Digital magazine subscriptions

[MJ]

I, like probably many of you, have way more paper copies of woodworking mag azines than I can possibly read. My collection goes back to the 1980's, whi ch means 30+ years of Wood, Pop Wood, American Woodworker, etc. Just keepin g things in order is a problem.

I'm thinking of switching over to digital copies over the next renewal sche dules. I've owned digital copies of magazines before and to be honest, unti l tablet computers came on the market, it just never seem easy to use them. With iPads and such, it's easy to bring them to the shop and be able to r eview a plan without having to print things out.

I'm curious what the members here think? In addition, I want to "rail a bit " against the rather exorbitant pricing some of the publishers have on the digital copies. I understand the wanting to maintain a profit margin for th e effort to produce, but I just don't see why a digital copy cost the same as a paper copy. I mean isn't there a price for paper, printer fees, storag e, etc?

The model that I like for any of this is Tauton's Fine Woodworking. For $14 .95 (I think) a year, you get access to their entire digital database of ma gazines, articles, blogs, etc. I've used this feature many times and it's j ust great. I just wish more magazines would follow.

Thoughts about this?

MJ

[Puckdropper]

MJ wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I'm not sure I want to invest serious cash in a device to sit on the back of the toilet. I've got a couple different bathrooms in the house, so I'd need one for each room. Print subscriptions are cheaper. (Then there's the whole issue of keeping the batteries charged, being in range of a wireless connection or distributing files to each device, etc.)

I've got one magazine subscription that keeps on missing issues. Rather than go digital (I've got access to the digital version and rarely use it), I'm probably going to drop the entire subscription. I might have to get some old magazines to read. (Larry Blanchard, did you ever get rid of those train magazines from like 10 years ago?)

On the other side of the coin, printed magazines can't do anything fancy like play a video or sound. They also tend to take up quite a bit of space.

Puckdropper

[none]

On 02 Jul 2013 03:08:21 GMT, Puckdropper

Sorry, but just the fact that you've stated all this suggests that you have little experience with it and/or just not particularly interested in the available technology.

Wifi is set up once and should cover most areas of a house. And, on the off chance that it doesn't, you can get a cheap repeater or range extender to increase the range.

Most/many people travel with a cell phone or tablet much of the time. The Wifi and your tablet is all you need to have universal access to a computer or cloud directory or website containing PDF's of woodworking articles.

While I agree that a magazines are nice to have available while sitting on the throne, there's only so many times you can read the same article without longing for something new.

[woodchucker]

Here's my take on digital. Your subscription is only good for the year you are in., if you want to look up something 2 years after dropping the subscription, you can't. If you have paper you probably saved it.

Some of these do allow it, most don't.

Many require awful reader software.

I have stopped all subscriptions, they all seem to come from a beginner point of view. I occasionally pick up a nice tip, what I look for mostly is design ideas, and even those don't exist in the WW magazines.

YMMV

[Lee Michaels]

Yep, most digital subscriptions of magazines are a complete waste of digital time/space.

I remember years ago, I got a subscription to a magazine I really liked. They sent me three issues and then announced that the paper version is now dead. The digital version was impossible to read. It was tiny and you had to jump through several hoops just to turn the miniature pages.

At work recently, I was awarded a paid subscription to an expensive magazine. It was something that would have limited utility, but I would look at it if it was a freebie. Well, it turns out it is for the digital version. They sent me the sign in information yesterday. Again, tiny pages. And by the time you blow it up enough to see it, you are looking at a very small portion of the page. I would have to buy a monitor of $1500 or more to see this thing. And that assumes I have space on my desk top to house a monster monitor.

A simple newsletter with a couple good articles each month is worth far more than miniaturized magazines any day.

[Larry Blanchard]

One of the model railroad magazines I subscribe to offered a digital version here a while back. I wrote them and pointed out that with a paper copy I could drop my subscription and still have access to all the issues I'd received as a subscriber. I asked if they were going to allow me access to the digital issues I'd subscribed to after I dropped that subscription.

They never responded.

You might want to ask the same question.

[Meanie]

The digital subscription I have allow the issue(s) to download directly to the PC. Therefore, once there, they stay in the folder on your PC.

Some subscriptions have online reading and can archive several years, such as Consumer Reports, but they aren't saved to your PC, tablet, etc. The program I use offers both options and they recommend you download to the PC for a few reasons. One is hassle of internet speed, or lack there of, if presented.

Overall, I prefer digital. I have stacks of older Mags with sticky notes tabs for reference, but they are wilting, losing adhesion and simply getting in the way. IMO, digital is the way to go.

[scritch]

The reader projects section in the back of Fine Woodworking has some good design ideas, even if it's only to keep up on what's in style. As far as furniture design magazines, Fine Woodworking tried that years ago in their "Home Furniture" series. Unfortunately, it failed due to lack of interest. I guess most subscribers like that beginner stuff more than pure design.