8 ms·

Farewell, Dr. Dobb's

1029 points by andrewbinstock 12y ago

_pmf_ 12y ago
It's one of the few publications that has some embedded system content instead of exclusively web monkey shit.
- smoyer 12y ago
  Embedded Systems Design and Embedded Systems Programming were my favorites, closely followed by Dr. Dobbs and Radio Electronics.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
a_e_k 12y ago
Darn. It's safe to say that I wouldn't be where I am today without DDJ's influence while growing up. I'll always have fond memories of turning to Michael Abrash's column first thing on getting a new issue. DDJ will certainly be missed.
andrewbinstock 12y ago
I'm the editor of Dr. Dobb's. I'm happy to answer any questions.
- narrator 12y ago
  How about pivoting to a stack overflow model? You guys have a lot of smart people on staff, you could have them answer questions and form the core contributors and moderators of a question and answer site. You could then have a job site for backend revenue, etc.
  - brudgers 12y ago
    The big lesson of StackExchange 1.0 is that the StackOverflow model does not so much create communities, as give existing communities a migration path. Unfortunately, Dr. Dobbs's legacy is largely a community of readers, not necessarily a community enthusiastic about crowd-source Q and A.
- beached_whale 12y ago
  Will another dvd or download of the full content be made available? It's been quite some time since the last and it would make a nice parting gift to buy.
- michaelhoffman 12y ago
  No questions, just sad to see it go. So long and thanks for all the fish.
- sillysaurus3 12y ago
  I don't know if this is an appropriate question, but: Why would a well-known site be sunset by its owner? In one word, revenue. Four years ago, when I came to Dr. Dobb's, we had close to $3 million in revenue, almost all of it from advertising. Despite our excellent growth on the editorial side, our revenue declined such that today it's barely 30% of what it was when I started. A friend of mine's small business observed almost this same phenomenon. Can you elaborate why revenue has declined, even though page views have continued to grow? Is advertising fundamentally changing, and page views are no longer nearly as valuable as they once were? Or is it specifically because of Dr. Dobbs' context as a software dev news/blog site? In particular, click fraud seems to be stinging my friend's business, but I assume it's not something that simple for Dr. Dobbs. Also, apologies if this sounds stupid. I don't have a background in advertising or marketing, but I find the subject fascinating and have been trying to learn about it. EDIT: The next part addresses this: This is because in the last 18 months, there has been a marked shift in how vendors value website advertising. They've come to realize that website ads tend to be less effective than they once were. What I'm asking is, in what ways has the landscape changed? EDIT 2: Thank you for Dr. Dobbs. It's been wonderful over the years, and I'm sad to see it go.
  - bachmeier 12y ago
    I can guess as to a few reasons: - Many websites these days are designed to get you to "accidentally" click on ads if you're using a mobile device. I'm not at all surprised that advertisers are catching on to this. - Websites (CNN, I'm looking at you) that move around to trick you into clicking on ads. - Autoplay video ads that almost make ad blocking software mandatory.
  - airza 12y ago
    Adblock is pretty ubiquitous in developer circles?
    - sumedh 12y ago
      I am think that almost all people in tech would be using adblock.
- jgeorge 12y ago
  No questions here either, just condolences and thanks for everything.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- otoburb 12y ago
  Thank you for the incredible work and continuing the Dr. Dobb's tradition for as long as you have.
  - andrewbinstock 12y ago
    You're very welcome. Thank you
- soapdog 12y ago
  Just to say thanks! I am 34 and and live in Brazil. The magazine was really expensive here, more than USD 30 per issue but still I got all issues. It helped me make my career path and I still cherish them a lot. Thanks a lot for the hard work!
- mkingston 12y ago
  I've found Dr. Dobb's hugely useful over the years. I suspect mostly as a result of search queries; as I hadn't realised what a formidable team of contributors you had until this post. Sorry to see it go, and thank you! Edit: I guess there's a lesson to be learned here, to try to be conscious of the things I use (I wasn't, really) and do what I can to support them.
- OMGWTF 12y ago
  When will the site be switched off? I.e. when will links/bookmarks stop working?
  - andrewbinstock 12y ago
    UBM has guaranteed a minimum of 12 months. But I expect it will last much longer. Hosting static content is inexpensive.
- stefanmielke 12y ago
  Is there a date to shut the site down forever? Or you will continue to operate "forever" with no new stuff?
  - andrewbinstock 12y ago
    No, there is no date currently planned. Parent company has guaranteed all content for at least a year, but I expect it will be available a long time beyond that. As I mentioned below, static content is cheap to host.
- beagle3 12y ago
  Thanks for that. A few years ago, that would be 20 or so, a friend loaned me a CD with all the magazine text from inception until that time. Is there any chance for a final "all of ddj" DVD?
  - __d 12y ago
    I'd be interested in this too. Linux Journal puts out their annual DVDs; I tend to buy the latest and gift last year's onwards.
  - andrewbinstock 12y ago
    Good idea. I'll look into that!
  - 72deluxe 12y ago
    I would be extremely interested in this too. There's just so many fascinating articles.
  - divegeek 12y ago
    Oh, yeah. I'd pay good money for that. It'd be fascinating from a historical perspective, as well as interesting and useful for the content itself.
  - joe_bleau 12y ago
    I'd order one.
    - jefurii 12y ago
      Me too.
  - anw 12y ago
    Oh, how I wish back-issue collections also included the advertisements that ran in them. Just the same as old comic books were filled with brine shrimp and muscle building ads, I would look forward to seeing those old ads about compilers that were _only_ $199.99! and programs that "look the same on Windows, and on Macintosh!" Seeing these things helps gives a context to the times in which they were printed, and allows for an appreciation for just how far we've come.
- boo_radley 12y ago
  Dr. Dobb's was such an integral part of my education that I feel like I've failed you in some way. I hope that the staff consider transfer their archives to archive.org.
  - VLM 12y ago
    They're currently selling version 6 of their developers DVD for like $75, also containing TPJ and sysadmin and dr dobbs up to -09 or so. I paid for my copy. Historically they've been civil about upgrade policy from old versions. I would guess if that revenue stream dried up...
- lorddoig 12y ago
  Presumably UBM is willing to sell the brand? I can't say I'm terribly familiar with Dr Dobb's but it seems a terrible shame and quite inefficient that something in such high demand can't find a way to survive. Feels like there's a win-win situation hidden in the world somewhere that needs uncovered.
  - VonGuard 12y ago
    You could probably buy this brand for low 5 figures. 90% of magazines that have gone under in the past 15 years weren't even sold. The few that I've heard of that were went for super duper low numbers, like low 5 digits.
- a_e_k 12y ago
  Do you think there could ever be a revival of print programming magazines like DDJ? Blog posts on the web and whatnot can be nice and timely, but I really miss the older style of longer-form, curated, edited articles that I could physically hold in my hands and flip through each month.
  - andrewbinstock 12y ago
    I'd love to go back to a print magazine. The problem is that they're hugely expensive to produce, print, and mail. The economics of them are much worse than publishing online.
  - anthony_d 12y ago
    FWIW, I enjoy my monthly "Communications of the ACM". I'd recommend a membership if you don't mind spending the cash.
  - qznc 12y ago
    E.g. http://hackermonthly.com/ http://hackermonthly.com/ There is little editing going on there, though.
- pjmlp 12y ago
  Sad to hear about it. I bought it every month since the early 90's until it went digital. Alongside Computer Shopper UK edition and The C User's Journal (latter The C/C++ User's Journal), Dr Dobbs was my door to the computing world. In a country where BBS were too expensive for most families and the Internet was yet to come, I waited religiously for the next issue delivery.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- VonGuard 12y ago
  Andrew: Alex Handy, here. So sad to hear this. Dobbs was an institution, and a very respected one at that. Drop me a line, let me know what you're up to next.
- wilsonfiifi 12y ago
  Will the site's content be archived or published in some form or the other?
- logn 12y ago
  Did you ever consider hosting your own job ads site? This is how Slashdot is still alive and maybe why Stack Overflow was made. At $300 per ad, you'd need about 800 ads a month to reach $3 mil/year. Achievable?
  - alain94040 12y ago
    There may be one thing companies might be willing to pay for that is specific to Dr. Dobbs. If you read that advanced article on C++ a few days ago, and you are now reading this in-depth description of scaling Linux internals, I very much would have a job for you. What other site can say the same?
    - logn 12y ago
      Yes, this is actually one case where as a privacy conscious user, I would be ok with browsing data being used for job ad purposes. Also job ads are probably the only ones I click on. And if the ads are intra-site I don't think AdBlock would touch them (even if they do, their AdBlock detection script could say, "looking for a job? make an adblock exception for us", which is valuable data in itself). Besides, a link in the header to a job board might generate enough traffic alone. Dr. Dobb's Jobs has a nice ring. And a freelancer board could be Dr. Dobb's Odd Jobs :)
- whistlerbrk 12y ago
  Hi Andrew, I'm curious to know - have you explored other forms of revenue like sponsored content. For instance there is a great deal of paid software out there and a great number of companies create infrastructure for complex software out there like (e.g. Hadoop). Today companies more than ever are pouring their advertising budgets into marketing budgets to create content around their brands... this could perhaps let you stay on mission creating valuable content for the most difficult software while providing a revenue source. I'm throwing out there what I'm sure you have already considered, but I hate to see a good thing go!
- bane 12y ago
  I'm very sorry to see it go. A nice collection of Dr. Dobb's magazines is an incredible personal resource. Any chance of donating a digital collection of the magazine to archive.org for posterity?
- dtjones 12y ago
  It sounds like there was no vetting of alternative monetization strategies for the website. I say this because it looks like the site is still running direct-to-advertiser deals, when they could open their remnant inventory up to auction systems via an SSP and tie in yield optimization strategies with their sales team. If the site has high quality traffic and 10MM pv/month they shouldn't be closing the doors. Based on a 5 minute look at the website and some of the ads seems like the site is restricting its ad revenue to software industry vendors when they could open it up to the rest of the advertising world that wants to pay to serve an in-view ad to a real person with a software engineer's salary.
  - ternaryoperator 12y ago
    Do you think that no one at UBM, a company with more than 30 publications, thought of that?
    - blister 12y ago
      It seems to me like this article is a concession towards the fact that they haven't thought of anything. They are already profitable. That means that they have money to experiment with additional monetization strategies that would NOT involve simply closing.
    - dtjones 12y ago
      I don't think anyone has. I've never heard of UBM, but the article portrays it as a company with a vertically focused print and tradeshow revenue model that has a few web properties. The 1996 website monetization model has been disrupted within the last 5 years with ad exchanges that hold auctions in real-time, and most companies with roots in print don't have a clue whats happening in their industry - see new york times, time magazine, plenty more whose traditional ad sales revenues are plummeting IMO a web property would fail to adapt to the modern revenue model because 1) C level execs don't know what to change it to, 2) they don't understand the new model, or 3) they think that auction based CPMs will be too low so they haven't tested it. In the case of DrDobbs.com with solid traffic and a high quality, established b2b audience, not sure it makes sense to fold the property. Disclaimer: I used to work at an ad agency and I now work at a data company for ad exchanges. Edit: here is a 3rd party source on growth in the RTB channel, to which UBM has no exposure: www.emarketer.com/Article/US-Programmatic-Ad-Spend-Tops-10-Billion-This-Year-Double-by-2016/1011312
- pmelendez 12y ago
  I saw this coming after the printed version was closed down and as a former subscriber I am very saddened by this news. I believe the need for a high quality publication oriented to professional developers there still exists. Where do you think people would be going now that Dr. Dobbs won't be available?
  - andrewbinstock 12y ago
    As I say in the article, it's hard to know where to go. There is nowhere I know of that covers the same ground (long-form articles, lots of code, algorithms, and serious reviews).
    - pmelendez 12y ago
      Thanks for your response! You guys will be missed for sure. Maybe the group (editors and contributors) could start a spin off?
- SandersAK 12y ago
  hey Andrew, I wonder if you could make enough revenue via crowdfunded support? Recurring subscriptions and one time contributions can really add up. At Beacon, we helped Techdirt.com raise $70k to cover Net Neutrality full time. I think your community is incredibly passionate and probably would cover what you need. Email me (adrian@beaconreader.com if you're keen, we'd love to help (and give you a big discount on our cut). cheers Adrian
  - petercooper 12y ago
    Did you ever write up anything about that process? It sounds like an interesting story.
- WalterBright 12y ago
  Andrew, it's been an honor and a privilege to be able to write for Dr. Dobb's, the greatest of the programming magazines. Dr. Dobb's has been an enormously positive influence on the industry. I am very sad to see the end of the era. Thank you and Deirdre and the rest of the DDJ staff for your awesome work!
  - andrewbinstock 12y ago
    Thank you, Walter. It's been a pleasure having you blog for us. Good luck with the continued advancement of D.
    - TheCondor 12y ago
      Thank you to both of you and all the staff. In the wasteland of "computer" magazines, DDJ was a real gem, it stayed true, there was something interesting in every edition (truly impressive) and it really had a great f-ing run. It was the "good stuff" thanks
- rexreed 12y ago
  Under what company / trade name will you be operating your analyst business and what will your focus be? Will you be running a subscription-style analyst business or just writing white papers for hire?
  - andrewbinstock 12y ago
    I'll be working at pacificdataworks.com. My focus will be technology, with a special oritentation towards software development. The analysis will mostly be done privately for clients. For example, they'll say "we can't figure our why our JIRA competitor isn't getting any traction. Can you review our product, JIRA and these two lesser competitors and give us unbiased info on the pros and cons of each?" It's amazing how difficult it is to do that kind of analysis in-house. For example, it's very difficult for companies to look at a special feature they added at great cost and figure out why it's not getting traction or attention. Or they know but have no way to communicate the reality because of internal politics. So, having an outside voice say "this should be removed" or "this needs to have an API" or the like makes it much easier to have the conversation. And so on.
- jtwebman 12y ago
  Have you guys thought of maybe opening up to allow submissions instead of paying the writers? I know plenty of people including me that enjoy writing and would submit to have blog posts as content on your site as well.
- Fede_V 12y ago
  Hey, not really a question, but.. thanks for making sure that all previous content stays up. I can't claim to have been an avid reader, but I've read several excellent articles on your mag, and knowing that it will always be available is a very generous gesture.
- kfcm 12y ago
  Do you think UBM would be amenable to a "Final Cut" of the Dr. Dobb's Developer's Library to include everything from Dr. Dobb's, C/C++ UJ, Sys Admin, etc?
- richm44 12y ago
  I'd just like to say thank you. Dr Dobb's was superb.
- FrankenPC 12y ago
  I've been programming off and on for about 35 years. Dr. Dobb's has been a part of that life the entire time. Thank you. Best of luck to you.
- jarjoura 12y ago
  Sorry if I missed you mentioning already, but did you attempt a paywall option like New York Times?
- drig 12y ago
  Not a question, just saying thanks. Your articles in the 1990s on VGA's modeX were the basis for a long-time obsession of mine: writing VGA graphic drivers to support better ways to display fractals. My college senior thesis was based on it. Since then, Dr. Dobbs has been the shining example of highly technical material. Thank you for everything your magazine meant.
- anw 12y ago
  First of all, I'd like to offer my appreciation to the Dr. Dobb's staff, along with Andrew Binstock (I thoroughly enjoyed and found myself nodding my head at articles such as "Just Let Me Code"[1]). I still have some of the magazines from 1994 floating around. It's amazing how nostalgic they are now—but the pouring back over those magazines brings me back to my younger days where computers were more mysterious, and creating things was more magical. Dr Dobbs provided a great service. They offered informative articles on not only programming, but also on the user experience, design, IDEs, math, and the whole "programmer" gamut—and they did such a wide spread without losing quality. I do wish you could name an alternative to this, but I find myself coming up empty, as well. The same as you mentioned in regards to events, these types of information are now spread througout multiple sites: HN for general 'tech' news, MOOCs for programming, sometimes Reddit for actual helpful information. I look forward to seeing if people will try to fill this gap of an all-in-one hub, that also has quite knowledgeable authors. I do wonder, this article mentions Dr Dobbs staying constant; constant in delivering quality articles, constant in its design, and so forth. Would you say this is an issue of not adapting to current trends (or "with the times")? It seemed [to me] that the move from print to digital was a late move that could have been done in a better way. While the content is great, I've ironically found the online site not as engaging as having the print copies in hand. I do not know many people who subscribe to online only publications, and of the ones I do know, they usually will go through a service such as Amazon. Also, while I understand the anecdote about ad revenue and clicking, it does bring up a fair point. I do not know many tech saavy people who knowingly click on advertisements (if they're not blocked, to begin with). In fact, as a technician at an old job, we were told to warn the general public about what sites they visit, and to make sure they're not clicking on ads, as they might be "unscrupulous" [former manager's words]. Could this offer an opportunity for a company to come along and create and display advertisements that the majority of people will know are safe? While Googles ads have their name displayed, I know many people who feel "odd" seeing text ads, and feel they're trying to trick them. There must be a better way to make the user feel comfortable clicking, as well as letting them know the content and site they will go to are safe. Flash ads, and a mile long URL being pointed to are not going to do it. [1] http://www.drdobbs.com/tools/just-let-me-code/240168735 http://www.drdobbs.com/tools/just-let-me-code/240168735
- guiambros 12y ago
  What a sad, sad day. I grew up reading Dr. Dobb's, and learned a lot from it. Still remember some of the articles, more than 20 years later. I used to buy the paper magazine every month. There was only one newsstand that would sell it, in a city 25 miles away from where I lived. It was worth it every time. It'll be dearly missed.
- derekp7 12y ago
  Since Dr. Dobb's has some amount of brand recognition, would it be possible to capitalize on that? For example, maybe come out with a line of authoritative technical books that are Dr. Dobb's branded, that would end up having the same recognition as O'reilly's nutshell books? Then the website / magazine would end up functioning as a loss leader to promote the book series (or other ventures).
  - dagw 12y ago
    I wonder how much brand recognition Dr. Dobb's really has though. I certainly grew up with it, but how many 20 year old programmers even really know what Dr. Dobb's is, let alone have a strong positive association with the brand?
    - Sevrene 12y ago
      Well I for one had no idea who or what Dr. Dobb's was before this submission.
      - _nedR 12y ago
        Me neither. I am 25 and have never heard or come across this site through Google or any other way. Judging from the upvotes this article has, a lot of HN readers clearly know and care about this. I am curious as to what demographic, age-group, was drdobbs popular with. Was it something like Slashdot which was popular back in the day?
        kayamon 12y ago
        There was once a time, back in the mists of history, when we had to print our websites out and buy them from newsagents.
        dagw 12y ago
        In the 80's and early 90's Dr Dobbs was probably the eminent source of advanced programming knowledge, and a pretty huge influence on programmer culture in general. It was for example the place where the GNU manifesto was initially published, and many of the big name programmers of the day where regular contributors. It also published a number of fairly legendary article series where many of its readers got their first introduction to topics like operating system design or writing your own C compiler. So basically if you programmed in the 80's or 90's it was most likely a huge influence on you.
- easytiger 12y ago
  Did UBM attempt to sell DDJ before taking this step?
sv3nss0n 12y ago
R.I.P.
yitchelle 12y ago
Man, that is very sad to read, and that Dr.Dobbs was not able to transform itself. Good luck on your future ventures. Would love to read a post mortem on the time leading up to decision to shut down? I bet there will be plenty of lesson learned in there.
jonquark 12y ago
I've never read Dr. Dobbs regularly, but often when struggling with thorny issues I've come across helpful articles (in particular a series by Herb Sutter a few years back really helped). This is sad news - I should have supported it better when it existed - I'll miss it when it is gone!
stblack 12y ago
RIP indeed. However if you peruse the site now, observe that Dr Dobb's uses the annoying practice of segmenting articles into multiple pageviews. Excessively so. In a sense, and on balance, they deserve to go.
bdamm 12y ago
When I was still a boy, I would run down to the local pharmacy nearly weekly and eagerly check the magazine rack for new copies of Dr. Dobb's Journal. It was the main pipe through which I learned about the beautiful and intricate world of programming. I tossed all those magazines in a fit of purging when I was leaving home and heading to college. There may be a handful still in some storage box. Thanks, Dr. Dobb's.
tdicola 12y ago
Wow what a bummer--it will definitely be missed. I fondly remember reading great articles about graphics programming and C++ development back in the 90's.
fegu 12y ago
After the tinkering stage of software development, this magazine gave me articles about real algorithms. It filled the gap perfectly. Then I went on to university with a real head start.
- voltagex_ 12y ago
  Any idea where I could find those old issues? DD staff: I'll buy a torrent/download of your archives!
300bps 12y ago
Programming has changed substantially from when I first started. It used to be I'd have to wait for a ride to the local mall or book store from my parents, and then quickly wade through the programming books looking for one or two to purchase and thereby expand my knowledge. I remember when I bought The Waite Group's Turbo-C Bible that came out in 1988. I practically had the thing memorized. Today, my IDE does a tremendous job of guessing what I'm trying to do. Google does great work at telling me what's causing error messages that occur while I'm debugging. It can also give me example code of almost exactly what I'm trying to do in the exact language I'm trying to do it in (and probably a dozen other languages to boot). We seem to have gone from an era requiring pre-knowledge programming to an era allowing just-in-time-knowledge programming. Dr. Dobbs was a great part of the old era and I'm sad to see it go.
dalke 12y ago
I was a loving subscriber in the 1990s, and looked forward to each new edition. I even succeeded in having an article of mine in the 25 year anniversary edition (at http://www.drdobbs.com/cpp/making-c-extensions-more-pythonic/184404439 http://www.drdobbs.com/cpp/making-c-extensions-more-pythonic... ). It was at the same time first visited Sweden, where I now live, and I remember the thrill of seeing Dr. Dobb's, with my article, on the newsstand in this foreign land. Now I read blogs and HN links to some of the things I once got from Dr. Dobb's, that newsstand no longer exists, and neither is Dr. Dobb's. Life is change. Thanks, Dr. Dobb's!
hnriot 12y ago
Over the years I've enjoyed Dr Dobbs, but like most magazines they have become less and less relevant with google+stackoverflow+wikipedia. Over the years Dr Dobbs has added things to my repertoire of software knowledge, but I have to say Wikipedia has done more in recent years. I can't think of a single magazine I've seen in recent years. I still miss BYTE
nostrademons 12y ago
I remember when I was a 10-year-old kid and had just got my first computer, someone told me that if I really wanted to learn to program, I should get a subscription to Dr. Dobb's and read all the articles. So my dad dutifully got me a subscription and I read all the articles. A lot of it was over my head - there was a lot of C and assembly, a lot of optimized graphics or numerics algorithms - but still, it was one of the few sources of programming tips back then. There was no WWW, so you learned by buying reference books, magazines, playing around with the computer and seeing what happens, or getting the official reference documentation from the manufacturer. I think that what killed Dr. Dobbs is ultimately that the Internet sparked a huge availability of quality programming info online, which drove the price of this info through the floor. I've spent my morning Googling obscure corner-cases for Django form validation; there are dozens of pages freely available in the official docs, StackOverflow, GitHub, blogs, etc. It's hard to compete with free.
- discreteevent 12y ago
  I couldn't afford it every month but some of the ones I did get I read again and again. I remember Abrashes articles and thinking that I had so far to climb. I still do but the thing is I don't think I've ever come across content like it since. Another one I remember was an article by Douglas Hofstadter about metaphors. It wasn't just tech but a way of thinking about everything. And Swaine's flames for dessert!
- e12e 12y ago
  > I think that what killed Dr. Dobbs is ultimately that the Internet sparked a huge availability of quality programming info online, which drove the price of this info through the floor. I think it broke the market - but at the same time, very little online is of the same quality IMNHO. But some of it is just good enough that too many seem to stop paying for the really good stuff. Or paying for the privilege to get the ads that come with the really good stuff, more like. I'm actually a little shocked that something like DDJ would be happy on 3M revenue - feels like that should be easy to rack in on subscriptions for such a solid brand. I guess it isn't
mp99e99 12y ago
wow very sad. Very long running periodical.
tonetheman 12y ago
So sad. I remember many days pouring over articles and code in Dr Dobbs. Is the the DVD6 ( https://store.drdobbs.com/product/13/Dr.-Dobb%27s-Developer-Library-DVD-Release-6 https://store.drdobbs.com/product/13/Dr.-Dobb%27s-Developer-... ) the final/everything release of the older content? Just wondering if there will be a final one or is that it?
unwiredben 12y ago
In the 90's, Dr. Dobb's was a front-to-back read for me every month; it exposed me to so many programming ideas while I was still in high school and college, and it's sad to see it go. I think I kept my paper subscription going until that came to an end. It joins other publications like PC Techniques, Game Developer, and Byte that have a cherished place in my archives from a by-gone past.
CurtMonash 12y ago
I know of two main ways to monetize the writing of good tech articles -- conferences and consulting. Consulting happens to be much more enjoyable for me than conferences, so that's the option I chose. By way of contrast, I started DBMS2 in 2005, and at no point did I come close to thinking of a viable-seeming advertising-based business model.
billyhoffman 12y ago
What I found most interesting from this post was revenue. Here is a respected brand, with reasonable amounts of traffic, and multiple employees (Andrew mentioned himself and a sales team), that is doing < $1M in revenue. Even 4 years ago, they were doing ~$3M in revenue. This is the reality of most businesses. Yes, most people know they won't be a Facebook or a Instagram, but those insanely high numbers have skewed what "success" means in a lot of people's minds. 99.999% of businesses don't making tens of millions of dollars with a handful of 20-somethings. Success in business is surviving for a non-trivial amount of time http://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/jason-fried/the-challenge-in-business-is-staying-in-business.html http://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/jason-fried/the-challenge...
- dalke 12y ago
  That's silly. 38 years is longer than the 25 year threshold for "long haul" used by that essay. Success also means knowing when to stop, but even then "sunset" in this context doesn't mean to stop. Doug Kaye did an excellent closing-up-shop podcast for the end of IT Conversations describing why he chose to "sunset" the site, rather than work to keep the site going or shut it down completely. For that matter, I've closed my consulting business in the US when I moved away. That company was a success, even though it no longer survives.
  - billyhoffman 12y ago
    I think you misunderstood. I believe Dr Dobbs has been very successful. My point is that "success" for a company does not mean billions of dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars. Success can mean hundreds of thousands or even less. Success can mean a business that supports its employees for years and years and years. Dr Dobbs is a good example of a success without all that craziness. Unfortunately, HN and the tech scene as a whole focuses a ton of attention on these massive massive valuations and exits. This distorts what "success" means and places it on an near impossibly high pillar.
    - dalke 12y ago
      You are right; I misunderstood you. My ex-company should instead be seen as one of many examples of a successful, short-term (<10 year) companies that have since ceased to operate.
DrTung 12y ago
"Running Light Without Overbyte" still remember that title, when reading Dr.Dobb's while waiting for my turn fiddling with a new KIM-1 computer at my friend's house in 1976. A while back... I was a subscriber for many years. Also I remember Al Stevens writing his columns from his RV, the incident with the exploding tire. Did you know he came up with C# as a language name before Microsoft did? In those days before the internet DDJ was a welcome sight in the mailbox, every issue had something worth reading. See you around Dr.Dobb's!
- ScottBurson 12y ago
  Ah, the full title, as I recall, was "Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia: Running Light Without Overbyte".
  - mitosis 12y ago
    When I was an undergrad, I found very early issues of Dr. Dobb's in the medical library of my university, the name of the magazine having fooled the librarians. I remember spending many happy afternoons there reading about 6502 single-board computers and porting Tiny C to various machines.
foolinaround 12y ago
Would Dr. Dobb's have survived with Google contributor? ( rhetorical question). Looking at this thread, there would have been a whole bunch of folks who would have paid a few dollars to keep the mag up and running.
- dalke 12y ago
  Assuming there's need for $500K in membership revenue per year implies an awful lot of people chipping in a few dollars each. I don't think that will work out.
fpp 12y ago
Andrew, this is sad news. Dr. Dobb's was always a beacon in the computer and software publication landscape, one I grew up with and I've cherished till today. I still remember the moments of pride and the feeling of recognition when we've seen the first positive reviews of our work in Dr Dobb's many years ago - something that could only be achieved by the high standing and excellent editorial work of the magazine's team and efforts. While it might be understandable from a financial or commercial point of view that it's better to stop now than later, hopefully there will be an agreement found with one of the big data center providers (IBM, MS, Google, AWS)to keep the current site online and the archives open for the many who certainly will find inspiration and guidance in much of what had been written in Dr Dobb's during almost 40 years.
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  It's guaranteed to be up for a year at least, and probably much longer after that. If a major host or ibiblio wanted to guarantee its availability by hosting it permanently, I expect UBM (the parent company) would be amenable. Not right now, but perhaps at the one-year mark.
  - ChuckMcM 12y ago
    Presumably, if the content will no longer be changing, one push it out to a set of static pages and host it on a single instance in EC2, if it is clearing several hundred thousand a year in its current ad clicks that would pay a system administrator and general "minder"'s salary. I find it particularly poignant because I recently scanned in my copies of the early compendium volumes "running lite without overbyte" which I had bought at the West Coast Computer Faire so long ago. Unwilling to keep the large format books around, they live on as searchable PDFs on my iPad.
  - duggan 12y ago
    I think archive.org can almost certainly be relied on to ensure Dr. Dobb's remains available for a long time to come.
dpweb 12y ago
10m views, $1m rev. $100/cpm seems like they're overachieving when based purely on views. Nothing to be done there. It's a shame I've read Dr. Dobbs for I don't know how long. They should sell to someone, keep it alive.
- jobposter1234 12y ago
  Agreed, a $100 RPM is insane! That means a few years ago, they pushed a $300 RPM. For that kind of revenue, it sure seems like there's a viable business there... What am I missing?
  - andrewbinstock 12y ago
    Our RPM was always comparable to the rest of the industry. Revenue, especially three years ago, had multiple components other than pure ad placements. I can't get into too much of the details (for obvious reasons).
    - e12e 12y ago
      It's not obvious to me why you can't share lessons from a failed business model?
      - rgbrgb 12y ago
        Because he doesn't own that information and most likely signed legal documents forbidding him from revealing it.
  - mc808 12y ago
    Indeed, it appears that the root problem is not that web advertising is in decline (which it isn't), but that there aren't enough M's in that very respectable RPM estimate. Probably due to the site being a cluttered, unfocused mess with errors galore. (Not just dated but often literally broken. http://www.drdobbs.com/database/image-compression-via-compilation/184408024 http://www.drdobbs.com/database/image-compression-via-compil... ) I say that in the spirit of tough love, as Dr. Dobbs has always been a brand I trust to deliver quality content - when I can find it and it's legible.
vegabook 12y ago
Disrupted to death, by sites like Hacker News. Ironic then the outpouring of sympathy on this comments page. I loved Dr Dobbs but must spend at least 10x more time on HN or SO than there, ironically again, sites which are light or zero on advertising, and make their money obliquely (HN by pumping Y Combinator's VC business cred, SO through focused ads targeting developer recruitment). I guess the lesson is that interaction is where it's at. Static content is dead.
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  Not so sure. I personally love HN (I normally use a different moniker). In many ways, our recent success is in part due to HN and Proggit, which would drive readers to some of our articles. And, of course, it also gave us no shortage of feedback on the articles themselves ;-)
kabdib 12y ago
Fond memories of Dr. Dobbs, back when I was a kid in high school. I still have some issues from Vol 1, but not the first one because my local computer store hadn't started carrying it. I learned about FORTH from DDJ. And how to write a tiny BASIC interpreter. I wrote my own version of PILOT from hints given me by a DDJ article. How to write a simple assembler, how to do simple computer music. Oh, countless things. But I haven't read them in decades. DDJ was like the Mad Magazine of the 70s computer scene; random, but always entertaining, and sometimes educational. I won't miss them, but I have good memories of them.
rcarmo 12y ago
They can pry my stack of paper magazines from my cold, dead hands. Seriously now, I read Abrash's stuff on Dr Dobb's, and it was that magazine (above all others) that instilled in me the idea that coding was above and beyond the drudgery we waded through in college - that it was an art form that emerged from systematic thought process and a deep understanding of how bend technology to your will. I just hope they don't dilute the brand -- I can see someone having the bright idea of setting up a Programming 101 kind of site under that name a couple of years down the road, and really hope someone, somewhere, somewhen, will pick up the torch and make sure it stays associated with "true masters" (if there is such a thing).
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  Ugh! God no. You've just depressed me even more!
  - rcarmo 12y ago
    Apologies, I've definitely spent too long in big corporates :( (like many folk, I sometimes feel Scott Adams is drawing Dilbert while watching a live feed from our office)
curiously 12y ago
"This is because in the last 18 months, there has been a marked shift in how vendors value website advertising. They've come to realize that website ads tend to be less effective than they once were. Given that I've never bought a single item by clicking on an ad on a website, this conclusion seems correct in the small." This is an interesting trend. I for one, have stopped advertising on adwords completely, and now looking for ways to do content marketing or cold calling. I remember paying $2 for a click and thinking wow, not a single purchase after 100 clicks later just an obscure request for more information. We now also have adblock proliferating so most people don't even see the ads, I myself, a huge user of this extension, in particular the adblock plus which goes even further. Hopefully, the adwords have gotten cheaper per click, but I doubt it for some niches. What would happen when websites can't support themselves any longer through banner ads? I think if a business that relies on ad revenues and they have no plan B then they are in trouble. This would also mean bad news for large social media companies that rely solely on sale of ads. Google has already well diversified their operations but such is not the case for twitter or facebook (whiche people use to chat with each other now, as more people would choose to unfollow a typical social media whore).
AdventureJason 12y ago
Andrew, this is a remarkable (and well-deserved) outpouring of appreciation, love and fond memories of Dobb's. Thank you for the hard work and unabashed personality that you (and Deirdre, and Adrian, and so many others) have put into the publication, and given to the community, over the years.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
brooklynjam 12y ago
Confused. Web server cost pennies. Writers, heck lots would do it for the press. Publishing a magazine? There are tens of thousands of millennials just in SF alone that have net worth in the millions, and would love to be involved. Did you cast the net?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- unreal37 12y ago
  This comment really undervalues the craft of "writing good things", by a lot. These writers, editors and staff deserve a good wage. Not to work just for "the press".
  - danielweber 12y ago
    I think there was a lot of "write for free until you get a job for a company that will pay for your work, like Dr Dobbs."
- MicroBerto 12y ago
  I'm on the side of 'confused' as well. With that much traffic, it shouldn't be hard to run a business with great revenues or massive passive profits. But having visited this site for the first time, it looks like an old relic that's about 4 "generations" out of date. I am not enticed to click on anything. They also clearly missed the boat on social media (10.3 million visitors and you have 3500 Facebook likes and 6000 Twitter followers?!), who knows what else was missed. Does a site like this really need a large sales staff? As programmers, can't you program a better self-serve system and moderate it? Content doesn't need to be that expensive. There are ways. IMHO, this is the kind of site that a group of experienced web marketers could seriously turn around, keeping just a few excellent and aggressive young writers and editors on board. But nah, giving up is easier. shakes head
  - lotsofcows 12y ago
    Yeah, want weDr.Dobbs needs is more flashiness and less quality content! Hell, it works for everyone else.
andsmi2 12y ago
Somewhere late in high school my father started bringing home copies of Dr. Dobb's and I think around 11th grade -- (1993?) I was given my own subscription. I was lucky if I could understand 10% of what was written, but I would devour it -- and it provided a definite different perspective to me than the pop magazines I had been reading Compute! and many years before, Run! -- I have fond memories of the publication....I just have no longer had time to read it...sorry to see it go. Thanks for all the great content.
robert_tweed 12y ago
This makes me sad. First we lost Byte. Now we've lost Dr Dobbs. The last of the great hacker institutions is gone. Supplanted by the amorphous blob of sketchy information that is the Internet. Change is inevitable, but it isn't always good.
vram22 12y ago
DDJ and CUJ (C User's Journal) were two very good magazines that I used to read a lot. BYTE (more so in its earlier years) was another one on the same lines. Can't forget some of the regular contributors to BYTE, for example (and I don't mean just Jerry Pournelle, though his column was entertaining too). Heck, I used to read Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar column out of interest, even though I was not into electronics. So well done, the articles, the photos, etc. I still remember, in one of the first BYTE issues that I read, a very good introduction to Huffman coding by Jonathan Amsterdam. And so many other such good articles, in all three of those magazines ...
- jksmith 12y ago
  Back in the 80's DTACK Grounded and Micro Cornucopia, then later Computer Language and DrDobbs (remember those Cauzin soft strips?). Now I just depend on HN posters to TLDR stuff for me unless a subject really grabs me.
  - vram22 12y ago
    Had read about those strips but never tried them. Cool.
- rbanffy 12y ago
  I loved Creative Computing. I'm very happy the issues are in archive.org.
  - vram22 12y ago
    I think there are some BYTE issues in there too.
    - rbanffy 12y ago
      Yes. Incredibly fun to read.
sarciszewski 12y ago
<em> in a Title tag :(
buckbova 12y ago
> Given that I've never bought a single item by clicking on an ad on a website, this conclusion seems correct in the small. Neither have I. Who's clicking these links?!
barking 12y ago
I've hardly ever read anything at dr dobbs. Google searches rarely took me there. Just now when i visited I was locked out after viewing to pages.
Duckpaddle2 12y ago
Sad...
jimnutt 12y ago
I'll be sad to see Dr. Dobbs go, as it's been there almost my entire career. Unfortunately, though, magazines (and their web versions) have become less and less relevant through the year.
foobarge 12y ago
I've had the privilege to write an article for the Dr Dobb's journal (print edition) Hard to describe how proud I was of that (of course, I received a ton of help from awesome the coworkers I had at the time.)
Chirael 12y ago
Top notch articles year after year - nice work, and very sorry to see Dr. Dobb's go.
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  Thank you!
lucozade 12y ago
One edition of DDJ is the sole reason for my career and vocation. Thank you
- smoyer 12y ago
  Sounds like an interesting story ... care to elaborate?
protomyth 12y ago
Dr. Dobb's along with Byte, Creative Computing, and Antic were the information sources that got me into computing. I miss all the disappearing sources of my youth. I guess PragPub is an interesting descendant ( https://pragprog.com/magazines https://pragprog.com/magazines ). [edit: new web address for PragPub http://theprosegarden.com http://theprosegarden.com ]
kentbrew 12y ago
Oh, no. So sorry to see this happening. I remember when Dr. Dobb's was a tiny little pamphlet, printed on paper so thin that it only had one side.
kfcm 12y ago
Someone has to say it, so it might as well be me: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of professional developer voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened." I've read Dr. Dobb's for 30+ years, and it helped me move from a coder to programmer/developer to software engineer--while still retaining the hacker spirit. Each month, Dr. Dobb's, Sys Admin, et al were on my bookstore shopping list, to be read and re-read over the next month. It will be missed.
jefflinwood 12y ago
Just wanted to say that like many of the developers here, I grew up reading Dr. Dobb's Journal back before we had the the World Wide Web, and one of my proudest moments as a software developer was getting an article published in the magazine!
ratbr 12y ago
I am clueless about the right etiquette, but can anyone share some high quality publications in the similar vein? Mainly interested in "head content" that is not a book, but a set of relevant, contemporary articles around our trade.
- kragen 12y ago
  I find a lot of stuff along these lines on http://news.ycombinator.com http://news.ycombinator.com and http://lobste.rs; http://lobste.rs; there's also /r/programming and /r/coding. I post (links to) a lot of stuff at https://twitter.com/kragen https://twitter.com/kragen. I used to read LWN regularly, but now I only read it when someone links to it. Beyond link aggregator sites like these, there are dozens of individual people whose writings I read frequently, if not every time I come across anything new they've written, because it's reliably high quality: Landon Dyer, James Hague, Yosef Kreinin, Raganwald, Tim Bray (ongoing), Dave Long, Bill Gosper, Darius Bacon, Fabian Giesen (ryg), viznut, John Carmack, Bret Victor, of course Paul Graham, Bunnie Huang, Seth Schoen, Avery Pennarun (apenwarr), Herb Sutter, Stepanov, Alexandrescu, Oona Raisanen (windytan), Jon Blow, Linus Åkesson, Ian Lance Taylor, Oleg Kiselyov (although this is very difficult!), Ian Piumarta, Mark-Jason Dominus, Aaron Swartz (RIP), and Randall Munroe. On the hardware side, Anandtech is pretty good. Above and beyond that, for overviews of objective things with links to further reading, I've found Wikipedia to be pretty consistently good.
- mjn 12y ago
  Some quasi-journals have been moving in a "magazine-style" direction with broader-interest articles than a traditional journal, in order to fill some of the trade-magazine gap. Some more successfully than others. A few that I sometimes read: ACM Queue: http://queue.acm.org/ http://queue.acm.org/. Online-only, free. Focus is largely on software engineering and some related areas (sysadmin, devops, architecture, reliability engineering, etc.). Probably the closest to a Dr. Dobbs style magazine of the ones I list here, with mostly industry authors. Communications of the ACM: http://cacm.acm.org/ http://cacm.acm.org/. Most recent issue is free online; print subscription w/ digital back-issue access is $99/yr. Mix of academic and industry articles, leaning more academic, but written in a more accessible and concise style than a typical CS journal. The print version also includes some articles from online-only ACM publications (like Queue). AI Magazine: http://www.aaai.org/Magazine/magazine.php http://www.aaai.org/Magazine/magazine.php. Issues >1 yr old are open-access online; new issues are subscription-only. Print+digital subscription is $145/yr. A bit like CACM, in being journal-ish but with an aim at more readable general-interest articles. Some insider-ish news/column type stuff as well (reports on conferences and workshops, etc.). You may or may not be happy with any of those. The move towards a more magazine-style format is pretty new, and I think still being experimented with. I personally like glancing through and reading parts of CACM and AI Magazine, and less often Queue. I also know some people who like the general-audience IEEE magazines (IEEE Computer, IEEE Software, IEEE Micro, etc.), but I haven't read them enough to have an opinion.
upside 12y ago
While I'm sorry to hear of a business shutting down, I can't help feel a sense of joy that the advertising business model is beginning to lose ground. Im sure the Internet and the world benefitted from such a model, but at this point, I believe, the Internet and humanity will benefit from ditching all the useless junk that really just gets in the way and annoys people. I'm probably not alone in this, but when I see an ad on a page, I register a note in my memory model to never buy anything from that given company as payback for polluting my experience.
shtolcers 12y ago
Oh my... I just read 'Farewell, Dr. Boobs'. Need morning coffee urgently :)
filmgirlcw 12y ago
End of an era. Sad to see this go. So many great memories from this mag.
jonstewart 12y ago
Thank you, Dr. Dobb's. Requiescat in pace.
megablast 12y ago
Goodbye Mode X!
crystaln 12y ago
Why not pass the small operation off to someone who has the chance of keeping it alive?
drallison 12y ago
I was a founder, with Bob Albrecht, of the People's Computer Company and was the creator of Dr. Dobb's Journal. It is very sad to learn of the "sunset" of DDJ. I take some solace that DDJ survived longer than most of the other serious personal computing journals and continues to be relevant today. I am proud of the impact DDJ and PCC have had on our society. I am grateful for the contributions of the many DDJ authors and editors. Jim Warren, the first DDJ editor deserves special recognition, as does Bob Albrecht whose vision and insight guided PCC. Dennis Allison
- diminish 12y ago
  It's possible to keep Dr. Dobbs alive by factory resetting back to the startup mode. Announce here some share in DDJ to an additional tech cofounder with some ideas to pivot the Dr. Dobbs. Apply to YC. Here's my offer: I'll return DDJ into a blogger community focused on newer tech (Ruby/JS/Python/Rust/Go/Closure/Scala) with the same writing pleasure to "medium" or "svbtle". A lot of 20years old would love to write under the brand of DDJ. I ask 20% share only and as a cofounder have Andrew. Anyone has better ideas?
  - easytiger 12y ago
    UBM would have to want to sell it. I'd be surprised if they didn't try that already. But could certainly win themselves some major points with the community they are selling other stuff too. I know someone there, will see if they know anything.
  - Intermernet 12y ago
    The brand (DDJ) should have no bearing on such a site's popularity past it's initial launch. Indeed, to associate oneself with such a brand is to guarantee a level of quality of journalism that, if not met, diminishes the DDJ brand, as well as the startup. You'd best be willing to live up to this standard before trying to co-opt the DDJ brand. I'd say that, in all honesty, you shouldn't need the DDJ brand to achieve what you're suggesting. Just start a "blogger community focused on newer tech (Ruby/JS/Python/Rust/Go/Closure/Scala) with the same writing pleasure to "medium" or "svbtle"" and see how it goes. Don't try to ride on the bootstraps of a decades old brand that can thankfully still retire unblemished. A rarity in these times.
raymondh 12y ago
Dr. Dobb's, you will missed. Much of my career was built on knowledge gleaned from the magazine and website. Even now, I'm working through articles on CUDA programming with the same joy that many years ago I spent with the articles on Forth. So long. Your influence will be felt for decades. Raymond
lispython 12y ago
The only future for journalism might be reader revenue. Without it, everyone in this field were in danger of becoming a public relations or advertising company disguised as journalism. I'm an editor at Programmer Magazine in China (http://special.csdn.net/programmercovers/ http://special.csdn.net/programmercovers/), as a coincidence, after 14 years operation, we just release the last print issue last week and withdrawal towards the electronic version only. I think we share the similar experience and feeling about how the tech medias evolved recently. But media is still a very active field, if you have read the New York Times innovation report that leaked earlier this year, you may get a mixed feeling that with the risks, there are still opportunities to build an independent site with in-depth articles, code, algorithms, and reliable product reviews, which quality media should have. But unfortunately, most decisions were not made by the ones who love this career, have ability and skill to lead the change, and do not fear to face the risks.
- Natsu 12y ago
  > Without it, everyone in this field were in danger of becoming a public relations or advertising company disguised as journalism. We're rather far along down that road already, from what I can tell, and the place it leads terrifies me.
- shawn-butler 12y ago
  The good news is millennials seem to really want to pay subscriptions for things rather than own them. https://www.moviepass.com https://www.moviepass.com etc. I think even big chains like AMC are now offering subscriptions. Maybe paywall is going to become less of a dirty word. Subscriber revenue/data is definitely more valuable & predictable.
- joelthelion 12y ago
  I think what these guys (https://snowdrift.coop/ https://snowdrift.coop/) are doing might be useful for journalism, too.
- greyman 12y ago
  And what about publications like AnandTech? Their editorial seems to be independent of sales, and they are still doing fine.
zipwitch 12y ago
Reading this I realized something - I no longer trust online advertising. At all. Some years ago, I recall shopping for plane tickets and cheerfully clicking on the advertised results on Google. Now I actively avoid it. I've regularly seen what appear to be malicious ads on Gooogle itself. (Search for "SoftwareX" first advertised result is "SoftwareXDownloadFree.com" Yeah, legit. Sure.) As a matter of self-protection, I won't click on online ads.
istvan__ 12y ago
Isn't this happening partially because the social media platforms are more effective and most of the potential advertisers just use those?
Who828 12y ago
I am seriously going to miss Dr. Dobb's Jolt awards, it helped me find so many interesting books overtime (Release it!, Specification by example, Taming text, Team geek, Masterminds of Programming etc to name a few, here is the complete list if anyone else is interested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolt_Awards http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolt_Awards) Can't believe there won't be any jolt awards next year :(
nonuby 12y ago
Perhaps if they put some of that $3m in the glory days to expanding the focus and community around the site it wouldnt be this way, new users new revenue streams.... Kind of like slashdot (sold for a big mac) and soon infoq (e.g. more conferences puylishing to youtube now) It will be news to Google and Bing (and their share price) that "advertising on websites" doesn't work. I suspect they were still working a CPM advertising model that died around the start of the century.
q2 12y ago
I read several articles on Dr. Dobb's. I can get various high quality details on various technologies with independent perspective. Several articles are bookmarked for future reference. Is it possible to preserve archives forever for future consumption? I do not know about financials but I still feel there is place for high quality software industry related journal.
Cppete 12y ago
Arghhh! Despair is what I feel now.
jestinjoy1 12y ago
This is very sad. Last time I had the same feeling reading closing down news from http://www.h-online.com/open/ http://www.h-online.com/open/. Very sad that these people are finding it difficult to stay alive even though they provide top class content. Why couldn't they stay alive if Facebook can Google can live on ad revenue.
josh_fyi 12y ago
Thank you for publishing my first-ever article in the software field back -- back when publishing on dead trees had more cachet than the web! http://www.drdobbs.com/collaborative-applications-and-the-java/184403999 http://www.drdobbs.com/collaborative-applications-and-the-ja...
peter303 12y ago
Byte is a another generalist+software magazine that was pretty good and didnt survive. Most of the magazines still being printed are dovted to a single platform. And they cover application usage rather than development.
cpks 12y ago
This seems almost a perfect way to end. I grew up with Dr. Dobbs. It's hard for me to overstate the impact it had on me growing up. It maintained a high standard of quality and integrity. When I was a little kid, Dr. Dobbs was the only place to turn to for high-quality, in-depth, long-form content on programming. I was limited to the topics it covered. Today, I can search for thousands of blog posts on whatever interests me. I can read LKML. I can read LWN. What was once a niche is now mainstream. If Dr. Dobbs stuck around, it was going to go the way of Radio Shack. That would have been sad. As is, it was a good reign, and a big and positive impact on the world. Now that relevance is gone. The ongoing impact is tiny. It's a good time to move on.

1029 points by andrewbinstock 12y ago

_pmf_ 12y ago

It's one of the few publications that has some embedded system content instead of exclusively web monkey shit.

smoyer 12y ago
Embedded Systems Design and Embedded Systems Programming were my favorites, closely followed by Dr. Dobbs and Radio Electronics.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

a_e_k 12y ago

Darn. It's safe to say that I wouldn't be where I am today without DDJ's influence while growing up. I'll always have fond memories of turning to Michael Abrash's column first thing on getting a new issue. DDJ will certainly be missed.

andrewbinstock 12y ago

I'm the editor of Dr. Dobb's. I'm happy to answer any questions.

narrator 12y ago
How about pivoting to a stack overflow model? You guys have a lot of smart people on staff, you could have them answer questions and form the core contributors and moderators of a question and answer site. You could then have a job site for backend revenue, etc.
- brudgers 12y ago
  The big lesson of StackExchange 1.0 is that the StackOverflow model does not so much create communities, as give existing communities a migration path. Unfortunately, Dr. Dobbs's legacy is largely a community of readers, not necessarily a community enthusiastic about crowd-source Q and A.
beached_whale 12y ago
Will another dvd or download of the full content be made available? It's been quite some time since the last and it would make a nice parting gift to buy.
michaelhoffman 12y ago
No questions, just sad to see it go. So long and thanks for all the fish.
sillysaurus3 12y ago
I don't know if this is an appropriate question, but: Why would a well-known site be sunset by its owner? In one word, revenue. Four years ago, when I came to Dr. Dobb's, we had close to $3 million in revenue, almost all of it from advertising. Despite our excellent growth on the editorial side, our revenue declined such that today it's barely 30% of what it was when I started. A friend of mine's small business observed almost this same phenomenon. Can you elaborate why revenue has declined, even though page views have continued to grow? Is advertising fundamentally changing, and page views are no longer nearly as valuable as they once were? Or is it specifically because of Dr. Dobbs' context as a software dev news/blog site? In particular, click fraud seems to be stinging my friend's business, but I assume it's not something that simple for Dr. Dobbs. Also, apologies if this sounds stupid. I don't have a background in advertising or marketing, but I find the subject fascinating and have been trying to learn about it. EDIT: The next part addresses this: This is because in the last 18 months, there has been a marked shift in how vendors value website advertising. They've come to realize that website ads tend to be less effective than they once were. What I'm asking is, in what ways has the landscape changed? EDIT 2: Thank you for Dr. Dobbs. It's been wonderful over the years, and I'm sad to see it go.
- bachmeier 12y ago
  I can guess as to a few reasons: - Many websites these days are designed to get you to "accidentally" click on ads if you're using a mobile device. I'm not at all surprised that advertisers are catching on to this. - Websites (CNN, I'm looking at you) that move around to trick you into clicking on ads. - Autoplay video ads that almost make ad blocking software mandatory.
- airza 12y ago
  Adblock is pretty ubiquitous in developer circles?
  - sumedh 12y ago
    I am think that almost all people in tech would be using adblock.
jgeorge 12y ago
No questions here either, just condolences and thanks for everything.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
otoburb 12y ago
Thank you for the incredible work and continuing the Dr. Dobb's tradition for as long as you have.
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  You're very welcome. Thank you
soapdog 12y ago
Just to say thanks! I am 34 and and live in Brazil. The magazine was really expensive here, more than USD 30 per issue but still I got all issues. It helped me make my career path and I still cherish them a lot. Thanks a lot for the hard work!
mkingston 12y ago
I've found Dr. Dobb's hugely useful over the years. I suspect mostly as a result of search queries; as I hadn't realised what a formidable team of contributors you had until this post. Sorry to see it go, and thank you! Edit: I guess there's a lesson to be learned here, to try to be conscious of the things I use (I wasn't, really) and do what I can to support them.
OMGWTF 12y ago
When will the site be switched off? I.e. when will links/bookmarks stop working?
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  UBM has guaranteed a minimum of 12 months. But I expect it will last much longer. Hosting static content is inexpensive.
stefanmielke 12y ago
Is there a date to shut the site down forever? Or you will continue to operate "forever" with no new stuff?
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  No, there is no date currently planned. Parent company has guaranteed all content for at least a year, but I expect it will be available a long time beyond that. As I mentioned below, static content is cheap to host.
beagle3 12y ago
Thanks for that. A few years ago, that would be 20 or so, a friend loaned me a CD with all the magazine text from inception until that time. Is there any chance for a final "all of ddj" DVD?
- __d 12y ago
  I'd be interested in this too. Linux Journal puts out their annual DVDs; I tend to buy the latest and gift last year's onwards.
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  Good idea. I'll look into that!
- 72deluxe 12y ago
  I would be extremely interested in this too. There's just so many fascinating articles.
- divegeek 12y ago
  Oh, yeah. I'd pay good money for that. It'd be fascinating from a historical perspective, as well as interesting and useful for the content itself.
- joe_bleau 12y ago
  I'd order one.
  - jefurii 12y ago
    Me too.
- anw 12y ago
  Oh, how I wish back-issue collections also included the advertisements that ran in them. Just the same as old comic books were filled with brine shrimp and muscle building ads, I would look forward to seeing those old ads about compilers that were _only_ $199.99! and programs that "look the same on Windows, and on Macintosh!" Seeing these things helps gives a context to the times in which they were printed, and allows for an appreciation for just how far we've come.
boo_radley 12y ago
Dr. Dobb's was such an integral part of my education that I feel like I've failed you in some way. I hope that the staff consider transfer their archives to archive.org.
- VLM 12y ago
  They're currently selling version 6 of their developers DVD for like $75, also containing TPJ and sysadmin and dr dobbs up to -09 or so. I paid for my copy. Historically they've been civil about upgrade policy from old versions. I would guess if that revenue stream dried up...
lorddoig 12y ago
Presumably UBM is willing to sell the brand? I can't say I'm terribly familiar with Dr Dobb's but it seems a terrible shame and quite inefficient that something in such high demand can't find a way to survive. Feels like there's a win-win situation hidden in the world somewhere that needs uncovered.
- VonGuard 12y ago
  You could probably buy this brand for low 5 figures. 90% of magazines that have gone under in the past 15 years weren't even sold. The few that I've heard of that were went for super duper low numbers, like low 5 digits.
a_e_k 12y ago
Do you think there could ever be a revival of print programming magazines like DDJ? Blog posts on the web and whatnot can be nice and timely, but I really miss the older style of longer-form, curated, edited articles that I could physically hold in my hands and flip through each month.
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  I'd love to go back to a print magazine. The problem is that they're hugely expensive to produce, print, and mail. The economics of them are much worse than publishing online.
- anthony_d 12y ago
  FWIW, I enjoy my monthly "Communications of the ACM". I'd recommend a membership if you don't mind spending the cash.
- qznc 12y ago
  E.g. http://hackermonthly.com/ http://hackermonthly.com/ There is little editing going on there, though.
pjmlp 12y ago
Sad to hear about it. I bought it every month since the early 90's until it went digital. Alongside Computer Shopper UK edition and The C User's Journal (latter The C/C++ User's Journal), Dr Dobbs was my door to the computing world. In a country where BBS were too expensive for most families and the Internet was yet to come, I waited religiously for the next issue delivery.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
VonGuard 12y ago
Andrew: Alex Handy, here. So sad to hear this. Dobbs was an institution, and a very respected one at that. Drop me a line, let me know what you're up to next.
wilsonfiifi 12y ago
Will the site's content be archived or published in some form or the other?
logn 12y ago
Did you ever consider hosting your own job ads site? This is how Slashdot is still alive and maybe why Stack Overflow was made. At $300 per ad, you'd need about 800 ads a month to reach $3 mil/year. Achievable?
- alain94040 12y ago
  There may be one thing companies might be willing to pay for that is specific to Dr. Dobbs. If you read that advanced article on C++ a few days ago, and you are now reading this in-depth description of scaling Linux internals, I very much would have a job for you. What other site can say the same?
  - logn 12y ago
    Yes, this is actually one case where as a privacy conscious user, I would be ok with browsing data being used for job ad purposes. Also job ads are probably the only ones I click on. And if the ads are intra-site I don't think AdBlock would touch them (even if they do, their AdBlock detection script could say, "looking for a job? make an adblock exception for us", which is valuable data in itself). Besides, a link in the header to a job board might generate enough traffic alone. Dr. Dobb's Jobs has a nice ring. And a freelancer board could be Dr. Dobb's Odd Jobs :)
whistlerbrk 12y ago
Hi Andrew, I'm curious to know - have you explored other forms of revenue like sponsored content. For instance there is a great deal of paid software out there and a great number of companies create infrastructure for complex software out there like (e.g. Hadoop). Today companies more than ever are pouring their advertising budgets into marketing budgets to create content around their brands... this could perhaps let you stay on mission creating valuable content for the most difficult software while providing a revenue source. I'm throwing out there what I'm sure you have already considered, but I hate to see a good thing go!
bane 12y ago
I'm very sorry to see it go. A nice collection of Dr. Dobb's magazines is an incredible personal resource. Any chance of donating a digital collection of the magazine to archive.org for posterity?
dtjones 12y ago
It sounds like there was no vetting of alternative monetization strategies for the website. I say this because it looks like the site is still running direct-to-advertiser deals, when they could open their remnant inventory up to auction systems via an SSP and tie in yield optimization strategies with their sales team. If the site has high quality traffic and 10MM pv/month they shouldn't be closing the doors. Based on a 5 minute look at the website and some of the ads seems like the site is restricting its ad revenue to software industry vendors when they could open it up to the rest of the advertising world that wants to pay to serve an in-view ad to a real person with a software engineer's salary.
- ternaryoperator 12y ago
  Do you think that no one at UBM, a company with more than 30 publications, thought of that?
  - blister 12y ago
    It seems to me like this article is a concession towards the fact that they haven't thought of anything. They are already profitable. That means that they have money to experiment with additional monetization strategies that would NOT involve simply closing.
  - dtjones 12y ago
    I don't think anyone has. I've never heard of UBM, but the article portrays it as a company with a vertically focused print and tradeshow revenue model that has a few web properties. The 1996 website monetization model has been disrupted within the last 5 years with ad exchanges that hold auctions in real-time, and most companies with roots in print don't have a clue whats happening in their industry - see new york times, time magazine, plenty more whose traditional ad sales revenues are plummeting IMO a web property would fail to adapt to the modern revenue model because 1) C level execs don't know what to change it to, 2) they don't understand the new model, or 3) they think that auction based CPMs will be too low so they haven't tested it. In the case of DrDobbs.com with solid traffic and a high quality, established b2b audience, not sure it makes sense to fold the property. Disclaimer: I used to work at an ad agency and I now work at a data company for ad exchanges. Edit: here is a 3rd party source on growth in the RTB channel, to which UBM has no exposure: www.emarketer.com/Article/US-Programmatic-Ad-Spend-Tops-10-Billion-This-Year-Double-by-2016/1011312
pmelendez 12y ago
I saw this coming after the printed version was closed down and as a former subscriber I am very saddened by this news. I believe the need for a high quality publication oriented to professional developers there still exists. Where do you think people would be going now that Dr. Dobbs won't be available?
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  As I say in the article, it's hard to know where to go. There is nowhere I know of that covers the same ground (long-form articles, lots of code, algorithms, and serious reviews).
  - pmelendez 12y ago
    Thanks for your response! You guys will be missed for sure. Maybe the group (editors and contributors) could start a spin off?
SandersAK 12y ago
hey Andrew, I wonder if you could make enough revenue via crowdfunded support? Recurring subscriptions and one time contributions can really add up. At Beacon, we helped Techdirt.com raise $70k to cover Net Neutrality full time. I think your community is incredibly passionate and probably would cover what you need. Email me (adrian@beaconreader.com if you're keen, we'd love to help (and give you a big discount on our cut). cheers Adrian
- petercooper 12y ago
  Did you ever write up anything about that process? It sounds like an interesting story.
WalterBright 12y ago
Andrew, it's been an honor and a privilege to be able to write for Dr. Dobb's, the greatest of the programming magazines. Dr. Dobb's has been an enormously positive influence on the industry. I am very sad to see the end of the era. Thank you and Deirdre and the rest of the DDJ staff for your awesome work!
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  Thank you, Walter. It's been a pleasure having you blog for us. Good luck with the continued advancement of D.
  - TheCondor 12y ago
    Thank you to both of you and all the staff. In the wasteland of "computer" magazines, DDJ was a real gem, it stayed true, there was something interesting in every edition (truly impressive) and it really had a great f-ing run. It was the "good stuff" thanks
rexreed 12y ago
Under what company / trade name will you be operating your analyst business and what will your focus be? Will you be running a subscription-style analyst business or just writing white papers for hire?
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  I'll be working at pacificdataworks.com. My focus will be technology, with a special oritentation towards software development. The analysis will mostly be done privately for clients. For example, they'll say "we can't figure our why our JIRA competitor isn't getting any traction. Can you review our product, JIRA and these two lesser competitors and give us unbiased info on the pros and cons of each?" It's amazing how difficult it is to do that kind of analysis in-house. For example, it's very difficult for companies to look at a special feature they added at great cost and figure out why it's not getting traction or attention. Or they know but have no way to communicate the reality because of internal politics. So, having an outside voice say "this should be removed" or "this needs to have an API" or the like makes it much easier to have the conversation. And so on.
jtwebman 12y ago
Have you guys thought of maybe opening up to allow submissions instead of paying the writers? I know plenty of people including me that enjoy writing and would submit to have blog posts as content on your site as well.
Fede_V 12y ago
Hey, not really a question, but.. thanks for making sure that all previous content stays up. I can't claim to have been an avid reader, but I've read several excellent articles on your mag, and knowing that it will always be available is a very generous gesture.
kfcm 12y ago
Do you think UBM would be amenable to a "Final Cut" of the Dr. Dobb's Developer's Library to include everything from Dr. Dobb's, C/C++ UJ, Sys Admin, etc?
richm44 12y ago
I'd just like to say thank you. Dr Dobb's was superb.
FrankenPC 12y ago
I've been programming off and on for about 35 years. Dr. Dobb's has been a part of that life the entire time. Thank you. Best of luck to you.
jarjoura 12y ago
Sorry if I missed you mentioning already, but did you attempt a paywall option like New York Times?
drig 12y ago
Not a question, just saying thanks. Your articles in the 1990s on VGA's modeX were the basis for a long-time obsession of mine: writing VGA graphic drivers to support better ways to display fractals. My college senior thesis was based on it. Since then, Dr. Dobbs has been the shining example of highly technical material. Thank you for everything your magazine meant.
anw 12y ago
First of all, I'd like to offer my appreciation to the Dr. Dobb's staff, along with Andrew Binstock (I thoroughly enjoyed and found myself nodding my head at articles such as "Just Let Me Code"[1]). I still have some of the magazines from 1994 floating around. It's amazing how nostalgic they are now—but the pouring back over those magazines brings me back to my younger days where computers were more mysterious, and creating things was more magical. Dr Dobbs provided a great service. They offered informative articles on not only programming, but also on the user experience, design, IDEs, math, and the whole "programmer" gamut—and they did such a wide spread without losing quality. I do wish you could name an alternative to this, but I find myself coming up empty, as well. The same as you mentioned in regards to events, these types of information are now spread througout multiple sites: HN for general 'tech' news, MOOCs for programming, sometimes Reddit for actual helpful information. I look forward to seeing if people will try to fill this gap of an all-in-one hub, that also has quite knowledgeable authors. I do wonder, this article mentions Dr Dobbs staying constant; constant in delivering quality articles, constant in its design, and so forth. Would you say this is an issue of not adapting to current trends (or "with the times")? It seemed [to me] that the move from print to digital was a late move that could have been done in a better way. While the content is great, I've ironically found the online site not as engaging as having the print copies in hand. I do not know many people who subscribe to online only publications, and of the ones I do know, they usually will go through a service such as Amazon. Also, while I understand the anecdote about ad revenue and clicking, it does bring up a fair point. I do not know many tech saavy people who knowingly click on advertisements (if they're not blocked, to begin with). In fact, as a technician at an old job, we were told to warn the general public about what sites they visit, and to make sure they're not clicking on ads, as they might be "unscrupulous" [former manager's words]. Could this offer an opportunity for a company to come along and create and display advertisements that the majority of people will know are safe? While Googles ads have their name displayed, I know many people who feel "odd" seeing text ads, and feel they're trying to trick them. There must be a better way to make the user feel comfortable clicking, as well as letting them know the content and site they will go to are safe. Flash ads, and a mile long URL being pointed to are not going to do it. [1] http://www.drdobbs.com/tools/just-let-me-code/240168735 http://www.drdobbs.com/tools/just-let-me-code/240168735
guiambros 12y ago
What a sad, sad day. I grew up reading Dr. Dobb's, and learned a lot from it. Still remember some of the articles, more than 20 years later. I used to buy the paper magazine every month. There was only one newsstand that would sell it, in a city 25 miles away from where I lived. It was worth it every time. It'll be dearly missed.
derekp7 12y ago
Since Dr. Dobb's has some amount of brand recognition, would it be possible to capitalize on that? For example, maybe come out with a line of authoritative technical books that are Dr. Dobb's branded, that would end up having the same recognition as O'reilly's nutshell books? Then the website / magazine would end up functioning as a loss leader to promote the book series (or other ventures).
- dagw 12y ago
  I wonder how much brand recognition Dr. Dobb's really has though. I certainly grew up with it, but how many 20 year old programmers even really know what Dr. Dobb's is, let alone have a strong positive association with the brand?
  - Sevrene 12y ago
    Well I for one had no idea who or what Dr. Dobb's was before this submission.
    - _nedR 12y ago
      Me neither. I am 25 and have never heard or come across this site through Google or any other way. Judging from the upvotes this article has, a lot of HN readers clearly know and care about this. I am curious as to what demographic, age-group, was drdobbs popular with. Was it something like Slashdot which was popular back in the day?
      - kayamon 12y ago
        There was once a time, back in the mists of history, when we had to print our websites out and buy them from newsagents.
      - dagw 12y ago
        In the 80's and early 90's Dr Dobbs was probably the eminent source of advanced programming knowledge, and a pretty huge influence on programmer culture in general. It was for example the place where the GNU manifesto was initially published, and many of the big name programmers of the day where regular contributors. It also published a number of fairly legendary article series where many of its readers got their first introduction to topics like operating system design or writing your own C compiler. So basically if you programmed in the 80's or 90's it was most likely a huge influence on you.
easytiger 12y ago
Did UBM attempt to sell DDJ before taking this step?

sv3nss0n 12y ago

R.I.P.

yitchelle 12y ago

Man, that is very sad to read, and that Dr.Dobbs was not able to transform itself. Good luck on your future ventures. Would love to read a post mortem on the time leading up to decision to shut down? I bet there will be plenty of lesson learned in there.

jonquark 12y ago

I've never read Dr. Dobbs regularly, but often when struggling with thorny issues I've come across helpful articles (in particular a series by Herb Sutter a few years back really helped). This is sad news - I should have supported it better when it existed - I'll miss it when it is gone!

stblack 12y ago

RIP indeed. However if you peruse the site now, observe that Dr Dobb's uses the annoying practice of segmenting articles into multiple pageviews. Excessively so. In a sense, and on balance, they deserve to go.

bdamm 12y ago

When I was still a boy, I would run down to the local pharmacy nearly weekly and eagerly check the magazine rack for new copies of Dr. Dobb's Journal. It was the main pipe through which I learned about the beautiful and intricate world of programming. I tossed all those magazines in a fit of purging when I was leaving home and heading to college. There may be a handful still in some storage box. Thanks, Dr. Dobb's.

tdicola 12y ago

Wow what a bummer--it will definitely be missed. I fondly remember reading great articles about graphics programming and C++ development back in the 90's.

fegu 12y ago

After the tinkering stage of software development, this magazine gave me articles about real algorithms. It filled the gap perfectly. Then I went on to university with a real head start.

voltagex_ 12y ago
Any idea where I could find those old issues? DD staff: I'll buy a torrent/download of your archives!

300bps 12y ago

Programming has changed substantially from when I first started. It used to be I'd have to wait for a ride to the local mall or book store from my parents, and then quickly wade through the programming books looking for one or two to purchase and thereby expand my knowledge. I remember when I bought The Waite Group's Turbo-C Bible that came out in 1988. I practically had the thing memorized. Today, my IDE does a tremendous job of guessing what I'm trying to do. Google does great work at telling me what's causing error messages that occur while I'm debugging. It can also give me example code of almost exactly what I'm trying to do in the exact language I'm trying to do it in (and probably a dozen other languages to boot). We seem to have gone from an era requiring pre-knowledge programming to an era allowing just-in-time-knowledge programming. Dr. Dobbs was a great part of the old era and I'm sad to see it go.

dalke 12y ago

I was a loving subscriber in the 1990s, and looked forward to each new edition. I even succeeded in having an article of mine in the 25 year anniversary edition (at http://www.drdobbs.com/cpp/making-c-extensions-more-pythonic/184404439 http://www.drdobbs.com/cpp/making-c-extensions-more-pythonic... ). It was at the same time first visited Sweden, where I now live, and I remember the thrill of seeing Dr. Dobb's, with my article, on the newsstand in this foreign land. Now I read blogs and HN links to some of the things I once got from Dr. Dobb's, that newsstand no longer exists, and neither is Dr. Dobb's. Life is change. Thanks, Dr. Dobb's!

hnriot 12y ago

Over the years I've enjoyed Dr Dobbs, but like most magazines they have become less and less relevant with google+stackoverflow+wikipedia. Over the years Dr Dobbs has added things to my repertoire of software knowledge, but I have to say Wikipedia has done more in recent years. I can't think of a single magazine I've seen in recent years. I still miss BYTE

nostrademons 12y ago

I remember when I was a 10-year-old kid and had just got my first computer, someone told me that if I really wanted to learn to program, I should get a subscription to Dr. Dobb's and read all the articles. So my dad dutifully got me a subscription and I read all the articles. A lot of it was over my head - there was a lot of C and assembly, a lot of optimized graphics or numerics algorithms - but still, it was one of the few sources of programming tips back then. There was no WWW, so you learned by buying reference books, magazines, playing around with the computer and seeing what happens, or getting the official reference documentation from the manufacturer. I think that what killed Dr. Dobbs is ultimately that the Internet sparked a huge availability of quality programming info online, which drove the price of this info through the floor. I've spent my morning Googling obscure corner-cases for Django form validation; there are dozens of pages freely available in the official docs, StackOverflow, GitHub, blogs, etc. It's hard to compete with free.

discreteevent 12y ago
I couldn't afford it every month but some of the ones I did get I read again and again. I remember Abrashes articles and thinking that I had so far to climb. I still do but the thing is I don't think I've ever come across content like it since. Another one I remember was an article by Douglas Hofstadter about metaphors. It wasn't just tech but a way of thinking about everything. And Swaine's flames for dessert!
e12e 12y ago
> I think that what killed Dr. Dobbs is ultimately that the Internet sparked a huge availability of quality programming info online, which drove the price of this info through the floor. I think it broke the market - but at the same time, very little online is of the same quality IMNHO. But some of it is just good enough that too many seem to stop paying for the really good stuff. Or paying for the privilege to get the ads that come with the really good stuff, more like. I'm actually a little shocked that something like DDJ would be happy on 3M revenue - feels like that should be easy to rack in on subscriptions for such a solid brand. I guess it isn't

mp99e99 12y ago

wow very sad. Very long running periodical.

tonetheman 12y ago

So sad. I remember many days pouring over articles and code in Dr Dobbs. Is the the DVD6 ( https://store.drdobbs.com/product/13/Dr.-Dobb%27s-Developer-Library-DVD-Release-6 https://store.drdobbs.com/product/13/Dr.-Dobb%27s-Developer-... ) the final/everything release of the older content? Just wondering if there will be a final one or is that it?

unwiredben 12y ago

In the 90's, Dr. Dobb's was a front-to-back read for me every month; it exposed me to so many programming ideas while I was still in high school and college, and it's sad to see it go. I think I kept my paper subscription going until that came to an end. It joins other publications like PC Techniques, Game Developer, and Byte that have a cherished place in my archives from a by-gone past.

CurtMonash 12y ago

I know of two main ways to monetize the writing of good tech articles -- conferences and consulting. Consulting happens to be much more enjoyable for me than conferences, so that's the option I chose. By way of contrast, I started DBMS2 in 2005, and at no point did I come close to thinking of a viable-seeming advertising-based business model.

billyhoffman 12y ago

What I found most interesting from this post was revenue. Here is a respected brand, with reasonable amounts of traffic, and multiple employees (Andrew mentioned himself and a sales team), that is doing < $1M in revenue. Even 4 years ago, they were doing ~$3M in revenue. This is the reality of most businesses. Yes, most people know they won't be a Facebook or a Instagram, but those insanely high numbers have skewed what "success" means in a lot of people's minds. 99.999% of businesses don't making tens of millions of dollars with a handful of 20-somethings. Success in business is surviving for a non-trivial amount of time http://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/jason-fried/the-challenge-in-business-is-staying-in-business.html http://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/jason-fried/the-challenge...

dalke 12y ago
That's silly. 38 years is longer than the 25 year threshold for "long haul" used by that essay. Success also means knowing when to stop, but even then "sunset" in this context doesn't mean to stop. Doug Kaye did an excellent closing-up-shop podcast for the end of IT Conversations describing why he chose to "sunset" the site, rather than work to keep the site going or shut it down completely. For that matter, I've closed my consulting business in the US when I moved away. That company was a success, even though it no longer survives.
- billyhoffman 12y ago
  I think you misunderstood. I believe Dr Dobbs has been very successful. My point is that "success" for a company does not mean billions of dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars. Success can mean hundreds of thousands or even less. Success can mean a business that supports its employees for years and years and years. Dr Dobbs is a good example of a success without all that craziness. Unfortunately, HN and the tech scene as a whole focuses a ton of attention on these massive massive valuations and exits. This distorts what "success" means and places it on an near impossibly high pillar.
  - dalke 12y ago
    You are right; I misunderstood you. My ex-company should instead be seen as one of many examples of a successful, short-term (<10 year) companies that have since ceased to operate.

DrTung 12y ago

"Running Light Without Overbyte" still remember that title, when reading Dr.Dobb's while waiting for my turn fiddling with a new KIM-1 computer at my friend's house in 1976. A while back... I was a subscriber for many years. Also I remember Al Stevens writing his columns from his RV, the incident with the exploding tire. Did you know he came up with C# as a language name before Microsoft did? In those days before the internet DDJ was a welcome sight in the mailbox, every issue had something worth reading. See you around Dr.Dobb's!

ScottBurson 12y ago
Ah, the full title, as I recall, was "Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia: Running Light Without Overbyte".
- mitosis 12y ago
  When I was an undergrad, I found very early issues of Dr. Dobb's in the medical library of my university, the name of the magazine having fooled the librarians. I remember spending many happy afternoons there reading about 6502 single-board computers and porting Tiny C to various machines.

foolinaround 12y ago

Would Dr. Dobb's have survived with Google contributor? ( rhetorical question). Looking at this thread, there would have been a whole bunch of folks who would have paid a few dollars to keep the mag up and running.

dalke 12y ago
Assuming there's need for $500K in membership revenue per year implies an awful lot of people chipping in a few dollars each. I don't think that will work out.

fpp 12y ago

Andrew, this is sad news. Dr. Dobb's was always a beacon in the computer and software publication landscape, one I grew up with and I've cherished till today. I still remember the moments of pride and the feeling of recognition when we've seen the first positive reviews of our work in Dr Dobb's many years ago - something that could only be achieved by the high standing and excellent editorial work of the magazine's team and efforts. While it might be understandable from a financial or commercial point of view that it's better to stop now than later, hopefully there will be an agreement found with one of the big data center providers (IBM, MS, Google, AWS)to keep the current site online and the archives open for the many who certainly will find inspiration and guidance in much of what had been written in Dr Dobb's during almost 40 years.

andrewbinstock 12y ago
It's guaranteed to be up for a year at least, and probably much longer after that. If a major host or ibiblio wanted to guarantee its availability by hosting it permanently, I expect UBM (the parent company) would be amenable. Not right now, but perhaps at the one-year mark.
- ChuckMcM 12y ago
  Presumably, if the content will no longer be changing, one push it out to a set of static pages and host it on a single instance in EC2, if it is clearing several hundred thousand a year in its current ad clicks that would pay a system administrator and general "minder"'s salary. I find it particularly poignant because I recently scanned in my copies of the early compendium volumes "running lite without overbyte" which I had bought at the West Coast Computer Faire so long ago. Unwilling to keep the large format books around, they live on as searchable PDFs on my iPad.
- duggan 12y ago
  I think archive.org can almost certainly be relied on to ensure Dr. Dobb's remains available for a long time to come.

dpweb 12y ago

10m views, $1m rev. $100/cpm seems like they're overachieving when based purely on views. Nothing to be done there. It's a shame I've read Dr. Dobbs for I don't know how long. They should sell to someone, keep it alive.

jobposter1234 12y ago
Agreed, a $100 RPM is insane! That means a few years ago, they pushed a $300 RPM. For that kind of revenue, it sure seems like there's a viable business there... What am I missing?
- andrewbinstock 12y ago
  Our RPM was always comparable to the rest of the industry. Revenue, especially three years ago, had multiple components other than pure ad placements. I can't get into too much of the details (for obvious reasons).
  - e12e 12y ago
    It's not obvious to me why you can't share lessons from a failed business model?
    - rgbrgb 12y ago
      Because he doesn't own that information and most likely signed legal documents forbidding him from revealing it.
- mc808 12y ago
  Indeed, it appears that the root problem is not that web advertising is in decline (which it isn't), but that there aren't enough M's in that very respectable RPM estimate. Probably due to the site being a cluttered, unfocused mess with errors galore. (Not just dated but often literally broken. http://www.drdobbs.com/database/image-compression-via-compilation/184408024 http://www.drdobbs.com/database/image-compression-via-compil... ) I say that in the spirit of tough love, as Dr. Dobbs has always been a brand I trust to deliver quality content - when I can find it and it's legible.

vegabook 12y ago

Disrupted to death, by sites like Hacker News. Ironic then the outpouring of sympathy on this comments page. I loved Dr Dobbs but must spend at least 10x more time on HN or SO than there, ironically again, sites which are light or zero on advertising, and make their money obliquely (HN by pumping Y Combinator's VC business cred, SO through focused ads targeting developer recruitment). I guess the lesson is that interaction is where it's at. Static content is dead.

andrewbinstock 12y ago
Not so sure. I personally love HN (I normally use a different moniker). In many ways, our recent success is in part due to HN and Proggit, which would drive readers to some of our articles. And, of course, it also gave us no shortage of feedback on the articles themselves ;-)

kabdib 12y ago

Fond memories of Dr. Dobbs, back when I was a kid in high school. I still have some issues from Vol 1, but not the first one because my local computer store hadn't started carrying it. I learned about FORTH from DDJ. And how to write a tiny BASIC interpreter. I wrote my own version of PILOT from hints given me by a DDJ article. How to write a simple assembler, how to do simple computer music. Oh, countless things. But I haven't read them in decades. DDJ was like the Mad Magazine of the 70s computer scene; random, but always entertaining, and sometimes educational. I won't miss them, but I have good memories of them.

rcarmo 12y ago

They can pry my stack of paper magazines from my cold, dead hands. Seriously now, I read Abrash's stuff on Dr Dobb's, and it was that magazine (above all others) that instilled in me the idea that coding was above and beyond the drudgery we waded through in college - that it was an art form that emerged from systematic thought process and a deep understanding of how bend technology to your will. I just hope they don't dilute the brand -- I can see someone having the bright idea of setting up a Programming 101 kind of site under that name a couple of years down the road, and really hope someone, somewhere, somewhen, will pick up the torch and make sure it stays associated with "true masters" (if there is such a thing).

andrewbinstock 12y ago
Ugh! God no. You've just depressed me even more!
- rcarmo 12y ago
  Apologies, I've definitely spent too long in big corporates :( (like many folk, I sometimes feel Scott Adams is drawing Dilbert while watching a live feed from our office)

curiously 12y ago

"This is because in the last 18 months, there has been a marked shift in how vendors value website advertising. They've come to realize that website ads tend to be less effective than they once were. Given that I've never bought a single item by clicking on an ad on a website, this conclusion seems correct in the small." This is an interesting trend. I for one, have stopped advertising on adwords completely, and now looking for ways to do content marketing or cold calling. I remember paying $2 for a click and thinking wow, not a single purchase after 100 clicks later just an obscure request for more information. We now also have adblock proliferating so most people don't even see the ads, I myself, a huge user of this extension, in particular the adblock plus which goes even further. Hopefully, the adwords have gotten cheaper per click, but I doubt it for some niches. What would happen when websites can't support themselves any longer through banner ads? I think if a business that relies on ad revenues and they have no plan B then they are in trouble. This would also mean bad news for large social media companies that rely solely on sale of ads. Google has already well diversified their operations but such is not the case for twitter or facebook (whiche people use to chat with each other now, as more people would choose to unfollow a typical social media whore).

AdventureJason 12y ago

Andrew, this is a remarkable (and well-deserved) outpouring of appreciation, love and fond memories of Dobb's. Thank you for the hard work and unabashed personality that you (and Deirdre, and Adrian, and so many others) have put into the publication, and given to the community, over the years.

deleted 12y ago

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brooklynjam 12y ago

Confused. Web server cost pennies. Writers, heck lots would do it for the press. Publishing a magazine? There are tens of thousands of millennials just in SF alone that have net worth in the millions, and would love to be involved. Did you cast the net?

deleted 12y ago
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unreal37 12y ago
This comment really undervalues the craft of "writing good things", by a lot. These writers, editors and staff deserve a good wage. Not to work just for "the press".
- danielweber 12y ago
  I think there was a lot of "write for free until you get a job for a company that will pay for your work, like Dr Dobbs."
MicroBerto 12y ago
I'm on the side of 'confused' as well. With that much traffic, it shouldn't be hard to run a business with great revenues or massive passive profits. But having visited this site for the first time, it looks like an old relic that's about 4 "generations" out of date. I am not enticed to click on anything. They also clearly missed the boat on social media (10.3 million visitors and you have 3500 Facebook likes and 6000 Twitter followers?!), who knows what else was missed. Does a site like this really need a large sales staff? As programmers, can't you program a better self-serve system and moderate it? Content doesn't need to be that expensive. There are ways. IMHO, this is the kind of site that a group of experienced web marketers could seriously turn around, keeping just a few excellent and aggressive young writers and editors on board. But nah, giving up is easier. shakes head
- lotsofcows 12y ago
  Yeah, want weDr.Dobbs needs is more flashiness and less quality content! Hell, it works for everyone else.

andsmi2 12y ago

Somewhere late in high school my father started bringing home copies of Dr. Dobb's and I think around 11th grade -- (1993?) I was given my own subscription. I was lucky if I could understand 10% of what was written, but I would devour it -- and it provided a definite different perspective to me than the pop magazines I had been reading Compute! and many years before, Run! -- I have fond memories of the publication....I just have no longer had time to read it...sorry to see it go. Thanks for all the great content.

robert_tweed 12y ago

This makes me sad. First we lost Byte. Now we've lost Dr Dobbs. The last of the great hacker institutions is gone. Supplanted by the amorphous blob of sketchy information that is the Internet. Change is inevitable, but it isn't always good.

vram22 12y ago

DDJ and CUJ (C User's Journal) were two very good magazines that I used to read a lot. BYTE (more so in its earlier years) was another one on the same lines. Can't forget some of the regular contributors to BYTE, for example (and I don't mean just Jerry Pournelle, though his column was entertaining too). Heck, I used to read Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar column out of interest, even though I was not into electronics. So well done, the articles, the photos, etc. I still remember, in one of the first BYTE issues that I read, a very good introduction to Huffman coding by Jonathan Amsterdam. And so many other such good articles, in all three of those magazines ...

jksmith 12y ago
Back in the 80's DTACK Grounded and Micro Cornucopia, then later Computer Language and DrDobbs (remember those Cauzin soft strips?). Now I just depend on HN posters to TLDR stuff for me unless a subject really grabs me.
- vram22 12y ago
  Had read about those strips but never tried them. Cool.
rbanffy 12y ago
I loved Creative Computing. I'm very happy the issues are in archive.org.
- vram22 12y ago
  I think there are some BYTE issues in there too.
  - rbanffy 12y ago
    Yes. Incredibly fun to read.

sarciszewski 12y ago

<em> in a Title tag :(

buckbova 12y ago

> Given that I've never bought a single item by clicking on an ad on a website, this conclusion seems correct in the small. Neither have I. Who's clicking these links?!

barking 12y ago

I've hardly ever read anything at dr dobbs. Google searches rarely took me there. Just now when i visited I was locked out after viewing to pages.

Duckpaddle2 12y ago

Sad...

jimnutt 12y ago

I'll be sad to see Dr. Dobbs go, as it's been there almost my entire career. Unfortunately, though, magazines (and their web versions) have become less and less relevant through the year.

foobarge 12y ago

I've had the privilege to write an article for the Dr Dobb's journal (print edition) Hard to describe how proud I was of that (of course, I received a ton of help from awesome the coworkers I had at the time.)

Chirael 12y ago

Top notch articles year after year - nice work, and very sorry to see Dr. Dobb's go.

andrewbinstock 12y ago
Thank you!

lucozade 12y ago

One edition of DDJ is the sole reason for my career and vocation. Thank you

smoyer 12y ago
Sounds like an interesting story ... care to elaborate?

protomyth 12y ago

Dr. Dobb's along with Byte, Creative Computing, and Antic were the information sources that got me into computing. I miss all the disappearing sources of my youth. I guess PragPub is an interesting descendant ( https://pragprog.com/magazines https://pragprog.com/magazines ). [edit: new web address for PragPub http://theprosegarden.com http://theprosegarden.com ]

kentbrew 12y ago

Oh, no. So sorry to see this happening. I remember when Dr. Dobb's was a tiny little pamphlet, printed on paper so thin that it only had one side.

kfcm 12y ago

Someone has to say it, so it might as well be me: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of professional developer voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened." I've read Dr. Dobb's for 30+ years, and it helped me move from a coder to programmer/developer to software engineer--while still retaining the hacker spirit. Each month, Dr. Dobb's, Sys Admin, et al were on my bookstore shopping list, to be read and re-read over the next month. It will be missed.

jefflinwood 12y ago

Just wanted to say that like many of the developers here, I grew up reading Dr. Dobb's Journal back before we had the the World Wide Web, and one of my proudest moments as a software developer was getting an article published in the magazine!

ratbr 12y ago

I am clueless about the right etiquette, but can anyone share some high quality publications in the similar vein? Mainly interested in "head content" that is not a book, but a set of relevant, contemporary articles around our trade.

kragen 12y ago
I find a lot of stuff along these lines on http://news.ycombinator.com http://news.ycombinator.com and http://lobste.rs; http://lobste.rs; there's also /r/programming and /r/coding. I post (links to) a lot of stuff at https://twitter.com/kragen https://twitter.com/kragen. I used to read LWN regularly, but now I only read it when someone links to it. Beyond link aggregator sites like these, there are dozens of individual people whose writings I read frequently, if not every time I come across anything new they've written, because it's reliably high quality: Landon Dyer, James Hague, Yosef Kreinin, Raganwald, Tim Bray (ongoing), Dave Long, Bill Gosper, Darius Bacon, Fabian Giesen (ryg), viznut, John Carmack, Bret Victor, of course Paul Graham, Bunnie Huang, Seth Schoen, Avery Pennarun (apenwarr), Herb Sutter, Stepanov, Alexandrescu, Oona Raisanen (windytan), Jon Blow, Linus Åkesson, Ian Lance Taylor, Oleg Kiselyov (although this is very difficult!), Ian Piumarta, Mark-Jason Dominus, Aaron Swartz (RIP), and Randall Munroe. On the hardware side, Anandtech is pretty good. Above and beyond that, for overviews of objective things with links to further reading, I've found Wikipedia to be pretty consistently good.
mjn 12y ago
Some quasi-journals have been moving in a "magazine-style" direction with broader-interest articles than a traditional journal, in order to fill some of the trade-magazine gap. Some more successfully than others. A few that I sometimes read: ACM Queue: http://queue.acm.org/ http://queue.acm.org/. Online-only, free. Focus is largely on software engineering and some related areas (sysadmin, devops, architecture, reliability engineering, etc.). Probably the closest to a Dr. Dobbs style magazine of the ones I list here, with mostly industry authors. Communications of the ACM: http://cacm.acm.org/ http://cacm.acm.org/. Most recent issue is free online; print subscription w/ digital back-issue access is $99/yr. Mix of academic and industry articles, leaning more academic, but written in a more accessible and concise style than a typical CS journal. The print version also includes some articles from online-only ACM publications (like Queue). AI Magazine: http://www.aaai.org/Magazine/magazine.php http://www.aaai.org/Magazine/magazine.php. Issues >1 yr old are open-access online; new issues are subscription-only. Print+digital subscription is $145/yr. A bit like CACM, in being journal-ish but with an aim at more readable general-interest articles. Some insider-ish news/column type stuff as well (reports on conferences and workshops, etc.). You may or may not be happy with any of those. The move towards a more magazine-style format is pretty new, and I think still being experimented with. I personally like glancing through and reading parts of CACM and AI Magazine, and less often Queue. I also know some people who like the general-audience IEEE magazines (IEEE Computer, IEEE Software, IEEE Micro, etc.), but I haven't read them enough to have an opinion.

upside 12y ago

While I'm sorry to hear of a business shutting down, I can't help feel a sense of joy that the advertising business model is beginning to lose ground. Im sure the Internet and the world benefitted from such a model, but at this point, I believe, the Internet and humanity will benefit from ditching all the useless junk that really just gets in the way and annoys people. I'm probably not alone in this, but when I see an ad on a page, I register a note in my memory model to never buy anything from that given company as payback for polluting my experience.

shtolcers 12y ago

Oh my... I just read 'Farewell, Dr. Boobs'. Need morning coffee urgently :)

filmgirlcw 12y ago

End of an era. Sad to see this go. So many great memories from this mag.

jonstewart 12y ago

Thank you, Dr. Dobb's. Requiescat in pace.

megablast 12y ago

Goodbye Mode X!

crystaln 12y ago

Why not pass the small operation off to someone who has the chance of keeping it alive?

drallison 12y ago

I was a founder, with Bob Albrecht, of the People's Computer Company and was the creator of Dr. Dobb's Journal. It is very sad to learn of the "sunset" of DDJ. I take some solace that DDJ survived longer than most of the other serious personal computing journals and continues to be relevant today. I am proud of the impact DDJ and PCC have had on our society. I am grateful for the contributions of the many DDJ authors and editors. Jim Warren, the first DDJ editor deserves special recognition, as does Bob Albrecht whose vision and insight guided PCC. Dennis Allison

diminish 12y ago
It's possible to keep Dr. Dobbs alive by factory resetting back to the startup mode. Announce here some share in DDJ to an additional tech cofounder with some ideas to pivot the Dr. Dobbs. Apply to YC. Here's my offer: I'll return DDJ into a blogger community focused on newer tech (Ruby/JS/Python/Rust/Go/Closure/Scala) with the same writing pleasure to "medium" or "svbtle". A lot of 20years old would love to write under the brand of DDJ. I ask 20% share only and as a cofounder have Andrew. Anyone has better ideas?
- easytiger 12y ago
  UBM would have to want to sell it. I'd be surprised if they didn't try that already. But could certainly win themselves some major points with the community they are selling other stuff too. I know someone there, will see if they know anything.
- Intermernet 12y ago
  The brand (DDJ) should have no bearing on such a site's popularity past it's initial launch. Indeed, to associate oneself with such a brand is to guarantee a level of quality of journalism that, if not met, diminishes the DDJ brand, as well as the startup. You'd best be willing to live up to this standard before trying to co-opt the DDJ brand. I'd say that, in all honesty, you shouldn't need the DDJ brand to achieve what you're suggesting. Just start a "blogger community focused on newer tech (Ruby/JS/Python/Rust/Go/Closure/Scala) with the same writing pleasure to "medium" or "svbtle"" and see how it goes. Don't try to ride on the bootstraps of a decades old brand that can thankfully still retire unblemished. A rarity in these times.

raymondh 12y ago

Dr. Dobb's, you will missed. Much of my career was built on knowledge gleaned from the magazine and website. Even now, I'm working through articles on CUDA programming with the same joy that many years ago I spent with the articles on Forth. So long. Your influence will be felt for decades. Raymond

lispython 12y ago

The only future for journalism might be reader revenue. Without it, everyone in this field were in danger of becoming a public relations or advertising company disguised as journalism. I'm an editor at Programmer Magazine in China (http://special.csdn.net/programmercovers/ http://special.csdn.net/programmercovers/), as a coincidence, after 14 years operation, we just release the last print issue last week and withdrawal towards the electronic version only. I think we share the similar experience and feeling about how the tech medias evolved recently. But media is still a very active field, if you have read the New York Times innovation report that leaked earlier this year, you may get a mixed feeling that with the risks, there are still opportunities to build an independent site with in-depth articles, code, algorithms, and reliable product reviews, which quality media should have. But unfortunately, most decisions were not made by the ones who love this career, have ability and skill to lead the change, and do not fear to face the risks.

Natsu 12y ago
> Without it, everyone in this field were in danger of becoming a public relations or advertising company disguised as journalism. We're rather far along down that road already, from what I can tell, and the place it leads terrifies me.
shawn-butler 12y ago
The good news is millennials seem to really want to pay subscriptions for things rather than own them. https://www.moviepass.com https://www.moviepass.com etc. I think even big chains like AMC are now offering subscriptions. Maybe paywall is going to become less of a dirty word. Subscriber revenue/data is definitely more valuable & predictable.
joelthelion 12y ago
I think what these guys (https://snowdrift.coop/ https://snowdrift.coop/) are doing might be useful for journalism, too.
greyman 12y ago
And what about publications like AnandTech? Their editorial seems to be independent of sales, and they are still doing fine.

zipwitch 12y ago

Reading this I realized something - I no longer trust online advertising. At all. Some years ago, I recall shopping for plane tickets and cheerfully clicking on the advertised results on Google. Now I actively avoid it. I've regularly seen what appear to be malicious ads on Gooogle itself. (Search for "SoftwareX" first advertised result is "SoftwareXDownloadFree.com" Yeah, legit. Sure.) As a matter of self-protection, I won't click on online ads.

istvan__ 12y ago

Isn't this happening partially because the social media platforms are more effective and most of the potential advertisers just use those?

Who828 12y ago

I am seriously going to miss Dr. Dobb's Jolt awards, it helped me find so many interesting books overtime (Release it!, Specification by example, Taming text, Team geek, Masterminds of Programming etc to name a few, here is the complete list if anyone else is interested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolt_Awards http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolt_Awards) Can't believe there won't be any jolt awards next year :(

nonuby 12y ago

Perhaps if they put some of that $3m in the glory days to expanding the focus and community around the site it wouldnt be this way, new users new revenue streams.... Kind of like slashdot (sold for a big mac) and soon infoq (e.g. more conferences puylishing to youtube now) It will be news to Google and Bing (and their share price) that "advertising on websites" doesn't work. I suspect they were still working a CPM advertising model that died around the start of the century.

q2 12y ago

I read several articles on Dr. Dobb's. I can get various high quality details on various technologies with independent perspective. Several articles are bookmarked for future reference. Is it possible to preserve archives forever for future consumption? I do not know about financials but I still feel there is place for high quality software industry related journal.

Cppete 12y ago

Arghhh! Despair is what I feel now.

jestinjoy1 12y ago

This is very sad. Last time I had the same feeling reading closing down news from http://www.h-online.com/open/ http://www.h-online.com/open/. Very sad that these people are finding it difficult to stay alive even though they provide top class content. Why couldn't they stay alive if Facebook can Google can live on ad revenue.

josh_fyi 12y ago

Thank you for publishing my first-ever article in the software field back -- back when publishing on dead trees had more cachet than the web! http://www.drdobbs.com/collaborative-applications-and-the-java/184403999 http://www.drdobbs.com/collaborative-applications-and-the-ja...

peter303 12y ago

Byte is a another generalist+software magazine that was pretty good and didnt survive. Most of the magazines still being printed are dovted to a single platform. And they cover application usage rather than development.

cpks 12y ago

This seems almost a perfect way to end. I grew up with Dr. Dobbs. It's hard for me to overstate the impact it had on me growing up. It maintained a high standard of quality and integrity. When I was a little kid, Dr. Dobbs was the only place to turn to for high-quality, in-depth, long-form content on programming. I was limited to the topics it covered. Today, I can search for thousands of blog posts on whatever interests me. I can read LKML. I can read LWN. What was once a niche is now mainstream. If Dr. Dobbs stuck around, it was going to go the way of Radio Shack. That would have been sad. As is, it was a good reign, and a big and positive impact on the world. Now that relevance is gone. The ongoing impact is tiny. It's a good time to move on.