I never expected this but its official. Dr. Dobbs, a reputed and popular magazine for software developers since last 38 years has announced that it will be winding up operation. Hence, no new content will be published on the site from January 2015 onwards.
According to Andrew Binstock, Chief Editor, Dr. Dobbs, the website delivered almost 10.3 million page views in 2014 compared to 9 million in 2013.
“The numbers confirm that there is a deep thirst in the programmer community for long-form technical content featuring algorithms and code, as well as strong demand for explanations of new developer technologies and reliable reviews of books and tools,” mentions Andrew in his farewell post.
Andrew wanted to leave Dr. Dobbs by the end of this year but United Business Media (UBM), the company which manages the site has decided to sunset Dr. Dobb’s. Andrew states that sunset is equivalent to closing down.
All current content will be accessible and links to existing Dr. Dobb’s articles will continue to work correctly. It is the equivalent of a product coming to end of life. It still runs, but no new features will be added.
The main reason behind the closing down of Dr. Dobbs is attributed to decreased revenue from advertisements. The situation is not the same as it was nearly 4 years ago.
If you rewind 10 years back, you had great magazines such as asp.netPRO, ASPAlliance.com at your disposal. These sites provided valuable information for the entire software community.
While asp.netPRO was taken over by DevPro (Penton Media), ASPAlliance was acquired by CodeProject, who never made any attempt to reinstate the site. However, you can still access old contents which are knowledge treasures.
Going forward, Andrew will be returning to his former work of writing white papers and doing market analysis for technology vendors.
AlWilliams
I’ve been a reader of Dr. Dobb’s for 37.5 of those 38 years and a contributor (and thanks for the mention, by the way) for not quite 25 of those 38. It has been my distinct privilege to have had some small part in Dr. Dobb’s history. Some of my favorite projects appeared in our pages — the DOS Extender and One-Der come to mind. I can’t remember a prouder moment in my career than the time Jon Erickson referred to me as “Dr. Dobb’s resident tinkerer.” That meant a lot to me.
ioconnor
I’ve been reading for over three decades. I remember when the mac first came out. I believe it was a Dr Dobbs articles that explained how to upgrade it to 512KB.
eric_j_bruno
In 1987, when I began my college journey to become a software developer, someone told me I ought to subscribe to and read Dr. Dobb’s Journal. I did, and never looked back. When I submitted my first article in 2002 and saw it in print in Dr. Dobb’s, it was a magical feeling
lgayosso2931
I have been a reader for over a decade and will certainly miss the opinions, material, and industry insight the publication provided.
matt_hannay
22 years as a Software Engineer, And Dr Dobbs has been a Main stay of my tool box, I would pay more in my subscription fees for it to stay around.
Marc59
I’ve followed your mag since 1992. I was born in Argentina, and I paid $70 / yr for the paper subscription, haven’t miss a number!
