I just got my ComputerWorld Canada last week. It seems like it's been a while since the previous one. I noticed they have gotten thinner the last few months.
I think January 2008 is the slimmest I've seen. It was only 18 pages. While the content is still good, the seeming gaps between issues and the slimming is a concern. I wonder if they will cease publication soon.
It would be too bad if that happens. I've been reading ComputerWorld Canada and its merged predecessors like InfoWorld Canada as long as I've been in tech full time. They are useful to get an idea what's going on at a high level outside of your own company and projects. Although ComputerWorld Canada has always been more focused on the corporate IT departments than on my roles in systems integration and development in an ISV.
I was getting electronic delivery for a while. Around the middle of last year I switched back to delivery of the printed issues and I've been reading them when they arrive.
The tech magazines have had it tough in recent years probably due to the rise of the Internet. It would be unfortunate if ComputerWorld Canada goes away but I guess I could find a site or feed with similar content easily enough on the Web.
2 comments:
Hi Rob,
I'm the editor of ComputerWorld Canada and I promise you, we're not going anywhere. You're right, though -- advertisers are definitely shifting a lot of their marketing dollars from print to the Internet over the last few years.
I find my challenge now is to package as much as I can into a smaller set of pages. One way I've tried to address it is by shrinking the news section (much of which is more timely online anyway) and bumping up the number of features per issue from one major article to three. So in a way the page count isn't always a reflection of what you'll get out of the magazine.
We're also doing a lot more online, of course, including a daily newsletter and a recently relaunched publication page at http://www.itworldcanada.com/computerworld.
I hope you'll stick with us. No matter what medium we're predominantly working in, I'll do everything I can to make sure the message will still be worth reading. Thanks for the post, and for caring about ComputerWorld Canada.
Thanks for taking the time to post Shane. I've been a reader for over 10 years and the quality remains as good as ever. I appreciate the Canadian perspective. I'll continue subscribing and I hope ComputerWorld Canada will continue for a good long time.
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