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In Reply to: RE: Weekend at Harry's posted by E-Stat on February 28, 2011 at 18:30:03
Really, I miss the multi page insights from when he ran the mag. I don't know why Harley doesn't let him run.
Follow Ups:
that part two of the 3.7 review is longer than what I wrote. It should be in print soon. :)
rw
A year ago, he was talking like he was going to start a new magazine. Any word on that?
I've been hearing the same rumour for years. Just guessing, but financial backing for such a venture has to be hard to come by these days. Plus all people do is bash the few audio mags we have left now.
Between the recession, a shrinking high end, and the challenges the Internet presents to print media, it does sound like a hard sell.
OTOH, I think he'd have a guaranteed subscriber base among those who miss the old TAS.
...probably start an internet-based publication - at least that would be my guess, if he ever decides to do something on his own.
It would take less capital, but would his ageing fan base follow?
And how would he derive an income from it.
Writing for TAS IS his day job.
I'm a sample of one, but I'd definitely subscribe to a publication of his.
That's a start, anyway. And I suspect though can't be sure that I'm far from alone. After all, there are still a lot of folks willing to pay for subscriptions to Stereophile and TAS, and judging by what I've read here, others miss his stewardship of TAS.
On the other hand, I have no idea of how he could make a financial go of Internet-based publication. Perhaps a paid newsletter (I know he was contemplating that at one point) in PDF form?
...would people be willing to pay for an HP publication?
Remember Martin Collom's HiFi Critic?
No ads and something like $125 a year.
Is it still in business?
and it seems to be:
http://www.hificritic.com/subscribe/order.aspx
It's business model and publication schedule seem very much like those of the original Absolute Sound. I wonder how many copies they sell?
> I wonder how many copies they sell?
I am told that current circulation is around 1000.
It must be low as I was interviewed for a recent issue of The HiFi Critic and said some
things that might have raised some eyebrows. However, I didn't get any email about it.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
Whoa, now you have me curious. If I had $150 I didn't want, I'd go see what you said.
So $150,000 gross? I don't know anything about the economics of magazine publishing, but it sounds like it could support HP.
> So $150,000 gross? I don't know anything about the economics of magazine publishing,
> but it sounds like it could support HP.
Except that with the HiFi Critic, printing, paper, and distribution costs eat away at that
gross. You need to publish on the Web, but then you run up against the mantra that
"content wants to be free." Even an icon like HP wouldn't be able to charge $150/year
for a downloadable newsletter.
You asked in another recent message:
> Has there been piracy of Stereophile and TAS? Of course, with their subscription prices
> being what they are, they're almost free; a newsletter might be a more tempting target.
Even though our subscription price is low and we make most of Stereophile's content
available on our website free of charge (though not "day and date"), we do suffer a
piracy problem. Every issue is available from bit torrent sources within hours of it being
mailed to subscribers. One estimate was that as any as 15,000 pirated copies of
Stereophile (complete with ads) are downloaded each month. :-(
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
"Even an icon like HP wouldn't be able to charge $150/year for a downloadable newsletter."
Probably true. I pay $129/yr. for a downloadable Wall Street Journal.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
I downloaded one just to see what it was, and it was the real deal. Everything was perfect. Somebody with access to the original computer (PDF?) files put it out there. Where is the leak?
Hi,
I actually about this a number of months ago. My thoughts are in an article linked below called "The Future of Print Magazines is Online and Free." In my opinion, stopping pirating will be as successful as what's happening with the music industry. I know a few publishers and all their content has ended up online. In one instance, THREE WEEKS before the newstand date!
DS @ SoundStageNetwork.com
> I downloaded one just to see what it was, and it was the real deal.
> Everything was perfect. Somebody with access to the original computer
> (PDF?) files put it out there.
Yes, it looks as if the pirated version is prepared from the same hi-rez
pdfs we send to the printer and Zinio. These are not cheesy scans from
the paper magazine.
> Where is the leak?
Our management is investigating because the leak must either be from
the pre-press department or the printer. All we have found out so far
is that the sources for the pirated version(s) are sites in Spain and
the Ukraine. While these sites have sent "cease and desist" letters,
enforcing copyright in those countries is, I am told, very difficult.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
> > Our management is investigating because the leak must either be from
the pre-press department or the printer. < <
Shoot, that's easy. Just send Luigi out to break a few kneecaps.
Or if you want to be civilized, you go to both places and tell them if this happens again that you will switch companies. They will find the guy for you and fire them, as losing Stereophile would also mean losing forty other titles. Money talks...
My friend works (and now supervises) pre-press for a large printer in Colorado. Threats of lost business are taken very seriously, especially as a result of security concerns or employee mistakes.
With all the highly classified material that gets distributed it is clear that nothing would be sacred. It is a shame that hard work gets pirated. It would be fitting that those doing the pirating would be caught and processed to the full extent of the law, but I would not bet on it after what we all see going on now.
Jim Tavegia
Just kidding. But if there were pictures involved, I'd seriously consider it.
:-)
...of what - Harry sitting there contemplating the sound?
Of the set up in his rooms?
Maybe of his set-up man tweaking the equipment?
...are too busy sailing around their winter homes in the islands to get around to emailing you.
A little witticism there...
As far as "making a financial 'go' of it."
Christian Distributivism has usually worked when there is a rich patron in the background who provides the land or seed capital or whatever else is needed. Not that the Guild members don't work hard; it's just that the world doesn't value their works sufficiently to make a financial 'go' of things. Hence the need for sponsorship.
E.g. (even though it was not explicitly Christian), Elbert Hubbard's community Roycroft only worked because the workers received room and board and little if any money.
40 years ago you could make a living on a limited-circulation printed, mailed newsletter--if the information was timely and valuable. Today, things are quite different. Nearly everybody in the target demographic has a scanner and email. Keeping one's finger in the dike is not a realistic option. E.g., Stereophile's website gets more unique visitors in a month than printed copies get mailed. I usually get two rounds of letters to the editor: the first wave that comes when the print issue hits; the second wave (oftimes more rude and making less sense) when my column goes up on the web for free reading a month or so later.
When I was between TAS and Stereophile and therefore owed loyalty only to myself, I discussed with another writer the economics of a print-only newsletter that would not accept advertising. Our considered opinion: Impossible--regardless who the editor in chief was. Not enough people are willing to fork out fifty bucks in advance for six or eight newsletters, even if the newsletter were written by Shakespeare and copy-edited by T.S. Eliot.
So, OK, you have to have advertising. Oops. The same people selling ads and writing reviews? Are you serious? So you have to have an ad salesperson, and he or she needs to feed himself or herself and perhaps a family, and so it goes. You also need a business/copyright lawyer, and insurance, etc.
So it comes back to, the only way the craftguild business model works is to have a voluntary or involuntary "patron" or patrons. At one point I had been told by someone who should know that AMM's cumulative losses were in the vicinity of $6 million, although that person said in the same breath that post-kicking HP upstairs, the magazine was making money on a cash-flow basis. A magazine that accepts advertising, has had at least one prominent ethical imbroglio, is not written by Shakespeare, and is not copyedited by T.S. Eliot.
I am not making these points to run anyone down or to be a wet blanket. It is possible that the world would be a better place if HP had his own print newsletter (or .pdf). But barring someone who is willing to stand him a few years' living expenses, and pay the printer and the post office and the layout person, and for circulation development ($100,000 is a drop in the bucket right there) etc., and be willing to lose it all, I don't see it happening, certainly not on a pay-as-you-go basis.
The other factor of course, is that HP's appeal is primarily to men who are at least 50 years old and who have been in the hobby for at least a decade, and that is a demographic that is thinning out rapidly. And a business model that includes making HP more relevant to kids wearing earbuds makes as much sense as a business model of teaching Maria Callas to sing Motown... .
John Marks
If I had a spare million or two, I'd bankroll it myself. Unfortunately, my 747 needs an overhaul.
Has there been piracy of Stereophile and TAS? Of course, with their subscription prices being what they are, they're almost free; a newsletter might be a more tempting target. OTOH, as you point out, an HP newsletter would appeal mostly to us boomers. I'm not sure there are many middle-aged audiophiles out there who are into posting pdf's on torrent sites. I can see people sharing the occasional issue with a friend, but that happens with print, as well.
Anyway, you know far more about the practicalities of magazine publishing than I do. I know that HP started TAS on a shoestring, and marketed it with a classified ad in the back of Audio. But I suspect that sort of bootsrap operation is easier when you're young and not particularly worried about keeping a roof over your head. OTOH, I think HP's name recognition would be a huge advantage. Sure, he'd be appealing to an older demographic, but word spreads quickly in the Internet era and he's a known quantity. And I don't think he'd have to imitate the breadth of coverage of Stereophile and TAS in a new publication. Rather, I was thinking of their underground days as the model. As you pointed out, his demographic -- really, the entire high-end audio demographic -- is fading, at the same time as the Internet is competing with print publications. It's hard to see how HP could start a large, mainstream publication in such a market. This wouldn't be for kids, who I'm increasingly convinced will have to develop their own high end from the technology they use, but rather for established audiophiles.
But, again, you know much more about the practicalities than I do. I'm just someone who wishes he had a better platform than his few pages in TAS.
I don't disagree with anything you say, I just have a slightly different perspective.
HP started TAS in 1973 though he might have started publicity in 1972. You must remember that back then it was before: personal computers, video games, portable phones (except for the very wealthy). Videocassettes were three years in the future, and took about 10 years to become widespread. Cable TV had very little of high quality on it, it was mostly for people who had bad TV reception as opposed to an enhancement over broadcast TV in terms of programming.
On Tuesdays, new LPs would hit the store shelves. People listened to FM radio to learn about music they would want to buy. There was not much talk radio, and new acts and non-commercial music still had a chance because mega-networks like Clear Channel didn't exist. College kids wanted to have the best stereo on their dorm corridor.
An important aspect of it was, I am totally serious, social mores about dating and mating and marriage. If a girl went up to a guy's room and all there was was a bed, she might be labelling herself as a girl of easy virtue. But if there was a nice stereo and a Miles Davis or Glenn Gould LP, they were cultured. "Aspirational" magazines such as Playboy, starting in 1959, would run several features a year (main article, Holiday gift guide, Father's Day gift Guide) that implanted the idea that "the good life" included a stereo. Not today. Today, it's the freak-show aspect: look how much that stuff costs.
I attach a link to my Stereophile AWSI that puts forth the notion that the Golden Age of Hi-Fi (1946-circa 1992) was in large part the result of a one-off demographic and social confluence. Things are different now. The largest change being that listening to music used to be a social event (I will try to load an image--yes, from the 78 rpm era),
a shared opportunity to sit down and shut up and pay attention to music, whereas now it is something you do alone while doing something else, like reading your text messages or treadmilling.
Audio magazine, of course, is out of business. But let's say that when HP ran classified ads in Audio, its circulation was 300,000. If he got 2% of those to subscribe (a very high response to a direct-marketing campaign), he had 6,000 subscribers. Let's say TAS has 30,000 subscribers today. 2% of those is 600, which is not enough to make a go of it. All those numbers are total guesses. Perhap a new HP magazine would attract 3,000 subscribers, but I have a lot of trouble believing that it could attract 10,000 subscribers, especially if it was priced high enough to run without ads. Because a lot of people yearn for the TAS of old without ads, but I doubt they want to pay $125 or $150 a year!!!!!
Another factor is that compared to 1973, when startup audio companies were the rule, and computers were only at universities and many of the loudspeaker designs were laughable by today's standards, putting together a good stereo was hit or miss, while today, the sound of entry-level components is good and most high-end equipment is rather wonderful. Lots of people who passionately care about music have bought their "final" stereo. "The hobby" in that regard is a victim of its own success. We don't need a New Moses to lead us out of the wilderness and into the promised land.
All the best,
JM
JM- your understanding of the social piece may be accurate for a limited demographic during the late '40s,'50s and early '60s, , but is sorely inaccurate for the youth/musical culture of the '60s onward. I have no idea about what world you inhabited during the '60s, but it is non representational of the youth culture world inhabited by that piece of the baby boomers.
Yes that is indeed a cool image, you don't see beer glasses like that much anymore... Was that Eico equipment?
"Golden Age of Hi-Fi (1946-circa 1992)"
Exactly, the Hi-Fi boom was congruent with the baby boom so there's a whole glut of us with the same fascination that enjoy chatting about it on AA. Since we were formed by the unusual conjunction of successfully completing a war and the commercialization of the new field of electronics it's probably just hubris to think that subsequent generations should share our tastes.
Even though we haven't done so well in the war department, to this day Electronics continues to be a large driver of culture.
But it's not OUR Electronics and the hard core yet cling to their tubes, records and horn speakers and will be probably be laid to rest with a 6SN7 in each hand and a mint copy of the Dark Side of the Moon on their chests. Boy will the anthropologists have a hay-day with that one. "It's got to be some sort of religious/sex fetish thing, it's just gotta be!".
And of course they're right...
Regards, Rick
The image is from a stock art company, and it is indexed under "Food and Drink."
Yes, I am sure it is Eico, but it was not an Eico ad. It could be cheesecake-free calendar art.
JM
Two white guys in suits, three white women in prom gowns.
Some hack artist's idea of the good life back then in a cheesy Rockwell imitation. Too bad he forgot the loudspeakers...
It's apparent from the start, the road to this projected happiness is paved with conflicts.
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