Direct & Current - Editorial: A Bigger and Better Popular Electronics
December 1971 Popular Electronics

December 1971 Popular Electronics

December 1971 Popular Electronics Cover - RF CafeTable of Contents

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Electronics, published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

Popular Electronics editor Milton Snitzer announced to readers in the final issue of 1971 that the first issue of 1972 will represent a merging with its sister magazine, Electronics World. It also adopted the larger physical format of Electronics World. Although both magazines provided a mix of product reviews, experimental and DIY circuit articles, Ham radio, tutorials on components (transistors, speakers, printed circuit boards, etc.), and industry news, Popular Electronics tended to be directed more toward hobbyists while Electronics World catered more to the professional reader. The new format began incorporating troubleshooting tips, business tips on customer relations and finance, and defense / commercial applications. Fortunately, it also inherited the "Mac's Service Shop" stories, which was really nice since the Carl & Jerry episodes ended in 1964. BTW, Electronics World was a re-branding of the previous Radio & TV News magazine that occurred in March of 1959.

Direct & Current - Editorial

Direct & Current - Editorial: A Bigger and Better Popular Electronics, December 1971 Popular Electronics - RF CafeA Bigger and Better Popular Electronics

By Milton S. Snitzer, Editor

Next month, Popular Electronics will be bigger and better than ever. Effective with our January issue, PE, the world's largest selling electronics magazine, will have merged with it - and will include some of the best features and editorial coverage of - our sister magazine, Electronics World.

PE readers will also be pleased with other changes we are planning for January. These include not only more pages to serve our additional readers, but also improved graphic design, cleaner, easier-to-read type, and the addition of a number of new columns and other editorial features. For example, the popular Stereo Scene column will share our pages with new Communications, Test Equipment, Television, and Surplus Scene columns covering these important areas of interest to our readers.

In addition to our usual construction projects, we will include more tutorial, state-of-the-art stories, articles on how things electronic work, and items of interest on new products and developments. What is more, we plan to enlarge our coverage of new products by using, testing, and reporting on more new audio and test equipment, communications gear, and tools and accessories than we have been able to do before.

There are several good reasons for including the features and coverage of Electronics World in the pages of Popular Electronics. We will elaborate on these in next month's Editorial. But for now, let us say that PE, which actually was born out of the pages of Electronics World (then called Radio & TV News) in 1954, has been growing up with its readers and with their increasing knowledge of and sophistication in electronics. Hence, it no longer makes sense for us to maintain a separate identity for the two publications which were, in fact, drawing closer and closer together. The main difference between the two magazines was that while PE concentrated on electronic construction projects, EW emphasized general and tutorial articles. By offering a bigger, combined publication, we hope to cover both areas for our readers.

We are still getting letters from our readers commenting on our "new look" which we began some time ago. We expect even more comments on our still newer look which you will see starting with our January issue. We know you won't want to miss the new PE, starting with our next issue. Watch for it.

 

 

Posted December 13, 2018