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In Reply to: RE: "I guess we could pay a lot more for a subscription and lose that ad section." posted by Chris O on November 06, 2009 at 08:49:30
Although I spend much of my working life in front of a computer, I despise reading reviews of audio products online. Even the ones that try to make something of it (ToneAudio, for example) seem horribly hobbled by the experience.Every online media outlet has one eye fixed firmly on its Google ranking and that always seems to influence the content. Dumbed down writing, repeating the product name every hundred or so words and very simple sentence-structure is the norm online. Some aspects of audio demand a degree of abstraction, and that is not the sort of English usage that lends itself toward simplification. Google's spiders demand simplification. So, unless your audio concept can be immediately understood by a dyslexic preteen, with a second-language command of English at best, Google passes it by and down the ranking you go.
I am also unconvinced by the lack of authority from online sources. Anonymity and its close friend the sockpuppet mean those with the correct answer often get shouted down by those with an agenda to push. While the old chestnut "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" should be a scrolling banner across the top and bottom of every website and forum. I don't particularly like the idea of holding reviewers in higher esteem simply because of their job title, but I would rather that than take at face value the pontifications of a person whose background and experience remain hidden from public view. If a reviewer says something about a product, I can see they at least have some provenance, be it good or ill; if 'mugwump6782' (or 'Gag Halfrunt', for that matter) says the same, I have no idea whether they have any experience of that product, any experience of that product in context, any experience of that product's rivals and what connection that person has to the product (or its rivals).
The difficulty is that as people become less and less able to parse the complexities of the English language, so the magazines grow dumber to accommodate. We've already seen this with magazines like HiFi+, which has become easier to read, but lacks gravitas. In fact, most magazines have dumbed their style down over the last two decades or so, but I'm more aware of the changes in HiFi+, because it did it over a couple of issues.
I think the surviving audio magazines need to make the most of being magazines. Not try to compete with the internet, but provide a valid alternative to those who want to know more.
Edits: 11/06/09 11/06/09Follow Ups:
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