Petersons's Photographic magazine ceases publication

[roteague]

Not many may care, but Peterson's Photographic magazine has announced in their December 2005 issue, that they are ceasing publication with the current issue after 33 years. They have decided to concentrate their efforts on Shutterbug magazine. Granted this magazine was geared towards the amateur market, it was at least film friendly, not film hostile like Outdoor Photography magazine is.

 

[david b]

Oh man, that really....

oh wait, I really don't care.

 

[Peter Williams]

it was at least film friendly

I had a subscription given to me last year that I did not renew because everything was dedicated to digital. Aside from a couple of film cameras in the ads at the back, there wasn't really anything to do with film photography in there.

 

[Monophoto]

I first became aware of Petersen's when it was a quarterly. I started a subscription with the first monthly issue, and kept it up for many years. But I eventually recognized that it was migrating from a magazine that concentrated on image making, with a few DIY articles thrown in, to a compendium of new product reviews. I still have the first two or three years of issues in the basement because of the good stuff they contained.

So the cycle continues.

 

[bobfowler]

DAMN! Now the bird is going to be upset, he really liked their paper quality on the bottom of his cage...

 

[ChuckP]

I dropped my subscription a few years back. But in the 70's and 80's it was a good magazine. Lot's of information in those issues.

 

[Jim Chinn]

When I first became interested in photography in the early 80s it was a staple to purchase along with Camera and Darkroom. Don't think I have even picked up one of the shelf in several years.

I think you will see the same demise with Photo Techniques in the not so distant future. Again, a publication that I have not bought for several years. I only look at it over a cup of coffee to read Vestal's column.

You can't be all things to all people. I am not going to pay full price for content that sometimes is less then 50% traditional, so that means for me it stays on the shelf. And anyone who is interested in digital and has no bckground in analog is never going to buy a publication with any analog content when there is at least 2 dozen periodicals dedicated to digital.

If I ever want to delve into digital more then I currently do, I will look for information on the web about products and trends before I would bother with any off the rack magazine.