Message-ID: <8668@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 26-Feb-85 13:17:31 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.8668
Posted: Tue Feb 26 13:17:31 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Mar-85 09:16:34 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 10

According to the editor of Car and Driver - a rare beast among Z-D magazines:
they make a profit - what is really going on here is that Ziff-Davis itself
is going under.  They have sold a number of magazines, C/D included, to CBS,
and are in the process of selling/closing nearly everything else.  So if you
want a refund from a defunct magazine, I suggest you move quickly.

More info on this is included in editor David E. Davis's Driver's Seat
column, February 1985 issue of Car and Driver.

Chaz Fisher (chazf@brl-tbd.arpa)

Message-ID: <148@tektools.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 3-Mar-85 21:06:51 EST
Article-I.D.: tektools.148
Posted: Sun Mar  3 21:06:51 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Mar-85 03:53:08 EST
References: <8668@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 7

> So if you want a refund from a defunct magazine, I suggest you move quickly.

They are not totally defunct. I just got a renewal request for my subscription
which expires June '85. At least they still seem to be willing to take checks.

Joel Swank

Article-I.D.: bgsuvax.289
Posted: Mon Mar 18 09:32:54 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Mar-85 06:08:50 EST
References: <8668@brl-tgr.ARPA>, <148@tektools.UUCP>
Organization: Bowling Green State University, OH
Lines: 10

another person posted that he received a request from Ziff-Davis for
a renewal for a subscription.  

DITTO!  i have received several requests to renew Creative Computing.

if they are in such bad shape, how can they in good conscience send these
out if we are all to lose our money soon?

                                 Phil Ritzenthaler
                                 cbosgd!osu-eddie!bgsuvax!ritzenth

Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1133
Posted: Tue Mar 19 12:06:44 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Mar-85 03:35:20 EST
References: <8668@brl-tgr.ARPA> <148@tektools.UUCP> <289@bgsuvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: rsellens@watdcsu.UUCP (Rick Sellens - Mech. Eng.)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 24
Summary: 

In article <289@bgsuvax.UUCP> ritzenth@bgsuvax.UUCP (Phil Ritzenthaler) writes:
>another person posted that he received a request from Ziff-Davis for
>a renewal for a subscription.  
>
>DITTO!  i have received several requests to renew Creative Computing.
>
>if they are in such bad shape, how can they in good conscience send these
>out if we are all to lose our money soon?

I do not know anything about the financial health of Z.D., but the
presumption of "good conscience" on the part of a company you think is
shakey could leave you unhappy. Any company that is in difficulties
*must* maintain its cash flow. Saying to one's customers "Please don't
give us any money right now, because we may not be able to deliver" is
a very effective way of commiting corporate suicide. If they are still
taking money it means that they haven't closed their doors *yet*.

It isn't very nice, but it may be the way it is.


Rick Sellens
UUCP:  watmath!watdcsu!rsellens
CSNET: rsellens%watdcsu@waterloo.csnet
ARPA:  rsellens%watdcsu%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa

Article-I.D.: watcgl.1508
Posted: Tue Mar 19 19:59:05 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Mar-85 04:14:39 EST
References: <8668@brl-tgr.ARPA> <148@tektools.UUCP> <289@bgsuvax.UUCP> <1133@watdcsu.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 8

I believe that Ziff-Davis recently sold off a bunch of its magazines
(including Car and Driver) for an exceedingly massive amount of cash.
The amount was published in Business Week a few months ago. This was followed
up by interviews with the chief executives of the company. The general tone
of the interviews was "what are you going to do with all this money?"
From these articles, it seems reasonable to infer that Ziff-Davis has more 
than adequate money to sustain those magazines which it wants to continue
operating!

Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.9356
Posted: Wed Mar 20 06:36:58 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 22-Mar-85 02:31:35 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 6

According to a recent issue of Infoworld, C&E was closed down so that
they could devote their resources to Creative Computing, which seems
to be going strong.  I have also recently received renewal requests,
by the way.

Andy

Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.9402
Posted: Thu Mar 21 09:43:22 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Mar-85 03:08:17 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 30

I can't keep silent any longer.  I'll preface my comments by saying
that I do freelance writing for PC Magazine, a Ziff-Davis publication.
Most of the following information comes not from Z-D but from the New
York Times via my slightly cloudy memory.  Z-D is a privately held
company considered by Wall Street to be one of the best managed
magazine publishers.  Z-D magazines were divided into three groups of
about ten to twenty magazines: computers, mass market and specialty
publications.  The mass market magazines are big name magazines such
as Brides and the specialty magazines were targeted at small market
segments such as aviation.  I'm not familiar with any of the specialty
magazines.  As best I can remember the remaining co-founder, either
Mr. Ziff or Mr.  Davis, is getting on in years and decided to break up
the empire.  Since many of the Z-D stable of magazines are the leaders
in their fields and most of them made a good profit Z-D had no trouble
selling them.  The mass market magazines were sold to CBS for about
$300 million and the specialty one to Murdock for about the same
price.  Z-D retained the computer magazines.

This letter is not written to defend Ziff-Davis for the cancelations
of the magazines so dear to some of your hearts.  That is probably
what Wall Street credits them for as "good management".  Rather I just
wanted to say that by no means is Ziff-Davis experiencing any sort of
financial problems.  I will convey your concerns to folks I know in
Z-D to let them know that people are not satisfied with the way these
things were handled.  I personally think that they still do publish
some good computer magazines, but don't feel like debating the issue.

						-Bill Catchings

-------

Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.9445
Posted: Fri Mar 22 14:33:39 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Mar-85 05:01:32 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 13


	Just wanted to say that I am in full agreement with Mr. Martin's
comments on Z-D.   My subscription ended with the last issue of Popular-
Electronics.   It was indeed a nice magazine before they turned it into
mass-market blurb that had more IBM-PC advertisements than worth-while
articles of interest on a variety of electronics.

	If Z-D is still alive and well, perhaps they might want to bring
back the original Popular-Electronics, but I guess this is like gluing
together a broken egg.....

SCarter
-------