In his latest blog post, Marco Tabini takes a look at the competition - PHP Magazine - and their decision to switch to an entirely PDF format.

I have been expecting them to do so for a while now—I’m not judging their success, but simply the fact that electronic distribution is really the only viable way of reaching a global audience.

The print distribution of a magazine is very difficult to handle in a profitable way. [...] The magazine publishing industry has really managed to turn itself on its head in such a way that the publisher is left holding the bag at every turn.

He mentions at length that things just aren't set up so that the middleman is as equal as the two ends of the line. He compares this to the electronic distribution method that, while cheaper and faster, still has its downsides as well...