SBW and Mike, I think you're both right. I doubt the majority of younger guys have much interest in collecting something as archaic as magazines so my WAG is that circ numbers will continue to fall until they stabilize (hopefully, for anyone who writes for a living) at whatever level of readership that supports the printed product. And who knows where that level is?

Kinda sad, though. Today's ads are tomorrow's vintage commercial art. That great old Winchester ad in the pic is from a 1953 American Rifleman magazine and although I'm not that old, the very first duck I ever shot fell to a paper-hulled Super-X shell exactly like the ones in the ad.

I know, I know. Stupid of me. I was young and had no idea they'd someday be collectable. I still had a few boxes up until a few years back when I gave them to my dad. They looked more rustic in his log shop than my office. I'm gonna steal them back one of these days.

I'm getting the ad framed because it means something to me, and I just can't get that same feeling from a website or an electronic reader.

I'm not anti-technology by any means, I'm completely dependent upon technology to make my living, but to use a current gun analogy, new media technology is the Benelli Vinci: Efficient, reliable, easy to use and completely soulless and impersonal. Old media technology is my battered old fixed-choke wood-stocked Beretta BL-4. Quite a bit behind the times, certainly not as efficient or versatile or bombproof as a Vinci, but it's comfortable, familiar and it makes you smile when you pick it up.

The truth is, there's room for both, but I like the fact that old magazine's been knocking around for over half a century. It's real, not a bunch of ones and zeros stored in a server somewhere.
And in today's synthesized ersatz culture I think that's pretty cool.

Good one, Mark-1. Every HP Lovecraft book I've ever bought came from a cramped, dusty old used book store (the best kind, with no damn coffee bars, bongo drum concerts or free wi-fi for the gamers...) and smelled of moldering, age-yellowed pulp paper. Very fitting for the subject matter...

The printed word is a true abstraction I doubt will ever die. Even as...and I do download… technical and research books are finding their way onto computer screens there’s no sub-ing for the printed word found on dead tree after parts. And besides...

…Can you imagine a short story by H.P. Lovecraft having the same impact being read on a monitor screen instead of being read via a moldy paperback...on a dark and stormy night...when you suddenly loose power.

My wife struggles with this issue as a library director. There is a set amount of funding available, and she must decide how much to spend on print media versus computer terminals. While there are many who use the library only for computer access, she reports that circulation of traditional printed materials has not declined noticeably. People still want the tangible experience of holding a book or a magazine. Speaking for myself, it's sometimes hard to force myself to sit and read on a screen or type a comment after 8 hours plus glued to a computer screen and keyboard for work. I have a hunting and fishing blog, and there are days that I don't post just because I can't handle any more sitting at a computer. Sometimes I even write my posts out in longhand (with a fountain pen, no less) so I can limit my screen time to editing the photos and typing the edited text.

Sorry... no way in hell I'm taking my computer in the bathroom with me!

While I can see novels and magazines in the future, the newspaper industry is dying a little more each day.

I can see a time where newspapers are only available online (and the news will be more current).

The times, they are a changin'.

Jim

Chad
I couldn't agree more about second hand book shops. Even the prices promote chance taking and therefore learning. Also if you go in more than a couple of times they offer you coffee for free. You go in again taking cookies and the books get cheaper or even free. No one who answers to shareholders can provide that level of customer service
SBW

Chad, I noticed this months F&S felt a little thin with less than 100 pages. I've never noticed how many pages there are on the average but I pulled a few back issues and found them to range from 150 to 95 pages. What determines how large an issue will be?

Several of our large city papers have now gone completely digital or limited home delivery days.

Imagine crossword puzzle users trying to do them on multifunction cell phones on subways. And coupon cutters? They'll probably someday just submit the coupon and the stuff will show up at their door. No touch, no feel ... sterile.

The other night I got to a tavern early to save a high top. A woman with two young girls sat at the next table. For 45 minutes, one girl played Nintendo. The other girl and the mom were texting on their cell phones. I don't think they talked to each other the entire time. I guess the advantage over a newspaper is that they could at least see each others' faces.

And why is it easier to catch spelling errors on a printed page then on a computer screen?

Note: It's hard to believe that those magazines I mentioned were in a high school library in Suffolk County, NY. I can't imagine what would happen today if a high school student was caught with an issue of Guns & Ammo in his/her backpack.
Note to Chadlove: I miss the preview and edit functions we used to have on this blog.

I love print. Hell, I devoted a career to it. But what I think is going to happen is pretty grim. The world around print changed and print didn't. I've posted more on this notion on my blog at:
http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/04/news-fish-in-waterless-ocean...

But as the blog says, print is a fish flopping on the bottom much of a drained pond.