Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By MattL
#1765510
I have the Times on digital app and I think it is a brilliantly done app - the way you can scan contents and then click through to scrollable text and pictures for each element/story works really well, I'd heartily recommend it as an exemplar way to do it. I don't think those digital 'magazines' that are just like PDFs wrapped up in an app really work that well, you end up constantly zooming in and out and there is no flow.

All the best to the Flyer team and wishing you every success with it
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By G-BLEW
Boss Man  Boss Man
#1765554
MattL wrote:I have the Times on digital app and I think it is a brilliantly done app - the way you can scan contents and then click through to scrollable text and pictures for each element/story works really well, I'd heartily recommend it as an exemplar way to do it. I don't think those digital 'magazines' that are just like PDFs wrapped up in an app really work that well, you end up constantly zooming in and out and there is no flow.

All the best to the Flyer team and wishing you every success with it


I think you are right. The PDF apps are an adaptation of something that has been designed for print. The appeal for smaller publishers is that they do not have to design and produce the magazine/newspaper twice.

Although we will initially start with a good PDF/magazine app, we will be swiftly evolving the experience .

Ian
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By TheFarmer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1765560
Well, I fully support it.

Flyer is part of my life-long flying furniture, and if they need to polish it up a bit and switch to digital, I’m prepared to shift the furniture around a bit to make it fit.

Some of you old buggers who insist on paper magazines need to dig out your abacus and calculate how much time you’ll save, and how much carbon Ian will save doing this.

Right behind you Ian and team.

I’ve emailed accordingly.
By Rjk983
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1765562
I understand your reasons and I will continue with my subscription even though I’m unlikely to use the free landings this year as I’m an NPPL holder and only have access to an EASA/CAA CofA aircraft.

I have tried digital magazines in the past and I find the reader software to be unusable in most instances. I also have an E-subscription to Kitplanes, this is simply a pdf copy of the magazine that you download and read on the pdf software of your choice. This I find excellent, if for no other reason than I can put a few copies on my memory stick and then read them on my laptop at work and the boss is none the wiser! No corporate firewall issues with a pdf file :thumright:
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By G-BLEW
Boss Man  Boss Man
#1765563
TheFarmer wrote:Well, I fully support it.

Flyer is part of my life-long flying furniture, and if they need to polish it up a bit and switch to digital, I’m prepared to shift the furniture around a bit to make it fit.

Some of you old buggers who insist on paper magazines need to dig out your abacus and calculate how much time you’ll save, and how much carbon Ian will save doing this.

Right behind you Ian and team.

I’ve emailed accordingly.


Thanks Farm :-)

Ian
By Uptimist
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1765601
Sensible and welcome move! Ludicrous to be clogging up the environment and doormats with paper in this day and age when good electronic means are available.

I actually found the paper mag print a bit hard to read in low light, so happy to view on screen, although as with others, simply porting current format to magazine e-reader is less than ideal and I know not your long run objective. (I tried and quickly gave up reading the existing copy on PocketMags).

It will be useful to have interactive copy, where readers can leave comments and authors follow up. Also useful to be able to forward an article link to a friend. Advertisers can embed links to websites or email-me links. Authors could embed/share downloadable SkyDemon routes, links to FR24 tracks, safety notices, regulatory publications, past articles, book reference on kindle etc.etc. We can have searchable back issues.

The list goes on and I’m sure you’re well ahead of me, but needless to say a good interactive digital version will be an altogether richer experience than today’s.
By sky_high30
#1765624
Great move. I can't remember the last time I bought a magazine (notwithstanding grabbing a free copy of something before boarding a flight).

Just wish that some other magazines (LAA, Sailplane and Gliding) would take note...!
By scottish_ppl
#1765629
I buy my copies at the local newsagent, or did before cv.

I'm not a fan of on-screen reading, whether for books or magazines I prefer the physical item. I had a pocketmags subscription to the magazine for a year, but don't think I even logged in to read more than two or three issues, and instead went back to picking up the paper copy at the shop even while that subscription was current.

I just went back just now to look at an issue on pocketmags to remind myself what the experience was like, it's actually not too bad on a big screen imac, very readable but I have to leave my comfy chair and go to the computer corner, rather than chill out and read it in comfort. On the small screen of the ipad or macbook that I could use in my comfortable reading position, it's a non-starter compared to the paper magazine.

I can see why you might have to go this route at this time, but long term I think I am likely to end up reading less Flyer, and not likely to subscribe to be part of an online club. Seems odd making the magazine content free, when attempting to move online. Maybe the online advertising revenue will make up for the loss of revenue like mine, and maybe the trend is against paper media nowadays, but it does seem a shame we are losing the printed magazine. I do hope the new direction is successful though, and will see if I can become a convert to the new mode in time.
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1765633
I look forward to hearing about when non-subscribers can join the club!

I currently subscribe to the "other one" but I normally fly regularly (by CAT :( ) for work so normally pickup Flyer when going through the airport - obviously I'm not at the moment. I've updated my email subscription to also receive the free mag.

Format will be interesting - I do find A4 size PDFs / apps that view paper magazines, that were originally produced A4ish size, don't work great on a phone, tablet or kindle. Lots of zooming and scrolling, and even more so when its a two page spread.
A5 size is normally OK on devices with little scrolling.

As an aside, we produce our church magazine as an A5 sized booklet, which we also PDF and put online (lets be clear, the production standards are in a much lower league than flyer!). Acrobat reader allows you to print at home in booklet form, which a couple of people use rather than getting our printed version, and if the pages are designed for A5 then it works (we do play about with the central gutter on the original before we print in bulk).
Some PDF readers allows you to view two pages at a time, but that doesn't really work as you want page 1 (the cover) to be on the right, page 2 on the left, while those readers tend to start with page 1 on the left, so two page spreads don't work.

Best of luck in this change!
By Nick
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1765775
TheFarmer wrote:Well, I fully support it.


Right behind you Ian and team.

I’ve emailed accordingly.


Well Farmer! :wink:

First Support for Skydemon and now digital Flyer mag.

How long before you start to fly something with a nose wheel and a balistic parachute? :lol: :lol:

Only joking.

Nick.
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By TheFarmer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1765777
No, I couldn’t possibly ever do either of those. I’d rather become vegan I think.

:wink:
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By Pilot H
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1766075
As a lifelong reader of aviation magazines, and a futurist by nature, I applaud the move. :thumright: :thumright:

Print media has become gradually more irrelevant in the world, and this is evidenced by the pile of unopened magazines and periodicals that are in my office, as frankly it has become tiresome to open a magazine or periodical and read information about that has already been made obsolete by today's update from from websites and digital media.

As a subscriber, it is great not to have to cut out a landing voucher, that way it will always be in my phone, not at home still in the mag next to my bed!
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