Rupert Goodwins' Diary

Tuesday 14/05/2002

It's going to be a week for plugging, so no point in resisting. I was in conversation online with Steve Litchfield, who works on a pair of rather nice magazines -- Palmtop and Palm User. The first is for Psion users, the second for owners of PalmOS machines, and they're classic titles of the old school. Glossy, colourful and in a handy A5 format, they're perfect examples of the sort of monthly dollop of information that's a good antidote to the daily frenzy of noise and impermanence the Web's turned out to be. If you treat your handheld as more than just an address book, you'll find something here worth knowing about.

Everyone who sees the magazines likes them. But times are hard -- not because the mags are lacking or the market's not there, but because it's so difficult to publicise the things. Online is fine, but the chances of anyone stumbling across the mags' own Web sites is small while the sheer number of competing distractions is seemingly infinite. Getting stuff into newsagents is harder than landing on the moon, and who can afford advertising?

It's a hard, hard problem. In the absence of any good advice, I said, I'd have a look at the titles and if they were as good as people said, I'd mention them in the diary. They are, so I have -- and www.palmtop.co.uk is the place to go, handheld aficionados -- but if anyone has some bright ideas on how good ideas can prosper on the high seas of 21st century publishing, send 'em in.