6 ms·

I wish Quanta was a print publication I could subscribe to. Definitely the types of articles I'd like to sit down and read not on a computer.

greggsy 4y ago
I feel like there’s a market for a publishing service that could partner with popular blogs and websites. They could either allow articles to be selected by the user or the partner site, which could then be auto-paginated and printed being being posted to the subscriber. Hell, sell a service where you will curate articles based on used interests. Add some relevant Twitter threads for letters to the editor. Partner sites could also benefit from some increased subscriber revenue, and ads could actually be relevant again (remember when Scientific American advertisements were kind of cool and industry related?). Call the prototype deadtreepress.io or something. (I recognise the environmental implications, but I think paper and postage can be sustainable in some regions. Maybe you could integrate offsets into the price?)
- comboy 4y ago
  I feel I would want that too even though I got used to reading on screens. Maybe it could be pdf, I think it may be about some finite amount of content to consume. I guess for me some every 3-12 months ebook with articles that are still relevant and will likely stay relevant for at least a few years would be awesome.
- dmix 4y ago
  This is a great idea. You could draw in a casual nerdy audience willing to pay a reasonable price for access to high quality OpenAI style explainer pages with access to the raw data and papers.
- swatcoder 4y ago
  It’s a fine idea, but ignores the importance of typesetting and design for print. I’m sure plenty of people would want something like this regardless, but the product would usually look much less polished than people expect to see in printed and bound materials and that would reflect on the authors/editors. Authors and editors who take pride in the presentation of their work might be a hard sell.
  - Rodeoclash 4y ago
    Slightly tongue in cheek, but perhaps you could use ML to automatically typeset it. I've seen some ML that would convert a design to HTML and I'd imagine this isn't too far removed from that.
  - 323 4y ago
    Sounds like a job for a design & typesetting DALL-E AI. BTW, Kindle is pretty successful, and pretty much all books use a standard design template, so the great importance of typesetting & design is questionable.
    - nitrogen 4y ago
      "Pretty successful" is a poor proxy for "satisfies condition X." Kindle is known to be bad for anything where the spatial layout matters.
  - greggsy 4y ago
    My other half is an editor and graphic designer and constantly points out bad design. Many CMS platforms do this out if the box to allow cross platform compatibility (at various degrees of success), but you could just define some core defaults to ensure compatibility.
- hammock 4y ago
  Such a service exists. Here are two examples: https://www.myscreenbreak.com/ https://www.myscreenbreak.com/ https://waldenpond.press/ https://waldenpond.press/
  - 0xdeadb00f 4y ago
    These look really cool! Might check them out
bumblebritches5 4y ago
[dead]
noduerme 4y ago
Agreed! Just for a fun read, you might enjoy this collection they put out a few years ago... https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/prime-number-conspiracy https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/prime-number-conspiracy
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
halfnormalform 4y ago
Did we all shift to a timeline where the computer printer wasn’t invented?
- tunesmith 4y ago
  The commenter was probably referring to something more involved than just printing out an html page.
jdnier 4y ago
Here Quanta's editor-in-chief explains his thoughts on a print version [2018]: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/78788-digital-or-print-that-publication-better-have-a-mission.html https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blo...
- marai2 4y ago
  Wow, thanks for posting this. I would never have come across this. It's good to get some background info to the editer-in-cheif's thinking on when and why we might get a print version of the magazine.
thom 4y ago
I recently started scaling back my reading online, and subscribing to a newspaper and a bunch of magazines. I went searching for Quanta in print and was disappointed to find nothing. Honestly it's improved my mood, focus and comprehension, and given me many more opportunities to start conversations and share with my family and friends, especially kids. I'm sure it's possible to schedule reading time on a device with a screen and go and sit on a park bench and relax, but I've never been able to do it without distractions. Plus I've really enjoyed getting into cryptic crosswords again, and having puzzle pullouts in the paper is a guilt-free activity I can pressgang the children into. That said, I've really enjoyed New Scientist. It's not as deep or esoteric as Quanta but still satisfying for a layman like me.
WithinReason 4y ago
This is what an e-reader and Pocket in Firefox is for! Transferring an article to your e-reader in a single click.
amelius 4y ago
Why not simply use a tablet?

greggsy 4y ago

I feel like there’s a market for a publishing service that could partner with popular blogs and websites. They could either allow articles to be selected by the user or the partner site, which could then be auto-paginated and printed being being posted to the subscriber. Hell, sell a service where you will curate articles based on used interests. Add some relevant Twitter threads for letters to the editor. Partner sites could also benefit from some increased subscriber revenue, and ads could actually be relevant again (remember when Scientific American advertisements were kind of cool and industry related?). Call the prototype deadtreepress.io or something. (I recognise the environmental implications, but I think paper and postage can be sustainable in some regions. Maybe you could integrate offsets into the price?)

comboy 4y ago
I feel I would want that too even though I got used to reading on screens. Maybe it could be pdf, I think it may be about some finite amount of content to consume. I guess for me some every 3-12 months ebook with articles that are still relevant and will likely stay relevant for at least a few years would be awesome.
dmix 4y ago
This is a great idea. You could draw in a casual nerdy audience willing to pay a reasonable price for access to high quality OpenAI style explainer pages with access to the raw data and papers.
swatcoder 4y ago
It’s a fine idea, but ignores the importance of typesetting and design for print. I’m sure plenty of people would want something like this regardless, but the product would usually look much less polished than people expect to see in printed and bound materials and that would reflect on the authors/editors. Authors and editors who take pride in the presentation of their work might be a hard sell.
- Rodeoclash 4y ago
  Slightly tongue in cheek, but perhaps you could use ML to automatically typeset it. I've seen some ML that would convert a design to HTML and I'd imagine this isn't too far removed from that.
- 323 4y ago
  Sounds like a job for a design & typesetting DALL-E AI. BTW, Kindle is pretty successful, and pretty much all books use a standard design template, so the great importance of typesetting & design is questionable.
  - nitrogen 4y ago
    "Pretty successful" is a poor proxy for "satisfies condition X." Kindle is known to be bad for anything where the spatial layout matters.
- greggsy 4y ago
  My other half is an editor and graphic designer and constantly points out bad design. Many CMS platforms do this out if the box to allow cross platform compatibility (at various degrees of success), but you could just define some core defaults to ensure compatibility.
hammock 4y ago
Such a service exists. Here are two examples: https://www.myscreenbreak.com/ https://www.myscreenbreak.com/ https://waldenpond.press/ https://waldenpond.press/
- 0xdeadb00f 4y ago
  These look really cool! Might check them out

bumblebritches5 4y ago

[dead]

noduerme 4y ago

Agreed! Just for a fun read, you might enjoy this collection they put out a few years ago... https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/prime-number-conspiracy https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/prime-number-conspiracy

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

halfnormalform 4y ago

Did we all shift to a timeline where the computer printer wasn’t invented?

tunesmith 4y ago
The commenter was probably referring to something more involved than just printing out an html page.

jdnier 4y ago

Here Quanta's editor-in-chief explains his thoughts on a print version [2018]: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/78788-digital-or-print-that-publication-better-have-a-mission.html https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blo...

marai2 4y ago
Wow, thanks for posting this. I would never have come across this. It's good to get some background info to the editer-in-cheif's thinking on when and why we might get a print version of the magazine.

thom 4y ago

I recently started scaling back my reading online, and subscribing to a newspaper and a bunch of magazines. I went searching for Quanta in print and was disappointed to find nothing. Honestly it's improved my mood, focus and comprehension, and given me many more opportunities to start conversations and share with my family and friends, especially kids. I'm sure it's possible to schedule reading time on a device with a screen and go and sit on a park bench and relax, but I've never been able to do it without distractions. Plus I've really enjoyed getting into cryptic crosswords again, and having puzzle pullouts in the paper is a guilt-free activity I can pressgang the children into. That said, I've really enjoyed New Scientist. It's not as deep or esoteric as Quanta but still satisfying for a layman like me.

WithinReason 4y ago

This is what an e-reader and Pocket in Firefox is for! Transferring an article to your e-reader in a single click.

amelius 4y ago

Why not simply use a tablet?