strangely the digital edition is always at least the 10 days behind the release of  the "analogue" edition of stereophile.

It makes no sense to me.... as the print edition would be sent to the publisher as an electronic proof... so surely if that is sent to zinio at the same time, the  Zinio electronic copy of the electronic proof should be able to be "produced" faster than the paper copy.

peter

PS.I am waiting like you for my Zinio edition

The digital edition of our July issue went live at around 1:30pm EST today.  Digital subscribers should have it now.

I understand that digital subscribers would expect their issues to arrive prior to the print editions, but circumstances prevent this from actually being the case.  Our digital edition is created and distributed by a company called Zinio, responsible for the digital editions of many, many other magazines, as well.  They distribute our digitial issue on that issue's official on-sale date.  The official on-sale date of the July 2011 issue is today.  I believe Zinio has missed their targeted release date once in all the time we've worked with them.

Print issues, however, get to newsstands and subscribers at slightly different dates each month.

The delivery dates of the print issue and digital issue are determined by different means and their distribution methods are unrelated.  We went to press with the July issue on 5/13.  Issues began shipping to newsstands on 5/24, and to subscribers on 5/31.  We do not see a proof of the digital edition until about a week prior to its official on-sale date, however.  In the case of the July issue, we saw the proof on 6/9.  After seeing the proof, we make any necessary corrections, and then Zinio sets the issue live as scheduled, on the issue's on-sale date.  

The real question, then, is: Why does the printer send the print issues out so early?  I don't have an answer to that.  I assume it has something to do with efficiencies and other workloads unrelated to Stereophile. 

In the past, I have asked Zinio if they could get the digital editions out to subscribers earlier, and they have explained that it's unlikely due to the fact that they must also tend to the elements of the iPad and iPhone versions, as well as juggling their own schedules.

I hope this clears up any confusion. 

I always wonderd why so many monthly magazines have what seems to be a 3-4 week jump on actual dates. It's not like a clothing catalogue, where you might order Spring clothing a few months before Spring actually happens. On then other hand, you guys don't do too many holiday related stuff so, the date for all intents and purposes is meaninless for the most part.