Exitlog | Leaving Impressions

The Beatles preserved their legacy when they broke up. The Rolling Stones didn’t and carried on sliding down from the dizzy heights of 1972 to prove they could go even lower than 1987. Good things do come to an end; some, often painfully, more slowly than others. Prompted this week by a coincidental comparison, I’d begun to realise that MacUser was just such an example.

Earlier this week I found a post recalling an American issue of MacUser from 1996. Almost as soon as I had read the post the latest MacBook 17″ unibody issue of MacUser (UK) arrived. The Geek Out New York article was an affectionate remembrance of the now-defunct enthusiast magazine (whose target audience is, hopefully, obvious).

At first I was tempted to tell them that MacUser was alive and well. The British title has been publishing for many years (think Macintosh Quadra and before) and has been a fairly good, well subscribed magazine. But then as read my new, redesigned MacUser I realised that the rumours of its death, as it seems, were not so greatly exaggerated.

With an opening, if not apologetic word, from the editor, MacUser does now look every bit the defunct enthusiast magazine. The design has changed considerably – arguably style is subjective and we’re not all going to agree here. Gone is the slick appeal and generally good art direction. In its place are bright iPhone/Android/Palm Pre styled boxes with nostalgic Web 2.0 fades and drop shadows. It is all very readable but also un-special.

The editorial and opinion is largely the same (good), but the rest of the content has been strangely reduced (vacant). And in the reduction process it has lost something – perhaps the qualities Geek Out New York sentimentally recalls of its overseas cousin. Popularity is never assured with middle-of-the-road reporting. Lucky then that the dogmatic comments of Howard Oakley haven’t been lost in the transition.

This change begs the question, what’s the purpose? A question you could apply to many newstand gadget/computer-related magazines. The answer probably should be, because websites are killing specialist titles like MacUser.

Increasingly MacUser’s editorial has been days, if not weeks behind the news websites, blogs and online experts. The magazine’s strength had perviously been in large pictures and smart editorial – perfect fanboy fodder accentuated by a mix of good lighting, clever illustration and subtle art direction. The new version dispenses with these devices, missing even the opportunity to make the award system (Editor’s Choice, Labs Winner and Best Value) colour-coded for ease-of-use.

If enthusiast magazines are to survive they need offer more for the fanboys and loyal readers – gadget-porn, less about news and more about hardware add-ons and software reviews. Up-to-date news has been the currency of nightly reports and blogging. Magazines like MacUser can’t compete with this kind of immediacy. Where they can compete is in presentation, the slickness of high-resolution photos, and portability. A magazine can travel – on the beach, on the underground, on buses and in airplanes. The joys of reading, the allure of the latest model, thinnest curves and fastest gadget don’t have to be had in front of screen.

As a friend said debating this issue, “You might have a tough choice, or an argument, with Let It Be or Let It Bleed but would who really choose Bridges to Babylon first?” Change is only good where strengths remain. Goodbye MacUser we’ll miss you.

Technology on wheels…

4 out of 7 feeds from Wired News yesterday, available thanks to NetNewsWire on my iPhone, were about cars. It is good to see that technology news and interest doesn’t just have to be about hackers, slackers and gadgets. Thankfully there was no Clarkson or the carefully coiffured Hammond pedalling their Top Gear opinions. The success of the Chevrolet Volt, the Honda Insight hybrid or the new Toyota Prius is every bit as interesting as Palm’s financial recovery hopeful, the Pre. Vroom, vroom, roll on innovation.