Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!hocda!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) Newsgroups: net.audio,net.music,net.music.classical Subject: Re: Audio/Music Magazines Message-ID: <3046@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Wed, 13-Jun-84 13:29:53 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.3046 Posted: Wed Jun 13 13:29:53 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 14-Jun-84 01:44:58 EDT References: <275@whuxj.UUCP> Organization: Ballistics Research Lab Lines: 24 Another defect of the new-style HIGH FIDELITY is the games they are playing with reader-service "bingo" cards. They dropped the cards when they went to the new format, and since then have brought them back every now and then, irregularily. (It might be that they are "test-marketing" different areas of the nationwide mailing or newsstand distribution, but I doubt that, as they would have to have some issues printed with the "Circle No. 55" legends on the ads and some without; it's not just a matter of binding in the cards or not, which would be simple.) Anyway, I have always felt that one of the prime purposes of these "quasi-technical" hobby magazines is to serve as a conduit of info between the advertising manufacurers/dealers and the readership, and having Business-Reply-Mail reader-service was the best way to fulfill that function, in addition to the reviews and product-survey articles. Dropping the "bingo" cards leaves a gap in what the magazines offer to the readers in return for their subscription or newsstand money, and the information conduit is either broken or constricted. If you subscribe to or buy High Fidelity, and are writing to them anyway, complain about the missing reader-service cards. A few letters will probably make a big difference. Will