Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/21

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Subject: Re: lens tests
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@cdsnet.net>
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 1996 08:34:24 -0700

At 04:46 AM 10/21/96 BST-1, you wrote:
>The question I'd want answered is what on *earth* possessed them to 
>reveal the results to the advertisers before publication? You just *DON'T 
>DO THAT*, not ever. It's a fundamental rule of reviewing product for 
>magazines!

That's a basic rule of editorial separation from advertising. Never, never
let the advertisers have a say in the editorial content. Period. But there
are too many areas of publishing who are whores, so to say, who never had a
journalistic backbone. They are publicity rags, on the level of fanzines
for Star Trek, or Monster movies, or celebrity rags. They have no integrity
to serve the readers, it's make money #1. It should be no surprise, I'm sad
to say. Even notice the ad creep in quality photo magazines? They start out
with more editorial content, and that attracts readers and develops a loyal
readership. 

Then along comes the New York advertisers, taking over more and more of the
back of the magazine, and then they start jumping their stories and the big
ads creep towards the front, until they all look like Pop Photo. American
Photo seems to be resisting, but they are sending out supplements that have
hardly anything but ads in them. I say that's a good deal, I don't mine
ads, just not at the cost of good design or editorial content. Why don't
they ever learn?

===========
Eric Welch
Grants Pass, OR

Ever notice how fast a Mac runs? Neither did I.