Another computer magazine goes down
Another venerable print magazine has bitten the dust. Computer Shopper will be online only after its April issue. PaidContent reports:
You’re reading it here first … paidContent has learned that Computer Shopper will cease print publication with its April issue, due off the press next week, and become online only at ComputerShopper.com.
At Technologizer, Harry McCracken comments:
Shopper’s paper-based demise really leaves the U.S. with only one general-interest computer magazine, and it’s my old employer, IDG’s PC World. Other than PCW, anything that’s left focuses on a niche, such Maximum PC (hardware enthusiasts), 2600 (hackers), and the self-explanatory Laptop and Macworld. Oh, and I see that Smart Computing is still with us.
McCracken lists more than eighty computer magazines that have gone out of business. Why did they fail? According to McCracken:
The reasons for the fall of the computer magazine are so obvious they’re barely worth mentioning: The rise of the Internet left the world with more useful information about computers and related topics than ever, but it’s all online and almost none of it costs a nickel.
(Okay, there are some non-obvious reasons, too: Microsoft’s monopolistic dominance in so many software categories left fewer companies to buy ads, as did the endless parade of corporate mergers over the years. And even if the Internet had never been existed, the magazine business is awfully tough.)
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