Nuts & Volts
JonnyMac
Posts: 8,929
I just received this message from the publisher of Nuts & Volts. It may be old news to you, but I just found out.
To update you quickly on something new …
We are in the process of making a big change from publishing the magazine monthly to publishing bi-monthly to help cut down printing costs, which will help with cash flow. It will be less of an expense to print bigger issues every other month than small ones each month.
The first double issue will be for May-June and will be coming out the end of April. We are not printing an April issue.
To update you quickly on something new …
We are in the process of making a big change from publishing the magazine monthly to publishing bi-monthly to help cut down printing costs, which will help with cash flow. It will be less of an expense to print bigger issues every other month than small ones each month.
The first double issue will be for May-June and will be coming out the end of April. We are not printing an April issue.
Comments
Unsolicited pro tip: while it's in our benefit to have these columns, make them bring your account current before you write any more columns.
Parallax pays them for advertisements with N30. They don't extend us N365. . .
Ken Gracey
Recently I found myself in a Barnes Noble for the first time in 10 years. I was happy to see both N&V and Circellar are still carried on the rack, so I picked up both.
Surprised neither had Parallax ads on the back cover. When did this stop?
Couple of years ago, coupled with a change in marketing strategy for education. We're still there in various printed advertisement, but not in the same scale.
As we've learned our own business, this year we poured more funds into education than ever before. We've trained nearly 500 teachers across the country, for free, and given them each their own robot. Only a few more classes in Charleston, Atlanta and Washington D.C. need to be finished in the next few weeks. While I realize you didn't ask about this particular activity, I've just got to point it out for those who think we're vaporizing in some way because they don't see the strong presence in N&V. We've really laid it all down for educators and students like no other company I'm aware of.
Ken Gracey
Thanks, Jon!
-Phil
It is a bit tough, even when it's every other month. I try to write about what's happening in the moment so that my column isn't stale on hitting the streets. Again, it's tricky. I'm going to do my best to keep up because it seems like I still run across people who say, "Why haven't I heard of the Propeller?" That, to me, is a great mystery. I am hoping, though, that all of Ken's Herculean efforts with Blockly will get people excited about the Propeller. Once they're excited, I'm happy to share what I know about coding the Propeller in Spin.
God bless you and your fine work, JonnyMac.
DONE! I wrote the Mr. Roboto column through all 12 issues of 2017, but stopped for that reason.
Excellent! Charleston is my hometown, I still have lots of family there. Which school?
AMEN, Brother PhiPi!
Ken Gracey
It is probably time that I jumped into the P2 pool. I've been watching with interest, but as fluid as it's been I thought it best to wait.
You really have provided more inspiration and support to learning microprocessor coders than you realize - witness the shock and horror when your obex contributions went offline for a while!
You really should consider a reference book!
P2 is moving from fluid to firm....'Release candidate' Verilog is at OnSemi, I think Chip has one newly uncovered bug to scrub...
BTW, what is this Propeller thingie you talk about?...
This is true, and fabrication date is set for last week of April.
But before we bring in the master, we need a little more in the way of programming tools. Stay put, Jon. I'll let you know when it's time.
jmg, thanks for the help you are providing along the way.
Ken Gracey
John Abshier
While they are very kind folks, this is also why I stopped the drone column after nearly 2 years of monthly articles.
At least the ELEV8 was able to get some cover spotlight!
Jon, if it will help I will be happy to hold it back until they settle your account. I doubt it will make much of a difference but willing to do what I can. You have given so much to the community.
It would be stated in years, the same as most any periodical with a specific publishing schedule. That said, it's the general custom to extend out paid subscriptions to fulfill the number of issues a subscriber originally paid for. So if you had one year left, going bimonthly extends your subscription by another year. Advertisers who purchased ads for multiple issues will expect this, too.
Of course this all depends on the magazine, and not having any real contact with them for the last several years I have no idea what they'll do. The FAQ on the N&V site still states a monthly publishing schedule.
This all said, do remember they offer a money back guarantee, and will refund for any unmailed issues. I hope that people don't unilaterally take this option. It's a tough slog to publish a magazine about hobby/educational electronics in this day and age. Most young learners would rather play a game on their phone than put together an electronic circuit. This is the new reality and sometimes it creates circumstances we'd have rather avoided.
Companies are trying to squeeze as much profit as possible and cut their expenses as much as possible. That leaves the consumer with fewer and fewer options. It might just take the mother of all solar flares or coronal mass ejections slamming into the earth to convince people that something printed on paper still has some value.
Not trying to be negative, as I do like computers and tech. I remember as a kid spending hours on Compuserve. I also had at that time through the university where I went had access to the early form of the public internet, long before the WWW. Remember Gopher, Archie and Telnet? Pre-Google as I call it now.
Just my thoughts...
Best,
J
-Phil
Looks like Servo is going bi-monthly also.
An Email from N&V this morning:
In magazine-land, missing an issue is called "taking a tuck." It's not uncommon, and has often been used to get the printed date of the magazine out a month earlier than the calendar date, so it looks fresh. No one wants the December issue in December. Getting out in October sells more copies. The "missing" issue is picked up on the other end. It does indeed involve a lot of work for fulfillment, at the very least.
I hope this change does bring about a better cash flow position for them as noted in Jon's first message.
Your thoughts?
Best,
J
She uses my iPad mini and eBooks, paid variety. I let her try out eBooks on my mini - bad move as I never got it back
Guess she has saved more than the minis cost as eBooks are around 50% of paperbacks.
The city center "Academic Bookshop" is now full of anything but academic books, mostly piles of self help, "spiritual well being", cookery and cat Smile.
I noticed the same when visiting California recently.
I was so happy to find a real mag, Nuts & Volts I think it was, in a Maker Faire last year. With articles by well know forum members here. Sadly it got left in a rental car when that was returned and I never got to read it.