A scary thought, an idea, "walking for respect" whose time has come, and in the blindingly obvious department...
I keep getting these emails from Zinio and Cruising World telling me my subscription has run out and that I should get back with the program and reup ASAP so as not to miss a single issue...
Ain't going to happen!
Part of the reason for my not caring to resubscribe is the horrible service currently provided by Zinio... For those unaware of what Zinio is, they do e-book versions of magazines and for those of us on a boat where space is tight having several years of magazines on a hard drive makes way more sense than taking up space on your boat...
Well, that would be the case if you could actually read the magazines in question! In our case, Zinio kept tweaking their program until we were simply unable to read or download the magazines as their current program no longer supports our three-year old computer and its operating system.
Want to know what frustrating is? It's having over five years of magazines on your hard drive that you cannot read...
Zinio is well aware of the problem and every time we ask if the new version of the program is available yet we are told that they are working on it, how sorry they are, and here's a free year's subscription to a magazine (which I still can't read) to make up for it. Apparently all of their tech folks are busy working on the new emerging platforms (Android/iPad) and too busy to deal with folks who are long time customers and just have a laptop. The attitude I get is that the problem is actually ours for not upgrading computers every time they upgrade their programming.
Color me not exactly a happy camper...
Of course, I could still subscribe to Cruising World as a paper magazine but, really, why bother? All of the good content is simply recycled stuff they've done again and again and all the current stuff is either about gear or boats that only the wealthy can afford. Face it, the real business of a sailing magazine is not to write about sailing but maximize advertising revenue...
So, truth is, I don't think I'm going to miss Cruising World at all!
By the way, a couple of magazines I really would miss are WoodenBoat and Latitude 38. Unlike most boat magazines these days, they are not pandering tabloids. Their electronic issues are delivered simply and easily as a PDF file, problem free and can be read on any computer (something the folks at Zinio should take a lesson from).
As it happens, I have several sailing magazines due to run out in the not too distant future and unless Zinio or Sail/PBO/Blue Water Sailing start doing something competent/interesting they will all go the way of Cruising World and lose another reader.
Listening to The Volunteers
So it goes...
Bruce+
1 day ago
