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146.90.53.97
My only option is to subscribe via Zinio. I have found no joy reading it with low resolution Adobe Air, with two rotating wheels turning around as I turn a page. This makes me uncomfortable after about 20 pages and I loose interest after 50. I won't download Zinio 4 because it goes to obscure locations and with some mags inserts video files also.
At present, I am minded not to renew at all, with all the hassle of Stereophile HQ's International subscription page not being able to recognise and renew on the basis of a simple, non-US address.
I think I shall stick to uncomplicated HiFiNews and others.
Follow Ups:
Yeah. What would you learn that you don't already know?
I stopped buying audio mags years ago, as soon as I realized that I was reading the same "introduction to stereo" that they'd been selling for upteen years, and telling me that the newest component is the ultimate component.
The point of buying audio mags is to stay on top of the newest products, not to learn anything. It's like watching car commercials on TV.
Well, maybe I spoke too soon, I just realized September was my last paid addition of Stereophile, they always send several renewal notices months in advance, but not this year. It's starting to appear as if the paper mag is no longer important to them. To bad this would have been my twentieth consecutive renewal. I'll likely break down and tell them , but maybe I'll wait a bit and see if they notice or care.
It stinks (used to be good on Reader 3)
> It stinks...
As I explained to you before, FMAK, your disappointment stems from the fact
that you read the Zinio edition on your PC. Unfortunately, both the print
magazine and the two electronic editions, Zinio and Apple Newsstand, are
designed for a vertical form factor, ie, one that is taller than it is
wide. This translates well to the reading experience on an iPad but is
less-than-optimal for PC monitors, which have a horizontal form factor.
I am afraid that there is nothing I can do about this.
> used to be good on Reader 3
I have used both Zinio Reader 3 and Reader 4 on both my MacBook and my
PC and I don't notice any appreciable difference between them. What
specifally don't you like about Reader 4 compared with Reader 3?
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
John, the problem I have is that I get Scientific American and TAS in PDF on a computer monitor and have little trouble with the mismatch in aspect ratios because it's easy to go into single page mode and scroll rapidly through the document. Zinio, on the other hand, is such a nightmare on the PC that I curse every time I try to read an issue of Stereophile, and end up reading only about half of what I ordinarily would. If you turn on the zoom, it's slow as molasses. With the latest issue (or version of Air, since there seems to be a new one every month), I couldn't even get it to remember my zoom settings. Just going through the measurements sidebars in a single review, which require a higher zoom than the rest of the page now that the charts have gotten smaller, was a complete nightmare as a result.I could go on, e.g., about the fact that when you try to get the issue when you receive the notification email it always craps out -- I've learned to wait a day before going to it.
I say this not because I get a kick out of griping, but because I can't imagine that you want you readers to have this kind of experience, even if relatively few of us read it on the PC.
Edits: 08/17/12
This is an interesting admission by JA, who previously had implied that Zinio was OK on a PC. I have said all the way along that Adobe Air is substandard and that Zinio went ahead to 4 w/o adequate preparation for its Reader software.
So, we have Stereophile opting for a web format designed for MACs only. Sad.
JA, please just sort out your International ordering system after several years of problems and let readers choose how to subscribe.
I regard it as totally unacceptable that a subscribing agent for a 'major' magazine should ask a subscriber to email credit card information, or to reply on a little slip with readers personal details on them to be posted by mail.
Clearly they have never heard of, or don't care about identity theft.
Why doesn't Stereophile and other US magazines allow Amazon to sell internationally, or enable eBay subscription of the paper magazine?
" So we have Stereophile opting for a web format designed for Macs only " WHAT ELSE IS THERE ?
> This is an interesting admission by JA, who previously had implied that
> Zinio was OK on a PC.Actually, no I didn't imply that. I have said all along that the Zinio
and Apple Newsstand editions follow the paper magazine in having a
vertical form factor, and are thus less-optimal for reading on desktop
computers, whether they be PCs or Macs.> I have said all the way along that Adobe Air is substandard and that
> Zinio went ahead to 4 w/o adequate preparation for its Reader software.I ask again: what is the specific problem you are having with Adobe Air?
And if there are problems, shouldn't your beef be with Adobe, not
Stereophile?> So, we have Stereophile opting for a web format designed for MACs only.
> Sad.I don't understand this statement. The discussion has been about the Zinio
edition of Stereophile, which is identical in appearance and presentation
to the paper magazine and loosk the same on PCs and Macs. Stereophile's
Web format is independently designed, and the content of our website,
while mostly the same as that of the paper magazine, does have some major
differences. The Stereophile website looks identical on both PCs and
Macs, as well as on iPads and iPhones, but looks very different to the
paper, iPad, and Apple newsstand editions.> Why doesn't Stereophile and other US magazines allow Amazon to sell
> internationally...I don't know but I will ask. I suspect that it is something to do
with copyright.> or enable eBay subscription of the paper magazine?
Again, I will ask and get back to you.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
Edits: 08/18/12
> I have said all along that the Zinio and Apple Newsstand editions follow > the paper magazine in having a vertical form factor, and are thus
> less-optimal for reading on desktop computers, whether they be PCs or Macs.
In all fairness, though, I find it easy to read Scientific American and TAS on a PC despite the fact that they also have a vertical page format. The difference is that a PDF reader working from a downloaded file is fast. HTML is fine as well, if displayed in a real browser rather than AIR.
> Why doesn't Stereophile and other US magazines allow Amazon to sell
> internationally...
I don't know but I will ask. I suspect that it is something to do
with copyright.
> or enable eBay subscription of the paper magazine?
Again, I will ask and get back to you
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This belongs to you. If Amazon sells in the US, why not in Europe?
They sell anything and everything here.
> > > Why doesn't Stereophile and other US magazines allow Amazon to sell
> > > internationally...
> >
> > I don't know but I will ask. I suspect that it is something to do
> > with copyright.
>
> This belongs to you.
As I said, I will ask. As editor of Stereophile, I am not responsible for
the magazine's circulation, distribution, or subscriptions. The first two
are handled by a division of our parent company in Florida, the last by
an independent company. So I cannot answer you immediately. My
apologies if that frustrates you.
> If Amazon sells in the US, why not in Europe?
> They sell anything and everything here.
I conjectured it was something to do with copyright because, as far as I
can tell from my travels in Europe, sales of other copyrighted products
are handled by independent Amazon companies in each European country.
In the UK, for example, it appears that you have to purchase CDs from
amazon.co.uk, not the American parent company. But I don't have recent
experience and perhaps I am incorrect in this conjecture. Perhaps you
could clarify the situation: as you live in Europe, from whom do you
purchase CDs, the American Amazon site or your local Amazon site?
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
I buy from amazon uk, de etc. UK Amazon is happy to ship all over Europe.
I cannot see why there should be a bamboo cutain between Amazon US and Amazon UK for magazine subscriptions. eBay US is happy to sell me anything that is listed, although I have to say that there are relatively few US companies who ship at sensible costs via USPS which I have found to be excellent.
> I cannot see why there should be a bamboo curtain between Amazon US and
> Amazon UK for magazine subscriptions.
Here is the explanation I received from Source Interlink Media's VP of
Consumer Marketing:
"[Overseas readers] can purchase the digital edition from amazon, but due
to additional postage costs for the print edition, we do not sell print
through amazon. If they want to order the print edition, they can go to
our website and order directly through us at the below link, [this price]
includes additional postage..."
https://www.circsource.com/store/Subscribe.html?offerId=3571&countryCode=intl
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
> > I cannot see why there should be a bamboo curtain between Amazon US and
> > Amazon UK for magazine subscriptions.
>
> Here is the explanation I received from Source Interlink Media's VP of
> Consumer Marketing...
Perhaps I am feeling out-of-sorts this evening. It is now a week since
I posted a response from our circulation department to fmak's question,
a question he had asked repeatedly and one that I assumed he felt strongly
about, having started a related thread. But he hasn't paid me the
courtesy of even acknowledging my response, let alone replying to it.
Look guys, I try to answer questions out me on this forum as best I can,
but I am beginning to wonder why I do so when the person putting the
question to me appears to be nothing more than a troll. :-(
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
"But he hasn't paid me the
courtesy of even acknowledging my response, let alone replying to it."
Because to some there is no pleasure in having their whinging curtailed.
You've answered fmak's circulation queries, but that's not good enough John.
Only an admission of guilt on your part (and an apology) will sate his needs.
Just take full responsibility now. You'll feel better.
You should check with Amazon on that. I tried to order a sound card from Amazon UK because it wasn't available here, and they wouldn't sell. In that case, their concern was likely with distribution rights and the inequitable pricing policies that companies have, whereby a product can be much more expensive in one region than another. I imagine it isn't worth their while to work this out with the manufacturer or distributor for every retail product they sell, so they simply black out purchases from other regions. In this case, I imagine it has to do with rights management and copyright.
As I understand it, most original content is owned by the creators, e.g. an author or photographer. Unless their work was a "work for hire" this would not be the magazine. The creator sells rights to his content by a contract which gives the magazine a license to use the content in certain ways. Often, these contracts will include sales and distribution in a limited region of the world. In addition to copyright concerns, there may also be trademark issues, since the same physical symbol may be owned by different legal entities in different countries.
I had some business dealings with a Canadian purveyor of books some years ago. Because Canada was part of the Commonwealth they gained access to new books published in Britain before these became available in the United States and they were able to charge a premium for these books because of this. It struck me as a bit of a scam at the time, but then all copyrights and patents can be considered a scam if one is so inclined.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
> I cannot see why there should be a bamboo cutain between Amazon US and
> Amazon UK for magazine subscriptions.
As I said, I conjecture that it might be due to copyright considerations,
which is the case with music. But perhaps it might be just due to Amazon
wanting too much of the revenue. As I also said but you seem determined
to ignore, I don't know but I will try to find out.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
Darn hard decisions we have to make nowadays about whether it's hard to drop a buck On something nowadays .i gotta go now it's time for me to figure out what I save a buck on jeez is it going to be the Kraft Mac and cheese or the store brand.
I agree with the Zinio limitations. I very foolishly signed on for the digital edition after enduring a year in which 4 out of 12 issues failed to arrive on my doorstep. I find it a tedious chore to read on my iPad and wish I'd stuck with the paper version.
n
The only way I can enjoyably read Stereophile anymore is via Zinio on iPad. Being able to easily increase the print size via the two finger stretch is heaven. It's just too bad it has come that point in the print version of such a small font in order to financially meet paper/ad page cost balance, especially when one considers that the average age of a Stereophile reader is only getting older. At some point the print version will die off and electronic will be the only delivery method.
If that is your biggest worry, you are in good shape, just saying.
I just cannot get anyone complaining about $12 a year. Whatever it costs you for the subscription, it can't be that much.
You have not read or understood my reasons for not renewing. It is not the money.
Why should anyone spend anything on soemthing that cannot be read in an enjoable way?
Zinio will be blizzing me with 20 emails reminding of 'last chance' renewal.
Yug.
I enjoy reading it from the apple newsstand. I see neither spinning wheels nor blizzing emails.
not me
I just cant understand why anybody would want to stop S'phile subscription. I consider it a great magazine with very interesting regular writers. I even like the ads, especially the quarter page ones. I dont think I can survive without the two issues listing the recommended equipments. I almost learn the list by heart. I like the measurements by JA a lot even though I dont fully understand most of it.
Cheers
Bill
Not sure what your boggle is. I send my few dollars in from Canada whenever they send a renewal , never had a problem. Lots of interesting and well written articles, well informed people and a bargain at twice the price. They'll always have my support.
IMO, Stereophile has a great group of writers. Some also have great ears. I would enjoy reading many of their comments on food or wine or almost anything. The writers' personality comes through in their reviews. I feel like I know them, and that is a very good and interesting thing.
Even non-audiophile can find many interesting articles...
“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead"
― Charles Bukowski
it is, if I cannot derive pleasure (in fact a chore) reading it, then there is no point.
Stereophile is increasingly resorting to misleading headlines and indexing to attract attention eg in the current issue, an update of a dCS dac is in fact a rather vague comparison of it with another. There is no actual updating of the review on the product.
> in the current issue, an update of a dCS dac is in fact a rather vague
> comparison of it with another. There is no actual updating of the review
> on the product.
As I have explained before on this forum, we list a product in the
"Follow-Up" section (not update, please note) when there is what I feel
information included in a review of another product that will be of
interest either to a current owner or to a future purchaser. This is a
judgment call on my part. While there will always be some who disagree,
I am afraid, we are certainly not trying to mislead anyone.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
like a marketing ploy that has not failed to disappoint some readers.
Or so it would seem. On and on and on and on ...
nt
At least I give my reasons. Your post sounds as though you want to impose censorship.
If you don't like my posts, don't read it.
I want to "impose censorship." :-)
It won't work
Years ago I would leaf through it, off the bookstore newsstand. Loved their music review...
Stereophile with their $12 a year subscription, is one of the last great bargains in audio. Especially for us who live in the virtual hi-end audio wasteland.
“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead"
― Charles Bukowski
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