<VV> COMMUNIQUE' direction

[Arjay Morgan]

I have been reading the threads involving publication of the 

COMMUNIQUE'either in its pesent form or via one of the two styles of Internet publishing. or both.
First off, I don't have a dog in this fight, but I would like
to pass along some trends in the newspaper publishing industry,
of which I am very familiar.

Here in Tampa, Mother Trib has laid off 700 workers and dropped
three county editions just so it could concentrate on its 
Internet operations. This, after the company found the ad
revenue in the broadsheets was declining and it was gaining on
the internet products.

The same is happening at another newspaper I'm involved with,
the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Same deal, a shift from
traditional ink on paper to electrons on a screen and same reason,
advertisers preferred it, hence, more money.

Granted, the Communique' is not a newspaper, but is , instead, 
the published magazine for a special interest car club. However, 
it does, to a certain extent, depend on advertising. Through 
automated ad placement schemes like AdWords and DoubleClick
it would seem there is a way to increase revenues to the club
with little expenditue of time and/or bandwidth by making the 
magazine at least in part web-based. 

As for making in password protected, hence exclusive to the paid
membership, that may well be the wrong business model. An 
alternative may be to make the bulk of the magazine open to all
as 'bait' to get new members under the tent and keeping some portions
such as classified or super techie articles reserved to members.

The pitfall to be avoided at all costs is to cut the print  order
to the point where volume discounts disappear and the print
version gobbles up the profits from the web version. Uncalculated
is, of course, the value of increasing the membership through the web-spawned
interest of new owners/fanciers. 

Web distribution has the ability to 'push' content to readers
and potential readers, which is the opposite of 'pull 'em in'
strategy presently in place.

Finally, the Corsa demographic is skewing older and older and 
there is a drumbeat to get newer owners into the club. Fact is,
the newer generation is attracted to internet offerings, and
it always makes more sense to go where the fish are than to 
coax the fish to where you are.

I would hope this little white paper would reach the eyes of 
the Board of Directors and serve as yet another nudge toward
the electronic way of doing business. I just wanted to make
the organization aware of the new paradigm that seems to be 
taking over the publishing industray and, putting out the 
Communique' is certainly publihsing.

Arjay Morgan64 monza convert




       
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