PDF
Going Forward
Web and digital enhancement for Queue
James Maurer, ACM Queue
What an amazing group of readers you are. You now number well over 30,000, and we have been diligently observing your writing on the demographic wall. It’s clear that you care about ACM Queue and the role it plays in your work and professional lives. We appreciate your feedback and have taken steps to address some of your many fine suggestions.
Before I describe new directions, however, let me alleviate any concerns you may have that we’re going to retool our approach to Queue’s content—because we’re not. It’s clear from your thumbs-up feedback on Queue’s articles and columns that you have great confidence and interest in the magazine’s editorial content and that you consider them to be unique, relevant, and useful. So don’t worry, the magazine’s core editorial mission is not going to change.
You have pointed out ways in which Queue could offer its readership a more substantial value proposition—particularly by making better use of the Web and digital media. We have heard your request and have a response.
If you haven’t visited Queue’s Web site (http://www.acmqueue.com) in a while, you might be surprised to find a complete indexed library of all articles ever published in Queue. We’ve also added downloadable audio (Queuecasts), video, and other practical content including supplementary articles, blogs, columns, interviews, and whitepapers. Fuller use of the Web site will also permit us to publish extra articles we would not otherwise have had printed-page space for.
We’re also planning to enrich our digital version (which is now the choice of a rapidly growing percentage of subscribers) with the addition of supplementary materials and special enhancements such as direct links to related articles, blogs, and Web sites.
If you haven’t checked out the digital version, please take a look at http://acmqueue.com/special/ftpfiles/queue_vol5no2.pdf. You’ll note that the digital edition is a page-per-page match to the print edition you’ve been enjoying. We hear that readers like the digital Queue because:
- Instead of waiting for the print magazine to arrive by mail, they can now receive it via e-mail the very same day it is published. (Each time an issue is published, a digital subscriber receives an e-mail letting him or her know when and where the current issue is posted, what is in it, and a link to access it.)
- They are able to download the entire magazine as a versatile Adobe Acrobat PDF file (no proprietary technologies are necessary to get or read Queue), which means that they can archive all or part of it on their desktop or laptop to read or reference whenever and wherever it’s convenient.
- They can easily share the digitally formatted issue—either the whole issue or specific articles or advertisements—with friends or colleagues, without the hassle of tearing out pages and photocopying.
Along with Queue’s enhanced Web site and digital version, we’re changing our print frequency from 10 times per year to six times per year. Beginning with the May/June issue, the print edition of Queue will now be published every other month. Given the rising costs of printing and distributing a print publication, this is one way to free up the extra resources required to improve and bolster our Web site—and to give readers more of what they’re looking for where they are looking for it—namely, online.
But that doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait two months for new Queue content. With more emphasis on our Web site, we will increase the amount of content regularly available and refresh it at shorter intervals.
We hope you’ll like this new direction and that you’ll visit the Queue Web site often and consider the digital version of Queue as well. This is just the beginning of our work on creating a growing and tailored set of options for Queue subscribers. We hope you’ll continue to contact us with your suggestions and advice. In particular, please let us know what you think of these most recent changes, and, above all, please stay tuned.
JAMES MAURER is publisher of ACM Queue.
Originally published in Queue vol. 5, no. 3—
Comment on this article in the ACM Digital Library
© ACM, Inc. All Rights Reserved.