Reader Comments

As a very long term reader, I am VERY oposed to your decision. Aside from the technical content, one of your advantage is that I can carry the content with me and read as I have spare time: waiting for appointments... An online copy and printing what I want to read is VERY impractical for me.

Sorry to hear you're going the online route. For the most part, the content in your publication is available elsewhere, might be from different authors or in different formats, but it's fair to say there are no real secrets in the Exchange world. The true benefit for me was having a number of relevent topics packaged together in a form that I could grab at my convenience, maybe for a few spare minutes during the day, perhaps for some evening or weekend reading or to kill time while the spouse shops. For me, I suspect over time I'll find myself drifting away from your content and calling into question the value of my subscription.

I too am very disappointed about your decision to discontinue your printed version. $150 a year for an informative and concise monthly magazine that pulled information from many sources I could easily read when I wanted was a good deal. $150 for access to yet another web site I won’t find time to go through is not a good deal and I will likely cancel it. I hope your other publications don’t make the same mistake.

I do not agree with the decision to become an online-only publication, especially without asking the customers that actually PAY for your publications. I pay for a printed newsletter I can take with me and read anytime, which has always justified the cost. As an IT professional, I already spend too much time staring at a montior, and I truly appreciated the hard copy format your publication offered. Paying $150 to read a website I'm not going to use is a waste of my money and a scam for those of us that have paid for multiple years in advance. This change has caused me to cancel my subscription with your publication. I urge you to open a dialog with your paying customers in the future.

I'm afraid that I too will be cancelling my subscription when you do to online only for all the reasson listed about, and additonally, your online verison to this point is rather ad-laden, and I'm not going be paying $150.00 to weed through all the ads. Bad move windowsitpro, bad move...

Did anyone notice the $79.00 offer? Calll 800-793-5712 for this rate! Regular rate is $129.00

You guys at Windows IP Pro. have got to be out of your minds! Going online only was and is a VERY bad move. I have been a subscriber for years and one of th MOST important benefits to me was being able to take a hard copy with me. I would take a copy with me to the Doctor's, restaurant, shopping with my wife, road trips, vacations. I am also a visual learner, I HAVE to "highlight" and "underline" using five or six different colors. It's a REAL handicap for me if I can't do that!! I would have paid more for you newsletter to keep a hard copy. As it is now, if I ever cancel my account with you guys or come into bad financial times and can't renew, I lose ALL access to EVERYTHING, past and feature! I'll have NO history to look back at. My hard copy "Back Issues" are some of the MOST important Exchange and Outlook reference material I own! You tell me, why should I keep paying for that? Like dhoefer,ufcitman said above: “For the most part, the content in your publication is available elsewhere (one the web), might be from different authors or in different formats, but it's fair to say there are no real secrets in the Exchange world. The true benefit for me was having a number of relevant topics packaged together in a form that I could grab at my convenience…” You guys mad a BAD move on this one! Lamar Thomas

P.S.: When you guys go back to a hard copy you need to make sure ALL of your customers get a (FREE) hard copy back issue for every issue they missed. You guys made this decision on your own, it should be YOUR dime to make it right! Lamar Thomas

I thought i was one of a minority that was very dissapointed with the move to go online, but aparentley not! Obtaining older issues is such a chore, and I just don't have the time to be browsing through loads of pages. Also when I pay for a service I do NOT expect to always be dealing with adverts just as I log in. Content as ever is good, however I can not see myself maintaining my subscription for much longer, because to get the same content as I did previously I am having to take time out of my allready heavy daily schedule!! The monthly newsletters were great! compact in size and convinient! Bring back please!!

HirenC: Thanks for your comments about Exchange & Outlook Pro VIP. We have actually received relatively few complaints from subscribers about the change to an online format (about 1% of subscribers have emailed or written comments opposing the change). Re your concern about advertising on the site: Exchange & Outlook Pro VIP has no ads on its pages. We feel strongly that readers who subscribe to this service should be able to access the content on the site free of ads. You should be able to log on directly to the Exchange & Outlook Pro VIP site (http://www.exchangeprovip.com) without ads. As for your complaint about accessing back issues/articles, I agree that doing so should be easier than it is currently. We are working on creating a searchable archive that will include all previously published articles, grouped by month, from Exchange & Outlook Pro VIP and Exchange & Outlook Administrator. Finally, if you like the convenience of having a print issue, we provide a monthly PDF containing the previous month's articles, which you can download and print out. The online site also offers additional benefits that we weren't able to provide with the print newsletter, such as a subscribers forum, a Q&A box, and extra content (news and features) that we can publish in a more timely way than before. I encourage you to give the additional new features a try and let me know what you think of them. --Anne Grubb, editor, Exchange & Outlook Pro VIP agrubb@windowsitpro.com