It's the E-mail Culture. Having been in this business since 1959, I of course remember the days when you at least got in the mail a little 4x8 pre-printed boilerplate rejection note, and if you didn't, you wondered if your query had been lost by the Post Office.

Today, the routine is that total silence means a polite no thanks, even from the editors with whom you work most closely. They have too many e-mails to answer...or not. If I get total silence from my editor at Conde Nast Traveler, say, it's simply today's gentle way of saying, "We appreciate your interest, but unfortunately etcetera and so forth..."

So, I guess, deal with it. And no, I don't find them "a rude bunch of folks [courting] their publishers and advertisers." That's silly and shows no awareness of how magazines actually work. Only a freelancer's fantasy.