One way of dividing the world population might be to form two groups: readers of Time and readers of Newsweek. I have been an avid reader of Time magazine ever since my English reached a level good enough to peruse the publication in the mid-sixties. Arrival of the magazine has been the highlight of the week every week since then. I did pick up the odd copy of Newsweek also when they had something interesting to say but have never had a subscription.
Now Newsweek is stopping with its print edition and will only be available in electronic form. Of course with the proliferation of electronic readers and general purpose tablets, reaching a very wide audience in the developed world vie electronic means is not such a big deal any more. So, while Newsweek’s step may appear to be rather bold, it is not so outlandish… unless of course if we consider those countries where the print edition would still be the main, if not the only, way to read Newsweek. So, they are effectively vacating those markets…
One cannot ignore the fact that more and more newsmagazines and professional periodicals include a digital version with a subscription to their paper editions. The digital versions are being promoted quite extensively and I suspect some of them have already placed a mark in their calendars for some time the future when they will announce the termination of the print edition…
Of course you will be familiar with the many professional periodicals which you can subscribe to (for a lot of money most of the time) but which have a strictly controlled free circulation also. I have been one of the lucky individuals whose jobs have always qualified for the free editions… What I am seeing increasingly now is that the free edition is being offered only in electronic form! This reflects very well the fact that producing the electronic version is much cheaper than the paper version (there are no printing and practically no distribution costs involved). This approach also shows that the publishers are confident enough in the widespread use of tabletss and the like so that they entrust their magazine to this new medium and do that in relation to their most qualified readership.
Looking back on my own changing habits, making an inventory even I was a bit surprised. The paper version of Aviation Week and Space Technology gets to Brussels about a week later than the electronic version is pushed by Zinio, so it usually ends up in the dust-bin unopened. I am actually looking for someone near hear to share it with, right now it is such a waste! Then the books… Thinking about it, I realized that the last 4 or 5 technical volumes I bought were all from Amazon in Kindle format and they are now lurking on my 7-inch Samsung, alongside all the ICAO documents in the world plus a few other important volumes from the FAA, EUROCONTROL, SESAR and what have you. True, these electronic books will not make the shelves of my library nicer or more interesting but on the other hand, they are coming with me everywhere and not only are they cheaper but also weigh in at a good deal less than their paper brethren.
So what happens if the tablet is stolen or goes belly up? No worries, the purchases are registered centrally and you can have them stored on a limited number of devices and if one is out of the running, you can register a new device and the library will be recreated in no time at all. Really cool.
Apart from the technical stuff, I have also downloaded a few of my favorite novels that I had here in paperback form. I have the silly habit of going back to them time and again and reading my favorite chapters… With everything stored on a tablet weighing just a few ounces, it is a wonderful feeling to have everything with me all the time, no matter where one has to go and for how long.
Do I miss the feel and smell of paper books? Of course… Nothing will ever come in the place of opening a well used volume or finding the odd, dried and pressed-down rose on one of the pages of a novel, even if one no longer remembers who the rose was from.
But times have changed.