Acorn Publisher explores newsagent options

By Chris Williams. Published: 4th Aug 2003, 10:16:09 | Permalink | Printable

More RISC OS shelf space, maybe

Acorn Publisher front cover for July 2003

Acorn Publisher magazine have indicated that they are in the process of looking for magazine stockists and newsagents to stock their magazine.

"We are locating possible stockists and seeing if the exercise would be worthwhile", Acorn Publisher's editor John Cartmell told drobe.co.uk today. "If we do go ahead it would be limited and UK postage rates do make the exercise difficult. In the meantime we are happy to supply RISC OS dealers and to locate possible independent newsagents and other possible stockists."

Although the RISC OS platform has a number of subscription based publications, only one particular magazine can currently be found on selected newstands. Therefore, the presence of another RISC OS focused publication on stockists' shelves would certainly be welcomed.

The July 2003 issue of Acorn Publisher features a strong dose of tutorials and articles plus a review of STD's PS2MouseMini - Acorn Publisher reports STD have shifted over 2500 PS2MouseMini units. Acorn Publisher are also offering free sample copies of the magazine, just drop them a friendly email with your postal address.

Links

Acorn Publisher magazine

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Discussion

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Great news! I'm sure AP will be a better advert for RISC OS in the newsstands than "certain other" magazines. I wish John and AP all the best of success!

tamias on 4/8/03 10:53AM
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I don't think the title does them any favours, though. I have very little interest in DTP, so I avoided them at Wakefield. But I've seen magazines since and been very impressed with the content. They'd do well to change their name to something slightly less specific.

zeeb on 4/8/03 11:58AM
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Can Acorn User been found on newstands? I've not seen an issue in years, dispite looking. None of the large Cambridge news agents seem to stock it (although they stock dozens of bizzare fringe magazines), and all of the smaller ones I've looked in.

Anybody in Cambridge know of anywhere to browse a copy?

nunfetishist on 4/8/03 12:13PM
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zeeb, it's not "just DTP". Acorn Publisher covers all sorts of issues in the publishing area like amending and creating of vector and bitmap images, scanning, publishing in the internet (HTML, CSS), ...

So the "Publisher" part of the title isn't that bad but perhaps the "Acorn" might be worth consideration since it applies to all RISC OS systems.

Anyhow, when AP goes into newsstands I think it might be worthwhile to include a bit general RISC OS stuff so that potentially intersted users get an idea and then I think the "Acorn" in the title should be replaced so that users of non-Acorn RISC OS machines know that it is for them too.

HzN

hzn on 4/8/03 1:12PM
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Why don't they just supply WH Smith like Acorn User do (yes nunfetishist, you can find Acorn User in Smith's, but only about a week after release). That way Smith's will do the distribution for them. -- Smiler -

Alex Melhuish

Smiler on 4/8/03 1:41PM
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Hmm - The WH Smiths in Cambridge and Ely never seem to stock it when I look.

nunfetishist on 4/8/03 1:45PM
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WHSmiths and Borders in Leeds City Centre, Leeds Whiterose Shopping Centre, Sheffield's huge shopping centre-thingy, Manchester Trafford Centre, Manchester City Centre and Middlesbrough - not in any one of these locations have I managed to locate a copy of Acorn User and I check quite often in Leeds and Middlesbrough. -- Michael Stubbs, Leeds

arenaman on 4/8/03 6:48PM
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Both Nottingham WH Smiths used to stock Acorn User until a year or so ago, and then stopped...

moss on 4/8/03 8:39PM
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AP is a wonderful mag, and I would love to see it on the news stands. Go AP!!!

-- Danny Jones.

jonesd98 on 5/8/03 1:06AM
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Cambridge WHS used to, but seemed to stop, as did Nottingham, although Nottingham said they do stock it, but I never saw it.

Not having read it, is it really about design? If so, what about the name RISC Design?

mavhc on 5/8/03 10:11AM
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One of the Bristol WHSmiths does stock it. Or did about 2 months ago when I had a little look.

-- Kate E

katee on 5/8/03 11:45AM
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Most people, computer user included, have never heard of RISC OS and have no idea what it is. Many people have heard of Acorn, and it probably has negative connotations to a lot of them.

If AP changed its name to "RISC OS Publisher", this ignorance could work to its advantage. In the present masthead, "Acorn" is in much smaller type than "Publisher". If the name was changed, but with this balance being maintained, people seeing the magazine on the newsstand might form an initial impression that it is a general computer publishing magazine, take it down and browse through it.

A lot of the content of the magazine is such that a casual browser would see things that he would like to do, or would aspire to doing, on his PC and might buy the magazine for this reason. Having done so, he would find himself reading about RISC OS.

I suspect that, for the above reason, AP would stand a better chance of being purchased by a casual magazine rack browser than AU would, especially as there is not a lot available in the way of specialist DTP publications, and that newsagents would be more willing to stock it than AU.

I'm sure there must be magazine wholesalers who could help with distribution.

Martyn

Martyn Fox on 5/8/03 12:47PM
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I've not seen it in WHS in Scarborough - tut tut!!!

Timothy609 on 5/8/03 4:36PM
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WH Smith's New Zealand stores don't stock Acorn User either. It's almost impossible to get any Acorn mags over here.

timephoenix on 6/8/03 9:54AM
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Just download them off drobe.

mavhc on 6/8/03 7:41PM
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You used to be able to ask WHSmith if they could get hold of a copy for you, and they would. That was a few years ago (when i asked for AcornUser). Wonder if they would do that now. -- Ian Hawkins (g0tai)

piemmm on 11/8/03 12:33PM
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As an acorn publisher subscriber, I can say I like the mag. However if it were to change the name then ARMcomputing or ARMuser. Indeed ARM-user might make it onto the "top shelf" :-)

cheers bob

nijinsky on 12/8/03 2:31PM
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@nijinsky:

That would probably require an agreement with ARM Ltd (?) as it's their trademark.

Would be nice though, 'RISC Publisher' is another possibility, though not as nice.

Bent Bracke

Grek1 on 13/8/03 3:43PM
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