CHIP India has shut down!

And so the pink slips continue at the Network18 group. Clear signs that the company is trying to bring efficiencies into what was once a bloated organisation. This time the layoffs have happened at Infomedia 18, the group's publishing arm, which has laid off journos at Chip magazine today. The journos were given marching orders but were given three months severance pay in order to allow them to tide over until they get another job.

Source: Indian Television Dot Com > News Headline >Infomedia's Chip's journos get marching orders

hmm soo chip magazine is down ....I really liked the quality of paper they used on magazine

So, no CHIP magazine will be available in India hereafter?
Once ordered a magazine with them, it was a terrible experience with tracking..

and that's my last though..

lol, I remember some people said 'You know, chip gives some certificates to advertisers only irrespective of how the product is and emphasize on our brand. You should do the same if you want to be as successful as them'.

.

I used to buy chip magazeine when jasubhai group was attached to them...then Digit came and I got only 2-3 chip magazine after that ...

Before 2011:
Chip was 10 times better than Digit Magazines
Now,
All are crap

No offense thinkdigit

Man I like CHIP magazines

So now there are no other PC/Tech focused magazines except Digit?

I personally preferred Chip over Digit. Really sad news.

"R.I.P" to CHIP magazine

R

Digit should reduce price to Rs.100 otherwise we might hear soon- "DIGIT Magazine has shut down!"

These mags have now become obsolete, why pay ~150 when you got all the info free on the internet..

Great!!

regmi said:
Digit should reduce price to Rs.100 otherwise we might hear soon- "DIGIT Magazine has shut down!"

+1, for this.
Days of shutdown is not far away,if Broadband prices are optimised more(May be reduced or increase in Bandwidth...)for most of us netizens.

RIP CHIP.... from 2006-2009 , I used to get both chip and digit , after that stopped reading both because of broadband

Though mostly all of us(including myself) use BB Internet connection from various ISP's,still I used to buy and also purchase the SPECIAL/COLLECTORS editions of both IC-Chip and thinkdigit.
Purchase from newsstand ONLY.

Never a subscriber of IC-Chip nor thinkdigit.

D

kg11sgbg said:
+1, for this.
Days of shutdown is not far away,if Broadband prices are optimised more(May be reduced or increase in Bandwidth...)for most of us netizens.

BB prices will be optimised and effective speed will be reduced. You will subscribe to a connection without knowing this, perhaps!!!

regmi said:
Digit should reduce price to Rs.100 otherwise we might hear soon- "DIGIT Magazine has shut down!"

+1 to this...........

soon we may discuss in this forum digit magazine shut down............

G

Sad.

Weeks ago Network18 layoff 500ppl total from CNNIBN and IBN7.People say reliance engineered it.

The buzz now is even NDTV is layingoff this week.

Very bad economic situation in industry currently.

RIP Chip.

I used to read CHIP since the Jasubhai days. Sad to note that it has stopped.

So how big is the party at Digit headquarters?

Everything is getting digitised so this problem may occur ro many magazine too. Does Digit has a digital one?

Sad news...
Between get ready to see 30% hikes on Broadband plans soon :mrgreen:

RIP CHIP
3#Iwillmissyou :-(

RIP CHIP
#Iwillmissyou :-(

RIP CHIP
#Iwillmissyou :-(

If it's true, I'm really disappointed because I find chip the best alternative tech mag after digit and infact at some point of times, chip has been better than digit.

I remember during 2005-2009 Chip was way better than digit (digit had hot girls

in the front cover to attract customers) .....then digit got better n Chip started doing what digit used to do (hot girls :razz:

).......sad though

.....I always used to compare articles on both before buying (got digit mostly)....alas no more comparing now ...

digik said:
BB prices will be optimised and effective speed will be reduced. You will subscribe to a connection without knowing this, perhaps!!!

Subscribed long to BSNL DataOne BB : Home Combo ULD950 pack(UNLIMITED)...

gta0gagan said:
+1 to this...........

soon we may discuss in this forum digit magazine shut down............

If the mag shuts down, then the forum would shut down too.

Damn... I personally preferred Chip to the crap that Digit let's out these days... What about T3??? That was Network18 owned too, right??? Will that magazine shut down too??? :-/

Although I do take slight offense at the word "crap" - you're entitled to your opinion.

However, why not give us specific feedback and point out how you'd like us to improve? We will certainly try. Also, contrary to popular belief, we're not partying, we certainly wouldn't wish pink slips on anyone, and we were never really bothered about what everyone else was doing anyway.

All that matters to us is to keep our readers thinking out of the box with articles that are different from what you usually get elsewhere, and not being afraid to take a stand and ask uncomfortable questions - not just of companies, but of the readers too.

As for the price, it was raised only because of skyrocketing costs. We make a lot less profit now than we did when we were Rs 100. However we still have enough readers out there who still prefer paper as a reading medium, and it's not about costs always for everyone. Rs 200 a month is a pittance these days, especially if you count the number of letters we get from current readers, and even past readers who are now entrepreneurs, thanking us for encouraging them to think different. Paper is just another medium to us, tomorrow it may be a digital version if that's what you want, or a mobile app, or maybe a direct hookup to your brain for all we know.

We're not in the magazine or website business, everyone here at Digit just wants to leave their mark on the Indian IT business, and encourage free thinking and knowledge sharing. It may sound like a pipe dream to the more sceptical, but we're not disillusioned enough to give up trying just yet.

H

Raaabo said:
direct hookup to your brain

I fully support this initiative.

maybe a direct hookup to your brain for all we know.

you got me interested !!

jokes aside, @ rs. 200 per month, i think its an acceptable value, but i wish there was more content in.

btw.. R.I.P CHIP. I shall always remember the day i was travelling in train & i picked up chip because i couldn't find digit at the magazine stand. You were a true friend that day.

T

I travel frequently but I have never purchased a tech magazine. It never came to my mind. May be I am one of those people who think "Why would I need to read a tech magazine?" , though I always purchase Frontline/Outlook/India Today/Novel. May be tech magazines are costly when compared to these (correction: i rarely buy novels though i did buy)but this never struck my mind that I can buy a tech magazine!

MY best Companions during travel : Outlook/India today>Sportstar>Tech magazine>Automobile Magazine>Pdf on mobiles.

Print media >>> digital media.
Gives satisfaction by keeping hooked up.

dashing.sujay said:
Print media >>> digital media.
Gives satisfaction by keeping hooked up.

yeah but becomes obsolete in a month :/

Digit should move into digital media,As print media esp these tech magazines are dying,I know many people who had stopped buying chip magazine and slowly many might stop buying others to,Digit should probably see some innovative way to bring out something new in the digital media.
You all you should have more youtube reviews and I'm sure you'll can earn more in that.
Another reason,I stopped buying magazines is my cd drawers are full with those cd's that come with these books.

Digit should seriously consider retailing "No CD/DVD" Issues too,along with the normal mag + dvd's

Chip survived so long as it was backed by viacom 18.Tech2 might still survive

Raaabo said:
Although I do take slight offense at the word "crap" - you're entitled to your opinion.

However, why not give us specific feedback and point out how you'd like us to improve? We will certainly try. Also, contrary to popular belief, we're not partying, we certainly wouldn't wish pink slips on anyone, and we were never really bothered about what everyone else was doing anyway.

All that matters to us is to keep our readers thinking out of the box with articles that are different from what you usually get elsewhere, and not being afraid to take a stand and ask uncomfortable questions - not just of companies, but of the readers too.

As for the price, it was raised only because of skyrocketing costs. We make a lot less profit now than we did when we were Rs 100. However we still have enough readers out there who still prefer paper as a reading medium, and it's not about costs always for everyone. Rs 200 a month is a pittance these days, especially if you count the number of letters we get from current readers, and even past readers who are now entrepreneurs, thanking us for encouraging them to think different. Paper is just another medium to us, tomorrow it may be a digital version if that's what you want, or a mobile app, or maybe a direct hookup to your brain for all we know.

We're not in the magazine or website business, everyone here at Digit just wants to leave their mark on the Indian IT business, and encourage free thinking and knowledge sharing. It may sound like a pipe dream to the more sceptical, but we're not disillusioned enough to give up trying just yet.

OMG Raaabo finally makes a public appearance.

I am not sure, but I think you were part of the Chip team during the Jasubhai days, right? Correct me if I am wrong.

Warning: Long post ahead

CommanderShawnzer said:
Digit should seriously consider retailing "No CD/DVD" Issues too,along with the normal mag + dvd's

For newsstand this becomes a problem, but we have this as a subscription plan. Talk to our helpdesk if interested.

theserpent said:
Digit should move into digital media,As print media esp these tech magazines are dying,I know many people who had stopped buying chip magazine and slowly many might stop buying others to,Digit should probably see some innovative way to bring out something new in the digital media.
You all you should have more youtube reviews and I'm sure you'll can earn more in that.
Another reason,I stopped buying magazines is my cd drawers are full with those cd's that come with these books.

Print Magazines are more niche now, yes, but they're not dead. There's just something to be said for real paper in hand. Perhaps in a few years print will be gone for good, or be super niche, but we still have a readership over over 2 lakh to keep happy for now

I will be working on a proper digital subscription model soon, and thinkdigit is also going to come out with some very interesting new ideas and innovations that we're all excited about. I still think people giving up on magazines or paid content (print, digital, whatever) just because they have broadband is a mistake. There's something to be said for discovery of information, for sharing ideas, for considering other points of view, broadening your skills, thinking out of the box... It's easy to say, "I have broadband, I'll read what I want for free, why pay..." But how much do you really read then? Most of us just download a lot of movies and music, spend time on YouTube, etc., and then read only what's in our interest areas, happily ignoring everything else.

Magazines / paid content of all forms are like a contract of trust between readers and us content creators. We do the work of sifting through the millions of things happening, and find what's relevant, what needs to be thought more about, what are the other ways to look at certain "facts", etc., and readers pay a nominal fee to get the results of all that research. We get salaries from that, and it encourages us to do even better and dig even deeper. That's the Digit idea, at least, and I prefer it that way because any company that charges readers nothing, and depends solely on advertisers for revenue, then becomes a model to fear.

Think about it, the reason Digit will do F**k You Consumers type of stories, or the more recent Flipkart story, and others don't, is because of you, our readers, who pay our salaries. It's why the magazine exists, even though only around 2 lakh people read the mag and something like 5 million people come to the site.

No one in our company has ever asked us editorial staff to write favourably about any company, or even reads what we write before we publish it, and I never expect our directors to ever do that. It's left to the editors to decide, and we will publish anything fact-based, no matter whose egos it bruises, or which toes we step on. This develops an attitude, the Digit attitude I call it, for all of our writers and reviewers, who know that only the facts and the testing results matter to what we write, and we don't care if company A is our biggest advertiser, if their product sucks, we say it sucks. If we write a feature about how customers are getting screwed, we couldn't care less if no one advertises that month, because we know it's a story that needs to be told...

However, if we were an ad-only revenue model, even with our directors never pressurising us, when appraisals dry up, and pink slips start coming because we can't afford to run as an independent, maverick and care-free editorial voice, because advertisers can find others who won't bother with all that and toe their desired line... you can guess what happens to morale, and how fast the desire to be factual and always correct with a "give a damn" attitude dries up.

Anyway, the idea of posting this is not to say "Buy Digit", on the contrary, if you really feel Digit is worthless to you, stop buying, and tell us, and it's our headache to figure out how to make it relevant again, and get you to buy it again.

However, don't go down the path of thinking "Why waste money on any content, when I can get it for free with broadband." because that will just degrade the type of content you get and turn it into all of the "bloggers" out there who "review" products. They're mostly just fanboys and paid mouthpieces of certain companies. They're enjoying trips abroad for free, and getting their hands on the latest gadgets, but they're also totally dependent on said companies to be of any relevance, or any importance - vicious circle. If we all give in to accepting that as the media we trust, then we lose as a whole. You might as well start buying products and deciding careers solely based on advertising and "popular opinion", and I'm sure none of you really wants that. Right?

@DesmondDavid: No, I joined Digit in Feb 2003, before that I was a regular reader of Jasubhai's Chip since 1998, which became Digit in 2001.

D

kg11sgbg said:
Subscribed long to BSNL DataOne BB : Home Combo ULD950 pack(UNLIMITED)...

Soon u will find that your pack has been discontinued and u will be facing frequent disconnections. U will call BSNL and nothing will be done. Then u will meet them personally, they will suggest u to subscribe to new plan. U will get new plan at higher rate and ur problem will get solved - perhaps!!! :lol:

Raaabo said:
Warning: Long post ahead

For newsstand this becomes a problem, but we have this as a subscription plan. Talk to our helpdesk if interested.

Print Magazines are more niche now, yes, but they're not dead. There's just something to be said for real paper in hand. Perhaps in a few years print will be gone for good, or be super niche, but we still have a readership over over 2 lakh to keep happy for now

I will be working on a proper digital subscription model soon, and thinkdigit is also going to come out with some very interesting new ideas and innovations that we're all excited about. I still think people giving up on magazines or paid content (print, digital, whatever) just because they have broadband is a mistake. There's something to be said for discovery of information, for sharing ideas, for considering other points of view, broadening your skills, thinking out of the box... It's easy to say, "I have broadband, I'll read what I want for free, why pay..." But how much do you really read then? Most of us just download a lot of movies and music, spend time on YouTube, etc., and then read only what's in our interest areas, happily ignoring everything else.

Magazines / paid content of all forms are like a contract of trust between readers and us content creators. We do the work of sifting through the millions of things happening, and find what's relevant, what needs to be thought more about, what are the other ways to look at certain "facts", etc., and readers pay a nominal fee to get the results of all that research. We get salaries from that, and it encourages us to do even better and dig even deeper. That's the Digit idea, at least, and I prefer it that way because any company that charges readers nothing, and depends solely on advertisers for revenue, then becomes a model to fear.

Think about it, the reason Digit will do F**k You Consumers type of stories, or the more recent Flipkart story, and others don't, is because of you, our readers, who pay our salaries. It's why the magazine exists, even though only around 2 lakh people read the mag and something like 5 million people come to the site.

No one in our company has ever asked us editorial staff to write favourably about any company, or even reads what we write before we publish it, and I never expect our directors to ever do that. It's left to the editors to decide, and we will publish anything fact-based, no matter whose egos it bruises, or which toes we step on. This develops an attitude, the Digit attitude I call it, for all of our writers and reviewers, who know that only the facts and the testing results matter to what we write, and we don't care if company A is our biggest advertiser, if their product sucks, we say it sucks. If we write a feature about how customers are getting screwed, we couldn't care less if no one advertises that month, because we know it's a story that needs to be told...

However, if we were an ad-only revenue model, even with our directors never pressurising us, when appraisals dry up, and pink slips start coming because we can't afford to run as an independent, maverick and care-free editorial voice, because advertisers can find others who won't bother with all that and toe their desired line... you can guess what happens to morale, and how fast the desire to be factual and always correct with a "give a damn" attitude dries up.

Anyway, the idea of posting this is not to say "Buy Digit", on the contrary, if you really feel Digit is worthless to you, stop buying, and tell us, and it's our headache to figure out how to make it relevant again, and get you to buy it again.

However, don't go down the path of thinking "Why waste money on any content, when I can get it for free with broadband." because that will just degrade the type of content you get and turn it into all of the "bloggers" out there who "review" products. They're mostly just fanboys and paid mouthpieces of certain companies. They're enjoying trips abroad for free, and getting their hands on the latest gadgets, but they're also totally dependent on said companies to be of any relevance, or any importance - vicious circle. If we all give in to accepting that as the media we trust, then we lose as a whole. You might as well start buying products and deciding careers solely based on advertising and "popular opinion", and I'm sure none of you really wants that. Right?

@DesmondDavid: No, I joined Digit in Feb 2003, before that I was a regular reader of Jasubhai's Chip since 1998, which became Digit in 2001.

The first issue of Digit I bought was in Nov. 2001 and it was worth every penny, every month for 3 years running. In mid-2004 you lot changed the style of the content, slimmed the magazine, changed the type of paper and added a bucketload of ads. I switched to CHIP after that. CHIP had excellent content for a few years between 2004 and 2010. After that, I think, Digit caught up again.
I buy Digit or CHIP once every few months, mostly because of the fact that holding a paper magazine is a different feeling altogether. Now with the demise of CHIP, I just hope Digit doesn't become complacent.

T

Raaabo said:
However, don't go down the path of thinking "Why waste money on any content, when I can get it for free with broadband." because that will just degrade the type of content you get and turn it into all of the "bloggers" out there who "review" products. They're mostly just fanboys and paid mouthpieces of certain companies. They're enjoying trips abroad for free, and getting their hands on the latest gadgets, but they're also totally dependent on said companies to be of any relevance, or any importance - vicious circle. If we all give in to accepting that as the media we trust, then we lose as a whole. You might as well start buying products and deciding careers solely based on advertising and "popular opinion", and I'm sure none of you really wants that. Right?

Agree with that. People who say "Why waste money when I can get it for free" should re-think because "paid" content has arrived in the online space & one will have to pay for content like they do in case of print. I don't get why , say, The Hindu would allow their editorials & opinion pages online for free, just like that. I like how gigaom have introduced paid content. Why would anyone allow their hard work to be available for free? It's their daily livelihood.
I am not sure how do companies/developers benefit from ad-only revenues when people are installing Ad-Block Plus in their browsers?
And yeah, those so-called "reviewers" :-D

. Nobody does a job for free. They either get paid or return a favour :-D

.

D

Raaabo said:
Warning: Long post ahead

For newsstand this becomes a problem, but we have this as a subscription plan.[COLOR]

Click to expand...

If u can ensure delivery at doorsteps and prompt response to grievances, many will go to subscription mode.

Print Magazines are more niche now, yes, but they're not dead.[COLOR]

Click to expand...

I agree with u. It will never be dead. Any serious reading material is ought to be in printed format. No kind of digital reader can replace it in this matter.

I will be working on a proper digital subscription model soon, and thinkdigit is also going to come out with some very interesting new ideas and innovations that we're all excited about. I still think people giving up on magazines or paid content (print, digital, whatever) just because they have broadband is a mistake. There's something to be said for discovery of information, for sharing ideas, for considering other points of view, broadening your skills, thinking out of the box... It's easy to say, "I have broadband, I'll read what I want for free, why pay..." But how much do you really read then? Most of us just download a lot of movies and music, spend time on YouTube, etc., and then read only what's in our interest areas, happily ignoring everything else.[COLOR]

Click to expand...

Agreed.

Another opinion about contents of Digit.

Your publication has to cater the needs of various readers and so every opinion request cannot be acceded to. I would request to add contents for persons who want to learn computer or the students of CS. You have some contents in DVDs and magazine itself. They are definitely good. But, I would request for some more in lines of contents of PC Quest/ Chip. Hope you will ponder over it.

Have nice day ahead. We magazine readers are with u.

Omg... My post woke Raaabo up from his hibernation!!!

On a serious note, I do buy Digit, Chip(RIP!!! :'( ), Stuff and T3 every month even though their content is mostly crap and not up to the standards of some international tech websites; just cause they give us the tech perspective from an Indian point of view... After all, beggars can't be choosers... :-(

Would love it if the quality of the content improves and the ads are reduced significantly... The writing style and vocabulary also should have a little panache instead of the usual drab affair... And, finally, hope to see an independent Digit app soon instead of a subscription based model in another app like Magzster!!!

This is bad. Though I always liked digit magazines more than chip,but their dvd's content were always way better than digit.I mean they always offered one software for each category, be it image editing,browsers,security etc etc.I never felt the need to download anything from internet.Just put the dvd in and it was always there. Thank you chip. I'll miss you.

ZTR said:
Man I like CHIP magazines

So now there are no other PC/Tech focused magazines except Digit?

There are three or four. Pc world is one of them. My college library has subscribed to these. Don't remember other names coz I only read digit.

Good thing is this will reduce no.of trees cut... :-D

Bad thing : Lesser competition :-|

Better Photography next?

Harsh Pranami said:
There are three or four. Pc world is one of them. My college library has subscribed to these. Don't remember other names coz I only read digit.

PC World India shut down their print publication back in July 11th btw. I think only Digit stands in print?

The Sorcerer said:
PC World India shut down their print publication back in July 11th btw. I think only Digit stands in print?

There are others. Something called linux,windows etc. I don't remember their complete names.

If you're considering tech magazine in general, yeah. But those who do reviews, especially PC Hardware?

Anyway, the idea of posting this is not to say "Buy Digit", on the contrary, if you really feel Digit is worthless to you, stop buying, and tell us, and it's our headache to figure out how to make it relevant again, and get you to buy it again.

It's not worthless,Digit has more Informative content actually,The only thing digit needs is better presentation and removing some un-nesscary points.

Kl@w-24 said:
The first issue of Digit I bought was in Nov. 2001 and it was worth every penny, every month for 3 years running. In mid-2004 you lot changed the style of the content, slimmed the magazine, changed the type of paper and added a bucketload of ads. I switched to CHIP after that. CHIP had excellent content for a few years between 2004 and 2010. After that, I think, Digit caught up again.
I buy Digit or CHIP once every few months, mostly because of the fact that holding a paper magazine is a different feeling altogether. Now with the demise of CHIP, I just hope Digit doesn't become complacent.

I started reading all the magazines back in 2009,back then they had excellent content,Once they had put a offer subscribe for 1 year get another year free,I guess that was 2010,Some where around last year some of their amazing authors including the gaming ones,I think his name was sameer left chip after that even their gaming supplement became very boring.

I am not a regular reader of chip but will surely miss the magazine.

And I hope they continue their website chip.in
May be their website can generate some revenue for them.

S

Once upon a Time i use to Buy old jasubhai's Chip magazine for : Antivirus update ,freewares , Small Free games and Games Demos .

also loved reading magazine a Plus Point to buy magazine ..

i was having 3 yrs of jasubhai's Chip magazine and 1 year of Chip and 1 yr of Digit

But after Broadband come at home , i just stop buying Digit as all info and required software available on net..
Same moment Joined Thinkdigit forum : 2003

didn't brought Digit past 5-6 years , but still come to forum and site for updates still today !!!

Thinkdigit.com = Indian version of Small Engadget.com :- in my view

^ and you're the oldest member active after admin

dashing.sujay said:
^ and you're the oldest member active after admin

T

when did internet became active in India btw :-D

?

G

Yes Tech magazine delivery model has to change to something more innovative.

Paid online subscription won't make much difference.

One idea will be to make magazine open to everyone online like times of india delivery model to offer free e-paper online.
At the same time , continue magazines for readers who prefer paper medium.

T

gopi_vbboy said:
Yes Tech magazine delivery model has to change to something more innovative.

Paid online subscription won't make much difference.

One idea will be to make magazine open to everyone online like times of india delivery model to offer free e-paper online.
At the same time , continue magazines for readers who prefer paper medium.

I don't think that has long term feasibility for the company as Raabo mentioned. Why would you want to give away your hard work for free?

Raaabo said:
Magazines / paid content of all forms are like a contract of trust between readers and us content creators. We do the work of sifting through the millions of things happening, and find what's relevant, what needs to be thought more about, what are the other ways to look at certain "facts", etc., and readers pay a nominal fee to get the results of all that research. We get salaries from that, and it encourages us to do even better and dig even deeper. That's the Digit idea, at least, and I prefer it that way because any company that charges readers nothing, and depends solely on advertisers for revenue, then becomes a model to fear.

gopi_vbboy said:
Yes Tech magazine delivery model has to change to something more innovative.

Paid online subscription won't make much difference.

One idea will be to make magazine open to everyone online like times of india delivery model to offer free e-paper online.
At the same time , continue magazines for readers who prefer paper medium.

can work out only to newspapers not mags.

T

amjath said:
can work out only to newspapers not mags.

New York Times/The Washington Post now allow you only specific number of articles to be read for free.

G

theterminator said:
I don't think that has long term feasibility for the company as Raabo mentioned. Why would you want to give away your hard work for free?

The broadband penetration surely is increasing every year.Why wont readers for open content?

1.3-5 years ago i use to use Winzip or Winrar.But with rising popularity of
open source 7Zip, i never download non free soft.

2.Look at Mozilla and android story.

3.Just look at some indian news sites which allows its active/knowledgeable readers to write articles on website.
The delivery model of media is surely changing.

4.Today news channels take opinions of social media users?Why ?
The even have program for twitter trends everyday on TV.

Openness always has always given path to creativity and innovation.If not digit, some other player will catchup.

T

gopi_vbboy said:
The broadband penetration surely is increasing every year.Why wont readers for open content?

1.3-5 years ago i use to use Winzip or Winrar.But with rising popularity of
open source 7Zip, i never download non free soft.

2.Look at Mozilla and android story.

3.Just look at some indian news sites which allows its active/knowledgeable readers to write articles on website.
The delivery model of media is surely changing.

4.Today news channels take opinions of social media users?Why ?
The even have program for twitter trends everyday on TV.

1 & 2 are open-source projects. They are results of some exceptional humans' voluntary works like Jimmy Wales, Linus Torvalds,etc . You may never download non-free soft but not everyone can. It depends on what you want.

3 & 4. Yes, news channels take opinions of social media users. But they're only a sort of quick feedback. That doesn't give salaries to the employees. They take up Twitter trends because its just another medium of communication. What is different is that , its a really fast one :-D

. Btw news channels are a different context since their revenues come from TRPs n all that.

gopi_vbboy said:
The broadband penetration surely is increasing every year.Why wont readers for open content?

1.3-5 years ago i use to use Winzip or Winrar.But with rising popularity of
open source 7Zip, i never download non free soft.

2.Look at Mozilla and android story.

3.Just look at some indian news sites which allows its active/knowledgeable readers to write articles on website.
The delivery model of media is surely changing.

4.Today news channels take opinions of social media users?Why ?
The even have program for twitter trends everyday on TV.

Openness always has always given path to creativity and innovation.If not digit, some other player will catchup.

Open content? What do you mean by that? Opinions? Everyone has one, so why bother with any site? Jjust sit on Facebook and like what's popular, just click on links that are shared, and go the popular opinion is the right one way, like good little sheep. It's what the powers that be really, really want us all to be.

If all content creators just go the advertiser way, what happens to the independent voice? Sure you are independent, and yes you have a voice, but it's lost in the cacophony of everyone else also shouting their opinions as loudly as they can. I have no doubt that each and every one of you will be able to write articles as well researched and informative as we are able to, and some of you perhaps even better - some may take a year to research, some may take only a week, but eventually every single person on this planet can get across information in an unbiased manner without prejudice, that's helpful to a mass of other people.

However, why doesn't it happen? You can spot the fanboys a mile away, as with the paid mouthpieces. Sure there are quite a few blogs who are not biased and do a good job, but why aren't there so many that all forms of structured content generators are already dead? God knows how many times I've had to stop arguments on this forum between people with opposing views, and even more of you throw in even more facts that the two people fighting probably never even considered. There's a simple answer to all of that - it's not your job. You don't live and breathe to do that. Period.

Many bloggers have tried that, and realised that when it becomes a job, it gets serious. You need money. You need an investment. You need seeding to be able to get popular and famous, and you need to earn your respect. Is it impossible? Of course not and some have done it, but those blogs usually go on to become a group of people anyway, and start resembling a media company. Depending on how quickly they want to turn profitable, and how much traffic they get, yes they can be successful, and also be completely unbiased. However, you then get certain tactics being used against you. A simple one is company x deciding to send their latest model of phone, first, to those known to give positive reviews to them. So that the cacophony of voices seem to love their new products. Later when all the hype has died down, maybe your unbiased blogger will get his hands on the device, and maybe not. Eventually, his site suffers and traffic falls, because Google is a fickle friend.

The difference with us, organised media, is that we generally are considered more influential in the long run, and cannot be ignored as easily. Plus companies are required to send us products for review, and if they don't, we can say company X refused to send us so-and-so products despite us trying, and our readers know what that usually means... Company X is probably afraid of what we'll say about their all-new, greatest-thing-since-denim product. Also, since our readers pay us, we can also afford to go out and spend to buy some such products and thumb our noses at company X and review it anyway. If a blogger complains about the same thing, he comes across as a whiner, or as someone unimportant. Plus Company X has a valid enough argument to say, "hey we can't ship a million pieces to a million bloggers..." And all of us would say, "makes sense".

Regardless of where it is, even if it's foreign content or Indian, haven't you noticed that all the best articles, the stories that make you think, the content that you discuss with friends when serious, articles that really taught you something, are overwhelmingly from media groups that have a subscription model, and charge at least some users for content, in the form of a print magazine, a digital subscription, or something. This model just inspires research and thinking, as people are paid to do exactly that. The day the paid / subscription model dies out totally, it becomes a simple fight of being first, being the most visible, and just plugging away stories as fast as you can. I'll get out of this business the day that happens, personally, because in order to make money, and thus survive, the strict code of morality will increasingly become flexible. Such is the nature of business. If you owned a site that was popular, and all you could count on to make money was ads and the hope that people would click on them, you'd try to attract those kinds of people, you'd try and attract people who will click on the ads, and not care about the few who wouldn't. When being unbiased sees your business decline, and you start to worry about making payments on your EMIs, you'll have two choices - toe the line or get out of the business.

It's why we don't bother trying to force ads on people on this forum, after a certain number of posts are made. Because the forum is meant for our community. The visitors who don't care and come here via google will read and leave, and they should see ads. The readers that support us by buying our content (sadly only via a print magazine at the moment), just shouldn't need to see anymore than the print ads, and they don't. However, I'm looking at finding new ways to be of service in a way that you would pay for. I think services is one way to do this, but I'm wide open to suggestions. What would you like digit to do for you that you wouldn't mind paying a nominal fee for? There has to be something more than just going down the banner ad way for websites in order to be useful to a community, I'm sure.

Look forward to your suggestions.

T

Suggestions:
1. Digit Magazine can introduce an Android/iOS/WindowsPhone app at a price.

2. Digit can enter new market space using Internet like starting a Podcast accessible through Internet Radio which can be accessed through apps like TuneIn. This is a market where there is no Indian player I guess but it has immense potential especially as we have a bunch of nerds & geeks in India :-D

.

3. An e-magazine with attractive pricing of full versions of softwares is desirable.

And about the 'million pieces to million bloggers' part, media samples are always circulated, at-least in India. No1 gives samples to those who are not known at all, unless one is very desperate for product exposure (like $ingh, few unknown youtubers and certain others who have their own forums) to show it to their clients.

Those who do send samples to those who don't know what they're doing, this is what happens:

So, no1 gives samples to bloggers/forum reviewers/you-tubers just like that unless its taken care by a PR who either don't know how to do things, or desperate for exposure. Eventually, it does more harm than good. ROI plays an important role. Those who are credible build readership slowly and steadily, eventually companies send them review samples, you build more testing method relevant for the end users, gain more credibility, therefore ROI...all this builds up. But if you compromise, credibility goes down, and you're done. That's why testing method is very important.

T

theterminator said:
Suggestions:
1. Digit Magazine can introduce an Android/iOS/WindowsPhone app at a price.

Just to add to that: Digit Magazine can also launch their apps free for download but allowing only a limited number of articles to read. For more, users can buy a subscription. This is on the lines of New York Times.

theterminator said:
Just to add to that: Digit Magazine can also launch their apps free for download but allowing only a limited number of articles to read. For more, users can buy a subscription. This is on the lines of New York Times.

Instead of limited articles, ad support will do.
Premium review/article should be with paid app

T

amjath said:
Instead of limited articles, ad support will do.
Premium review/article should be with paid app

Infact, that's the model that is very common. Though I rarely buy paid apps when I use free version, that may be not be the case with everyone.

theterminator said:
Infact, that's the model that is very common. Though I rarely buy paid apps when I use free version, that may be not be the case with everyone.

First of all, Forgot to say Good Suggestion in #65
BTW if u take free app, ad gives digit revenue
if u take paid app, u get premium content

T

amjath said:
First of all, Forgot to say Good Suggestion in #65
BTW if u take free app, ad gives digit revenue
if u take paid app, u get premium content

that depends on how much the management can survive with that.

theterminator said:
that depends on how much the management can survive with that.

if u r completely dependent on google ad revenue then u r doomed. U can find QR codes and website links in physical magazine, you need to negotiate with companies like you do for physical magazine and have ur specific ads.

T

amjath said:
if u r completely dependent on google ad revenue then u r doomed. U can find QR codes and website links in physical magazine, you need to negotiate with companies like you do for physical magazine and have ur specific ads.

apart from getting revenue for magazine purchased by user

I was wondering if I could get the really old magazines in PDF format, just for the sake of nostalgia you know.

I had some old issues of chip lying around with reviews of Pentium 4 and Geforce 3 (chief components of my first gaming rig BTW

)

S

I also have good suggestion for thinkdigit .

Right now there is BIG craze of review , unboxing and comparison of hardware and software on YouTube and that to much amateur.

Public are hitting more Videos searches then then Read content after Google search , as it is easy to grasp and look more interactive.

but some are really nice and Trying to grab attention like : Geekyranjeet and iGyaan etc But they do not review other mobiles and laptops and tables.

There are more things like TV , music player and many more . which i tried to search and gets no valid videos to check out ...

If digit start a You tube or Youtube like Video sites for technology gadgets review / unboxing etc ... they may can come back

-- BUT Imp note : You have to maintain the number of videos uploaded every day to flood you-tube with lots and lots of gadget videos and then move them to check magazine ,

most People subscribe and Daily check any video uploaded by that User and check out new videos : this is way to get popularity

to increase there Magazine popularity .. they can hit as " for more in-depth info , please try out our magazine" - Only once your Video site / you tube channel is hit

Earlier for public attraction i think you must share free

Some Videos are still there from gadget guru , tech guru etc which comes on TV But those are So BAD quality like 320p 240p .. it almost feels like check any other video then that one

also they show the TV show where in we have to check out complete video to check where is our interested product being revived in 20 mins video

Adding some magazine contents (in brief) as Videos and asking to check magazine might also do

warfreak said:
I was wondering if I could get the really old magazines in PDF format, just for the sake of nostalgia you know.

I had some old issues of chip lying around with reviews of Pentium 4 and Geforce 3 (chief components of my first gaming rig BTW )

Digit included last 12 years of digit in PDF format in the 12th ann. issue.

T

A YouTube channel is for public attraction which I don't think Digit needs since they already have a fanbase. Though it can be added to that through a channel. But I don't think that's a long term playing field.
Tech Journalism is less than niche here in India whereas it has really taken off in developed countries like USA/UK. Just see the number of big players we are talking here:
CNET (owned by CBS)
allthingsd.com (owned by Wall Street Journal)
Engadget
TechRadar
TheVerge
etc.
Journalists have become brandnames there. Here , its non-existent.
Almost every one of them has a Podcast network where people listen to their shows in their smartphones/Tablets. I listen to them whenever I am free. They have literally negated a thing called "Music" from my schedule :-D

.

S

theterminator said:
A YouTube channel is for public attraction which I don't think Digit needs since they already have a fanbase. Though it can be added to that through a channel. But I don't think that's a long term playing field.
Tech Journalism is less than niche here in India whereas it has really taken off in developed countries like USA/UK. Just see the number of big players we are talking here:
CNET (owned by CBS)
allthingsd.com (owned by Wall Street Journal)
Engadget
TechRadar
TheVerge
etc.
Journalists have become brandnames there. Here , its non-existent.
Almost every one of them has a Podcast network where people listen to their shows in their smartphones/Tablets. I listen to them whenever I am free. They have literally negated a thing called "Music" from my schedule .

Point no 1 :
Yes that is why I m suggesting : as Tech Journalism is niche in INDIA Thinkdigit Can Put the 1st step and Make it happen . though it is very tough But not impossible .. at least a Starter !!

Earlier we use to think that Smartphone might not be as famous as in European countries (in year 2000-05) as all Smart phones starts from 25 k up .but after 5-7 years whole thing turn upside down and now every 5th person in INDIA owns a Smart phone

Point No 2 :

For the Point of FAN base : think digit is not happy with current strength [as i think so] (like fan base of Cnet, TheVerge,engadget, igyan etc). so He needs to move new internet users to directly or indirectly come to there site with there interested topics moving them to come to site. [ directly - from Google searches , Indirectly by youtube, facebook,other forums etc]

then only new users come to know about thinkdigit. Right now if i m Correct , there is no Girl coming on thinkdigit or its forum. (ONLY tech freak or geeky people knows thinkdigit , other Guys and gals see thinkdigit is for Geek people only)

point 3 :
Example for indirect way : there is millions of people in india connected to facebook, youtube and other 24X7 , they are internet freaks but not Geeky ... they understand technology in a very lame and very low logic way If think digit can move that Facebookers and youtubers with simple articles which they can understand and read it . thinkdigit will get more hits

Example : Memes images/ sites attract lots of public as they make laugh (technological comic memes) , some daily interested news spreader, some are shopping related / discount related posts

think digit have to come out as just technological / geeky site then a Cnet like site where

its bad news for Tech freaks on TDF as think digit will be of full of lame topics but this will keep sustain thinkdigit although like CNET

point no 4

Direct way : -
Example : A girl sitting in office want to check out a new Phone but it should be girly looking phone and a smart feature like other phones . she googles as "Smartphone for Girls with android "

we have to pull this customer by adding some titles /link backs etc like above search query , rather then Titles as "Micromax A110 - budget phone for all" or "Sony launches Xperia P, Sola and U in India" ...

All Non techies/ NON Geeky are putting straightforward requirement in GOOGLE search rather then product related queries and Number of Non-Geeky perc is very more then Geeky right now in india

(that is my point of view)

Point no 5

Also, i want to say that , See normally any person knowing basic internet , use google to search the product he is buying.

He just enter Product name (copy from Flipkart/snapdeal etc) and search with adding Review , compare , ratings etc. HE also searches sometimes for images (large) for the product to have Glance of it ....

If in google search He gets Some videos for the same product , he click that 1st , rather then any reading contents .... (this is simple human tenancy)

If We try to capture that Customer base who google search for Products and try to move them to think digit with reviews, comparisons , unboxong etc then also it may do...

T

come on man..how can you write igyaan in the same breadth as engadget , theverge.. they just started.

your whole argument is based on Reviewing products which form only "small" part of tech journalism man...

i also said that putting out a youtube channel will increase their fanbase... but its not a long term playing field. Though good for a start...

S

i did say it is My point of view ... it can differs person to person ...

if complete tech journalism ,as you say ,is not i talked about , but at-least as start of tech journalism , we can start with Review sections to increase customers ??

Then will move to full journalism sections one by one to attend all ???

Like you say you like to hear podcast and others stuff , in india it is right now less then 1 pct knowing and using that

if thinkdigit started it who will listen ? again same tech guys already present in Thinkdigit and 1-2 perct more coming from out

Right now Indians are just enjoying Internet shopping WAVE (which was in western country @ 1995- 2005) , if you grab that , much work can be done and can be moved ahaed !!

Just my Mkt logic ...

On internet : right now only one thing is working : SEO , making our sites pages 1st in google seach !!

T

what start?? review is already there as u mentioned igyaan.

have u even listened to tech radio???

S

@theterminator : Ok You Win Ok !! It is Actaully not a Fight topic

i just put my suggestions !!! hope Thinkdigit will be helped that's it !!!

T

yeah, this thread is becoming unnecessarily clumsy :-(

Endorsing your comments @theterminator, still the points given by @suyash_123 has something to THINK about.Those can't be ignored completely.

T

kg11sgbg said:
Endorsing your comments @theterminator, still the points given by @suyash_123 has something to THINK about.Those can't be ignored completely.

I didn't ignore. To quote myself incase you didn't read:

theterminator said:
A YouTube channel is for public attraction which I don't think Digit needs since they already have a fanbase. Though it can be added to that through a channel. But I don't think that's a long term playing field.

C

Hi, everybody, I am a new friend.

^ Welcome to the ThinkDigitForum(TDF) @cupidsrose.

I used to read & loved CHIP & DIGIT also, then I got the magical thing that's BSNL BB [in 2008].... Since then I stopped buying magazines... Any ways I never buy them at 150RS. I used to buy 2-3 months old mag for 50 RS. [Only 4-5 mags I bought new]
CHIP was best because of their DVD contents [IMHO]
Youtube zindabaad.. BB Zindabaad.. :-D

Actually I prefer The Digit Forum (TDF)

The brand is still Digit, and Thinkdigit is just a URL because digit.com is taken and they refuse to sell

Raaabo said:
Actually I prefer The Digit Forum (TDF)

The brand is still Digit, and Thinkdigit is just a URL because digit.com is taken and they refuse to sell

In that case, you might want to change the text in forum logo because its assuming 'thinkdigit' as the brand name is obvious.

Digit.com is still a parked domain. Maybe, the seller expects more :2cents:

..

Next version of the site will do exactly that, and will allow the forum to change the header logo as well.

I am totally and solely to blame for this.

Back in June / July 2004 I just sat down with Photoshop and made a new logo and started using that on the forum header, and then everyone soon started calling it thinkdigit forum, and diluting the brand name to "thinkdigit". I am always the first to admit that this was my biggest ever blunder in my 10+ years working for Digit

Digit - Your Technology Navigator

Digit Discussion :: Index

Raaabo said:
Next version of the site will do exactly that, and will allow the forum to change the header logo as well.

I am totally and solely to blame for this.

Back in June / July 2004 I just sat down with Photoshop and made a new logo and started using that on the forum header, and then everyone soon started calling it thinkdigit forum, and diluting the brand name to "thinkdigit". I am always the first to admit that this was my biggest ever blunder in my 10+ years working for Digit

Digit - Your Technology Navigator

Digit Discussion :: Index

Maybe you can start a logo design contest and offer cash prize?

harshilsharma63 said:
Maybe you can start a logo design contest ~~and offer cash prize?~~

harshilsharma63 said:
Maybe you can start a logo design contest and offer cash prize?

instead they should give latest graphics cards, mobos & more...

@Raaabo

I have one query, what u do wid the hardware after reviewing them ?? also do u get than for free or u pay for it ? I always wonder abt this.

RohanM said:
instead they should give latest graphics cards, mobos & more...

@Raaabo

I have one query, what u do wid the hardware after reviewing them ?? also do u get than for free or u pay for it ? I always wonder abt this.

Dont know about him, but reviewers get the product for review and will be sent back

What's wrong with the digit logo? Just need to drop the "think" that I added 9 years ago.

Hardware is returned to the vendors and that is then sent to other people for reviews. We sometimes keep highest end motherboards, ram, cpus etc for testing other categories, but those are also eventually returned or junked when too old / dead.

harshilsharma63 said:
Maybe you can start a logo design contest and offer cash prize?

IIRC this was held long back

Raaabo said:
What's wrong with the digit logo? Just need to drop the "think" that I added 9 years ago.

Hardware is returned to the vendors and that is then sent to other people for reviews. We sometimes keep highest end motherboards, ram, cpus etc for testing other categories, but those are also eventually returned or junked when too old / dead.

ok But do u ppl pay for it ?

logo design contest sounds fun !!!

Raaabo,
- Are you following some of our famous Hindi film stars and set your forum name as per some numerology equation?

- I have for long been thinking that you could really be more environment friendly and reduce the load by omitting the discs. The option of a subscription without disc has made me curious and will definitely consider that. (I am not a current subscriber of Digit although I buy it off the stands occasionally. I am a subscriber of CHIP and do not know what is going to happen to that.)
- To compensate for the discs, I would suggest you to offer a monthly updated webpage with links to download all the software provided on the discs.
- The 'print' technology magazine that I liked best based on the quality of print and presentation had to be PCWORLD. CHIP was poor but improved recently.
- The best 'website' however is Digit. And Raaabo, congratulations for inventing a brilliant addition to 'Digit' alone

- I understand the points that Raaabo makes in his posts before and agree with it. I also agree with the other people here who feel a print magazine feels better. Although the news component of a monthly print magazine may become outdated by the time it reaches the subscribers, the other sections do not. And even in the news, I find quite a few items that I had missed in my trawl of internet.
- Really sad at the demise of CHIP and wishing all the best and my full support to the digit team in their future. As Raaabo seems to be doing here, listening to your customers is the best way to develop a relationship with them and ensure their support. You have just won mine from this thread alone

- SS.

Btw, is Chip really dead??? I just bought the September 2013 issue of the Indian edition!!! Is this thing a hoax??? :-/

I also saw the September 2013 issue/edition of IC-Chip on the newsstand.

How come it has been closed?????????

Raaabo said:
Actually I prefer The Digit Forum (TDF)

The brand is still Digit, and Thinkdigit is just a URL because digit.com is taken and they refuse to sell

Why not try for digit.in ??

powerhoney said:
Btw, is Chip really dead??? I just bought the September 2013 issue of the Indian edition!!! Is this thing a hoax??? :-/

That is the last month edition. The team was sacked at the later part of August when usually publications who are done with drafting the entire monthly edition for the next month.

I think overdrive is the only/couple of magazines that will still be active. A lot of magazine publications were shut down. I never thought it would go down like this, one after the other. But on the bright side, it shows who earns and who sells a lot of magazines out there. I don't think fashion/ladies and movie genre magazines are affected though.

This thread is so offtopic even 'offtopic thread' can't beat this.
Time to close this thread.

sling-shot said:
Raaabo,
- Are you following some of our famous Hindi film stars and set your forum name as per some numerology equation?
- I have for long been thinking that you could really be more environment friendly and reduce the load by omitting the discs. The option of a subscription without disc has made me curious and will definitely consider that. (I am not a current subscriber of Digit although I buy it off the stands occasionally. I am a subscriber of CHIP and do not know what is going to happen to that.)
- To compensate for the discs, I would suggest you to offer a monthly updated webpage with links to download all the software provided on the discs.
- The 'print' technology magazine that I liked best based on the quality of print and presentation had to be PCWORLD. CHIP was poor but improved recently.
- The best 'website' however is Digit. And Raaabo, congratulations for inventing a brilliant addition to 'Digit' alone
- I understand the points that Raaabo makes in his posts before and agree with it. I also agree with the other people here who feel a print magazine feels better. Although the news component of a monthly print magazine may become outdated by the time it reaches the subscribers, the other sections do not. And even in the news, I find quite a few items that I had missed in my trawl of internet.
- Really sad at the demise of CHIP and wishing all the best and my full support to the digit team in their future. As Raaabo seems to be doing here, listening to your customers is the best way to develop a relationship with them and ensure their support. You have just won mine from this thread alone
- SS.

1. Don't believe in numerology
2. DVDs are easily recyclable these days. We've made a good offer for existing magazine subscribers, though it ended recently. Will check if we can start it again. Write to help @ thinkdigit dot com and ask for offers for existing subscribers of other magazines, I am sure they will help you find a good deal.
3. We give the contents on the preview / feedback page, just an additional Google search for what you like will get you the download link.
4. I always found PC World to be a little too basic, good for people to start with and then move on to Digit

5. Thanks
6. We don't even try and break news, what we do is try and add some insight / update to news everyone already knows, and of course we make it more diverse than just phone and tablet news, which is only what everyone seems to read these days.
7. We've always listened to our readers from the start, and will always do so.

RohanM said:
ok But do u ppl pay for it ?

Mostly no, but if we need something and companies cannot provide it, then we buy. Everything is eventually returned, we just get media samples to use and sometimes keep for a long duration. Besides, everything is kept in the Test Centre inventory, and we sometimes use left over stuff for demos we do for readers - such as when we held the build your own PC bootcamp some years ago, where we broke open some expensive GPUs, etc., to show readers what is inside

A mobile app would be fantastic!

Actually the forums need massive improvements.. Especially the search functionality..
The search functionality is just TOXIC.. Whatever key words i search, it will point me to appropriate thread but not the correct page.. WTF is this ? 1990 ?

This is very sad news. I have been a reader of both, Digit and Chip for well over 6 years now.

There was an offer for refugees of other magazines that have stopped print. I am not able to find the thread.
Anyone knows where is it?

sling-shot said:
There was an offer for refugees of other magazines that have stopped print. I am not able to find the thread.
Anyone knows where is it?

Offer's ended, but write to help@thinkdigit and cc me (editor @ thinkdigit) and we can work something out I am sure

D

Im sorry to reply to thread this late, but I had to say that Im relly sad to know that Chip is dead. I worked at InfoMedia18 in my college days, and my heart was attached there. I knew they are sacking people, but removing Chip is really hurting.

RIP Chip

Lock the thread
Else it'll be flooded with Off-Topics again :facepalm:

What's so off topic if a former employee express his gratitude ?

bubusam13 said:
What's so off topic if a former employee express his gratitude ?

Not talking about them -_- ! oK!
Just check last two pages of thread peoples were discussing about everything they can, except CHIP

RIP CHIP.