Fun fact: I have a lifetime subscription to Rolling Stone. You read it right: lifetime. Way back in 2003, I think, I got a letter from RS that offered for some absurd sum ($75, I believe) a "lifetime" subscription.At first, I was going to pass, because $75 was a lot of money at the time. Luckily, Chris is the brains of this operation. She told me I was a moron if I didn't take it. And now, my address tag reads: Exp: August 14, 2053. I hope I can outlast the magazine subscription.
Anyway, the issue with subscribing to a print magazine of any type for the last 15 years is the human tendency to keep said magazine on hand. As in, all of them. The picture above shows only a small sample -- from 2003ish forward. There are hundreds more ... umm ... somewhere. In the storage area under the steps, maybe?
The problem, of course, with keeping all of these around is the space issue. We don't have a lot to begin with, and me keeping 10-year-old magazines around isn't helping. I'm trying to figure out a good, tidy bike-parking solution for the garage and that issue with Maroon 5 inexplicably on the cover isn't helping.
So they're leaving -- most of them, at least. There are some that are keepers, for sure. The 40th anniversary issues are staying, as are those with Springsteen or the Beatles on them. The rest ... adieu.
I've always wanted to keep them around so I could dig back into them at a later date. I still want to be able to do that. But I'm putting my faith in the hands of technology, hoping that a digital archive will be out there (or maybe already is) so I can page through the magazine virtually.
And I hope by 2053 -- or within the next two years or so -- that digital delivery will have made enough strides that I won't have to worry about a stack of magazines ever again. I've said it before, publishers of print media: deliver your product digitally to an iPad-type device, make it look like your printed product and include links to additional content and I'll sign up on the spot.
Or, in simpler terms: Save me from myself. I need more room for bikes.
4 comments:
Wow! Lifetime subscription for $75 bone. They musta been desperate. Where are they going? I wonder if a place like Drastic Plastic or a used book store would want them.
Good luck. More bikes is better anyway ya look at it.
They're going into the recycling bin, mostly. Unless, of course, you want that Ben Affleck issue from 2004.
No?
Damn.
You are a hoarder!
When the magazine goes to a digital only format how does that work? Do you still get a lifetime subscription? How will you hoard those?
Server farm.
I'll just build a server farm to store all of them.
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