ValleyWag is reporting that InfoWorld is going to shutter their print edition:

InfoWorld, the long-standing weekly magazine to which enterprise technology startups made a dutiful pilgrimage, is to shut down, according to a newsletter report. The title, owned by the IDG publishing group, will continue to operate as a web news site; but the print magazine, which carried celebrity columnists such as Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe, is dead after nearly three decades. Tech titles have been the first, in the magazine industry, to fall to web competition. Red Herring magazine, as we've reported, can't compete with Valley insider blogs such as Techcrunch and Gigaom.

I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, I realize that the print edition costs a lot to produce (and is mainly advertiser supported - I get my copy free). On the other hand, I like getting the print edition - I rarely go to the websites for things like InfoWorld, ComputerWorld (et. al.). I read some of their stories, but only the ones that go by in my news reader. With the print edition - like a regular newspaper - I read stories I wouldn't necessarily be looking for.

Sadly, my interest in grazing the print edition just isn't part of a big enough market to justify the ongoing print editions. I don't pay for InfoWorld, and I don't currently pay for any newspapers, either - so my inchoate desire for hardcopy is just that.

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