CENT.MBECK%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA (01/14/84)
From: Mark Becker <CENT.MBECK%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA>
In response to jpm@bnl'l s message, I haven't received January's issue
of Byte either (I'm in Maryland).
BUT I SURE HAVE SEEN IT IN THE STORES!! EVEN THE GIANT GROCERY
HAS IT ON THE SHELF!!!
Ah, for the days when being a subscriber meant you got your issue
before the stores or corner newstand did....
Mark
-------Pucc-H:Physics:hal@CS-Mordred.UUCP (01/16/84)
I thought I was alone. For the past 4 or 5 months I've been getting my copies of BYTE very late (as late as the 20th). I've been a subscriber since issue #1 and have always received my copies one week before the start of the month. What changed in Oct. '83, I don't know. Either BYTE has decided there is no need to send subscribers' copies first (after all they already have our money) or we're victims of the U.S. Postal Disservice. As far as the Jan. '84 issue, I got mine around the 12th (somewhat better but not good). Hal Chambers Purdue University
pourn@sdcsvax.UUCP (01/25/84)
It's really annoying, though, when contributors don't get their copies before the newsstands A*N*D the subscribers. But they are trying to fix this problem in Peterborough, both for subscribers and contributors. You can prod them along by sending mail (USPS) to the subscriptions dept. --Alex Pournelle
rjnoe@ihlts.UUCP (Roger Noe @ N41:48:31, W88:07:13) (01/26/84)
I think those who feel that publishers of magazines (Byte included) care less about subscribers than newsstands just because the latter get copies first have misunderstood just how magazines are distributed. Subscribers pay a smaller amount and get copies delivered through the phenomenally slow (but cheap) U.S. Postal Service. Magazine distributors (and newsstand operators) pay much more to have them delivered by the faster (but more expensive) United Parcel Service. They also sell many, many copies which means more money for the publishers. It's not a question of "paying less attention to those who deserve it" because they subscribe, it's entirely a matter of economics. If you wish to purchase a large number of Byte magazines each month and pay the UPS charges, you will get them when the newsstands do. Of course, you have to go through a distributor, and magazine distributing is, shall we say, very ORGANIZED. Each distributor pays an agency (sort of a FAMILY business) to "protect" the distributor's virtual monopoly in a region. So you have no choice but to obtain magazines through THIS distributor and to accept the magazines he chooses. It's not a fun business relationship. Consider yourselves fortunate that you can subscribe to magazines at all and avoid these "businesspeople".
phil@sequent.UUCP (02/07/84)
Gee, my Feburary Byte showed up yesterday... -- Phil Hochstetler Sequent Computer Systems ...!sequent!phil
saj@iuvax.UUCP (02/15/84)
#R:sri-arpa:-1547400:iuvax:400004:000:382 iuvax!apratt Jan 18 12:55:00 1984 x My father deals with subscriptions a lot, and I seem to remember him saying that the first issue of a new year is often later than the others, for the simple reason that everybody's had two long weekends since the last issue went out. It's pretty standard practice, as I recall -- figured into the deadlines and everything. -- Allan Pratt ...ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!apratt