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In Reply to: RE: Lots of money being made in audio review publications! posted by elliot@frontrowtheater.com on May 10, 2008 at 11:36:55
<< The fees for reviews are something in the order of 1800-3000 for the links to the manufacturers websites and there are fees for the printed reprints as well but I don't know how much that is. >>
First of all each magazine sets its own rates, and they vary widely. When I say "widely", I really mean it -- like a 10:1 spread.
In the old days (before the internet), there were two choices. You could either pay the magazine for the rights to republish a review, or you could photocopy it. The latter was rarely done -- I think it exceeds the allowances for "fair" usage, plus it looked cheesy as hell. But I remember seeing it on occasion.
The printed versions weren't all that bad, pricewise. I'll use Stereophile as an example simply because that's what we used the most and that's what sticks in my head. Part of the deal was that you had to use their printer. In other words, you didn't buy the rights to reprint it, you bought actually printed pieces of paper. I believe the main reason this was done was so that the magazine could make sure that the title and date of the magazine were prominently displayed. This ensured that the magazine got some exposure, and also that an unscrupulous manufacturer couldn't use an ancient review forever.
The number that sticks in my head was around $2,000 for 5000 reprints. In those days, that wasn't much more than the cost of the printing itself. At most, there was about a $500 premium (if even that) over the cost of getting the printing done locally.
These days, everything is pretty much done electronically, either via links to websites or via downloadable PDF files. As far as I know, nobody charges for simply linking to a magazine's website. The charge for a PDF varies widely from magazine to magazine. One magazine wanted around $1,200 but just for a one-year period. (We didn't accept that one.) The least we've paid was to Hi-Fi+ (UK based) which I think was in the range of $300 or $400. I think Stereophile is around $500. There was a German magazine that wanted about $800 or $1000. This seemed excessive to us, but it was important for our distributor, so we shared the cost with him. (Please forgive me if any of these numbers are incorrect. I'm going on memory here and don't have a stack of detailed invoices sitting in front of me.)
I find the amounts charged to be quite reasonable. For one thing the review has to be reformatted differently for a reprint. The ads have to be stripped out, a title has to be added, and so forth. So it is typically a few hours work for a trained graphic artist.
It's been a long time since we decided not to order a reprint of a review because we felt the cost was too high. The main obstacle is when the review is inaccurate or unfavorable. For example, one time a UK magazine sharply downgraded our CD player because it didn't have direct track access on the remote control. It turns out that we had been shipping it with that feature for over two years, but the importer had mistakenly included an old remote with the review unit.
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