“International Data Group (IDG) is shutting down Macworld Magazine, the long time Apple periodical according to tweets by staff and conversations I’ve had with personnel,” Seth Weintraub reports for 9to5Mac.
“The Macworld.com website will remain open although as a shell of its former self with a reduced staff according to Miller, who himself is leaving in a month,” Weintraub reports. “Ironically, the transition from print to digital hastened by Apple’s own iPad and other online tools made the publication one of the last remaining Apple publications in print.”
Weintraub reports, “There’s no word yet on the fate of the annual trade show of the same name that has also taken a hit since Apple stopped attending.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good luck and better times to all those affected.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Jim” for the heads up.]
Good thing I ignored the recent renewal they just sent me! Sheesh…
I believe that they still owe me some issues…
just renewed/paid mine 3 weeks ago. awesome
I just renewed!!!
I just subscribed to their online edition!
The end of an era. I remember when they swallowed MacUser. That was sad. Now this. I wonder if Mac|Life will soon follow. I hope not!
I see the Subscribe link is still on the website!
MacLife isn’t that smart. They could not keep the spammers out after forum moderators complained. So, rather than fix the website, MacLife shut down the forum.
I found MacUser better than MacWorld.
All in all, a bad thing for the book shelves industry as well.
(I still have some issues lying around that never found their way out of the plastic wrapper:))
Times have changed.
I miss Mac Addict. When they changed to Mac|Life it wasn’t quite the same; just a Macworld clone. Ironically it manages to outlast its competition.
The end of an era. Thanks Macworld.
Aw gee. I’m gonna miss getting my Apple information 3-4 months late (thanks to publishing schedules) instead of up to the moment. Some trees somewhere are breathing a sigh of relief.
Seriously sorry to see the end of a MacWorld mag era and people losing their jobs.
Doubly disturbing, if not more so, is that the website will be a shell. I go there for the latest updates and reviews as well as the Apple keynotes.
Yes I think they didn’t evolved with Apple. The web now is a more broad source of information. And mostly you can google anything when you need it makes MacWorld less relevant. So long MacWorld.
It was one slick magazine back in the day…used to really look forward to their latest issue in pre-internet days.
Ha..I didn’t know you were that old !
Since you act so juvenile !!
Remember when some of the issues would run more than 300 pages? It was a ginormous magazine at times. And with lots of good material, too.
yeah, double-truck 4/c ads from Electronic Arts…
it got to so many pages they had to go from saddle-stitch to perfect bound.
Sorry Sparkles, Didn’t intentionally mean to repeat you. We must have been on the ‘psychic friends network’ at the same time, hearing the apt cliche, ‘end of an era’.
I am very sad to read this. This was an institution. I remember my first copy.
I used to get MacWorld and MacUser. Both great. It is somewhat ironic that MacWorld collapses now, following the development and massive growth of iOS and the incredible renaissance of the Mac in the 2000s, after surviving the dark ages of the mid- to late-1990s. To stretch an analogy to the limit (or beyond), this situation reminds me of LoTR – Frodo saved the Shire, but not for himself.
That proves you live in a fantasy world. Who the hell else would call themselves King?
The Macalope is/was the absolute best!
That’s the only reason I’ve been going there. MacUser was awesome. MacWeek was more so.
MAC – A – LOPE!!!! What will happen to you, cloven hoofed one? Let loose in Yellowstone? Sent to a petting zoo? Move in with the Winotaur? NOOOOOO!!!
Too bad it isn’t The New York Times.
Someone should buy it and keep it up. Apple’s next chapter will be bigger than it’s first and MacWorld has a second chance …
remember when they used to insert CD’s of utilities and games you could install on your mac? Was kinda cool.
Sure do, couldn’t wait for the next subscription to arrive…
Seems like a lifetime away don’t it?
sure does, wait…it was!
“Word Search For Mac” and the like, was fun though.
Lol .. Apple the underdog now the hated for being the undisputed champion
true, but the main thing is after so many years, the good guys finally won.
You can’t keep a good man (or company down.
One of Mac Addict’s contained a virus. Pre-internet.
I’ll bet they’d welcome your offer.
24january 1984… Says it all…
I’ll miss the Macelope. I used to make a ton of buying decisions based on their reviews, but that was years ago. Was a great mag a long time ago, but long outlived it’s usefulness. Good luck to the staff….
Amen! Macalope’s column was part of my Saturday morning ritual. He (she? it?) posts to his own site, as well, but I wonder if he will be allowed to continue if the magazine folds. Anyone know who he really is? Many at Quora believe it’s John Moltz, who I heard of for the first time just now.
Moltz would be a really good guess… I’ve been reading his website and crazy apple rumors forever – he has a fantastic sense of humor. You can catch some of his longer form stuff at Loop mag. It looks like he’s staying with them freelance, so if Macalope continues we’ll know for sure 🙂
I still have the three first year’s worth of issues of MacWorld, MacUser, and a handful of other long-gone magazines. Several years ago I looked through them and chuckled at the dated ads and obsolete tech. Gonna have to take them out again…
I will never buy a web magazine or ebook, but I expect the days of “free” websites will come to to an end before long, as well.
I still get the print edition…will greatly miss them. Best of luck to their talented staff!
IT doofus-type iHater magazines aren’t doing much better either. Their readership mainly ended up with mad-cow like symptoms and frequent migraines caused by overexposure to analists and pundits.
All of 2014 it’s been evident that whoever has been editing the MacWorld website didn’t give a rat’s. TERRIBLE articles have been published there and IDG has never responded to folks complaining except to pull the crap articles from the front page. IOW: No surprise.
Now I get to play the game of getting back the money for my subscription. Always a joy. 😛
I disrepectably agree.
The site has been going downhill ever since they revamped it a few years ago.
I seldom finished reading articles anymore unless I wanted to sleep…
let it go…(the subscription money).
It isn’t much. But this isn’t a bankruptcy, so we’ll see what happens.
Since IDG isn’t going under… yet… I hope they offer something other than transferring my my subscription to something unless it’s MacWorld UK.
I think they run MacUser in the UK. I wonder what they’ll be doing with that one!
What–no love for MacAddict? I still have them all, & all but one of the discs
& at least we still have TidBits, one o’ the oldies
It makes me sad… but the truth is nothing last forever !!!
I had let my subscription run out after 14 years. They were cross breeding more and more with that piece of shit sister-rag PC World. Wonder what will happen to THAT abomination of journalism? Screw IDG.
Picked up the Australian edition at a newsstand recently for the first time in a long time (therein lay the problem) and it failed the “pinch test”. Had no idea it was this close to the end though.
I never could quite take to MacWorld. It always seem the more boring of the MacUser, MacWeek, MacWorld world. I did read every word of each nontheless. And Macworld was the most likely to shill for vendors. I haven’t looked at one in years. MacUser made things interesting with lots of humor. I still remember the April Fools article about using Lemon Pledge on the platters inside your hard drive to make them faster. Apparently there were people who tried it.
It seemed to have become a collection of ads with no real content.
I’m just surprised that the MacWorld Expo is still going. I thought that shriveled up and died once Apple quit attending.
But, yeah, MacWorld never really adjusted to no longer being the center of the Apple universe. It was that misplaced arrogance that cost them Apple’s attendance at their trade show.
——RM
Sad to see the print media go. Being old fashion, I still prefer printed media over online especially when my iPhone or IPad is low on battery power.
Here’s a tweet from Jason Snell, dated the 10th, about what is going to remain of MacWorld:
http://Macworld.com and Macworld digital mag continue. Print is ending. You’ll see my byline there at least one more time 😉
IOW: IDG is not discontinuing the digital version of MacWorld magazine (so far). That’s fine with me seeing as I have nearly two years of subscription.
Meanwhile, from Chris Breen on Twitter:
Clearing up confusion. I will remain with Macworld but I am beyond sad to lose so many amazing colleagues. Please hire them.
… Jason Snell also pointed out that a few other magazines at IDG suffered major layoffs. It’s not just MacWorld getting the chop chop.
Change or be changed.