When I first became interested in electronics back in the mid/late 1970s, there were half a dozen or so monthly hobby electronics magazines on sale at newsagents. They ranged from accommodating complete beginners to some quite advanced circuit designs.
I used to buy a selection after thumbing through their content and even subscribed to my favourite for over 10 years – one of my circuit designs was published within the reader’s circuits section. I used to look over each of the published circuits to gain a basic understanding of how they worked and even built a few of the projects.
Until recently, the only hobby magazine available within a well-known UK high street newsagents was Elektor – but that is no longer stocked by the outlet. So now there are no hobby electronics magazines available to the general public at newsagents in the UK.
And this despite a proliferation of magazines covering some very obscure topics.
For the most part, I suspect the reason for no longer stocking the magazine is the low demand. A magazine covering say farm tractors might interest a few people, but for most people in the UK, an electronics magazine might as well be written in a foreign language – having virtually zero readership.
I’d be interested to know what the situation re the availability of hobby electronics magazines in other countries around the world is – and whether the situation is as dire as that in the UK.
I used to buy a selection after thumbing through their content and even subscribed to my favourite for over 10 years – one of my circuit designs was published within the reader’s circuits section. I used to look over each of the published circuits to gain a basic understanding of how they worked and even built a few of the projects.
Until recently, the only hobby magazine available within a well-known UK high street newsagents was Elektor – but that is no longer stocked by the outlet. So now there are no hobby electronics magazines available to the general public at newsagents in the UK.
And this despite a proliferation of magazines covering some very obscure topics.
For the most part, I suspect the reason for no longer stocking the magazine is the low demand. A magazine covering say farm tractors might interest a few people, but for most people in the UK, an electronics magazine might as well be written in a foreign language – having virtually zero readership.
I’d be interested to know what the situation re the availability of hobby electronics magazines in other countries around the world is – and whether the situation is as dire as that in the UK.