BYO - no more printed magazines

[Cameronl]

I've tried, but I can not read online magazines. I end up never reading them. At least my print 'zines I can see the pile and pull one out and finally get around to reading it. I've sent an email requesting a refund on my remaining subscription (almost two years).

 

[MaxStout]

Magazines like Zymurgy and BYO are made to be read cover to cover, at least for me. All facets of brewing are of interest to me, even if I don't do it all. I like to keep up with gear, methods and recipes. It's not easy for me to scroll through a pdf in a smartphone, keep zooming in and out, etc. The dead-tree version is nice to read while relaxing and I look forward to each issue. However, I have downloaded some back issues of Zymurgy, just because those have topics I want to keep as references.

Other pubs are more conducive to digital, particularly if it's something where I just need to search. I get Consumer Reports digital only. I don't need or want a paper version. I don't need to read reviews of baby formula or floor mats. It's not a magazine I want to read through, as only a portion is relevant to me. If I plan to buy an electric range or a truck I look up the reviews.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I think the cost of the BYO/Zymurgy subscription should be adjusted if it goes fully digital the overhead is reduced.

A BYO+ subscription was $50 in Apr 2024. Currently $40.

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BYO+ does include magazine articles in HTML format. Occasionally I'll browse them on my (small form factor) iPhone SE (2nd gen) and haven't had issues.

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I find that PDFs are very readable on my iPad. Viewing PDFs on my Windows 10 laptop (1920x1080, 10+ years old) works OK - the last time I did some serious 'research' with PDFs, I added a 2nd monitor with more height.

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As an aside, CB&B's iPadOS app also worked well for me for displaying the magazine.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

This news sucks, I dont have an on line account, and do not want one, I hate the fact that I cant take my magazine and sit in a chair and read weather in my front porch, in the boat or on. Vacation..
Not everything is better on line.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

Whoa! At 150-ish°F I gotta believe anyone dry humping a mash tun will only try that once

Better than the cinnamon challenge or eating Tide pods!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

This is a "planting a seed" idea ...

The guest on The Brew Files #170 podcast talks about holding a one day local in person conference that they held in late summer (August?) 2024. Sounds like they will do it again next year. The guest offered to provide insights for those considering doing the same. Details are in the podcast.

... so the 'reboot' of conferences may have begun.

If one were to restart a monthly printed home brewing related magazine, what would you expect from it? Is black ink on white paper acceptable? Would embedded QR codes be useful? Authors and publishers want to get paid - so how would the publisher do that? Would some level of product sponsored articles be better than 'pure' advertising?

 

[Brew_Dude41]

I let my subscription lapse shortly after the boys were born and my free time got allocated to keeping up with them. They are more self-sufficient and I have been able to start brewing again. I was actually was looking at a few old copies last night and thinking of renewing.

Personally digital only doesn't do it for me and it will save me the trouble of trying to renew. There is a drive at work to digitalize all documents now. I see the value, but when my job is to audit and control our documents and processes, hard copies are preferable for me. The ability to spread things out and put different documents next to each other to compare and mark up is far easier that trying to get 3 window open in a tablet at a size I can read.

Call me old fashioned but I want the print copy in my hands.

 

[Yesfan]

........Notice that when you buy a laptop today it doesn’t come with a cd drive built in anymore, most don’t have a floppy drive anymore either. They sell those as separate external devices now. Like they don’t expect you to own anything on any kind of disk or hard copy. For those of us who have had computers since the 1980s and been through so many different models and software this is hard to accept.

Or no headphone jack or removable battery on some cell phones. I'm still using my Galaxy S10 for that reason. Don't get me started on Logitech discontinuing and killing support for the Squeezebox.


- typed from a 12 year old Lenovo laptop with a CD/DVD drive.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

- typed from a 12 year old Lenovo laptop with a CD/DVD drive.

+1 from my 12 year old Samsung laptop (also with a CD/DVD drive).

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Or no headphone jack or removable battery on some cell phones. I'm still using my Galaxy S10 for that reason. Don't get me started on Logitech discontinuing and killing support for the Squeezebox.

Squeezebox! I had 4 of those, those were just so damned cool back in the day, before Logitech ruined them...

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Oh, and my membership just renewed last month. I paid them in November for another year. You can’t tell me this decision was made on the fly and they didn’t know last month when I renewed. They said nothing.

Yup, I got the same email from BYO. Been with them since day one. I feel blindsided too with my renewal.

I enjoyed reading each page when my copy came in the mail. Over recent years I noticed the pages per copy have cut in half. Not sure about advertising versus content.

Not sure what I will do, probably see how the year goes. Sad to see it go but in all honesty I get more from HBT.

 

[Exception13]

Don't get me started on Logitech discontinuing and killing support for the Squeezebox.

This! Damn I miss that.

 

[jdauria]

Not liking that they are going to digital only, but for those who like paper version, as I expect most of us older subscribers do, usually there is a way to print online magazines. I do it every now and then with Zymurgy. It allows you to save as a PDF and then print it off on your home printer. Looking at the last BYO issue online, it does the same. Open the digital version of the magazine and in the bottom toolbar, hover over the three dots, and it gives an option to print or save as PDF. I like to save as PDF and then go in and only print pages that are not all ads.

 

[shoengine]

 

[khannon]

View attachment 864130

And how much Fossil fuel was burned creating and serving this image

 

[stamandster]

@khannon Since you asked https://mccinnovations.com/insights/blog/the-cost-of-paper-vs-digital/ & https://www.repsly.com/blog/field-team-management/cost-analysis-paper-vs-digital-forms

 

[shoengine]

And how much Fossil fuel was burned creating and serving this image

I could've used the energy of a small village to generate it via AI. Sort of like I did when I asked it to make me a picture of racing kegerators.

 

[Yesfan]

LOL. If any of those beers are fusel, that Mustang doesn't stand a chance.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

Just got my official notification, my wife us pissed, she just renewed it for 2 years, shes going to e mail them tomorrow, or call , shes miserable with sciatica and is ready to tear some one a new one.

 

[hout17]

This sucks. I'm really glad I have a decent stash of issues. I'm in the printed magazine camp.

I'm sure they are banking on better profitability.

 

[MaxStout]

A couple years ago I subscribed to BYO for a year. Took them 6 months to mail my first issue. Guess that was the writing on the wall. I canceled after a year.

BTW, if you want to stop your subscription be sure to contact them. Don't just let it run out thinking it's done, as it won't lapse. They auto-renew on your cc by default and you have to opt out.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

A couple years ago I subscribed to BYO for a year. Took them 6 months to mail my first issue. Guess that was the writing on the wall. I canceled after a year.

BTW, if you want to stop your subscription be sure to contact them. Don't just let it run out thinking it's done, as it won't lapse. They auto-renew on your cc by default and you have to opt out.

We just renewed as I said earlier, but we are old school, and sent a check with the payment coupon( of coarse it's already been deposited), so no auto renewal, and that's the crying shame, they took my money, knowing full well what they were going to do, I feel they were very underhanded with the whole transfer,the honorable thing to do would to have given us" the reading public"the option, pretty sure I'll never see a reimbursement, we will see after the boss lady gives them an ear full.

 

[kevin58]

Not liking that they are going to digital only, but for those who like paper version, as I expect most of us older subscribers do, usually there is a way to print online magazines. I do it every now and then with Zymurgy. It allows you to save as a PDF and then print it off on your home printer. Looking at the last BYO issue online, it does the same. Open the digital version of the magazine and in the bottom toolbar, hover over the three dots, and it gives an option to print or save as PDF. I like to save as PDF and then go in and only print pages that are not all ads.

I have never looked at the online version so this is good news. As long as there is a way to save an article I want to keep I may hang in there a while longer.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Yesterday I logged on their site to see what the online magazine looked like. I was actually impressed with the flip page version. I'm not giving them a pass but reading the magazine that was ok.

Like I mentioned, I will give it some time. I get a half price subscription, club discount, so if they renew that again and I like the electronic version I might stay. To be honest though I think BYO is doomed to die eventually.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

For those prefer physical magazines or who don't like digital magazines, I'm not posting this to change your mind.

For those "on the fence", I offer a subscribers opinion on the Jan 2025-digital only issue.

The Jan 2025 issue is out, so this was the 1st issue that I read/scanned using the "flip page" viewer.

This was on my Windows 10 laptop (17" screen @ 1920x1080), so YMMV.

Overall it was a good experience:

• After the cover page was displayed, I
  • switched into full screen mode, and
  • zoomed in (using the wheel on the mouse)
  • to remove 'dead space' on the top / bottom of the screen.
• Paging through the magazine is easy. The "next page" button is on the far left. I put the mouse over the button and paged through the magazine.
• On the "table of contents" page(s), each "feature" article and "department" article is "clickable".
• Entries in the "recipe index" are also "clickable"
• To get back to the TOC page, there is is a "pages" icon on the tool bar. so two clicks to get back to the TOC (or any other page).
• URLs in the articles are also "clickable"

This may be the first online "flip page" reader that I've used that actually adds value. I'll still download issues for off-line reading.

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For those who "suffered through" digital Zymurgy issues where the emphasis was on form (vs readability) on some pages, I have attached the "page view" from the BYO Jan 2025 issue. Every page is either white background with black text or gray/black background with white text.

BYO Jan 2025: White background & black text or dark background & white text. Every. Single. Page.

in fairness, I haven't seen Zymurgy issues since about Apr 2024. If this problem (difficult to read text) has been fixed in recent issues, please let me know.

edited for typing errors.

also eta: (12/12 4:30p): I'm migrating to a new MacBook Air (15" 2880x1864 display) - and the "flip page" viewer in Safari was a good experience. Everything seemed to work the same as on my Windows 10 laptop & the extra pixels made reading a little nicer.

 

[jcav]

Well this stinks, I got notified also that it's online only. I do not like navigating magazines online. I like to read a hard copy. Don't know what I will do either, been a subscriber for many many years.

John

 

[Indian_villager]

Considering the overall shrinking of the homebrew market how is anyone surprised? Print has been shrinking overall as well, not just for homebrew. Y'all are welcome to vote with your wallets either way you see fit. Are you prepared for BYO to flat out shut down and lose what they have been bringing to the table?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Considering the overall shrinking of the homebrew market how is anyone surprised?

The transition of the subscription to digital-only was abrupt.

Abrupt transitions tend to surprise people.

Are you prepared for BYO to flat out shut down and lose what they have been bringing to the table?

tl;dr: I am.

• Content publishers come and go. But, and in IMO, BYO will be around for a while, maybe longer. Same with CB&B.
• Content creators, OTOH and IMO, are worth following wherever they choose to have their content published.
• The content creators that I follow provide content using books, magazine articles, personal web sites, podcasts, guest appearances on podcasts, conference presentations, guest appearances at home brew club meetings, etc.
• If magazine articles are no longer an option, there are other ways for them to publish content.

 

[mac_1103]

Abrupt transitions tend to surprise people.

Yeah. Shocking, isn't it?

 

[EscapeArtistBrewing]

When we were moving several years ago, we (mainly my wife, actually) just didn't have the space to save all my woodworking journals. I was really sick of heart to think of not having them as reference, but I discovered that most WW publishers were putting their entire archive on DVDs. I later came to realize that the search capabilities that PDFs afford was a really good thing, as well as storing the equivalent of 10 banker boxes of magazines in a desk drawer.

Having hard copy for plans was really important, but having the ability to print them out, mark them up, and not have to worry about scribbling or damaging the original was great. I suspect now that when I find a recipe I want to brew, I'll either print the BYO page and not worry about spilling wort on it, or, better, just transfer it to my brewing software on brew day. Besides, my multi-terabyte hard drive can handle any number of brews.

I'm just suggesting to have heart adjusting to the loss of a physical mag. Yes, some sitting-by-the-fire-reading experience is lost, but other, more handy and practical experiences can be forthcoming.

I would suggest to Brad that he consider some additional changes moving forward:

1. Offer a DVD (or a zip file for the on-line-only types) of all back and future issues.
2. Add content, such as .xml files of recipes to those published in the pdf-journal. Add some value.
3. Make sure there are good links in the PDFs, to make navigating to papers referenced in the article or contact links to authors (mailto, or vendor websites.
4. Make sure the magazine's PDF renders well on Kindles, Surface, iPad, and any other hand-held reader, for those of us old-timers who still like to read by the fireside.

Information ain't free. I'm not ready to stop getting my brew-knowledge fix.