Why MDJ?

For those who need the most detailed Macintosh coverage as soon as it's available, we proudly offer MDJ. Publishing up to five times per week, MDJ presents everything we have as soon as it's ready to release, in our colorful but easy-to-read PDF format or in TidBITS-style text-only mailings. Look for the untold story on Macintosh technical issues, complete explanations of Apple Computer's business, and the condensed version of everthing else - except those wild rumors, rewritten press releases, or advertising.

MDJ speaks from experience

Dozens of advertiser-supported Macintosh news sites offer headlines every day, but they lack the depth professionals require. Most headlines just repeat the basic points found in press releases.Links are usually to wire service reports or stories from large technology news organizations, and precious few sites offering analysis or commentary have anything close to the experience to back it up.

MDJ's staff offers you decades of Macintosh experience, with staff members that have published articles in MacWEEK, MacAddict, develop, MacTech, TidBITS, and on the back page of Macworld. In addition, MDJ contributors have published magazines, Technical Notes, sample code, sessions at conferences ranging from Macworld Expo to WWDC, and more besides. Years of experience with the classic Mac OS, Unix, and now Mac OS X gives MDJ a depth and insight missing in other journals.

MDJ speaks to professionals

If your job is about the Macintosh computer, you need hard-core information, but so many outlets offer the same talking points over and over. Other stories only tell you as much about a Mac OS X update as Software Update itself does, but MDJ dissects every file in the update, combining that with developer sources to form a complete picture. News stories on Apple's business are usually written by analysts or journalists that cover dozens of companies, but MDJ focuses exclusively on Apple, providing complete transcripts of executive statements and Mac market-focused analysis that shows what the doom-seeking financial types can't see. Other sources talk about Mac OS X and application software, but MDJ takes the time to fully explain concepts like HFS Plus, FireWire 800, and MPEG-4 technology so that advanced users can understand what was previously accessible only to programmers.

In addition, MDJ looks at the most interesting and important news stories and new products in each issue with our own summaries, with links for more information. MDJ dissects good and bad Apple news coverage so you can fight bad perceptions, explains legal issues, and tracks the movers and shakers in the industry. We also highlight the best and most important new Macintosh products, pointing out the interesting ones you may not have seen and poking holes in the prominent ones that aren't worth your money.

MDJ delivers for its readers

Sometimes the time necessary to prepare information of this quality precludes daily delivery, but MDJ arrives 2-5 times per week with news, analysis, technical explanations, debunking, and deep information unavailable elsewhere. Although print magazines have larger staffs, they don't arrive until weeks after the news hits. Professionals already know everything in most glossy magazine "news" coverage because the editorial deadline was two to three weeks before you got your copy. MDJ provides that information this week, not next month.

Unlike some other outlets, MDJ accepts no advertising. Any business answers to the people who pay the bills, and for most outlets, that's the advertisers. Most publications are only focused on getting more and more readers (or, in the case of Web sites, "eyeballs"). That's why the "hottest" Web sites a few years ago spent week after week printing ridiculous, unsupportable rumors: people came to read them. As long as the content is good enough to get you there, that's all the bean counters need.

MDJ has no ads of any kind, and is responsible only to its readers. There's never any question that coverage is slanted to support advertisers because there aren't any advertisers. That also means you don't have to use your bandwidth to download dozens of ads each day - MDJ's PDF and text-only issues have nothing but Macintosh news.

The average price for paper subscription-based, ad-free newsletters is about US$1 per page. It's not uncommon at all to see newsletters that cost US$125 per year publish only 12 pages per month. For technology newsletters, it's even worse: the noted release 1.0 newsletter publishes 11 issues per year for US$795, or US$850 outside North America. MDJ delivers more professional quality content than that each week for only US$39.95 per month, or about twenty-five cents per page. We could double the price and MDJ would still be the lowest-cost professional newsletter available on the market.

Why pick MDJ over MWJ?

All the reasons that make MWJ great apply to MDJ as well - in fact, MWJ only contains material that has previously appeared in MDJ. However, MDJ is geared towards professionals who need in-depth information as quickly as we can publish it. Since MWJ is for serious users but not professionals, it doesn't include all of MDJ's product coverage or feature articles. What's more, MWJ readers may see features days or even weeks after they were first published in MDJ, and some MDJ features (and dozens of noted products) never appear in MWJ. MDJ publishes between 30 and 40 pages in a normal week; MWJ is 16-24 pages, published only once per week, at a lower price. If that's what fits your needs, we encourage you to check it out.

See it for yourself, free!

In age of fast, ad-driven reporting, MDJ might seem like a strange concept. The best way to understand it is to read it, absolutely free! We have sample issues you can download immediately, and you can also sign up for a free three-week trial subscription. Or, if you know MDJ is for you, you can subscribe right now. We're also pleased to answer any questions you may have, so don't hesitate to contact us and ask!

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This page last modified on Friday, December 12, 2008 3:40 PM

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