Sky and Tel plan to publish archive to DVD

hi all,

I don't know if people follow the Stellar Media forum on www.cloudynights.com but I just saw a confirmation post from Sean Walker, a Sky and Telescope editor, that they plan to publish the entire archive of the magazine (dating from 1941) to DVD at some point in the future. This is excellent news and although pricing is not yet known, it would be an incredible resource to own.

John

Hi,

... and take up less space. But its nice to have a collection to read.

John

I wonder when DVD or electronic download will be the way to go for international magazines like this. To have an entire back catalogue on disc would be deadly. Can you see National Geographic doing the same (going back to 1888)? What kind of logistics are involved????

Seanie.

I'm surprised they're doing this, they charge for back issues, so wont they loose out due to this ?

Dave_Lillis wrote:

I'm surprised they're doing this, they charge for back issues, so wont they loose out due to this ?

I think the back issues print are just what was left from the initial print run, Dave, and were returned as unsold. That's how most magazines do it. Once the prints run out however, that's it... unless demand is high enough to continue reprinting batches (the energy in printing just a few copies at a time is grotesquely high).

Seanie.

Dave_Lillis wrote:

I'm surprised they're doing this, they charge for back issues, so wont they loose out due to this ?

Its a huge body of data and it would be a not insignificant time-sink to put the DVD together. No doubt they will charge for it so I can't see them losing out. And I'm sure it will be a fairly substantial amount. But worth it for those who want it...