A quick review of Linn’s Stamp News Digital edition
Linn’s Stamp News is a name most US and Canada based collectors are very familiar with. It is very likely one of the biggest (in size and print numbers) stamp related magazines, and the only one that comes out each and every week. Unfortunetaly due to long delivery times and expenses most non-american collectors have ignored the publication. With arrival of Digital Edition (meaning online edition) things have changed.
The good
Price is very attractive. 9.99US$ per year provides plenty of philatelic news and tidbits for each and every day.
The annual subscription includes access to digital archive – meaning access to past issues of Linn’s Stamp Magazine and Scott’s Stamp Monthly (from the last 12 months). In addition there’s a mixture of bonus material (like product catalogs/guides), that is of very little use for non-US collectors.
Linn's Stamp Magazine subscription provides a lot of stuff in Digital Library
The views and opinions… Let’s just say that Linn’s and Scott Monthly Stamp Magazine are very different from European publications. The articles are of course more US/Canada oriented, but in addition they show extremely well the cultural differences in collecting behaviour. For example in US centering is very important factor with stamps, in Europe it’s very rarely talked; topical collecting is more popular in US than in Europe etc.
The bad
Many online papers use a similar “digital paper” solution (see image below) like Linn’s, but personally I’ve never liked the solution, as reading the pages requires constant clicking, scrolling, zooming etc. I just wish they’d provide a simple PDF-file for download.
Scott Stamp Monthly Digital Edition screenshot
There’s also “print pages” feature, but unfortunately it’s very slow (at least to Europe when using a 2Mbps connection). If printing more than few odd pages, you can expect either a very long wait (even hours) or a crashed browser session.
The verdict
With this price level, this is definitely a service I can only recommend.
I was very reluctant to try the digital edition because I find it very hard on the eyes to read from a computer monitor for any length of time. I finally subscribed primarily to get the discount on supplies from Amos Advantage. Now I’m a real convert to the digital edition! The recent change they made to allow you to “save” the degree of magnification eliminates much of the “zooming” previously required, and now I can make the print big enough so that it’s easier on the eyes. As a user of the Scott catalogs, I also really like the ability to click directly to an advertiser’s website if it’s included in the ad. Saves much time, and, likely increases business for the advertiser. Finally, the digital edition is a lot less messy to “handle!” I’ll have to admit the print edition was much more portable though!
I love the new possibility to save the zoom degree too. Much less unnecessary clicking and zooming than before…