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In Reply to: RE: Respectfully disagree re: "another magazine." posted by galnat on February 02, 2008 at 14:37:42
If a record company puts a lot of money behind a new young singer (despite the fact that the small print really means that the amounts are advances or loans), they almost always require the young singer to sign a contract that provides that the new young singer, for a term of years, can make records or perform or lend publicity only at the direction of their record label.
This is the way business works. Why should a record label's shareholders be held hostage (I match your extravagant metaphors) to the goodwill of a young person whose head is subject to turning.
In the present case, TAS was all but bankrupt. An investor came in with ready cash to reinvigorate the franchise. Last I heard, $6 million had gone down the rathole. Given the history of HP's business affairs, why should anyone trust his memory and sense of gratitude? So, I assume there is a contract that says that for a term of years, HP can only write for or by leave of AMM. That's life in the big city.
If HP wanted to "escape," all he has to do is stop renewing the contract and wait out any "cooling down" non-compete period, which is often as long as two years.
I do not think that the reluctance of any other print magazine to take on HP has anything to do with personal history or ego; publishing is not much different from the music business. Business first.
My estimation is that there are not more than 15,000 people worldwide who wake up in the morning hankering for the next dose of HP's writing. Putting a magazine in their hands had been a money pit of Titanic proportions. Most managers will look at the costs and benefits and say, "Next."
I bet JA could increase Stereophile's circulation by printing an edition in Esperanto. But the increased revenue would never offset the costs. Since the mid-1980s, the buzzword has been to "rightsize" a business. Perhaps the "rightsize" for TAS would have been an expensive, print-only, no-ads magazine aimed only at the 15,000 hardcore HP fans; forget spending money to get the circulation up to 40,000 or whatever.
We'll never know.
I am not gloating, it is a sad state of affairs; there were many squandered opportunities along the way.
Your English is fine.
Cheers,
JM
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