PC Magazine final print edition: the end of an era...

I was saddened to learn that this issue, January 2009, will be the final printed edition of this publication. PC Magazine began publication in in early 1980s, and the editor's letter at the beginning of the issue appropriately described this as a "monumental transition."

I have mixed feelings about this change. As I read the editor's (Lance Ulanoff) letter (which emphasized the advantages of the digital publication), I was taken back to my MLIS program work at LSU, and a summary of the advantages of print technology that Professor Danny Wallace provided in a lecture.

Here are some of the migration advantages cited by Ulanoff (with my comments in parentheses):

• It is portable. (Well, true, but that's dependent upon a reader, which can be bulky, expensive...or both.)
  
• Yes, you can print it. You can print as many pages of the magazine as you want. (I had trouble keeping a straight face on that one.)
• It's green.... (Unless, of course, you're printing as many pages of the magazine as you want.)
  
• It's searchable. Here's something PC Magazine print cannot do. (True.)
• It arrives in your e-mail automatically. (Early delivery, relative to postal delivery, is a second significant advantage.)
  

At this point, in my view, the positives don't overcome the negatives: the requirement of lugging around your laptop or an expensive document reader. This underscores the strength of print technology as a portable and inexpensive medium. Maybe someday, but right now, I expect to not renew our unit subscription.