Little Mr Mahatma

In which the middle-aged Peacenik mouths off about War Drones--and all the other things that make him cranky.

Mr Mahatma--who is a Mr in real life--lives in the valleys of Southern California with his wife, a herd of Dears, and an impressive collection of books. Pnorny!
He is reachable at:
littlemrmahatma@yahoo.com

All writings are copyrighted 2003-2008 and trademarked: Little Mr. Mahatma

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Little Mr Mahatma

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Online Magazines
Recently I've been barraged by offers to subscribe to online versions of some of my favorite magazines. I guess this is a new business model at work: save on printing costs by emailing a link to a pdf.

But this will prove a poor model. Sure, the printing costs will go down but so will, I suspect, your subscriber base.

This is like the whole eBook vs printed book controversy. That paper-based books will or should disappear in lieu of electronic eBooks with portable readers. Gosh, think of trees saved by not printing on paper.

But they overlook a few things (and this also hold for eMags as well).

Book and magazines may be bulkier than eBooks and their readers but books are tactilely soothing. You can ultimately trash a book through sheer enjoyment. There's the smell, the feel, the enjoyment of going into the den and picking out what you know will be a good read. There's the art of the covers and reading the blurbs. For Ebooks it is just words.

eBooks are not more environmentally sound. Trees are renewable. Paper is recyclable. Not so true ebout the eBooks hardware and the batteries they use. Use eBook readers and you better know the pick up dates of your local hazardous waste management.

Lose a book? Not necessarily a big deal. Lose your eBook reader and whatever is on it and you'll have a fit. Sure, eBooks may be cheaper than paper but the readers sure aren't and doubtful a reader can take the abuse that a book can.

For slightly older folks like me who spend more than enough time in front of a computer, the last thing we want when we curl up in bed to read, is to deal with another computer. Yes, you can crow about how great your reader has resolution and contrast but for these old eyes, just leave me to my books, my paper books.

So if any of you magazine publsihers are reading this and are considering switching to PDFs or some form of eBooks, consider your subscribers. Are they an older crowd? If so, seriously rethink your business model. Maybe the younger set will happily put up with everything going electronic but not so for us older folks.

10:12 AM

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