Imprints of Redundancy

I am (as a result of a generous Christmas gift from my daughters) a subscriber to Practical Wireless and had been pleased to see some of Don, g3xtt's "holiday snaps" from the DXpedition to the Austral Islands in the June 2014 number.

The whole DXpedition scene isn't really my cup of tea - but it is part of the rich tapestry of our hobby.

I also am a member of the RSGB - and so today I was surprised to see pretty much the same photo used on the front cover of the June number of RadCom as already had graced this month's PW...

There is enough overlap between the TX6G expedition members, the articles' authors and the editorial teams (g3xtt IS the PW editor!) to have spotted and avoided this gaffe.

It is hard enough for any monthly publication to retain sufficiently fresh content to justify its own existence. When the two most important print periodicals on the UK radio scene start treading on each others toes like this, something is seriously wrong.

These two publications can only coexist in my magazine rack if they are strongly differentiated - any more convergence of the sort demonstrated by the repetition and redundancy seen this month will mean they won't be coming through the m0xpd letterbox next year.

I'll go further - with the obvious extrapolation of the above.

These two publications will only coexist if they are strongly differentiated - any more convergence of the sort demonstrated by the repetition and redundancy seen this month will mean they will not survive as respected print publications for much longer.

...-.- de m0xpd