Losing weight in the New Year

I spent January trying to get a little skinnier. I suspect you did too. Generally skinnier is better. But then I noticed how skinny my January 2012 copy of Vision Systems Design seemed. Yes I still read the print version, and it’s just 32 pages long.

For comparison I dug out the January 2009 edition. 52 pages.

Leaving aside the matter of how sad I am to be saving three year old magazines, let’s consider what’s going on.

A look at the Contents page shows the 2012 edition has lost the “Industry Solutions Profile” section, but that only accounts for four of the missing pages. What about the other 16?

I haven’t done a more detailed analysis because I actually do have a day job, but my guess is that it’s down to advertising. And if ad revenue falls, so too will the number of articles. So have advertisers not restored their budgets to pre-recession levels? Or are they spending the money in other places? I suspect it’s the latter.

I know much of the world has gone to digital media, but I think it will be sad day if VSD ceases publication. The Wilson brothers are working hard to provide us with a trade magazine several notches above the standard industry rag, but it needs our support. So read your copy from cover to cover, and buy full page ads to grace its pages.

Now, I’m off to renew my subscription.