This is all related to the shorter attention span of modern readers. In theory it should be much cheaper, and hence possible, to publish long, in-depth articles on the Internet. But despite what some old-timers say, most readers do NOT want to wade through the 3000-word articles that used to be published in print magazines.
One of the reasons I care less for many magazines than I used to, and only buy them on the newsstands therefore.
I would actually buy books if magazines would print good excerpts rather than the sometimes shallow articles.
