In Reply to: "Christian Distributivism" is the "Business Model" posted by John Marks on March 5, 2011 at 08:37:20:
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.
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Follow Ups
- RE: "Christian Distributivism" is the "Business Model" - josh358 11:30:16 03/06/11 (5)
- 1973 vs. 2011... . (and a COOL IMAGE) - John Marks 13:26:12 03/06/11 (4)
- RE: 1973 vs. 2011... . (and a COOL IMAGE) - lord addleford 19:43:20 03/06/11 (0)
- RE: 1973 vs. 2011... . (and a COOL IMAGE) - rick_m 17:17:14 03/06/11 (2)
- Great posting, thanks. - John Marks 17:59:28 03/06/11 (1)
- RE: Supposed COOL IMAGE - cdb 14:09:45 03/17/11 (0)