USA TODAY Publishes New Tech Mag … Are You Buying?

Mega publisher Gannett has announced its intent to unleash a new “glossy consumer technology magazine” with the underwhelming title of “USA TODAY NOW Personal Technology.” The 80-page magazine will hit newsstands in mid-October at a cover price of $4.95. The press release boasts that “a minimum of 300,000 copies will be printed.” So who’s buying?

No doubt they’ve already sold out the advertising space, but I can’t help wondering if are there 300,000 folks itching to cough up five bucks for articles in an unproven magazine on topics including HDTV, home theater, digital photography, notebook computers and other high-tech goodies:

• Technology for the home and office, entertainment, car and your life.
• How to’s, Q&A’s with experts, and stories on using and buying technology.
• No fear shopping: How to shop without being intimidated by the geek behind the counter.
• Setting up a home theatre: What to look for when you buy one.
• Digital imaging: How to take better photos, make better videos, and buy the right stuff.
• An exclusive USA TODAY TECH map that answers the question: Are people in your county ahead of the tech curve?
• An exclusive USA TODAY poll of Americans: What’s your fear factor with technology?
• Top editors’ picks on key products such as digital cameras, laptops and HDTVs from CNET.com.

Perhaps you’re thinking that hey, those geeks behind the counter aren’t so intimidating … they’re just ill-informed. Or maybe that if you wanted to know what CNET had to say, you’d simply click over to CNET, rather than fork over five bucks for a glossy consumer technology magazine.

The idea of a conventional publisher launching a new magazine on consumer technology topics seems almost quaint these days.

Maybe I just don’t get it. Maybe I don’t fit the USA TODAY demographic … hey, I’ll read the paper when a complimentary copy is left outside my hotel room door (after all, it’s a lovely product and is the nation’s top-selling newspaper), but I’ve never once bought a copy.

But then again, that’s why I’m sitting here typing barefoot in a room off the back of my garage at ranchero indebto and those USA TODAY executives get to deck out in suits and ties to commute to their chrome and glass palace …