I get the FoxPro Advisor Alert each week. This is an email summary of previous and upcoming articles I can look forward to reading. A few alerts ago I noticed Advisor is changing the name of the magazine to Advisor Guide to Microsoft Visual FoxPro. From what I understand, the change is coming with the January issue.
Interesting. Why would a magazine change its name after more than a decade of publishing? Well according to the Advisor Alert:
“To better tell the world what we do, the new name of FoxPro Advisor is ADVISOR GUIDE to MICROSOFT VISUAL FOXPRO — same publication, new name, continuing Advisor Media’s 20 years providing expert advice on Fox software.”
Darn, I was hoping for a new and improved publication. I still enjoy reading FoxPro Advisor each month, but it is getting thinner and thinner. I understand all the reasons why (just count the amount of advertising done in the magazine each month and look at the subscriber numbers), but I want more content. The magazine use to be double the size and 50% less expensive.
I also know the reality the Internet has played on the print publishing world. The instant availability of material via blogs, wikis, and developer Web sites is much faster to market than the 3 month lead time many publications face. I am sure this is why Advisor has their email alerts, have revamped their content on their Web site, and have made electronic access part of the subscription (as FoxTalk has for years).
Don’t get me wrong. The authors are good, the material is valuable, and I still easily justify the subscription. I just want more! It is my hope more Visual FoxPro developers subscribe to all FoxPro publications. It is a simple economic reality. The more subscribers, the more vendors will be willing to advertise because a larger audience is available for their ads. This means Advisor will have a bigger budget, and can pay authors to write more and print more pages. So we all would win.
Good luck Advisor – I hope you take this opportunity to improve your magazine.
If you are not subscribing to both Advisor Guide to Microsoft Visual FoxPro and FoxTalk 2.0, you are missing out on some excellent reading, ideas, and concepts.
