be and that I or others like me can decide if that single issue is worth buying.
I wish Steve and View Camera well and I hope to continue buying issues when I want in the future.
As to charging $6.67 per issue for a first class mail delivery, if that's an improvement over the current delivery mode, it'll likely be very welcome.
A regular sub is 25 so 40 is for the extra expense of first class mail.
I understand about laptops not being taken everywhere.
We could offer both printed and online to US subs so people could make a choice or get both.
All magazine publishers have the fantasy that we can turn all retail buyers into subscribers. It just does not happen. The bookstore gets a small piece of the price but the distributor gets most of the money. We just get a few cents per issue. However, with gas prices going up people who like going to the bookstore may decide to have the copy sent directly to them - especially if it comes first class which would now be the same price as the retail price.
steve simmons
Well, I usually don't read from my laptop while I'm in bed. Never have, in fact. But novels, View Camera, the Bible, other magazines, the newspaper--all are very enjoyable before turning the light out for the night.
Also, the images! View Camera comes to me on high-quality paper; the images have power because the printing process better serves the silver print than other media. How is a pdf on a glowing laptop screen going to produce the same quality of images?
So, if View Camera were only available electronically, that would be a big disappointment to me.
Peter Collins
On the intent of the First Amendment: The press was to serve the governed, not the governors --Opinion, Hugo Black, Judge, Supreme Court, 1971 re the "Pentagon Papers."
As an overseas electronic subscriber to View Camera I have to echo the comments made above.
The magazine certainly loses much of it's appeal in PDF format, you can't casually browse, flick through etc. I would rather have a printed copy in many ways, but the extra cost in postage, plus the fact that post doesn't always arrive means the online version has to suffice for now.
Ian
I'm not in the magazine business so what do I know, except that it seems to me that the web is the way of the future, like it or not -- and with ad-supported models, not subscription based models.
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