As a long time Circuit Cellar reader, I'm curious why you didn't mention it. It certainly isn't a software magazine but you find code in (just about) every issue. There definitely is a DIY component (although aimed at the more electronic savvy than say, Make). And ultimately I think it still embodies the spirit of learning new techniques and parts and putting them to cool uses as either a hobbyist or professional.
Some of their regular writers aren't half bad either :) -Mike On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 5:04 PM, Ed Nisley <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, 2011-08-08 at 07:26 -0400, Cranky Frankie wrote: > > Could it be, with programming the way it is now, > > there's no room for something like Dr. Dobb's anymore? > > That was a fun gig while it lasted... [grin] > > The trouble was (IMHO, with no inside information) that advertising > drives magazine publishing really, really hard: if your audience isn't > what the advertisers want, you don't get any revenue. But if you have > articles aligned with your advertising (to attract that specific > audience), all *other* readers tend to drop their subscriptions because > they're not interested. > > So DDJ lost all the generalist readers who weren't interested in the > gory details of, say, getting Samba to play in a corporate environment. > Then they lost all the corporate readers who didn't have any interest in > Samba whatsoever. > > FWIW, your subscription dollars barely pay for printing & distributing > the magazine. Advertising pays for *everything* else. > > > I hope it or something like it comes back someday. > > MAKE magazine may have hit the current sweet spot for a DIY magazine, > although it tends to be a bit simplistic and the articles all have a > weird "Let's make a go-cart from scrap lumber, junk bike parts, and $400 > worth of new high-end cordless drills!" enthusiasm. Not much in the way > of programming, although Arduino love is in full effect. > > Their cover / subscription price is staggeringly high, which means > you're paying for operating expenses that advertising normally covers, > and they have a remarkable number of house ads along with a distinct > paucity of full-page advertisers. IMHO, that says nobody's figured out > how to make enough money from that market to pay for big ads (and a big > magazine); there may be several million-dollar open-source hardware > companies out there, but they haven't cleared the gantry yet. > > It was a distinct surprise when I walked by a DDJ poster at Embedded > Systems one year and spotted my name on the wall... > > -- > Ed > http://softsolder.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > Sep 7 - DIY 3D Printing and the Makerbot Thing-o-Matic > Oct 5 - Distributed Authentication Systems > Nov 2 - Nov 2011 >
_______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Sep 7 - DIY 3D Printing and the Makerbot Thing-o-Matic Oct 5 - Distributed Authentication Systems Nov 2 - Nov 2011
