Not received PU after Renewing Subscription

How does the demise of the magazine effect the future of this forum?

According to the announcement the forum will continue to run.

What concerns me is what happens when thousands of subscribers simply take the refund option, I for one have never used any of the services offerd by PU membership other than recieving the Mag. and Im sure I'm not the only one. So the question really is can the forum survive funded by the advertising alone?

Lots of forums survive without a magazine, I would imagine the magazine is a drain on resources rather than a profit generating exercise.

The announcement says the site continues, with lots of new plans in the pipeline.

Sad news.

I can sympathise, because I've been involved for years with a Professional Journal, and the cost of printing glossy magazines to a high standard is very large. Advertising has been a significant problem since the Recession hit, not just in getting people to commit but because some companies are keen but delay their payments in some cases well over a year...!

On top of that, getting good-quality contributions is a constant battle, people will quite happily spend hours ranting on internet forums or in the bar, but getting a 2 page article out of them is like pulling teeth sometimes... 20-30 years ago, magazines and journals were people's only outlets for their work, now print has to compete with a myriad of alternative outlets.

I never saw any requests for material, or of a 'guidelines for contributors' article anywhere.

Maybe I didn't look hard enough...

I think sadly, it became less and less relevant. Historically, the PU gear prices were invariably much higher than elsewhere, and the partnership deal with SRS came too late. The classified section became increasingly irrelevant as online selling grew in popularity.

The writing was on the wall, I'm afraid.

Did anything come of the PDF idea?

a basic forum costs very little to run, the other forum which I contribute to on a regular basis started out as a technical forum attached to a computer hardware company, but split off from the company and now just sort of poodles along on its own.

As long as you've got a corner of a server to hide on and a few people willing to be mods and admins it can work.

sad to see the printed magazine go though

In the Announcements section of the forum.

Dan

Ah, well clearly I didn't

I have a link in my favourites, that goes directly to recent posts - I virtually never start anywhere else.

A tricky thing, marketing...

That's sad I used to look forward to receiving my copies.

I will also miss the magazine, and I only renewed this month

Sandy

I will miss the magazine. There is something to be said for reading from a printed page rather than looking at a computer screen (even though I login here everyday)
Hopefully the intersting articles (recently a great series by John R) can continue on here in some form or other.

Incidentally I used to subscribe when I first bought my ME Super so that would have been around 1980/81 ish. I renewed my interest in about 2000 and have been subscribing ever since. Sadly I no longer have the early magazines.

I suppose this is another step along the inexorable road to exclusively online publishing. But I'm not aware of magazine/newspaper sites making any money. The Times has just introduced a pay-wall- I'd bet there aren't many subscribers. Reading online is a totally different ball-game: you click and choose what to read from what is available rather than being loyal to one publication.

Having said that, most of the printed photographic magazines that I see may look pretty but are sloppily written. The 2 exceptions are Popular Photography and AP. Pentax User was usually in the well-written category and it's a great shame its demise is imminent.

Oh well, I suppose progress is inevitable etc.

I`ve got nearly 10 years worth of AP back issues in the loft if anyone is interested 90s up to early 20s.

Some cracking reading and reviews.

Also good insulation - lol

Tony

My sub is due before the last issue. What do I do just to get that last ever one?

As to AP, in the early-mid 80s it was terrible and I stopped buying it. I only started again very recently. There are a number of US titles which are mainly portfolios of images rather than kit reviews and the like. More and more I find myself more interested in seeing pictures with the hope of being inspired and improving my own rather than reading about the performance of the latest megazoom I cannot afford and don't especially want!

K.