Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2020

56 were aware that we had to go through a pe- riod of experimentation (which lasted 5 years) to find the best way forward, or, even better, the only way possible. After carefully studying the market and discarding several possibili- ties, at the end of 2012 we understood that the only solution capable of ensuring a future for the magazine (that is, a lot of readers and the trust of advertisers) was to offer it for free in digital format on the web and to create other language versions with a potential au- dience far greater than that of the original language (Italian). We were the first to do this with a long-term editorial project and with an almost total dedication to sacrifice. We didn’t want to end up like the twenty free e-maga- zines whose wrecks still surface in the obscure meanders of the web. Either give away all the issues of the magazine or succumb; this was the dilemma... Today, almost 13 years after the beginnings, we are the most widely spread free astronomy magazine on the planet. Randomness or far- sightedness? The party is over As if all the problems mentioned above were not enough, the Internet has dealt another deadly blow to astronomy magazines: it has put their symbiosis with the telescope market into crisis. The manufacturers and retailers of instruments for amateur astronomers quickly understood that, through the pages of a well- structured website and appropriate online ad- vertising campaigns, they could reach a larger audience than that declared (but seldom guaranteed) by paid magazines. In reality, the two audiences are not exactly superimpos- able, and the less presumptuous traders have just as quickly understood the usefulness of continuing to present their products in sector magazines. However, competition from the In- ternet caused publishers to lower their price lists. There was no alternative: accepting more poor income or losing advertisers and, there- fore, revenue. The result did not change. It is understandable that, in such a scenario, a paper magazine (it doesn’t matter if it also has a digital version) cannot last very long. We had the most sensational confirmation of this