I am NOT trying to start a flame war here. My comments are not meant to be taken as aggressive, mean spirited or nasty. They are just my observation.
OK, so it is expensive. I get that. But other publications manage to publish print editions. I see no reason for Spectrum Monitor not too. I subscribe to other magazine publications, some of them are not that large a circulation. How many folk do you think subscribe to a rather obscure magazine dedicated to hunting dogs? Not hunting, just the dogs. Or how about Guns and gardens? I bet that not many people have heard of that one, either. I subscribe to both.
What do yo do if the hard drive in your device fails? yeah, go get another, unless the Chinese decide not to sell us anymore just like OPEC allegedly did in the 70s with oil. Then lets say you do get another hard drive. Now you got to reload it. What a PIA. "But no one puts their e-reads on a computer any more. Everyone keeps their e-whatever on their kindle. (Or smart phone). What happens when the batteries die? Or when the smart phone gets dropped? "Why, you down load it again, you Luddite!" That is what I have actually been told by a pink haired dude with a thing in his nose. So you go to download your content again. I live in a place with terrible internet connectivity. Oh, but you need satellite internet. OK, so now I have to pay a very high fee for satellite internet (at least geo sat internet) just in order to get an e-zine? Then, lets say the sun blasts the earth just like it did in the Carrington event. Don't laugh. The sun is acting very strange lately, and the planetary alignment is coming to be just as it was when that thing happened. Telegraph operators were injured and worse when the system was made useless by tremendous voltage surges due to the sun. Then of course, what happens when some self appointed government type thinks that you do not need to read about whatever is in the e-publication. Why, it all magically disappears. Happens all the time in nations where there is no strong tradition of our first amendment. The point is, Digital content is ephemeral. Once the power goes out, the magnetic imprints on a substate go away, the internet collapses, the polycarbonite CD/DVD gets too scratchy or deteriorates, you no longer have the content or access to it.
No matter what happens, save a tornado blowing my house away (God Forbid) or my house burns down, (again, God forbid), I can always go to my library, pull down a prined copy of Satellite Times (God I miss Bob Grove), that is bound in a hard cover volume and read.
Yes, publishing is expensive. Profit margins are a lot less with print publications (which I think is the real driving force with e-pubs). But as I said, other magazines are still in print, and they have not declared chapter 13. Finally, for those of us that the pink haired, thing in the nose set so looks down upon for not being as technically savvy as they are (in their opinion) because we like to sit down and read something that does not need electricity, why not at the very least set your publication up with a print to order service. Yeah, I would pay for it. Spectrum Monitor is worth it. But I do not "read" from screens. I did that my entire working life, wont do it now that I am retired, and besides it hurts my eyes after an hour or so.
Just my two cents worth. But the exclusively e-publishers have excluded themselves from a rather significant source of potential customers in the name of increased profit margins and decreased expense. That is really a shame, actually.
Joe KB0TXC
