Fitting It Al
l into Print
There’s a vast amount of information online at Sqlmag
.com: 10 years’ worth of articles published in SQL Server
Magazine, hundreds of Web-exclusive articles and blog
posts by authors and editors, and a large collection of
posts on the Sqlmag.com forums. We know many SQL
Server Magazine readers appreciate the convenience of
a print publication, though, and sometimes readers ask
us why in certain articles, some elements, such as listings,
tables, or figures, are on the Web only and not in
the print article.
A recent email letter from reader Rick Dorris provides
a good example. “SQLMag has taken the practice of
publishing Web listings to the extreme. Try reading [Itzik]
Ben-Gan’s article, ‘Debunking the Myths of Temporary
Objects, Part 2’ without using a computer…. It’s not like
the magazine is busting at the seams and there’s no room
for printing code. I’m not against having some of the code
available via the Web, but in the case of Ben-Gan’s article, it wasn’t possible to understand the article at all without
access to the Web listings.”
We understand the concerns of readers like Rick who
want to see essential listings and other elements together in
the print article. Magazine staff face a never-ending challenge
of balancing the amount of content we can fit into
an issue with revenue to support that content. As SQL
Server Magazine editorial strategy director Karen Forster
said in her response to Rick, “SQL Server Magazine is an
independent publication supported by reader subscriptions
and advertising. The number of pages in any issue
is determined by how many ads we have in that issue. We
usually have a ratio of between 30 to 40 percent ads and
60 to 70 percent editorial pages per issue. Just to give you
some context, for most independent magazines, you’ll typically see a ratio of about 60 to 70 percent ads and 30
percent editorial.
“These business realities mean we editors struggle
every month to provide an optimum mixture of articles
and listings while also providing a variety of content to
serve DBAs, DBDs, and BI readers. As a result, we are
often forced to put listings and other content on the Web.
I can only apologize for the inconvenience caused by such
tradeoffs between the number of articles we can print
and the amount of space we can dedicate to listings. It’s a
struggle every month to figure out how to squeeze in all
the content, but your reminders are great motivation to
keep looking for ways to include as much of the code as
we can.”
As you might have noticed, we launched a redesign
of SQL Mag in October. One of our main goals for the
redesign was so we could include more of an article’s
essential elements—such as the many code examples and
tables in Itzik’s articles—in print. Let us know what you
think of the redesign, and keep that feedback coming to
SQL Server Magazine editors, so we know how we can
make your jobs easier.
Women Fitting in IT
There’s no question that women have a presence in IT, but
are women still struggling with establishing themselves
in a predominantly male career area? At the Women
in Technology panel discussion at PASS in September
2007, none of the panelists felt they had needed to prove
themselves as a woman in their jobs. (See the Get Active
Online at Sqlmag.com! box for a link to Megan Bearly’s
report on the panel discussion.) And reader comments
on Production Editor Christan Humphries’ blog post on
women in the Windows IT world (see “Can You Hear Me
Roar Now?” InstantDoc ID 97461) show that the topic
of “women in IT” has plenty of life, but not necessarily
that women in IT face roadblocks to success. That discussion
reminded me of another editor’s post on a similar
topic almost three years ago, which also got plenty of
reaction (see “Gender Differences in Math and Science?”
InstantDoc ID 45401). Take a look at the three blog posts,
then tell us what you think about women in IT.
End of Article
