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Newsgroups: comp.org.ieee
Subject: Re: A way to stop getting Spectrum
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Expires: 
References: <1990Dec9.082717.868@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <414.UUL1.3#5131@mvac23.UUCP>
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Reply-To: rbirch@pase60.UUCP (Robert Birch)
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Organization: Unisys Network Computing Group (CT), San Jose, CA
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In article <414.UUL1.3#5131@mvac23.UUCP> thomas@mvac23.UUCP (Thomas Lapp) writes:
>> (2) you are saving trees and oil by not receiving
>>     a glossy magazine which comes in the mail encapsulated in a plastic bag
>
>About this point.  Why are the ACM and IEEE packaging their journals
>this way now?
>What is going on in the magazine industry?  Is it
>time for us readers to say "stop doing this"?

About a year or so ago, the New Yorker started using plastic wrappers.
Enough concerned readers complained to the editor that within, i think,
less than two months, they switched back to a brown paper wrapper.
The editor sent out a letter of appology stating that they had recently
switched publishers, and the plastic had been the new publishers method
of shipping.

What i wonder is, since "Transactions on Circuits and Systems" already
comes in brown paper, why are all of the other magazines i get wrapped
in plastic.
As far as glossy paper is concerned, it seems appropriate for
"Transactions..." which will be kept around for years as reference
material. But for something like "Spectrum" where i may keep one
or two issues each year with an article related to my field, i really
do wish it were recyclable. We would, however, lose the nice color
photos and diagrams. (Even the New Yorker is on glossy paper; they
still need revenue from glossy advertisments.)

When the New Yorker readers complained, the editor responded. He had
a good reason for doing so: he could lose subscribers.
There is no financial advantage for IEEE to listen to us; they already
have our dues. Perhaps if we said we were willing to pay the extra
cost of brown paper packaging, they would have no reason not to listen.

Just my $.02.
-rdb