The days of the printed general radio hobby magazine (i.e. Monitoring Times and Popular Communications) has ended. Only e-zines The Spectrum Monitor and CQ Plus will be available in February 2014.
Courtesy of the BADX list and K1TW:
CQ has announced it is combining Popular Communications, World Radio, and CQ VHF
into a single digital publication to be called CQ Plus starting in February.
The print editions of PopComm and CQ VHF will be phased out and World Radio will
disappear totally.
At least this explains the huge mystery of what is
going on at CQ (as we discussed at the holiday party). I guess CQ was spread too
thin with too many digital publications to manage. Maybe this will work but I
think, if I understand it, there will now be just one digital subscription to CQ
Magazine which will include CQ plus and maybe a print edition of CQ without
Digital Plus.
And to confirm the story this from the ARRL website:
CQ Communications Inc has announced plans to realign its publications lineup
and to launch a new online supplement to its flagship magazine, CQ Amateur Radio.
“The hobby radio market is changing,” said CQ Communications President and
Publisher Dick Ross, K2MGA, “and we are changing what we do and how we do it in
order to continue providing leadership to all segments of the radio hobby.”
Effective with the February 2014 issue of CQ, said Ross, content from
the magazine’s three sister publications — Popular
Communications, CQ
VHF and WorldRadio Online
— will be incorporated into CQ’s digital edition as a supplement to
be called CQ Plus. The print editions of Popular Communications
and CQ VHF will be phased out, and WorldRadio Online will no
longer exist as a separate online publication. Current Popular
Communications, CQ VHF and WorldRadio Online subscribers will
be converted to CQ subscribers and receive CQ Plus at no
additional charge. Details will be posted on each magazine’s website.
CQ Communications says the change will offer hobby radio enthusiasts a single
source for articles from shortwave listening and scanner monitoring to personal
two-way services and Internet radio, as well as Amateur Radio. Richard Fisher,
KI6SN, currently editor of both Popular Communications and WorldRadio
Online, will be editor of CQ Plus.
“Our primary audience is ham radio operators, but very few hams began their
radio involvement as amateurs,” Ross said. “Most of us started out as shortwave
listeners, broadcast band DXers, CBers or scanning enthusiasts. Many continue to
be involved in many different aspects of the radio hobby in addition to Amateur
Radio.” Ross said consolidating four specialized publications into one will keep
“multidimensional readers” informed on all aspects of the radio hobby, at the
same time exposing non-hams “to all the excitement and opportunities that
Amateur Radio has to offer.”
The expanded material will be an integral part of the digital edition of
CQ and will be included as part of a standard digital subscription. Each
month’s digital edition will continue beyond where the print edition ends,
offering supplemental material on all aspects of hobby radio communication and
selected columns carried over from the other magazines. The added digital
content will make full use of the multimedia opportunities presented by digital
publications.
A preview of the
February issue’s table of contents is available on the CQ website.
