Digital Only Linn's Editions And New Scott Stamp Monthly

The internet.

The internet swept change throughout the entire magazine and periodical industry.

The internet swept change throughout the collecting hobbies.

The internet swept change in how people interacted with their hobbies.
Don

I always think of National Geographic magazine when the topic of print periodicals arises. Growing up it was my favorite. I could see all these amazing people and places and animals from around the World. There was no internet. Now the entire world and then some is at my fingertips via the computer.

PS: It still surprises me that so many auction houses continue to print catalogs. Not for long I wager.

We still subscribe to National Geographic History as well as Scotland magazine because we like to nestle in and read the content while looking at those full page spreads of pictures. Not quite the same with a Nook or iPad. But we're an old dying breed in this household and those rags may well die out with us.

Roger,
I agree, National Geographic is a great example. I had a National Geographic subscription until a few years ago and a collection of NGs from the 1920s until 2019. Last month I wanted to make room and I found that I the entire collection was basically a boat anchor. So, I made several trips to the local 'Habitat For Humanities' and unloaded all of them. They already had stacks and stacks of them for 10 cents each and were willing to deal if a person was interested in buying more than one.
Don

There is something special having a printed newspaper in hand .

The days are long gone for me ,having a Linn's newspaper to read sitting next to the T-BOND trading pit in downtown Chicago while 300 to 400 guys are screaming and yelling prices . then years later it will always be special to get my crew started on a hot asphalt job while they cut asphalt and air hammer it out while I stop at the dump truck to pull a Linn's newspaper from under the seat and start looking for a shade tree to sit under to read the latest issue .

It wan't just that though. Magazines across the board have always had a problem and that problem is, they're circular. The same subjects come up time and time again because things just don't change that fast. That goes for Linn's or Cat Fancy, long-time readers will see the same subjects coming up over and over again. Go look at Americal Philatelist. When's the last time that subject came up? Probably not more than a year or two ago.

The Internet has just made magazines (and newspapers) irrelevant for current news. You can find out anything almost instantly now. Most of the articles that we're seeing in magazines, they're either evergreen, things that can be read any time and will always be useful (and very repetitive) or they're supposed to be in-depth, but often aren't all that involved because they're not being written by experts and they're being written for general audiences that only want an overview of the information.

I don't know that magazines have a place in the modern world anymore. I don't see who they really appeal to.

I buy the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. Used to buy the New Yorker, but couldn't keep up with the amount of words deluging me. I'm happy to read short newspaper articles in the web, but I shouldn't like to read anything longer than that on a screen. But if you've grown up with the web, I can see that the attraction of sitting with a magazine may be limited.

You can get the entire National Geographic run on CD. Wonder if Linns could do similar?

I donated many years of back issues to the kids school. They used them for all kinds of projects.

I kept the maps; I'm fascinated by maps.
Pat

Hard copies are fine for those people who are able-bodied, folks should enjoy them while they can.

But there are many folks in our hobby who have various physical challenges and for whom hardcopies are not feasible. For example, I benefited from being able to listen to digit versions of books and magazines for the 7,800 hours that I spent sitting immobile in a dialysis chair. Ditto for anyone who has vision challenges.
Don

Patg23:

I also love the NG maps, at one time I had an almost complete set going back into the teens (19 not 20).

My wife was an elementary school teacher. I built her a set of NG issues from the 1940s to the 1980s for her classroom, along with an Index volume so the students had access to all of them for social study projects. It was also one of my favorite magazines over the years.

There was a delightful essay in either the Atlantic Monthly or Harper's Magazine many years ago about how civilization was going to collapse because of all the old issues of National Geographic stored in attics everywhere.

Linn's on CDS-ROM
I would probably be a buyer just for the resource. The real problem with Linn's Stamp News as a resource is that most of the "good" (I know that's subjective) material is from their regular columnist's columns over the years, and there is no index to help you find what you might want to read. Many articles on their website are abridged, that is they do not include everything that appeared in the printed edition.

Over the years, I have constructed an index for many of the major columnist's articles beginning in 2008 (start of digital archive), but I never had a good way to "publish" it, and even then, only a current subscriber would have ready access to the articles.

I did prepare the compilation of John Hotchner's Expertizing columns, which is somewhere on the Linn's website (done gratis per request from John), and you can find a back file of Tony Wawrukiewicz's Modern US Mail columns on Stamp Smarter. Linn's used to publish compilations of some of their columns in the past, but apparently no longer.

MML1492
I believe the story about the collapse due to everyone hoarding. As a boy, spent a summer at a cabin in the mountains. All four walls of the attic were (literally) stacked floor to ceiling with Nat Geos from the very earliest.
Pat

The first digital only edition was just issued. I would really like to know how many of the printed edition readers who never read the digital version will try to read it.

It looks the same as before but Jay hints at possible future changes.

I sent an email to Linn's to ascertain how they will be compensating subscribers who prepaid for the full printed subscription, i.e., will they be extending the subscription such that the number of printed issues delivered equals the number originally purchased. Technically I still have almost a year of full print issues that I am owed.

They still haven't updated their subscription/renewal page to reflect the change in model, so people may be currently subscribing or renewing believing they will actually receive all the print issues they are paying for, which may or may not be the case.

There still has been ZERO formal communication to current subscribers regarding the iminent change, just the brief announcement on the website. This is utterly insufficient IMO.


Then again, when Amos Media abandoned the Scott Catalogue iPad app, they made absolutely no effort to notify purchasers or make them whole when purchased content (not subscribed to) was no longer available.

I managed to get access to a full set of digital catalogues on the then new books.scottonline.com, but it was only after complaining repeatedly and loudly... I don't know that Amos extended that offer to any other customers... I certainly never saw or received any public communication for purchasers under the iPad app.

Their digital platform is now on v3.0 and switched to a subscription model that is a ginormous price increase, where you now have to pay annually to retain access to content and nothing is purchased. As long as the v2.0 platform remains up and running and people can still access catalogues they paid for, there's no issue, but if past practice is any indicator, at some point in the next 1-2 years that platform will go dark and there will be no communication to purchasers... they will just lose access to the digital content they purchased.

Is it any wonder that this company's digital efforts are making no headway? The problem isn't with the tech, it's with the luddite mindset and lack of vision.

I think there will be 24 PRINT issues of Linn's & 12 Print Issues of Scott Stamp Monthly! Given the dwindling of collectors let alone readers (or purported such) the weekly printing of a Philatelic publication is difficult in finding writers let alone content. It will play out to not everyone's liking, but then what does..?

I subscribed to Linn's for over 50 years. I've seen the ebb and flow of various aspects of the paper. About 3 years ago, I realized that I had not seen a Linn's in a while. I looked into my records - it seems that I accidentally let my subscription lapse over 3 MONTHS earlier. I figured if I hadn't missed it for that long, then I didn't really need to subscribe. It is too bad. I have had an incredibly long run with them. But I just can't justify subscribing any more.