Of all the publications that I thought by now would have jettisoned its print edition I would have said Wired would be one. I see their printed magazine in the college newsagent and was wondering does it sell much anymore?
I read the NYTimes. I have the NYTimes bookmarked on my computer. Except in a blue moon, I never click on the tab that… Yup… I can see right now. When I’m at work there’s a little shop downstairs that has the Times. I pick it up every few days. They get money from me while much of their content is online for free. I just don’t go to the free site because I don’t want to read it when I get home, I want to sleep when I get home (evening shift). I want to read it when I’m sitting in the lounge on my break.
IMHO, Wired is a beautiful magazine and they put a lot of effort into the way the print edition looks. The spine even looks good stacked up on a shelf!
There are tons of ads (which are also usually good) so they must be doing ok in that department.
They also tend to have extremely long feature articles which for many are too long to read online.
Wired is the only magazine I subscribe to and I read it cover-to-cover. I look forward to taking lunch breaks just so I can pore over it.
I think the answer is that “because people still buy it,” and there are many reasons why.
The obvious reason I singled out Wired is that most (perhaps all?) readers would be regular net users, not something that could be said perhaps for the NYTimes or other major newspapers.
Thanks for your replies folks.
People read them at the airport and on the plane. Airports are a huge market for reading material in general.
Nevertheless, the ‘obvious’ answer to your question is that it has a print edition because the publishers consider it more profitable (perhaps taking into account exposure and future sales as well) to maintain a print edition than not to. If that profitability changes one day, they’ll probably stop the print edition.
Yep. WIRED is my go-to plane and train magazine.
I thought surely someone else would have mentioned picking up new readers/subscribers through the print editions on magazine racks - not just travelers. There are many people who practically live online without being aware of any of the numerous computer-related publications out there. They go online for entertainment, but some of them can be attracted to mags like Wired if they once become aware of them.
Magazines exist to sell advertising. Subscriptions make back expenses - if they’re lucky. Advertising provides all the profit.
Nobody has yet figured out how to make advertising work for magazines on the internet in the same volume it does in print.
Until then, print magazines will survive.
My local newspaper is discontinuing many of its daily editions. Soon, we’ll have only Thursday, Friday, and Sunday available for home delivery. That will mean that I’ll soon be an ex-subscriber. Yes, I get a lot of my news online, but there’s something satisfying about not straining my eyes on the screen.
Similarly, I can wait until the end of the current print-month to read all of Wired’s content online. Time isn’t an issue. But it’s certainly not as satisfying as the print edition. It, Popular Photography, and Cook’s Illustrated are the only magazines I currently get, and I’d stop reading any of them if they were online-only editions. I can’t believe I’m unique in this regard.
It’s simple.
I’m not interested in carrying a laptop to the bathroom. I don’t have internet connectivity or power camping, or sitting at the beach.
Print magazines will exist as long as there are opportunities where online access is unavailable, or inconvenient.
I like opening a magazine, and reading an article, then putting it down. Online reading/entertainment has it’s value, but it’s not always convenient, or desired.
Also, I can’t read an online magazine if the house has no power, or the internet connection is down. I can read a print magazine, as long as I have some sort of light source.
The same applies to books. For all my reading, I don’t want an e-reader, I want a paper option. I like paper, and convenient sizes, that don’t require electricity via plug or battery.
But it doesn’t take all that many people migrating to digital reading to render a printed periodical unprofitable.
It’s a pretty good magazine, and contains articles their web site doesn’t. Plus it seems to have illustrations and photos that the site doesn’t as well.
From ordering electronics from Amazon.com I’ve gotten a couple free subscriptions. They’re practically giving it away, it’s only $12 a year at the most.
And when that happens, they’ll stop printing the paper edition. But I think even with techies, we like reading paper magazines.
I just got this as well, based on doing some Xmas shopping at Amazon…pretty nice since I travel a lot and it really is the only magazine I consistently buy in airports…perferctly fills the takeoff/landing time before I can put on the earbuds and resume whatever audiobook I’m currently listening to.
I agree. My day job is a computer programmer, so I sit in front of a computer all day. In the evening I sometimes like to relax and read something that is NOT on a screen. That’s why I still subscribe to several paper magazines.
Ed
I second that emotion. Same reason I gave up gaming.
Because there are no ad blockers for magazines.
I enjoy Wired. Read it every month. hardly ever visit their web site. OTOH, I read the NY Times every day-online. Never consider the dead tree version. With the former I want to relax. With the latter I want the news. Different purposes different times of the day.