Sys Admin Magazine Ceases Publication 134
keithl writes "I received a postcard in the mail today informing me that Sys Admin magazine has ceased publication. 'We regret to inform you that the magazine has ceased publication effective with the August 2007 issue.' Only paid subscribers with remaining issues receive this mailing. If you do nothing, they will send you a copy of the Sys Admin archive CD (1992 – August 2007), or you can return the card for a full refund of all unsent issues. The deadline to return the postcard for a refund is October 1, 2007." The magazine's Web site has no word that I could find on the closing down of print publication.
on that general topic (Score:5, Interesting)
I saw it on the newstands a lot... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Eh... (Score:5, Interesting)
For a magazine that was supposed to be geared toward professional sysadmins, I would have liked to see some more hard-core technical content, including some actual code magic rather than "magic" that anyone with experience in the language would find very basic. I would have rather seen more kernel tuning and less "sorting your calendar in PHP" crap.
Maybe they were hitting at exactly the wrong spot: their focus was too narrow to be an overview type of magazine, but it was too broad to really get into the nitty gritty of any one thing.
Why limit to one audience? (Score:5, Interesting)
That way you'd appeal to every range in your audience AND your magazines would be worth keeping.
Has been known since June. (Score:3, Interesting)
http://cmp.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1722 [mediaroom.com]
A few days later, I got a polite letter saying they wouldn't be needing the article I'd proposed for publication.
Ceased Computer Publications (Score:3, Interesting)
A better question is:
Do you read the issues and throw them away or do read and save them for reference like me (a devout computer publication pack rat)?
My defunct publication list (all of which I still have),
Nibble (one of my favorites),
Compute,
Compute Apple,
Incider,
A+,
C Users Journal (turned into C/C++ Users Journal),
Computist (one of my favorites),
Byte (now online, content not worth the fee).
I also subscribed to Omni and Final Frontier, both great magazines, now defunct.
I currently just subscribe to Dr Dobbs Journal (still great after a 20 year subscribtion (damn Im getting old)), and Linux Journal.
Enjoy,
reminds me of BYTE (Score:3, Interesting)
Someone from CMP did contact me about my problems when I complained (here on Slashdot [slashdot.org], of all places!) and I realize that there are people within the company who really care about their customers and want to keep us satisfied. However it's obvious that someone up high, making the decisions, is making them with the sole intent of increasing profit, not pleasing customers. It's a business; they're entitled, but they should consider the "political" cost of taking measures such as axing established and very reputable publications.
unnecessary (Score:4, Interesting)
i stopped my subscription when i decided to stop paying for dead tree media--an ecological decision.
i contacted the Sys Admin publisher and told them many many times that i was willing to pay *twice* their subscription price if they would make the magazine available digitally because i did't want a dead tree version. they told me in many different ways, no can do.
i'm not kidding when i say i contacted them many times and "climbed the ladder" speaking to various higher-ups. everytime i was met with what i would describe as a lack of vision. i was given every reason in the book as to why offering Sys Admin digitally via the internet would kill their revenue stream. unbelievable to me in the face of me telling them that i was willing to them pay double their subscription price (heck, i probably would have paid more).
imho, Sys Admin had a chance to become a (possibly THE) premier _profitable_ digital resource for IT folks. what got in their way was their lack of vision--their inability to re-imagine themselves.
R.I.P. Sys Admin
P.S.
if there are any flickering embers in the Sys Admin ashes, if someone takes up the reins and makes the rag digital i'm still willing to pony up good money for a subscription (and i suspect many others would be too).
Neglect (Score:5, Interesting)
They had the platform, the had the forum, they had an audience.
When it came to subscribe once again, I had to think - has this magazine answered, delivered, proposed anything of consequence? [not counting Amy's column]
It was supposed to be about UNIX (?), not just Solaris.
http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Oper
System Administrators want answers about the OS. [and the sum thereof]
I wanted Sys Admin to give me configuration tips, tuning tricks
I WANT magazines, not PDFs, I want something to refer back to, in these last few years I just skimmed it, read Amy Rich, then it went straight to the shelf.
It's too bad.
I liked the idea of the magazine, but they suffered neglect, from staff and ultimately reader interest alike.
This is quite sad - but then again maybe not ? (Score:4, Interesting)
The fact that the magazine called for papers from its readers, rather than simply pay a small group of contributors for whatever they could scrawl out in a month seemed to deliver better quality articles - I suspect this is something similar to more academic journals. I always had a good deal more faith in their articles than in any other periodicals I read.
The idea of a web based version on the surface seems like a good idea. However, based on other postings on this thread this does not look like something that will take off with CMP.
Doesn't this leave an opportunity for someone else to step in ?
If you think about this, if CMP are discontinuing the magazine, then the only remaining assets of value are their website, subscriber list, stock of backissue CD's, and possibly any articles in their library that have not yet been published. Maybe there is an opportunity for someone ( eg OSDN - hint hint) to talk to CMP and see if they can buy the domain. That, coupled with the potential use of their subscriber email list, could be an opportunity to develop a web based publication of similar quality (you know - one with editors that dupe check, spell check, fact check, etc) to fill the void.
Sell advertising in the publications, pay people to review the content before it's release to subscribers, and do it while people remember that the magazine actually existed.
Irrespective of the delivery method, I believe that there is still a need for such a publication. If it was priced in the same market as some of the other electronic magazines (eg Linux Journal) it may work.
I'd buy it.