The end of Publisher

Question

Microsoft! You have obviously had millions of dissatified customers on the topic of ending Publisher. What I don't understand is, after such an uproar from and overwhelming number of your loyal clients, have you done this. You haven't replace it with another compatible programe with which we can still use our thousands of Publisher files. You're just deleting it without a thought for what we, who have used Publisher for the past thirty years, are suppossed to do with all of our files, or what program to replace it with.

I think whoever decided this has not thought it through and really needs to go back and rethink this decisions.

I am utterly dissallusioned with you.

Answer 1

Microsoft Q and A is a community forum, so you are talking to your fellow users here.

Publisher is being discontinued due to declining use. There are fewer users for the paper-based content for which Publisher was created. Instead, content is becoming increasingly digital.

There is an expense involved in developing code, maintaining code, testing it, fixing bugs and supporting it, and with insufficient users, the expense could no longer be justified.

If more evidence of this is needed, note that there is no competing app that has the same features of Publisher.

Knowing this, Microsoft announced on February 15, 2024 that Publisher would be discontinued on October 13, 2026, giving users more than two and a half years to adjust their workflows.

Publisher now joins the ranks of other once-popular apps that fell victim to changing user tastes, like Windows Media Player, Zune and Windows Movie Maker, among others.