Just three years after the iconic magazine abandoned its print version and went all-digital, Popular Science is now halting its subscription service entirely. The brand itself will live on — their site will still run tech stories and news articles, and they have two podcasts that will keep getting new episodes — but no more quarterly releases. While you can’t complain too much about a 151 year run, it’s still sad to see what was once such an influential publication slowly become just another cog in the content mill.
Started as a monthly magazine all the way back in 1872, Popular Science offered a hopeful vision of what was over the horizon. It didn’t present a fanciful version of what the next 100 years would look like, but rather, tried to read the tea leaves of cutting edge technology to offer a glimpse of what the next decade or so might hold. Flip through a few issues from the 1950s and 60s, and you won’t see pulpy stories about humanity conquering the stars or building a time machine. Instead the editors got readers ready for a day when they’d drive cars with warbird-derived turbochargers, and enjoy more powerful tools once transistor technology allowed for widespread use of small brushless motors. It wasn’t just armchair engineering either, issues would often include articles written by the engineers and researchers that were on the front lines.
But Popular Science wasn’t just about the future, it also provided plenty of contemporary content for those who liked to toy with technology at home. You could find articles about building your own test equipment, or setting up your own workshop. From woodworking to homebrew Geiger counters, there was a little something for everyone.
This focus on the hobbyist wasn’t without its downside. For the last decade or two, the magazine seemed to have more advertisements trying to sell the reader on the latest wiz-bang gadgetry than it did articles. Then again, there are precious few printed publications that didn’t suffer that particular fate.
Much like when MAKE went through its troubles back in 2019, we have to admit there’s a bit of irony at work here. The reality is, sites like the one you’re reading right now are the reason tech magazines have become a dying breed. But even if the age of print is coming to a close, we still have great respect for the seminal publications that came before the Internet took over our lives.
Surely many of the people in this community were inspired to pick up their first soldering iron by something they saw in a magazine like Popular Science, Byte, Popular Electronics, or Hands-On Electronics. We can only hope to do their legacy justice for the next generation.
Well, most tech and DIY magazines are basically just catalogs now and I suppose it’s just easier to do that on youtube.
But that’s probably somehow because we live in a consumer society. Maybe it’s a small consolation that there are still amateur radio magazines. These contain homebrew projects, but also stay afloat through travel reports and other reports.
…At an additional cost to your membership
Really? Not in my place, at least. The “Funkamateur” is an independent magazine, as far as I know and available at the international newsagents (located at airports, train stations etc).
Oh, I just see that 73 Magazine is no more, either.
It ended about 20 years ago. Too bad, was a good magazine. 😔
The print version of QST has been eliminated as a “membership benefit”. An “online” version will continue (for now) but my guess is QST’s fate will ultimately be the same as Popular Science.
Using the digital version of QST is both slow, and awkward. So, I will be gladly paying for the hardcopy.
I will probably flush ARRL after next year. The dues increase caught me by surprise this fall and I re-upped for next year without QST, but after thinking about it, I think I am done.
I was surprised that the dues went up given they were discontinuing the print magazine.
That’s interesting, here in DL the DARC’s CQDL is still in print. 🤷♂️
Pretty much felt the same way when Maximum PC ended. Realized I hadn’t gotten any new issues in the mail for about six months, “wait did my subscription lapse somehow”, went to the online portal for their distributor and… discovered that the print version was no more, and the digital version required a publisher-specific app I can’t use (really? no website version?). At this point I don’t know if Maximum PC even exists at all anymore…
I also am annoyed by this change that the ARRL made. It seems to me that is a ‘breach of contract’ situation. When I renewed my membership in January 2023, I was offered a choice of print or digital for QST. I chose print and believe that ARRL is required to provide that for the remainder of the 3 year term I renewed for. Nothing in their terms and conditions said they could simply stop sending me issues or charge more for my membership at their option for the duration of the renewal term.
I spoke to ARRL at Pacificon and they told me that “very few have complained” about the 70% dues increase (including QST print extra fee), but I suspect that this is just because that most members who receive QST in print were not really aware of the change.
When I called ARRL, they told me that I would have to pay an additional $57.14 to continue receiving QST in print. I told them that this was a breach of contract and that I hope that all affected members pursue legal action to enforce our contractual rights.
Anybody up for a class action?
It appears that CQ has quietly suspended publishing. I haven’t seen a print issue in months.
I read Popular Science as a kid. I thought it was great! It explained how things worked, in terms I could understand. It showed examples of the latest scientific breakthroughs, advances in technology, and experimental inventions that had the potential for changing the future. It presented a positive hopeful view of science and technology.
Alas, science isn’t popular any more. Was it Arthur C. Clarke who said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Once people start to view it as magic, it becomes inscrutable and unexplainable. Thus there’s no need to explain it; just trust the wizards to do it all for you.
I for one always thought of Clarke’s famous saying as being a bit overrated.The message as such should be just self-explaining.It’s like saying “If the sun rises over the horizon, it will be daytime soon”.
Rose colored glasses.
Science was already magic for ‘them’ when we were kids.
Even then, the majority of college graduates took no science or math beyond middle school level.
The only thing that changed is that more morons are getting useless college degrees/loans.
Brightside: 6 years great parties.
Downside: MBAs, because why quit at 6…go back for business grad school, lobotomy not painful.
Especially if uncle sugar or your employer was willing to pick up the tab. Made my house payment
Clearly a MBA.
You realize I wasn’t endorsing MBAs?
Of course not.
Do you have any data that supports your claim that ‘science isn’t popular anymore’? To me it seems like its more popular than ever.
Real science—with scientific theories, peer-review, all that stuff—seems to be less popular than people producing their pet claims (they aren’t theories; often they aren’t proper hypotheses) on the internet. Rejection of established science appears to be on the rise because of the availability of nonsense that confirms one’s own pet claims or beliefs.
Distinguishing between nonsense and actual science is difficult because it’s all there on the same medium, and it all claims to be true.
IFLS soyjak dot png
Science is still quite popular, the medium has just changed. Plenty of science YouTubers are making money, for instance.
Massive drop in quality can’t be easily ignored
Very rose-tinted glasses there – from what I see on the internet & youtube science, technology, making / hacking and all that are more popular and more accessible than they’ve ever been.
When I was at school the prevailing attitude was that we’d out-source making things to other countries and all get rich selling each other things over the internet. Blue Peter were the only ones making anything and that was only for the swotty kids.
Now we have Raspberry Pi’s, cheap 3D printers and CNC machines, coding and making all over the place. Electronics are cheaper, easier, and more accessible than ever and can do far far cooler stuff.
“Very rose-tinted glasses there – from what I see on the internet & youtube science, technology, making / hacking and all that are more popular and more accessible than they’ve ever been.”
It’s not the same, though.
I’m not sure if you understand what it meant to us.
I suppose it’s like comparing something like the Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia.
One is a group, an editorial team, which guarantees the accuracy of the information with its name.
Whereas the other one is a group of anonymous people with user names like “RainbowDancer747” (fictional).
That’s why professional journalists and reputable news papers are still needed, too.
Free information exchange is wonderful, really. But people who double-check things professionally ate needed, too.
A TikTok video doesn’t replace proper schooling.
It’s nice as an extra, but not as a substitute.
Of course, there are wonderful people on the internet teaching things.
But they’re not trustworthy, no reliable source.
They can’t substitute proper education, because there’s no legitimation.
That problem goes away once a basic understanding is available.
Once some has acquired basic knowledge from a legit source, some can differentiate and draw own conclusions.
Then, someone is able to understand the matter, understand and the tutorials and compensate for deficiencies of said tutorials.
I hope that makes sense to anyone.
Best wishes
Mainstream media also gets things wrong a lot of the time. The problem comes down to needing some entity to trust, mainstream media isn’t that.
I just print to PDF favorite tech articles found on the VAST “magazine” called the Internet and save them in topic-labelled folders which is, by the way, why I absolutely, positively H-A-T-E web pages that aren’t designed to PRINT well including, especially, code listings in scrolling windows that can’t be disabled to show the entire code!
And, yes, I know the code can, in some cases, be downloaded and in all cases, highlighted, copied, and pasted, but that’s just extra steps which may be required multiple times in one article whereas the same could be done as desired from a PDF file IF and ONLY IF the entire code was NOT within a scrolling window.
Learning to distinguish BS from information is a life skill.
Those that claim to be able to teach this skill are inevitably peddling their own BS.
People should be listening to them, it’s the only way to learn.
Just don’t believe them.
They are just yet another example of self-serving BS.
I for one never got ‘proper schooling’ on most fun things.
Had to infer ‘facts of life’ from dirty jokes and limericks (stolen from ‘Family Guy’).
Learned other fun things from untrustworthy sources. e.g. if you follow the instructions in ‘The Anarchists Cookbook’ you will likely die, but there are still things to learn from the disinformation. Be smarter than a weatherman. Get CIA insurgent’s manual. Verify material.
Same here. Read as a kid , and until early 20s. Had subscriptions for both it and P. Mechanics. But, the content/advertising/content ratio dropped to ridiculous levels (both mags). I canceled both.
Advertising killed radio, TV, magazines, and now the web.
I had a subscription to the mag when I was a teen in the 60s. It was thoughtful, exciting and gave me a nudge towards education and a long career in technology. Now itʻs been replaced by bad sci fi and Youtube wannabes.
I think the same. When I discovered my father’s old electronics magazines in the attic, I was surprised about how much culture the US writers had back then.
Everything was so “thoughtful” as you said.
Especially the 1970s issues were interesting, I think, which had included PCB layouts for etching at home. This was when DIY still had a meaning, I suppose.
My father got some of these magazines from a Canadian friend, I believe, who traveled between America and Germany a few times and bought them on his way.
Radio Electronics and Popular Electronics were both favorites of mine…
;-)))
It was good but the one I liked a lot was Popular Electronics. I had a RCA 1802 microprocessor kit which didn’t do much other than flash LEDs in hex as output. Thanks to that mag I built a cassette player interface for I/O, a 20 ma current loop for my KSR35 teletype and found the advert for Quest Basic which led me to programming in Basic.
I too read Popular Science as a kid and young man… And Byte, and several others. Sit back in your easy chair and enjoy! Or go to the bench and try something. Much more enjoyable than reading (ho-hum) or watching (yuck) on-line blah blah blah for the most part. Just not the same. I feel we are well on are way to the new age of idiocracy. Who knows/wants to write an article now-a-days? With AI being the craze … I really can see it coming. Let the AI do it, Let the AI research it, Let the AI write it, let the AI paint it, etc. Scary for our kids I think. See that already with our cars. Let the car watch for traffic, let the car brake on its own, let it drive between the lines, etc….
Read it constantly growing up in the early 80’s. Some of it was informative, but probably <10% of the futuristic things featured on the cover came to be in the timeframe and form they promised.
Wonder if Smokey Yunick’s designs ever bore fruit?
I never heard about that smoking eunuch before, and also believe smoking is quite yucky, but apparently that guy has his own website, more then a handful of patents and you can buy a book about him for USD35.
1963. A great year, love it. And what is ahead :-)
In recent years Pop Sci content had become politicized and presented only one side of contentious issues, to the extent of pretending that no opposing view existed. Sic transit gloria.
Very curious what political and contentious issues you are thinking of. Can you provide an example?
What he probably means is Scientific American.
They steered that thing went into the toilet.
likely he means popular mechanics, which debunked many of the 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Completely agree about Scientific American. Finally canceled by subscription.
Chris Maple probably doesn’t believe in human-caused climate change or vaccines.
you have no idea what he believes, and you shouldn’t make assumptions.
you also should be skeptical of any theory in which the primary proponents of it act one way, but demand you act another, in such a way that the money generated by your actions lands in their pockets.
how many beachfront properties are owned by people who are going on about massive sea level rise? how many of those beachfront properties were purchased AFTER they started going on about sea level rise?
It’s hard to tell who you’re referring to, but I can’t imagine many climate scientists can afford beach front property. As scientific fields go, it’s not exactly lucrative.
@whale…if you don’t know who I’m referring to you must not be super cereal about climate change.
Popular Mechanics held out for a while but eventually went the same way as PopSci, which Popular Science shortened their name to a while back.
PM still regularly thumps on the 9/11 conspiracy nuts, so they have that in the plus column.
I remember an article would show up in Popular Science then a month or two later Popular Mechanic.
Around two years ago I stopped buying the national magazine similar to PS because I didn’t have time to really read them and they got watered down with lenghty articles with little information. I was buying them, let them wait, riffle the pages for 5 minutes then put it in a pile with history magazines to give them to my father. Due to covid the history magazines dissapeared, and sometimes after, my father also was gone. The pile grew then I decided that it was only a connection to the past (40 years of reading it) and I decided to end it.
Unfortunately these times are closer to 100% digital/screen format, with little analog/paper left. You only can read the information, you can’t touch it, feel it, smell it, swat the flyies with it. And you don’t need a charger to read a book.
Times are changing, old things and people are going out, young people and technology comes in, all with good and bad parts.
A smaller percent of young people than 50 years ago are choosing science as a career or hobby. The screen steals your time with much ease and makes you forget what is really important. There is not need for the AI to make war, we’ll enter happily in the pods with simulated reality like in Matrix movies.
If it’s any consolation Socrates complains about the kids these days in Plato’s “Phaedrus” discourse circa 340 BC as well. Except it was writing as opposed to oration that’d surely be the fall of rigorous thought.
Not surprised. I had fond memories of looking at Popular Mechanics and Popular Science in the library at school growing up in the 80s and 90s. When I got my own place in the early 2000s I got a knock on the door from a boy scout selling magazines, nostalgia struck when I saw those titles and ordered subscriptions. Imagine my disappointment when they showed up and were almost entirely ads masquerading as product reviews/showcases and just straight up ads.
I looked at the a copy in a doctor’s office about a 5 years ago and apart from a two page story to match the cover, I’d have been hard pressed to identify actual content. The magazines have just become advertising.
I agree with you. I simply stopped buying most magazines because of the ‘very little’ content issue (pun intended). And it looks like I am not the only one :( . Plus the political agenda being pushed. I really enjoyed Scientific American in the Martin Garner days….
Aside from the fact that most of those magazines orchestrated their own demise by flipping to being nothing but ads, it’s hard to justify paying money to some entity that tells me what I might be interested in versus searching YouTube to find free tutorials on what I am. Of course HaD is literally based upon telling me things I might be interested in, but it’s free and it’s fast.
As the saying goes, if you think it is free, you’re the product…
Hackaday makes money through ads and sponsorships, yes. Yet, you didn’t mind paying $60/year(or w/e) for PopSci and also viewing ads every other page. I’d much rather have access to information without paying and be advertised to, than pay for access and also be advertised to.
HaD doesn’t require an account, you don’t even need to verify your email address to post comments, just put in whatever and go. Of all the things to “well, actually it’s not free because thermodynamics” HaD is a poor example. They don’t collect your data to sell(and even if you don’t believe them you get all the content without giving them any of your information, so they can’t) and are upfront about what’s advertising and if anything is sponsored, like competitions. I’ll take that over what PopSci/Mech/Elec(and every other magazine) became in the last 30 years any day.
Just because the medium of information sharing has changed, doesn’t mean the old way is better. It just means it’s different.
The Internet lowered the cost of publishing. That meant a lot more people could publish stuff which then lowered the value of the publishing. That means less money for things like editing or fact checking.
Then you have the problem of the speed of publishing on the Internet. Back in the day a magazine might work on a story for a month or two. No one today is willing to wait to get content once a month so doing anything in depth is getting rare.
They went for so many crap ads and so little content simply because the cost of placing an ad is so low so you have less money for staff and have to put more and more ads into the magazine to pay the employees. That also means that a lot of the high quality advertisers that pay good money don’t buy ads and you get more and more shady crap
What this all means is that the internet gives us 1000s of times the content that we used to have access to. But the decrease in the cost of producing content means that the vast majority of new content is garbage. So with 7000 times we now have 6990 times of trash content with 10 times the good content.
Welcome to the race to the bottom.
Wow….back in the 60’s and 70’s for me personally it was the magazine to hang around the town library for each new month’s edition….Here in New Zealand…a young colonial country at the time…the magazine provided a not over the top look forward on a raft of subjects, and even the advertisements sometimes inspired us to do ” things “. Actually is a sad day to hear the publication will cease…and it reminds me of other magazines e.g. Popular Electronics….which have also disappeared as the years roll on.
The best part were the ad’s. Build a closet reactor! Amaze your teachers! Sell electricity to your friends and neighbors. And you did not even need bitcoin to pay for the plans.
For people to pay money or grant you their eyeballs for ads, you have to provide value in return. Authoritative Popular Science-like tutorials and plans for projects are something that’s missing. You can find the information if you search hard enough and read the right forums and learn enough theory, but there’s no central place that can give you the recipe and explain that theory.
Instructables is close but has low signal to noise ratio. Something more curated for high quality instructions, like a magazine, would be a great value. Have some people search those forums and commission knowledgeable people doing interesting projects to thoroughly document their work on a central site.
Make Magazine.
I remember popular science had a “what’s new” area of the magazine, a single photograph and a short paragraph explanation of some new invention…never to be heard of again.
I used to go back into older magazines and try to search for those products, to see what happened with them and usually turned up nothing. most looked promising but never took off.
there is a gold mine in there of things that probably just needed a tiny bit more development or the technology wasn’t quite there and it is now.
Darn there goes another huge piece of my childhood.
The decision to go digital-only was a complete disaster. In an age where the printed word is becoming less and less common, having something to physically hold was (and still is) refreshingly different. The mistake being made wasn’t that print is outmoded – it was that the printed content simple wasn’t good enough. Having something physical delivered to your doorstep, with that fresh-from-the-press smell, is only worth the good associations those visceral experiences produce when the content within is GREAT. It wasn’t great, so when it was failing in print, it’s no surprise it failed online.
I used to be so thrilled to see Popular Science and Popular Mechanics in the mail pile after coming home from school. Digital didn’t have the same impact…
It’s nice to have a print version of a magazine. It can’t be changed whereas anything digital can be changed and it becomes truth. (I saw it on the internet so it must be true) A lot of today’s youth isn’t really that interested in building things. I liked reading Popular Electronics and Radio Electronics when I was a kid, and I do remember one article to build a Morse code decoder. It was on the cover and had red LED letters.
Nowadays, no need to build it, you can buy it and it fits in your pocket. It’s decades past the year 2000.
I want my flying car!
When these “technical magazines are dead” articles come around, I always link to Silicon Chip magazine from Australia. Technical articles, stuff to build, vintage hardware. Yes, there’s advertising, but it’s clear which parts are an ad and which parts are content. It’s not cheap to buy, but I’ve never read an issue since 1990 where I thought “nope, there’s nothing for me this month.” It’s available in print or electronically. I recently dropped my print subscription because I lack the physical space to keep old copies around, but there’s enough good stuff in there that I WANT to keep them around. The online version is good – it looks exactly like the print magazine and you don’t need an “app” or any such bullshit to view. And if you need a printed copy to take into the shed, or to cut up and make a front panel for a project, it’s easy to export to PDF.
https://www.siliconchip.com.au/
I have no business ties to Silicon chip, just glad they’re still around and still writing good articles. Being able to buy PCBs for their projects is nice too.