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December 2009
December 2009
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PHYSICS TODAY in stitches
Thank you for PHYSICS TODAY, which consistently contains interesting and important material and performs a role unlike any other journal’s.
I noticed the binding of the print edition changed as of the August 2009 issue. I prefer the old binding, which had the volume and issue numbers visible along the spine. I refer to past issues frequently, especially when they are cited in the current issue, and the new binding will make finding old issues much less convenient. As nuisances go, this is a small one, but why change things for the worse? I can’t imagine I am the only reader who feels this way.
I hope you will return to a binding that shows the reference data on the spine.
I’m very grateful for the revised binding on the August 2009 issue of PHYSICS TODAY. For many years I have mangled each month’s issue by folding it, creasing it, pounding on it and more, in an effort to get the magazine to lie flat on a given page. No more! I can read margin to margin. When I’m on the bus I can fold it back and read only one page, and the binding survives. I can extract book reviews for future reference with a single tug.
Thank you for a change that makes the journal more readable. Now if you could work on the ink formulation so my fingers do not render dark figures uninterpretable in the summer.
The publisher replies: We appreciate the letter writers’ kind words about PHYSICS TODAY. Our staff strives to make each issue interesting and useful.
Current economic conditions, especially the decline in advertising revenue, are driving PHYSICS TODAY, and many other publications, to look at all expenses. The new binding might be a small nuisance to some and a godsend to others. More important, it saves more than $30 000 annually in production costs. In addition, the current saddle-stitch binding method is a bit more “green,” and that will influence any decision to return to the previous binding.
Inking is related to characteristics and interactions of paper and ink. It is something we look at periodically with our printer. This, too, is a tradeoff between cost, utility, and environmental concerns.