Re: [Leica] What do we want from the LHSA?

["A.H.SCHMIDT" <horsts@primus.com.au>]

Steve LeHuray wrote:

> > From: "Steve LeHuray" <icommag@toad.net> has come up with some
> > interesting ideas for the future of the LHSA.
> >
> >
> >>     .An improved Viewfinder, move from quarterly to bi-monthly and
> > accept advertising.
> >
> > The Leica Historical Society here in the UK is about a tenth the size
> > of the LHSA, and adverts play a significant role in reducing the
> > magazine costs. That said, for me one of the pleasures of reading
> > Viewfinder is the absence of adverts. But maybe we Europeans find
> > adverts more intrusive than our US counterparts do.
>
> The only reason for advertising is to pay the costs of producing the
> magazine. Most photo magazines are advertising driven and the whole
> presentation is distasteful for me, so distasteful that I do not read any of
> them.

I do not subscribe to the LSHA Magazine. However what I have to say, applies in
general.

I would not consider subscribing to any magazine, technical or otherwise,
without ads.
Advertising not only enable the magazine to pay its workers a decent wage, but
it is extremely useful for the reader. To use as information source to what and
where what is available.

I could not imagine an electronic magazine without ads. Most important they are.
If I am looking for a product, I go to the advertisers index  normally at the
back of the magazine
and see what i can find. A magazine without ads, is ,In my opinion, useless. How
would I know about the latest products, or the distributors of the products?.  I
can quite easy live without ads on TV or Radio, but not in a magazine. It also
reduces the cost to the purchaser
by a great amount. Can you imagine, how much your daily newspaper would cost, if
it could survive, without ads. The mind boggles. It slightly amazes me, when
people complain, about having ads in a magazine. They also like to complain
about to many articles which are not quit up to their liking. The  best thing
would be to mail a single sheet to each subscriber with an article selected to
the subscribers preference. The advertisers don't pay good money to a magazine
with the sole intention to annoy the readers. ( I am not so sure about it on TV)

The want you to know about their latest products. How else are they able to do
this?

Regards, Horst Schmidt