Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caen!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!bradley.bradley.edu!pallas!wally
From: wally@pallas.athenanet.com (Wally Hartshorn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Amiga World / Amazing Computing Tech magazines
Summary: Overpriced.
Message-ID: <1061@pallas.athenanet.com>
Date: 10 Apr 91 02:40:56 GMT
References: <475@cbmtor.uucp>
Organization: Athenanet, Inc.,  Springfield, Illinois
Lines: 37

In article <475@cbmtor.uucp> timg@cbmtor.uucp (Tim Grantham (GUEST)) writes:
>My efforts to 
>convince the publisher to INCREASE the cover price, based on the belief that
>our readers would pay more to get the best, fell on deaf ears. ``We would lose
>20% of our readers immediately,'' they said, based on past experience with
>their other consumer magazines. Reading the message excerpted above, however,
>has me grudgingly admitting that they were probably right.
>
>The answer: you get what you pay for. If you want a good technical journal, PAY
>what it costs to produce it. I think $16/copy, including the disk, is a bargain

I'm perfectly willing to pay good money for a good technical magazine.  I
paid $6.95 for The C Journal, for instance, and that isn't even Amiga-specific.
What I'm not willing to pay for is a disk that I don't want.  The first
AmigaWorld Tech disk, for instance, contained a PD C compiler (which I
don't want, since I already have Manx), a demo of PowerWindows (which I
don't want, since I already have the real thing), ParNet (which I don't
need), and SerNet (ditto).  That's 500K right there that's a total waste
for me.  The articles were interesting, but there wasn't really much
that I actually need to use.  Thus, for me, it would make much more sense
to have the listings printed in the magazine, boosting the number of pages,
and leave the disk out.

$16/copy, including the disk, is only a bargain if you can USE a significant
portion of that stuff.  Those who needed it could buy the version with the
disk.  Those of us who did not, or who didn't feel that typing in a couple
of listings was that big of a deal, could save some money by buying a diskless
version.

Ironically, I'll probably end up SUBSCRIBING to the #&#&#& thing, simply
because that will bring the price down from an astronomical $16 per issue
to a merely overpriced $10 per issue.
-- 
Wally Hartshorn (uunet!pallas!wally or wally@athenanet.com)
President, Amiga Computer Enthusiasts of Springfield (ACES)
Chronicler, Shire of Swordcliff, SCA
Sysop, The Quest, F&SF BBS, Citadel-68K node US (217) 546-7608