'Popular Photography' magazine and PopPhoto.com to close after nearly 80 years

[biker]

The whole publishing industry is dead, or at least totally and completely changed. 

True.
Also digital photography seems to be in a depression and 2016 digital camera sales were at about 2002 level (as probably most people here have already noticed).

I saw a few adverts from people selling the equipment (a DSLR and a few lenses) with the explanation they finished with photography.
A bit understandable. Those who just want to 'take pictures' have their smartphone in their pocket. The picture quality is in most cases "acceptable" and they don't need to carry a bulky camera.
All known places have already been photographed zillion times. So why bother? Only if you want to have a selfie from that place. Again a perfect use of their smartphone.

Okay. I don't use a smartphone. While I'm not a great photographer (I'm not even sure if a half-decent one) I love the creative process. I like to play with the picture (during photographing and during the post-process) to achieve what I want to see.

Those who want to photograph (not just take pictures) however their number has decreased now form "magazines" on various sites like this, inspiring the others. That's how it has changed.

[Rob C]

"You demanded cheap, and that's what you got. Except it wasn't just the purchase you made, it ended up being the way the whole world looked at what you do."

As he says, and it's the same for that local camera shop that used to solve all our equipment problems for us.

The other side of the Internet, then.

[kers]

...The other side of the Internet, then....

For some things it is needed to have it in your hands and test it before you buy;
 like camera's and lenses.

I have a shop nearby that has a very good internetstore connected to it.
I try and buy at this store.

These stores will stay, they have adapted to the new reality.
Small stores often have grouped together to create one internet store.

What i do not want to do is    try it in this store   and then  buy it somewhere else online (cheaper);


I still buy my bread at the local bakery and not in the supermarket for
1 The bread is better and special.
2 i want to support these bakeries inside our community. Hand made bread by specialists.
Pure luxury.

[Rob C]

For some things it is needed to have it in your hands and test it before you buy;
 like camera's and lenses.

I have a shop nearby that has a very good internetstore connected to it.
I try and buy at this store.

These stores will stay, they have adapted to the new reality.
Small stores often have grouped together to create one internet store.

What i do not want to do is    try it in this store   and then  buy it somewhere else online (cheaper);


I still buy my bread at the local bakery and not in the supermarket for
1 The bread is better and special.
2 i want to support these bakeries inside our community. Hand made bread by specialists.
Pure luxury.

Yes, I think it's right to support local services where you can and where they exist. As you point out, camera equipment requires hands-on experience to know whether or not it will suit. I went through a period of really fancying the Mamiya 67 rangefinder model, and had the brochures etc. and on paper it was perfect. On a trip back to Glasgow I went to the pro dealership and looked at one, and instantly realised that the viewfinder was, for me, impossible to accept. Now, ordering that online and then discovering that it was a mistake, would be very awkward indeed, and also very unfair on the dealership which would end up with a returned camera - if they'd accept it in the first place, which seems normal in the US but not anywhere else of which I have experience. Faulty, yes; change of mind, no!

Bread: we used to buy it daily from the local bakery; that bakery is now open only during the tourist season. They've done better than my previous, and excellent, camera store!

Rob

[Telecaster]

Can't quite square with that one, Dave.

Everything impinges upon everything else, and so how can anyone just shrug and say it doesn't matter what we (I) do? Of course it matters, even down to the mess we are making of our environment through packaging and associated garbage.

Well, sure, the consequences of our behavior—however we judge them—matter to us. But only to us and only for as long as we're around. I'd rather live in a society steered by kindness, honesty & rationality than vindictiveness, bullshit & willful delusion. But humans are what we are: messed up. Sometimes we do better at both living together and having regard for other creatures, sometimes not so well. The same imaginative fuel that stokes our ingenuity/creativity also likely stokes our psychoses. The two may be inseparable. So best IMO to abandon notions of human purity* & perfectability and try to just live better with our messy imperfection. This might not only improve the quality of life overall but also lengthen our lifespan as a species. It's something to continue striving for anyway.

But in deep time…~a billion years from now our Sun will have cranked up its intensity to the point where our planet's oceans will boil off and its surface will get scorched clean. Our planet-bound descendents, should any recognizable to us as still "us" exist (unlikely IMO…biological mutability all but guarantees this even if we don't self-destruct beforehand), will be in a pickle. As will all other forms of Earth life other than, maybe, microbes living deep underground. But the planet itself won't be ruined. It'll just enter another stage of its existence.

-Dave-

*There's another term for "pure" which ideologues of all stripes would do well to become better acquainted with. That term is: inbred.

[luxborealis]

There seems to be a divergence in publishing. PopPhoto was good at what it did, catering mostly to newbies, but newbies now can find tonnes of stuff online, so the demise of PopPhoto is not unexpected.

The other type of publishing is the "higher-end", artistic and in-depth styles of publications. I'm thinking of Brooks Jenson's LensWorks and the like. The mag is still available in paper format. I read them on my iPad, though, but still feel the content is worth the price of admission. Then there are sites like this that generally cater to the more astute photographer. It's still worth paying for as well.

The bottom line, though, is content; quality content can command fees, but more and more it's becoming a niche market.