chazf@BRL-TBD.ARPA (Chaz Fisher) (02/26/85)
According to the editor of Car and Driver - a rare beast among Z-D magazines: they make a profit - what is really going on here is that Ziff-Davis itself is going under. They have sold a number of magazines, C/D included, to CBS, and are in the process of selling/closing nearly everything else. So if you want a refund from a defunct magazine, I suggest you move quickly. More info on this is included in editor David E. Davis's Driver's Seat column, February 1985 issue of Car and Driver. Chaz Fisher (chazf@brl-tbd.arpa)
joels@tektools.UUCP (Joel Swank) (03/04/85)
> So if you want a refund from a defunct magazine, I suggest you move quickly.
They are not totally defunct. I just got a renewal request for my subscription
which expires June '85. At least they still seem to be willing to take checks.
Joel Swankritzenth@bgsuvax.UUCP (Phil Ritzenthaler) (03/18/85)
another person posted that he received a request from Ziff-Davis for
a renewal for a subscription.
DITTO! i have received several requests to renew Creative Computing.
if they are in such bad shape, how can they in good conscience send these
out if we are all to lose our money soon?
Phil Ritzenthaler
cbosgd!osu-eddie!bgsuvax!ritzenthrsellens@watdcsu.UUCP (Rick Sellens - Mech. Eng.) (03/19/85)
In article <289@bgsuvax.UUCP> ritzenth@bgsuvax.UUCP (Phil Ritzenthaler) writes: >another person posted that he received a request from Ziff-Davis for >a renewal for a subscription. > >DITTO! i have received several requests to renew Creative Computing. > >if they are in such bad shape, how can they in good conscience send these >out if we are all to lose our money soon? I do not know anything about the financial health of Z.D., but the presumption of "good conscience" on the part of a company you think is shakey could leave you unhappy. Any company that is in difficulties *must* maintain its cash flow. Saying to one's customers "Please don't give us any money right now, because we may not be able to deliver" is a very effective way of commiting corporate suicide. If they are still taking money it means that they haven't closed their doors *yet*. It isn't very nice, but it may be the way it is. Rick Sellens UUCP: watmath!watdcsu!rsellens CSNET: rsellens%watdcsu@waterloo.csnet ARPA: rsellens%watdcsu%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
rpgurd@watcgl.UUCP (Preston Gurd) (03/20/85)
I believe that Ziff-Davis recently sold off a bunch of its magazines (including Car and Driver) for an exceedingly massive amount of cash. The amount was published in Business Week a few months ago. This was followed up by interviews with the chief executives of the company. The general tone of the interviews was "what are you going to do with all this money?" From these articles, it seems reasonable to infer that Ziff-Davis has more than adequate money to sustain those magazines which it wants to continue operating!
malis@BBNCCS.ARPA (Andrew Malis) (03/20/85)
According to a recent issue of Infoworld, C&E was closed down so that they could devote their resources to Creative Computing, which seems to be going strong. I have also recently received renewal requests, by the way. Andy
Sy.WBC3@CU20B.ARPA (Bill Catchings) (03/21/85)
I can't keep silent any longer. I'll preface my comments by saying that I do freelance writing for PC Magazine, a Ziff-Davis publication. Most of the following information comes not from Z-D but from the New York Times via my slightly cloudy memory. Z-D is a privately held company considered by Wall Street to be one of the best managed magazine publishers. Z-D magazines were divided into three groups of about ten to twenty magazines: computers, mass market and specialty publications. The mass market magazines are big name magazines such as Brides and the specialty magazines were targeted at small market segments such as aviation. I'm not familiar with any of the specialty magazines. As best I can remember the remaining co-founder, either Mr. Ziff or Mr. Davis, is getting on in years and decided to break up the empire. Since many of the Z-D stable of magazines are the leaders in their fields and most of them made a good profit Z-D had no trouble selling them. The mass market magazines were sold to CBS for about $300 million and the specialty one to Murdock for about the same price. Z-D retained the computer magazines. This letter is not written to defend Ziff-Davis for the cancelations of the magazines so dear to some of your hearts. That is probably what Wall Street credits them for as "good management". Rather I just wanted to say that by no means is Ziff-Davis experiencing any sort of financial problems. I will convey your concerns to folks I know in Z-D to let them know that people are not satisfied with the way these things were handled. I personally think that they still do publish some good computer magazines, but don't feel like debating the issue. -Bill Catchings -------
WMartin@SIMTEL20.ARPA (William G. Martin) (03/22/85)
Hi! This is not a flame at you; however, since you have posted that you do have a channel to the inner workings of what was once Ziff-Davis, I'd appreciate it if you could pass this on to them, in addition to whatever else of the online discussion regarding the magazine business you felt they might find to be of interest. What I (and I believe at least some others, judging by the contents of postings) find to be Ziff-Davis's most unforgiveable behavior was what they did to the magazine that ended up as "Computers and Electronics". This may not have been truly the fault of the corporate heirarchy; it could have been incredibly poor decisions by the people in charge of that particular magazine. However, if that was the case, the corporate offices are still at fault for allowing their underlings to do the damage. They took a viable and worthwhile magazine, one which had a long and honorable history of providing service to both readers and advertisers, in the general electronics arena, and forced it to become just another "computer magazine". They did this at a time when "computer magazines" were destined to fail, due to the inevitable reduction in the artificially-supported home-computer marketplace. By thus destroying their own magazine, they did not do damage to themselves alone, but to the entire community of electronic hobbyists and the businesses which supply them and depend upon them. The old "Popular Electronics" magazine had a useful and worthwhile mix of professional and amateur level projects and information. It proved its worth and value by absorbing the old "Electronics World" magazine some years ago, becoming stronger and of more use to the readership in that process. It started the home computer boom, yet did not become overwhelmed by computers, keeping a viable assortment of electronics-related topics alive in features and columns. Only when the decision was made to give up this mix, change the name to "Computers and Electronics", and insult the readership by eliminating the features they valued, did it suffer a blow from which it could not recover, and thus slid into a state where even loyal former readers had no interest in it. This is why we find the behavior of Ziff-Davis unforgiveable. It really is of little consequence that this or that microcomputer magazine sprang up, flickered, and died. As fashions in the machines change, so will the viability of publications tied to them. But what Z-D did was to take one of the few GENERAL electronics magazines, of interest to non-computer-fanatics and computer hobbyists alike, turn it into a worthless computer magazine when there was no need or market for yet another one, and then watch it die. There are not enough general electronic magazines left. "Radio-Electronics" is about the only major one; new publications, like "Modern Electronics", are trying to fill the vacuum left by the demise of "Popular Electronics", but are not likely to do so. There is a synergistic effect between the readership and the magazines in such a field; if the magazines are there, they stimulate interests in the readers' minds. If the readers are eager, they stimulate the growth of the magazines. When a company unilaterally cuts off a major magazine in the field, it can actually hurt the field itself -- because of "Popular Electronics"' demise, there are fewer electronic hobbyists in America today and in future years. Those that might have read a copy and become stimulated to enter the hobby will find some other outlet for their energies. Given this situation, as we perceive it, is there any wonder that we regard Ziff-Davis with hostility? They didn't just terminate a publication -- they actively acted to damage an area of one of our strongest enthusiasms! William Martin -------
SCARTER@RUTGERS.ARPA (Stephen Carter) (03/22/85)
Just wanted to say that I am in full agreement with Mr. Martin's comments on Z-D. My subscription ended with the last issue of Popular- Electronics. It was indeed a nice magazine before they turned it into mass-market blurb that had more IBM-PC advertisements than worth-while articles of interest on a variety of electronics. If Z-D is still alive and well, perhaps they might want to bring back the original Popular-Electronics, but I guess this is like gluing together a broken egg..... SCarter -------