Ask Slashdot: Does Europe Have Better Magazines Than the US? 562
An anonymous reader writes "Now that all the large chain book stores have disappeared from the landscape, I visited my local independent book store. In the basement I found a dazzling array of amazing magazines from the UK and Germany. Not only were the magazines impressive, they included CDs and DVDs of material. Nearly every subject was there: Knitting, Photography, Music, Linux, and Fitness. I snapped up a magazine called 'Computer Music,' which had a whole issue dedicated to making house music, including a disc of extra content. I subscribe to U.S. magazines like Wired, 2600, & Make, but their quality seems to ebb and flow from issue to issue and I don't ever recall a bonus disc. Are the UK magazines really better? If yes, why and which of them do you subscribe to? The other interesting thing about them is they weren't filled with tons of those annoying subscription cards. What is the best way to subscribe?"
"All"? (Score:3, Interesting)
Now that all the large chain book stores have disappeared from the landscape
You live in the US, don't you? Aren't you forgetting something?
Troll Submission? (Score:4, Interesting)
Now that all the large chain book stores have disappeared from the landscape
What did Barnes & Noble close?
If you go to a Tech store that sells books, like MicroCenter, there are plenty of magazines covering a wide variety of subjects. Some of them have disks and others may have downloads.
New Scientist (Score:3, Interesting)
New Scientist is possibly the best popular science magazine available. Scientific American is pretty good too, but doesn't have the same coverage because it's monthly, while NS is weekly.
c't (Score:5, Interesting)
I once read somewhere "c't is a magazine worth learning german for".
c't is a technology magazine somewhere between casual and pro, and deals with gadgets, computers and their peripherals, mobile phones and more. It reviews the quality of service of hardware vendors, ISPs and such, reports on wage situations in the IT-field and the occasional game. Being very broad in content, they still manage to go indepth (?) if questions arise via reader feedback. I have yet to find a publication in that field that matches the quality of research, writing and running this fine line of easy consumable content without being shallow.
Also they used to have the most hilarious April fools articles.
They have a sister magazine called IX, which focuses on linux and security. It's outside my competence field, so i can't say much about it, but it seems it's quite good, regarding to my linux-loving peers.
Re:"All"? (Score:4, Interesting)
Barnes & Noble is still alive and well here in the US. I think subby doesn't get out of the basement too often.
Re:Total speculation on why (Score:4, Interesting)
"Europeans live on an infrastructure that supports pedestrian life."
And you don't even get mugged on it.
They have also highways and bridges that don't crumble to dust, cars that people actually buy throughout the world, high-speed trains, a couple of thousand different cheeses, and also science fiction stuff like global health insurance and powerful unions that actually help people.
Re:UK mags rock (Score:4, Interesting)
I used to be an overseas subscriber to PCZONE (RIP) [wikipedia.org] back when I lived in the US just because there was no US pc gaming mag that I could find with anything like a similar sense of humour. I always found that the CD / DVD was an almost complete waste of space - serving only for the publisher to ask an extra few $ on the price - as all material could be downloaded from the web - with the exception perhaps of some of the PCZONEs team videos (some of which were worth the asking price). The US based equivalent publications always seemed to be more about advertisements than the articles.
I bought the mag for the article writing not for the bunf.
Re:UK mags rock (Score:5, Interesting)
I feel the same way about Japanese magazines right now. They have vast numbers of them on every subject from how to choose what type of cat to have as a pet to FPGA programming. In fact there is probably one about teaching your cat to program FPGAs. The selection really is amazing.
The content seems better too. I'll admit my Japanese reading skills are not that brilliant but they give you masses of detail and lots of photos to detail every step. I am building a model train layout from one at the moment. There really is nothing at all like it in the UK.
I feel really bad for you guys in the US if you think our magazines are good, because to me they are pretty poor.
Re:Total speculation on why (Score:4, Interesting)
The UK has long since done away with powerful unions. They still go on strike from time to time to howls of 'damn commies' but don't seem to achieve a great deal except annoying the general public and giving ammunition to the right wing press.
Re:Boobs in Newspaper Stands (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Reading, riting and rithmetic (Score:4, Interesting)
It seems you would be quite surprised how many Europeans speak and/or read a number of languages other than their own. Of course it's different for each (or at least some) countries, but overall, I'd say it's quite OK. Also, in most European countries I've been to there've been enough places to buy "foreign" language papers, zines, books, etc.
Re:Subscription price? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, but nowhere near as much as that. To pick a random example, "Digital SLR Photography [digitalslrphoto.com]" has a cover price of £4, whereas a subscription gives you 12 issues for £43.
OTOH, GP was perhaps exaggerating in saying price was on par with a paperback book, as these seem to typically be about £7. Yes, I am aware that they're cheaper in the US -- publishing is one of the few markets where there seems to be a real price disparity between the two countries. Importers typically charge £1 per dollar cover price of US editions, which probably leaves quite a bit of space for profit, especially as they're almost certainly getting >50% discount from the publishers. I suspect the reason for the difference is economy of scale -- the UK is a market only about a fifth the size of the US, and the cost of printing stuff like this is almost entirely in the per-issue set-up costs.
Re:Yes (Score:2, Interesting)
Everything is better in europe.
Their healthcare, their food, their government, their women, their cars, their tv, their bathrooms, their internet.
The bathrooms in the UK suck, their just-in-time water heaters especially. The European roads are small and dangerous (even the German Autobahn are not much more than glorified 2-lane poorly lit highways). Their gas is super expensive. Their TV/Internet is either good or bad depending on where you are in Europe. And finally, their convenience stores, supermarkets, banks, etc., usually have such limited schedules, most Americans have no idea how good they have it in the US.
Re:Total speculation on why (Score:5, Interesting)
Sadly there is no data to back me up, but i wonder if mugging and other random crime is reduced by a functioning welfare system. This in that it removes the desperation for many people, leaving mostly addicts and the mentally ill as performers of such crimes.
Re:Yes (Score:5, Interesting)
As the other guy pointed out, you do realise that even then the French healthcare system is still cheaper than the US one?
The problem with the US system is that it's built around an insurance system, where healthcare providers make the most money when they ensure people are signed up, but don't actually get to use the service. So they have to employ many thousands of people to deal with designing their schemes, marketing their schemes, determining the validity of claims, trying to get away with not paying claims and spending months, sometimes years arguing over the validity of claimsm and if they finally agree to pay a claim - actually dealing with the paperwork of paying that claim.
The problem is the US system creates a whole additional layer of bureaucracy that are unnecessary in the European system, so makes the US system grossly inefficient.
Of course, you're right that the French system may run a deficit that's paid up for in taxes, and the US system doesn't, but that's because Americans are paying much more per head directly to the healthcare firms on average than you pay indirectly to it through your taxes on average - in other words, their system is still drastically more expensive.
c't was once a good magazine (Score:3, Interesting)