Fullscreen HTML5Med Res (??MB)HTML4

SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher/Editor Nicholas Vinen Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc. Bao Smith, B.Sc. Tim Blythman, B.E., B.Sc. Nicolas Hannekum, Dip. Elec. Tech. Technical Contributor Duraid Madina, B.Sc, M.Sc, PhD Art Director & Production Manager Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Dave Thompson David Maddison B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Geoff Graham Associate Professor Graham Parslow Ian Batty Cartoonist Brendan Akhurst Founding Editor (retired) Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Silicon Chip is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 626 922 870. ABN 20 880 526 923. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Subscription rates (12 issues): $105.00 per year, post paid, in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or email silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au Recommended & maximum price only. Editorial office: Unit 1 (up ramp), 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 Editorial Viewpoint More articles than space – a good problem to have! In the October 2020 issue, I wrote about wanting to publish a range of articles, including some of historical interest and others about the latest technology. This has created a bit of difficulty; while we have a good mixture of different articles, I am struggling to fit all this content into the magazine. You might be wondering why I don’t just print magazines with more pages. That is not as easy as it sounds. For a start, our printing and mailing costs would go up, and given the general economic malaise caused by COVID-19, I am reluctant to increase our expenditures. Note that we have not increased the magazine cover price for more than seven years now – an unprecedented period in the magazine’s history. Another problem is that if I print magazines with more than 112 pages on our current paper stock, they might not fit into the binders that we sell. We also sometimes have problems with the centre sections tearing out in larger magazines. Printing on thinner paper would solve these problems, but result in worse print quality; something I am not keen on. Another option is for me to reduce the number of constructional project articles in some issues. Since taking over the magazine in August 2018, I have stuck faithfully to my predecessor’s guideline of having four such articles in every issue. I think he was right that this strikes a good balance, but perhaps I should make the occasional exception and run three project articles in some months. That would allow us to include more feature articles. I think that makes sense, but I wonder what our readers would think of that. The other option is to raise the cover price (which I am still trying to put off as long as possible) and then use the extra revenue to print larger magazines with more content. That’s assuming we don’t lose too many readers when the price goes up. But I still couldn’t publish large issues too often, or we would run into the over-full binders problem I mentioned above. That makes me think that perhaps dropping to three projects per issue from time to time is the best solution. It also occurred to me that we could run some smaller, simpler projects (which I want to do anyway; again, trying to strike a balance) which will free up more space for feature articles. That’s what we’ve done in this issue, running a clever little four-page project which allows us to have five features plus all our usual columns. It’s a good solution, but we can’t always come up with shorter projects that are worth publishing and building (and what seems like a small project initially can often balloon into a major one!). One of the biggest problems with these simple projects is that often when someone has an idea, we have published something very similar before, and I don’t want to keep reploughing the same ground. If you have strong feelings one way or another about what I have written here, you are welcome to provide some feedback (eg, by sending an e-mail to silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au). That will help guide my decision-making when it comes to figuring out which articles to run in future issues, based on what our readers want. Printing and Distribution: Nicholas Vinen 24-26 Lilian Fowler Pl, Marrickville 2204 2 Silicon Chip Australia’s electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au