Today I was browsing through a collection of old computer trade magazines - Unix Today, Byte, Dr. Dobb's Journal, C User's Journal, and Computer Language, among others. At the time of purchase or subscription, I considered these magazines essential for keeping up with the industry. And they were enjoyable, having interesting columnists and useful technical information and advertisements.

Nowadays, I use the Internet for all information gathering of this type - e.g. Usenet newsgroups, electronic mail, browsing the web. The information obtained is not equivalent in content or in quality of presentation, but it is sufficient to enable me to perform my work. It is also sufficient to fill all the time which I am prepared to devote to reading the trade press for general information. There may be more information to be gained by reading additional magazines, but there are other tasks, either more interesting or more necessary for immediate needs, to be performed in a work context. And there are numerous and diverse non-work interests which the Internet has reactivated.

Presumably this is not a unique situation. Others in the computer software industry must have experienced a similar diminuation of interest in the trade press, whether obtained by subscription or received as a free distribution. What are the implications?

We may expect to see the demise of the trade magazine on paper. But there will continue to be a need for the functions which the trade magazine performed: reviews of industry trends by knowledgeable columnists, product evaluations and comparisons, and a location where vendor advertisements can be found.

These functions cannot be provided by vendor-supplied web pages. There is partiality, there is no comparative information, the how-to information is often incomplete, and noone is acting as an industry observer. Nor can these functions be provided by a Usenet news group.

There may be an opportunity to provide trade magazine functionality on the net, with high quality editorial work, and funded by vendor advertisements.

Readers of these future online publications will demand a high level of interaction, and the ability to present their responses to the readership. The publication's ability to facilite this involvement of participants (formerly "readers"), while still maintaining the "tone" of the publication, will be one of the major factors in its appeal and success. The skills required of an editor will change, blending with those of a discussion group moderator.

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URL: http://www.mirror.org/ken.roberts/trade.mag.html
July 18, 1996. Revised February 3, 1997.

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