Note: This editorial contains important information for subscribers.
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
We are at a moment of decision in the publishing of NYRSF, and here is what we see in our future: We will continue to publish print issues through the end of the current volume in July 2012. It does not appear that we will continue in print past then but will switch to PDFs of entire issues. These may be emailed to subscribers, or we may decide not to have subscribers and just make each issue available online, either for a nominal charge or for free. We will almost certainly also offer a print-on-demand option as well.
What has brought us to this moment is that our long-time printer, Odyssey Press, was sold in October, after we had sent the November issue to them. Odyssey did not print it, because by the time it was prepared they had run entirely out of paper, and so they sent the job to the new owner in Pennsylvania. They did ultimately print it, late in November, but did not mail it until December 2. Thus we missed a calendar month for the first time in our 23-year history. We have only now received our first printing bill from them and have sent our December issue to them today, two weeks late, because we were not confident that they could remain our printer until they actually printed and mailed an issue at the agreed price. It has been an anxious six weeks. We do not know how it will play out over the coming months.
Many of you know that we have offered a PDF subscription to overseas and non-US subscribers for the last couple of years, but we are now, this minute, offering this option to all subscribers. If it is time for you to renew your subscription, we want you to know that you can switch immediately to all-electronic for the reduced price of $3.00/issue. We recommend it to you as the best option, since the process is already in place. And that price is good worldwide.
For now, we are not accepting subscriptions past July until we have decided on our future course. For those of you who have recently renewed, contact us directly about subscription extension and conversion to PDF if you wish to convert now. A year from now we may well not be offering a print option.
—David G. Hartwell, Kevin J. Maroney,
& the editors
