Newsletter #358 Preview: The Changing Mac Magazine Landscape
October 9th, 2006When I first began to write for Macintosh publications, there were two major magazines in the U.S. Both Macworld and MacUser were fat with ads and content; the latter differed from the former by virtue of having a bit more “attitude.”
In those days, Apple would actually give these two magazines an early look at new products, so you’d know all the important details as soon as they reached the store shelves. When Steve Jobs took over the CEO position, however, that approach was abandoned, and, today, magazine writers get their information at the same time as everyone else, which truly plays havoc with their schedules.
I wrote for Macworld over a period of several years, but I then made the silly mistake of switching to MacUser just a few months before the great merger, in which these two publications became one. In the wake of that momentous event, a lot of the former writers for both found themselves seeking other opportunities.
Oh well, there was always MacAddict and MacHome, and I wrote for both from time to time.
However, the landscape is a-changin’ and MacHome faded and died an unceremonious death several months ago, a fact that I should have mentioned, but never got around to. Alas, few seemed to notice, which is sad. One day, MacHome, was here, and the next it was gone.
Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.
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Gene could have added that MacWorld is a pale shadow of its former self. It’s of course tough to put out a monthly magazine when computer news is available on the Web on almost a minute-by-minute basis (including on MacWorld’s own site). But, even so, it’s hard to deny that MacWorld’s editors have lost the way. The one strong suit the magazine could still have is the once-respected MacWorld Lab, but nowadays their reviews are little more than fluff pieces. If, say, a new model of Mac comes out and I wanted to read an in-depth review, I’d head straight to the Ars Technica site for an in-depth review, because I know that MacWorld wouldn’t give it more than a few paragraphs.