I couldn?t agree more with what Pitlamp has said above.
Since my student caver days (15 years ago), Descent has been THE place for new discovery and exploration to be reported. My digging group still feel the same, and while social media (including of course this forum) are great for news, debate, snippets, PR, discussion, questions, updates, in terms of significant new discovery reports, it has to be Descent first for us, and I cannot see that changing, for us, and probably many others.
Getting your discovery, photos and surveys in physical print (especially when laid out and presented so professionally) just cannot be beaten.
What is changing is the way people consume news. A problem with Descent is that often by the time a story actually makes it to print, the moment for broadcasting it has passed, and this is where live online platforms really help getting stuff out there at the point it is most relevant.
My feeling is that, should Chris and Judith decide to step back from Descent for a well-deserved break, there is definitely a future in a printed magazine; but possibly reduced to quarterly, with a focus on new discovery/exploration and more ?meaty? news stories, complemented by an online presence for other ?of the moment? and smaller news stories. I always thought that the Darkness Below format is the kind of thing that would work well if run by Descent (i.e. unbiased, professionally managed) to complement a scaled down physical publication focusing on the meatier stories, assuming new editors could be found of course. Whether there would be sufficient money to be made in such a format, I don?t know, but this could be somewhere the BCA could perhaps step in.
However, I?d be extremely happy to see Descent continue in its current format, and we will continue to subscribe and support it for as long as it exists.