andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) (01/29/84)
This has nothing to do with micros, but there is evidently some
interest ...
The complaint is that you get your subscription copy of BYTE magazine a
full week after you see it appear on the newstands. You feel that BYTE
is ripping you off? Not at all: BYTE sends a box of a dozen or more
magazines via UPS to the newstand, and they send you a single magazine
via second class USPS mail. UPS delivers parcels in a couple of days,
but second class mail often takes a week or more.
Why don't they sent your magazine by first class instead of second
class? Because it costs a *lot* more. First class mail is $0.20 for
the first ounce, $0.17 for each additional ounce. Try weighing your
issue of BYTE; you'll find that first class delivery would cost over a
dollar. Would you want to pay an extra twelve bucks a year to get it
sooner?
-- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew) [UUCP]
(orca!andrew.tektronix@rand-relay) [ARPA]tjj@ssc-vax.UUCP (T J Jardine) (02/01/84)
It would seem that Andrew Klossner's analysis strikes right at the heart of the magazine distribution problem. However, when I consider that well over half -- probably two thirds -- of Byte is advertising I begin to wonder if being a success is all that great. Seems to me that they ought to include the advertising in a microfiche card inserted in a pocket inside the front cover. Then they could send it first class for less than they're paying for second class now. Maybe they really ought to ship the whole magazine on a floppy diskette -- if they could find one to hold all of that info! Videotex and Teletext where are you when we need you? Surely there are *better* ways of distributing information than what the publishing folks are presently doing!! Anybody got any other ideas? Perhaps we could get Sony to give us a volume discount on their wrist TV and have the publishers transmit on presently unused channels? Ted Jardine TJ (with Amazing Grace) The Piper ...uw-beaver!ssc-vax!tjj