A quote from the editorial.
"Strangely, I have just received
a computing magazine that dates itself 2 months ahead! Anyway,
I digress off topic;"
Traditionally cover dates on magazines are related to upcoming events contained within & not the publication date. i.e. if you wanted to know what events were happening in May you would buy the May edition of a magazine. You wouldn't buy the May edition of the magazine part way through May as some of the information has already become out of date (it's like a "best before date" of the 1st of the cover date).
Magazine subscribers tend to get their magazines before they appear on the shelf, so it's very common to get a copy dated two months ahead.
Some magazines don't include a date at all, so that people will keep buying it even though the information is out of date. Others don't realise the tradition and use their own method for dating magazines, without thinking of the psychological consequences of their actions.
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