Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) (11/15/89)
No flames, just frustration being expressed....
The only two bookstores in our area have stopped handling Atari magazines.
With the exception of this net, there is no other link for me to
the outside ST world now.
I sure hope you folks in the ST concentrations are not taking your
dealers and bookstores which stock ST magazines, etc., for granted.
ENJOY! Sure wish that I could...
Larry Rymal: |East Texas Atari 68NNNers| <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET>covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert) (11/29/89)
In article <891115.09544506.077805@SFA.CP6>, Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) writes: > > No flames, just frustration being expressed.... > The only two bookstores in our area have stopped handling Atari magazines. > With the exception of this net, there is no other link for me to > the outside ST world now. > I sure hope you folks in the ST concentrations are not taking your > dealers and bookstores which stock ST magazines, etc., for granted. > ENJOY! Sure wish that I could... > > Larry Rymal: |East Texas Atari 68NNNers| <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET> I sure hope that the ST market here in the States improves soon because 1989 has been a real killer for US ST magazines. I count the following as having died in 1989: ST APPLICATIONS -- a fine little Mom and Pop magazine which started out in life as a small newsletter but which grew into a full magazine. ST APPS had many good programming articles and had the best game reviews of any mag. If a game was bad, ST APPS said so. Some mags just publish the PR put out by the game company and little else. I really miss ST APPS. ST LOG -- Another excellent ST magazine which had great C programming articles and good reviews. Merged with ANALOG in the November 1989 issue. Died with ANALOG in the December 1989 issue. ANALOG -- Not really an ST mag but died nonethe less. ANTIC -- Not dead yet, but rumors have it dying Real Soon Now. STart -- Still around, and can be bought at my local WaldenBook store. I understand that the ANTIC/STart publishers have written off the entire Atari US market. Witness the fact that the ANTIC "THE CATALOG" does not appear in STart any longer. and the fact that ANTIC has stopped developing new ST software. It is a sad day when a major software publisher stops publishing new software for your computer. I also understand that ANTIC now publishes an Amiga magazine which is going strong. B And that's all of the full magazines that I have ever seen in the US. There are a couple of tabloid newsletters/magazines but they have NEVER been sold by WALDENBOOKS or by B.Dalton's Booksellers. They are ST INFORMER, ST WORLD (the US tabloid not the UK magazine) So, the questions is "Why have these magazines died?". I think that the answer is that magazines rely mainly on advertisments for survival. The subscription costs does not cover the cost of publishing a magazine. Advertisements do that. And when Atari Corp decided not to allow mail order sales of ST products the advertisements stopped in the magazines. Add to that the fewer number of third party software and even fewer hardware vendors for the ST and you can see why ST mags are dying. Finally, the question is "Can it be changed?" I think that it can. And I hope that Atari Corp follows through. I have read that Charles Cherry wants to introduce a new technique whereby ST SW publishers send a demo oversion of their products. Atari Corp would press a CD ROM with ALL of the current ST SW (demos of course) which the full service ST dealers could demo to ST customers. This would give an advantage to ST Dealers over the mail order companies, which couldn't demo the SW. And it would not mean that dealers would have to demo actual SW. Dealers would demo a CD ROM with demo SW. A great idea. I hope that Atari Corp follows thru on this. Rich Covert