On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, Peter L. Peres wrote:

> Lately whenever I pick up a tech journal and read an article after finding
> it with some difficulty among the advertising, I ask myself whether a) it
> advertises or sells something or b) it advertises the author. I'm looking
> hard for c) teaches something good but I find it very seldomly. On the
> contrary I find 20 year old books very useful. Comparisons between 10 year
> old Elektors and todays make me want to cry. All the good content is gone
> imho.

I have a theory about that.

Ten years ago, having an idea for a product was about 2% of the total
effort.  Building it was maybe 8%, finding money to fund producing it was
maybe another 20%, and the other 70% was getting the word to potential
buyers.  The cost of advertising and marketing and taking orders and
credit card processing was so daunting as to make most projects have no
comemrcial value.

Now I can cook up a project, put it up on the Web, set up for credit card
payment processing (PayPal), advertise to a targeted, focused group of
potential buyers (lists, web sites, PayPal shops, eBay, etc), the whole
thing -- for *nothing*.  Nada, not a dime.  If I didn't already have
expertise and facilities to run my own web server and email, OK, maybe a
couple hundred bucks for the whole exercise.  Now all of a sudden my
project that would once have been an excellent candidate for a magazine
article looks more like a viable commercial product.  Let's see...  what
pays more, a cheap magazine or potentially selling a few hundred or a few
thousand widgets?  Or even a few tens?  Follow the money.  Look at the
thousands of people selling crap that would once have been the subject of
articles in the magazines that don't exist any more, or those that don't
have the good content they used to.

Hey, I'm as guity as anyone.  I developed a 12F629 based Morse code keyer
that would make a killer magazine article in QST or wherever.  It's on my
web site for sale, ten bucks a pop or so with shipping.  I am thinking
about using the same code base to build a Morse speed drill box, a foxhunt
beacon, maybe a few other things...  Sorry, guys, the magazine doesn't pay
enough at this point.  I may change my mind, but I think the same thing is
happening a lot.  I just think the magazines don't offer enough money to
entice people to write up the articles any more.  So yes, I think the Web
is helping to kill off print magazines, but not for the reasons you might
think.

Maybe I'll write that article after all.  Who's left to publish it?

Dale
--
It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off.

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