Too many magazines?

I get a lot of magazines. Sometimes I think it's too many. I subscribe to several magazines because I like them and are of interest too me (Runner's World, Smithsonian, and Inc., to name just a few). Some I buy on occasion, especially when traveling (usually MacWorld and Entrepreneur). And then there's the ones I get for free, because I couldn't help myself. I've picked up some of these magazines at a conference, then sent in the form for a free subscription, and some I have no idea now how I got them. But I'm pretty inundated with them anymore. The thing is, though, that there's a lot of great information in them. If I only had the time to actually read them, instead of just contributing to the killing of more trees, they'd be quite interesting and informative. Since I started this blog and am looking for things of interest to talk about, I picked up one of the magazines that are on my pile. I think it's the first time I looked at this one; Food Manufacturing. The subtitle is Technology for Today's Food Production & Packaging Market. I'm just a bundle of excitement reading this type of thing, aren't I. Makes you want to party with me, huh?

But, when I started leafing through the magazine, I found a couple of very good articles. The cover story (October 2007 issue) is about designing food processing plants to mitigate the problems of food contamination, which is a huge issue these days. There's another short article about Choosing a Conveyor System for Your Small- to Mid-Sized DC (that's Distribution Center for those of you not in-the-know). And a very good article on implementing ERP systems (that's Enterprise Resources Plannning, or an organization wide computer information system). I have a chapter on ERP system implementation in my book, so it's always nice to see someone talking intelligently about it.

Most of these free magazines are focused on one industry, and are usually pretty technical and full of ads, but I'm going to have to take more time to look at them, as they are very beneficial. What I'll do with my newfound knowledge of Food-Grade Lubricants, I don't know, but you never know when that will come up in conversation. (That's lubricants for equipment in food processing plants for those of you with dirty minds.)

So what magazines are on my pile?

Inc.
APICS Magazine (comes with APICS membership)
Quality Progress (comes with ASQ membership)
Quality Digest (comes with ASQ Quality Management Division membership)
Hawaii Business (comes with HVCA membership)
Food Manufacturing (mentioned above)
Manufacturing Business Technology
Materials Handling Management
DC Velocity
Inbound Logistics
The Manufacturer
Baking Management
Consulting
Entrepreneur
MacWorld

I'm sure I'm missing one or two that have already found their way to the trash, but I think it's time to take control here.