PJE made me buy the latest version of Dr. Dobbs (hint to the editors: python sells :->)!). He also commented that writing for the Dr has lost much of its prestige, because of all the alternative sources of information online. This may or may not be true in terms of lower circulation (I cannot tell without knowing their circulation numbers) but I agree with the point. Which made me wonder why I still buy this stuff (of course THIS issue is going to be a collectible! :).
I think there is a noticable difference between (most) online content and articles. Articles are more exciting, clear, have better examples and generally show more effort. It is simply the economics of time (assuming authors are compensated for their time) and prestige at work. Additionally the the editor who (hopefully) done her job selecting, filtering and assuring the quality of the content (I mean getting the author to refine and clean up the writing). This is not to say that there is no totally awesome online content out there - it's just a bit harder to find in one place. Along these lines I think it is very smart of DDJ to put out the "Algorithms", "Languages", etc. issues as they reinforce the editorial effect for people interested in these topics.
This model is also *almost* transfable to the Internet, which is what Artima.com doing (and CMP Media, including DDJ CUJ and others is seriously playing with via their recent all-in-one online access option). The only problem is that, when you are on someone's screen, you are competing with all the other stuff that's there.
More on books later...