Weekly Edition
Return to the Front page
| |||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||
LWN Status
This week's exercise in LWN writing about itself looks at European
subscriptions, corporate subscribers, and a couple other aspects of how
things are going.
The individual subscriber count stands at a little over 2300. New subscriptions have levelled off greatly in recent weeks. The total number of subscribers has yet to decline; if the number of new subscribers remains low, and the number of expiring short-term subscriptions remains relatively high, that could happen before too long, however. We continue to see a slow but steady trickle of group subscriptions. Subscribers which have given us permission to drop their names include Dell, the IBM Linux Technology Center, NEC, Trustix, Carmen Systems AB, Progeny, The Linux Box Corporation, Boston University, the National Center for Atmospheric Research Library, Bibliotek-Systemer, BitMover, the SAIC Advanced Technologies and Solutions Group, Prosa, Intevation, the Debian Project (funded by HP), and SecurePipe. If your company is not on this list, perhaps it should be; please drop us a note at subs@lwn.net to set up a group subscription. Our investigations into setting up an European bank account have led us to the conclusion that it's not a viable option for us at this point. Setting up an account requires a "presence" that we don't have, and, even then, it turns out that monetary union has not done much to reduce wire transfer fees across the European Union. Accepting European debit cards that are not part of the Visa or MasterCard networks is not an option available to us. So it looks a little difficult, still, for European subscribers who do not have credit cards or PayPal accounts. There is, however, one other option we have found: accepting personal checks. It turns out that the costs to us for dealing with European checks (in Euros) is not that unreasonable. So we ask our European readers: how many of you would be willing to mail us a check, for something like EUR 65 to 70, for a one-year "professional hacker" level subscription? Drop us a note (at subs@lwn.net, or as a comment to this article) if you would be interested in that option. The old "About LWN" page has been replaced with a new LWN.net FAQ with answers to a number of questions. This document is clearly under construction; drop us a note with questions you think we should have answered. That's about it for this week. Thanks, as always, for supporting LWN. (Log in to post comments)
LWN Status Posted Nov 12, 2002 20:19 UTC (Tue) by airwin (guest, #6920) [Link] Please, enough with the negativity! Your reports consistently mention that you expect subscriptions to go down. That constant negativity could become self-fulfilling after a while so please refrain from such speculation. In fact your individual subscriptions are up from your last report and your corporate subscriptions (which you describe as a "trickle") are way up compared to not long ago when you had none! First rule of publicity; don't speculate on negative things which may never happen.
LWN Status Posted Nov 12, 2002 21:20 UTC (Tue) by jensend (guest, #1385) [Link] <sarcasm>Perhaps something along the lines of the following...Well folks, it's been another beautiful week here at LWN. Life is sure great, isn't it? We aren't getting enough subscriptions to enable us to purchase groceries, but hey, that's OK, we're just living on HAPPY POWER :) So join us in a rousing chorus of "Oh, what a beautiful morning" and always remember, "Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative." Cheers, The Emaciated but Joyful LWN Staff Members</sarcasm> If I wanted overly optimistic PR statements, I would look to companies which are traded on Wall Street. For places like LWN, the "regular" publicity rules don't apply.
Abso-fscking-lutely! Posted Nov 13, 2002 4:06 UTC (Wed) by AnswerGuy (guest, #1256) [Link] Here! Here! We don't need a snow job. Don't pull your punches and try to gloss over JimD
LWN Status Posted Nov 13, 2002 21:48 UTC (Wed) by stonedown (guest, #2987) [Link] I agree. There's no point in negative speculation. However, there isn't enough money coming in. Keep making that point and put it in the context of how many subscribers you need. Continue to self-promote, reach out for support from the community, and be optimistic that it will all happen.
Eurocheques Posted Nov 13, 2002 16:34 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] I, for one (in the UK), would mail a cheque off like a shot.
Eurocheques Posted Nov 14, 2002 9:34 UTC (Thu) by jwharmanny (guest, #971) [Link] I won't, I cannot afford it. As a poor student, I could do a starving hacker subscribtion (though I'm not starving yet) but anything else would be out of the question.In 3 years or so, when I finish my study, I will make lots of money and subscribe right away. Until then, I'll have to stick with the 'free' edition.
Eurocheques Posted Nov 21, 2002 8:48 UTC (Thu) by rwmj (guest, #5474) [Link] I would too, particularly if I could write the cheque out in GBP :-)Rich. (Not part of the Euro yet ...)
LWN Status Posted Nov 14, 2002 12:20 UTC (Thu) by jarto (guest, #3268) [Link] Have you considered contacting Linux User Groups in Europe and asking them for help? A LUG could easily collect enough subscriptions and submit them as one big payment to you. Some members even have credit cards that could be used instead of checks.
LWN Status Posted Nov 14, 2002 15:43 UTC (Thu) by KaiRo (subscriber, #1987) [Link] Hmm, for some (though not all) people here, it would possibly help if you would allow payments via paybox - see http://www.paybox.net/ for the US page - as this service is advertised quite a lot here in Germany and Austria (probably in other countries as well).I for myself am receiving some money also over this way for a OSS project (Mozilla German Localization, http://mozilla.kairo.at/) and it works quite well. The downside is that only subscribers can use that service, and they charge money for the subscription...
LWN Status Posted Nov 14, 2002 22:53 UTC (Thu) by Lovechild (subscriber, #3592) [Link] As a show of support I ordered a 2 month subscription, and as I'm very happy with it, I just upgraded to 12 months.LWN deliveres what it promises, and I do hope that more people will subscribe in the future, because the contents on this site is just superb. keep em comming, 2.5$ a month is a fair deal even for a student.
European checks or MasterCard Posted Nov 15, 2002 9:39 UTC (Fri) by ortalo (subscriber, #4654) [Link] Whatever the mean, I'll continue to desire yearly subscription(even from Europe) for some period of time: I still have this 4 years period of worthwhile reading I owe you... (Have to say that I started with no.1, and probably missed no more of 2 editions...) Let's emphasize for all other European subscribers (or So, personnally, I'd recommend any European user to go to a And, if some of us do not have enough money for such an advance
LWN Status Posted Nov 21, 2002 8:31 UTC (Thu) by marcmertens (guest, #1645) [Link] If it was possible to get a subscription via a check, I will happely send one for a one year subscription.Marc
LWN Status Posted Nov 21, 2002 12:29 UTC (Thu) by mwerner (guest, #4977) [Link] I for myself would send a cheque this minute for a one-year subscription (60 Euros).
$2.50 * 12 != 70 Posted Nov 22, 2002 14:27 UTC (Fri) by gravious (guest, #7662) [Link] Err, as a student in Galway, Ireland (and therefore floundering in the starving hacker category) I would resolutely object to paying $50 more than my slacker american counterpart. I'm sure if ye all at lwn use yer hacker savvy ye'll work something more reasonable out. Until then I think I'll stick with the time delayed free version.O, yah, ignore those whining Brits... if their government is too europhobic to join the monetary union then why on earth give them special dispensation... Why can't we all just use smooth shiny beach pebbles?
$2.50 * 12 != 70 Posted Nov 25, 2002 11:55 UTC (Mon) by gerard (guest, #1478) [Link] "I would resolutely object to paying $50 more than my slacker american counterpart. "You were/are not being asked that. The article said 70 for a "professional hacker subscription" which is $5.00 a month ($60 p.a.), not the $2.50, which is the "starving hacker sub". And why the "whining Brits" comment, maybe Trimble had a point after all....
|
|
||||||||||||