[Gllug] Good linux magazines?

[Tethys]

Mike Brodbelt writes:

>I have always detested the American practice - if I'm reading an article
>I like to read from start to end without having to go hunting for the
>second half. It's always seemed to me that the reason for it was to hook
>readers by the first half article, then make them wade over pages of
>adverts to reach the second half, which frequently shared its half page
>with an ad.

That's not the reason, although it may be a welcome side effect to the
publisher who can arguably increase advertising rates due to it.

There are two approaches to publishing. Either you fit copy to layout,
or you fit layout to copy. Most British publications go for copy to
layout. That is, they design the layout of the page, and then adjust
the copy so that it fits within the allocated space. US publications
generally fit layout to copy. That is, they take the copy, and find
a suitable layout that it fits in. Typically, they just continue the
article on some random page when it goes beyond the allotted space.
German newspapers tend to use a layout to copy system. But they use
a more intelligent layout choice so there is continuity to the article,
rather than just arbitrarily splitting the article in two.

Which is better is a matter for debate. If you fit copy to layout, you
need not only a means of editing the copy, but preserving the changes,
so that deleted sections can be reapplied later when the layout changes
to give the story more space. This happens more frequently than you
would think, at least in the newspaper industry. Copy to layout probably
imposes a larger editing overhead, but gives greater flexibility. Layout
to copy can give a faster time to press.

Interestingly, the market is moving backwards technologically, and some
UK papers are even using Word for creating copy, losing the abilities
they previously had to edit text in a flexible way. Come back ATEX, all
is forgiven!

The overall quality of the UK (and indeed, world) newspaper market is
deteriorating, though. When was the last time you saw a ligature in a
UK paper? That's because the Windows font rendering engine can't handle
them. Sigh...

Tet
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