I did not read that into the comment about the history of PDN. It was a NY oriented paper. I think the original name was New York Photo District News.

Pity the poor old internet marvels that PDN consistently pushes….

My guess is they are famous enough now that they have surpassed the need for PDN to rave about their work, latest fanboy video or whatever is the flavor of the month.

Photo District News was an excellent magazine a long time ago. I recall the first issues when it looked like a real NYC rag. Newsprint, folded over and pretty much New York centric. Their consistent weakness from the first issue to today has been their lack of fact checking in interviews and stories. I know several well known shooters who refuse to be quoted or interviewed by PDN because they get the facts wrong. I have been quoted in PDN several times in my career and they always messed it up.

The glory days are long gone and the focus IMO is much more on gear (ie, advertisers) or fanboys and less on how the industry works and worthwhile projects or campaigns.

Life goes on and Rob’s blog fills in the need for insightful interviews and commentary. I learn something from every interview he has posted.

I am grateful that Rob continues to write this blog.

Seriously, it does make you wonder, doesn’t it? Ever scanned down the Masthead of a major magazine, and wondered what all those people do? I guess it takes that many to get a national magazine out the door, but the point of this, it just shows the power of the internet, and how things are changing, and how, in the end, it comes down to PERTINENT CONTENT. And here’s a guy, somewhere in remote Colorado, probably listening to the Grateful Dead while he works, with ten or twelve kids running around, probably living in an old School Bus and growing weed, and yet, most every morning, he gets up, does his research, and writes a nicely-crafted article that connects with the modern photography industry. And he keeps his audience, even without sponsoring a Photo Contest.

Yeah, the side business of the website thing helps; there’s always that nagging thing about paying the bills, but still, the comparisons between APE and PDN are interesting, (and encouraging).

My rationale was that for little more than the cost of a few years worth of PDN I can buy another netbook, and pretty soon I’ll have one for each bathroom in my house.

Genuine LOLs. Robbie in his undies. Cheeto crums all over his beer belly.

If PDN goes away the only bad thing will be the lost jobs of those employed who do the real work. Policy makers I don’t have much empathy for. PDN is like many of the others mags I use to read, content has been overrun by a higher percentage of add space. Yeah it stinks but it pays the bills for the publishers and on the opposite side of the fence it really doesn’t serve the consumer. There needs to be a balance, ample content, and a balnce of good consumer and advertiser participation.

The good news is there are creative’s like Rob who will step up to the plate, collaborate, create content. They will get the news and content out to those who want it. Those who want it(consumers) need to be consumers. It will be interesting to see who else steps up.

Personally I am looking at my budget to see who I will be subscribing to as a consumer and PDN is not on the list. I remember the adage of “you got to spend some money to make some money and you get what you pay for” and I am willing to spend to get the product I want.

Seems that it was not long ago that some magazines started splashing scantily clad bodies across their covers to attract interest, but without success. Unfortunately I think photography magazines doing that lose their credibility, though I could see that happening at PDN.

I see it happening within the year.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article6936087.ece

New Year’s Resolution for the creative industry likely to be ‘Don’t give anyone anything for free ever again’.

Here’s a cool T-shirt idea….

Liberals + Conservatives = Ignorance

To add… the magazine and it’s publishers have always had a “Murdoch” type mentality when it comes to it’s customers. If this news is correct, it looks to be a great fit for the Murdoch family.

http://www.printliberation.com/featured/destroy-fox-news.html?SID=dea00606bc671419ba23c9ff95a9a065