Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!psuvm!uh2
From: UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: [Computer Language and] BYTE still toothless
Message-ID: <90276.150953UH2@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 90 19:09:53 GMT
References: <1990Sep27.152440.26687@NCoast.ORG>
 <1990Oct2.220250.5133@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 19

>Actually, they're a bit cleverer than that.  They do readership surveys.
>Both Byte and Computer Language ran surveys, found out that their readers
>mostly owned IBM-PC clones, and promptly dumbed down their magazines to
>match their reader's presumed interests.

>What never seemed to cross their minds, in either case, is that the fact
>that a reader might _now_ own the cheapest computer on the market does
>_not_ preclude the reader being _intensely_ interested in knowing where
>the leading edge in affordable (and even unaffordable) home computer
>technology is, for later planning, day dreaming, wish list building, or
>self improvement.  Similarly, since the smart computer purchaser buys
>the machine on which the software he needs, runs, knowing about available

True, but this assumes that the magazine business is about selling ideas
to the readers.  It isn't.  The magazine business is about selling readers
to the advertisers.  Good articles are merely the way a magazine manufactures
the product.

            lee