Small Scopes

Sky & Telescope Magazine Sold!

Big (bad?) news out, which isn't much of a surprise considering how many paper magazines can't give themselves away these days. As much as I hate to see things like this happen, I'm much happier in a web world than the dead tree world.

The Sky & Telescope Is Falling

As if the gutting of NASA's science programs weren't enough, astronomy aficionados have just taken another gunshot in the chest: Sky & Telescope magazine has been sold and, although the announcement doesn't mention it, a quarter of the staff has been laid off.

Sky & Tel is an institution -- the closest thing astronomy has to a magazine of record. I've known staffers there for over a decade and can say that, on topics ranging from DIY telescope building to Mars landers, they have a depth of knowledge and experience which simply can't be beat. They're the sort of people who'll go to an evening lecture and then stay up half the night writing about it, and rewriting, and rewriting -- until they find the best way to explain the subject to the interested layperson. People subscribe to the magazine their whole lives; they are not mere consumers but members of a community. I hope the survivors of this purge can keep things going. The world would be a much poorer place without it.

I don't know the details of Sky & Tel's travails, but presumably declining advertising revenues have something to do with it. Magazines in general, and science magazines in particular, also have to struggle with the tragedy of the Internet commons. Sky & Tel, like us, puts material on the web for free, which undermines our own business. None of us gets rich working at a magazine; we do it because we love science and want to help others understand it, too. How long that will last, if nobody can make a living at it, is unclear.

posted by Tako John @ 5:34 PM