Why weeklies are no longer hot off the press

The news that Computer Weekly and Microscope will cease to be published in print at the end of April is certainly sad news for those of us here at MCC International who have been so familiar with them week in week out. After all, which PR professional during the course of their career hasn’t submitted a letter to the editor, laughed at Dilbert, or pitched their client for a Five Minute Interview (I have certainly done all of these many times over). I also remember the pride of seeing my first ever photo story on the front page of Computer Weekly many years ago for a software asset management company!

However, the fact that most of us will have found out about this story from Twitter and other Internet resources is testament to the fact that weekly publications are struggling to find a niche in the publishing market. So, whilst monthlies can deliver the more in-depth stories, features and analysis, the weeklies and looking at recent newspaper circulations, some of the dailies, haven’t been able to meet our thirst for consuming news as and when it happens.

Of course, I still want to see my client‘s stories printed on paper (maybe its ego, or maybe its age), but what matters far more is that the right people are reading them, wherever they may be published. Finally, I would like to add that with the quality of the journalists who are working on Computer Weekly and Microscope today I am reassured that they will continue to be the people that influence and set the news agenda that I will be following tomorrow and I look forward to helping them to do so.