[AJames]

I first read this post with disbelief, then read with equal disbelief the reactionary scuttlebutt from the half humorous denials! (Sounds more like the battles of Fairfax versus Murdoch - or even Days of Our Lives!)
Frankly, I did until recently buy both the versions S&T, but now I buy neither S&T based magazine. It is neither because of the poor editorial content nor the general quality of the publication, but because it is/was the same old same old, with usual uninspired repose with minor variations on similar dull themes. Worst it is just getting thinner and thinner in the numbers of pages each issue - especially the American version. I did the same thing to Sky and Space after the cutting and changing occurred with the different editor each issue saga, which in recent times fell back into the even more uninspiring themes.
Changing publishers is probably only minor, but you can't avoid the worrying overtures being presently issued by the American version. In the article "S&T Unveils New Format and Design"
(See http://www.skyandtelescope.com/skyte...e/9309806.html), describe;

"The design changes you'll see, along with some adjustments to our monthly mix of articles, are intended to make the magazine more attractive, enjoyable, useful, and, frankly, relevant to 21st-century astronomy enthusiasts at all levels of interest and expertise."

and

"The changes are also intended to acknowledge that you seek astronomy information from a variety of sources, both print and electronic. Accordingly, when we say, "Sky & Telescope," we mean Sky & Telescope the magazine and SkyandTelescope.com the website."

For me the merging with the electronic media suggests that the focus will be less and less on the News Stories - the strength of the magazine and my own personal draw card to buy it. (I've substituted with pages like "Universe Today", the S&T Weekly Bulletin and a few other similar sources.) Once the News Stories was the first thing I read, but the electronic ones are just as good and just as informative - tagged to the source of the article.
After AS&T went bi-monthly, the News Stories became even more out of date - and I stopped buying this after very first bi-monthly issue.
Perhaps the best thing with the new American version of S&T coming this month is it focuses on details astronomical articles and explaining concepts and lines of research. I do hope this is more on the lines of Scientific American, because if it is, I'd even buy it "just for the articles."
Whilst the posts of Bisqueboy's comments might be mere skulduggery here - possibly in the usual commercial battlegrounds of cut-throat media empire - I do consider the question of how the Australian version might respond to the changes in the American version quite valid. Were the local version following the trend-lines of the changes, means that those with long subscriptions might find themselves in a new multi-year contract and not like what they receive in the revamp.
Another likely change will be in the page size - with the margins again decreasing. This probably doesn't matter, but S&T says they are doing it in cutting-costs. I hope they don't do this with the page quality!
As a final comment, these seemingly mindless wanderings here are fairly trivial, but I do think unless S&T versions keep with the times, they will disappear like a hyperbolic comet flung into the void between the stars - never to be seen again. Commercial reality means that adopting different styles content, new technologies or marketing strategies can be of great benefit to magazine production and sales. Simply it doesn't matter what name of the company is on the front of the office building that publishes the magazine, it only matters if the subscribers like what they see and are buying it.
In my case, I hope they can make it catch my attention again, else I'll be spending my money on other things.

As to Greg Bryant's slightly evasive and politically correct comment (and good luck to him);
"As you've seen, the new name appears in several places in the Sep/Oct issue, which came out a fortnight ago. It's not a big news item, hence no big announcement."

He is quite correct in this view, but I think the more serious questions among reader here and elsewhere in Australia is how are the current policies of S&T in the US going to pan out for the local version? If they were going to adopt a similar revamp - this would be more significant news item.

NOTE: Has anyone considered producing a local Australian and New Zealand News Bulletin Service on-line, where many selected editors from all walks of life mixed with professional astronomers all contributing into one page under different topics? This one-shop-stop would probably disseminate daily new head-lines of no more than several paragraphs, which would be refereed by another observer of the same circle of knowledge, and printed on the Web. In turn, once published, the information could have updates as they come to hand, followed by comments or open questions by the readership. If the professional and amateur astronomical community were to do this, then we could find out what is happening within both countries and give a local feel to all astronomical news and current events.

Nyx Aether

(Also very much anonymous - mainly to protect the guilty and bamboozle innocents.)