An update from LWN [LWN.net]

It's been a while since the last LWN update. That's generally a good thing, but, as will be seen below, there's news to report.

In the area of subscriber counts, however, there's not a whole lot of news. The number of individual subscribers continues to grow very slowly, and the group subscriptions are growing a little less slowly. We've had some modest increases in advertising and syndication income which have given us some welcome breathing room, but LWN is still not earning enough to cover the true expenses of creating it. As your editor's children approach college age, this situation is becoming increasingly pressing.

LWN suffers from an obvious lack of attention to its business side. Much effort goes into the creation of the best content that we can, and we have no regrets about that. But without more attention to promoting the site, actually selling subscriptions, making sure that the benefits of LWN are clear to new visitors, selling advertisements, etc., LWN will not grow to where it needs to be by the time it needs to get there. It is a rare business which can thrive in the complete absence of a sales and marketing effort.

So we need to free some time to devote toward making LWN a successful business. We could just cut back on content, but that does not seem much like a path with a successful conclusion either. So it has long been clear to us that LWN needs more staff to get itself to a sustainable position. The business, as it is organized now, needs more time than we are able to put into it.

The good news is that, as a result of very careful spending, LWN actually has a small stash of money in the bank. After our infamous credit card dispute in 2002, we developed a healthy appreciation for the benefits of having enough cash on hand to carry through an interruption of our income stream. That pile has grown to the point that we are able to use it to fund another staff position for a year or so in the hope that the cash flow balances out by the end of that time. And that is what we intend to do.

So we are happy to report that, starting in June, longtime LWN writer Jake Edge will be joining the crew full time. We asked Jake to provide a description of himself for the readers, and got back:

Jake has been doing software development for various small companies for more than 20 years. He first started using Linux in 1993 with a pile of Slackware floppies and has rarely used anything else since. For the past several years he has been contributing articles to LWN, mostly on the Security page. When he is not hacking code or words, he likes to read, nap, play bridge or go, watch birds, float on the river or all of them at once. He lives in Western Colorado with his wife Kristine and their two, hairier than most, daughters: Petra and Chamisa.

Jake will be contributing (more) content, working on the site code, and generally helping to figure out how to turn LWN into a more successful operation. Welcome, Jake!

On another front, we have often talked about the future of the "letters to the editor" page. A quick check shows that the last time we had a letter to publish was last January. So consider it official: the letters page is now gone.

LWN.net will celebrate its tenth anniversary next January. Those years have flown by; somehow we had never imagined that we would be doing this for so long. There's only one reason why we have continued with this exercise for all those years: our readers. Your support has kept us going through all of the ups and downs. In response we offer our most sincere thanks while we work toward being here for another ten years - at least. Our 20th anniversary issue, we suspect, will be about the year of the Linux desktop.

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An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 1:11 UTC (Thu) by Zenith (subscriber, #24899) [Link]

I sincerely concur!

I'm a student and thus uses the starving hacker subscription option, but I fully intend to upgrade to a normal subscription once I get a job after my studies (hopefully in about 2 months time :P)

Thanks for all the hard work, the great articles, your dedication and the way your dedication can be seen everywhere, from the "free after 2 weeks" content to your work on free software (the driver for the OLPC and the resulting articles here on LWN.net).

I for one will keep my subscription for a long time to come.

An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 10:28 UTC (Thu) by harold (subscriber, #44046) [Link]

Keep up the good work.

An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 2:35 UTC (Thu) by grouch (subscriber, #27289) [Link]

I have enjoyed Jake's articles, in spite of his slight eccentricity about floppies. Maybe LWN will get rich enough to introduce him to hard drives and set his talent free.

An update from LWN (Floppies)

Posted May 31, 2007 15:07 UTC (Thu) by filker0 (subscriber, #31278) [Link]

I remember downloading Linux in the early 1990s onto a pile of 5.25" floppies. Not Slackware, either -- Just Linux + GNU tools to use with it. Took a *long* time at 2400 Baud. I still have those floppies, but I don't have a drive to read them in.

Later, I purchased a CD ROM with some Linux distribution on it. That was probably Slackware, but I don't have that one anymore (that I know of).

An update from LWN

Posted May 30, 2007 20:27 UTC (Wed) by paulmfoster (subscriber, #17313) [Link]

Since LWN has plenty of great content (better than any other Linux site), and since Jake is going to be contributing content and such, I presume (hope) that this will free up our intrepid editor to do sales and promotion. Because that's really what LWN needs. Google ads, ads on the other Linux sites, etc. You need someone who's enthusiastic and capable of doing sales and promotion. (Not me. I run my own small business *and* a LUG.)

In any case, I wish you the best. Supporting college kids isn't something I'd wish on anyone.

An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 4:51 UTC (Thu) by Max.Hyre (subscriber, #1054) [Link]

Thanks for the info—I'd been mulling over asking how things were.

I concur with alessandro.russo's comment above about home pages. If forced to read only one site, this would be it. Literally.

Welcome to Jake Edge, but with a caveat. Given that getting subscribers is the top priority, I don't see marketing in his description. Make no mistake: marketing is a job that needs experience and enthusiasm. Might it not make more sense to hire someone with more of a slant that way? My experience certainly suggests that marketing folks and technical types are disjoint sets.

Mobile-friendly LWN?

Posted May 31, 2007 7:10 UTC (Thu) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link]

With new resources, may I suggest one improvement could be a mobile-phone friendly version of LWN? For today's handsets you don't need to reformat LWN as WML for WAP any more. Clean XHTML is fine, but it should avoid big pictures and especially all tabular layout.

What prompted me to make this suggestion (in addition to your LWN update) is a few days ago I bought a slightly used Nokia 6125. This is a year-old model that Nokia doesn't sell as a smartphone, but it has many kinds of goodies, like a XHTML browser. LWN was naturally one of the first sites I tried, and was greeted by the newspaper-reading penguin filling the entire phone screen. Reading the rest of the site was actually sort of possible, but involved continous scrolling. Not so fun, and made me itch for a version with only the text and basic formatting (<p> and the like). Of course putting adds would be hard, but you could make this kind of ultralight page a subscriber-only option.

Mobile-friendly LWN?

Posted May 31, 2007 7:19 UTC (Thu) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link]

Small-screen friendliness has been on the list for a very long time. As you say, our hope is that maybe we'll finally be able to spend a bit more time taking things off the list soon.

Mobile-friendly LWN?

Posted May 31, 2007 15:44 UTC (Thu) by iq-0 (subscriber, #36655) [Link]

That would be great, the current version is really awkward for small screen usage (lot's of scrolling),
and pherhaps reducing content/markup per page will save me some mobile quota (I spent my
monthly quota after reading only a dozen articles when I'm reading LWN in the train to work :))

Mobile-friendly LWN?

Posted Jun 1, 2007 14:05 UTC (Fri) by jengelh (subscriber, #33263) [Link]

Actually, I think LWN is quite small-screen friendly already. Run xterm -geometry 40x25 (yay, really oldskool screen size!) and goto w3m http://lwn.net/Articles/234683/?format=printable for example. You see, it already works wonders. The only extra needed is to keep the query string intact when following links.

An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 11:55 UTC (Thu) by cpeterso (guest, #305) [Link]

"Digg This"/Reddit/del.icio.us/etc links are a great idea. They could be a great way to increase exposure to LWN content from other news hubs.

An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 13:33 UTC (Thu) by Alan_Hicks (subscriber, #20469) [Link]

I can't say that I agree. Everytime I see one of those "submit to /." or "Digg It" links on a page, I get the feeling that the website is trying to whore itself out for attention. It gives the impression that the content of the site isn't capable of standing for itself and like a spoiled child, needs the constant attention of a "parent" site in order to stay afloat.

An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 13:53 UTC (Thu) by tuxchick (guest, #42009) [Link]

Not only that, but you get a flood of twits and trolls, and after they're
gone you're worse off than before.

An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 10:31 UTC (Thu) by hp (subscriber, #5220) [Link]

While I'm sure you've considered it, I wonder if you guys should run a few more ads. e.g. having another Google text ad at the bottom of each article might boost revenue and not really bother anybody. Or people who are bothered will be lame, since it isn't hurting them and it's supporting a great publication. The existing ads don't seem ideally placed either, they aren't always in the flow of reading the page.

Especially for nonsubscribers - I just logged out and it doesn't look like there are many ads even if I'm browsing anonymously and not paying.

I wouldn't advocate flash ads, popup ads, or those ads that slide in from the side and cover up content and so forth, like some tech news sites have. No need to be obnoxious. But LWN is pretty extreme in the other direction, with virtually zero ads. Most people don't mind reasonable ads that are easy to ignore, especially Google-type ads that tend to be relevant to the content.

Anyway, I think we should all recognize that LWN is undercompensated for the level of expertise involved in producing the site, and welcome appropriate steps to bring your compensation up to a reasonable level.

Another idea you might consider is broadening scope a little bit more, e.g. I bet you could write more about open source Java, etc. and get new readers who are interested in that. The Java/Apache type community is pretty large and may not heavily overlap the more Linux-oriented open source community. I'm not sure.

I bet we all appreciate some of the things you aren't doing, like writing nasty troll articles as Slashdot/Digg bait. Would much rather see more ads, more topics, or higher subscription charges than nasty troll articles.

Thanks for the site!

ad revenue vs subscription revenue?

Posted May 31, 2007 11:57 UTC (Thu) by cpeterso (guest, #305) [Link]

I wonder what is LWN's income balance from ads vs subscriptions. If subscriptions are more profitable than ads, maybe ads don't make sense (even though displaying them is "free"). Time is finite, so knowing which revenue streams to focus on (and which are a waste of your time) is important. :)

ad revenue vs subscription revenue?

Posted May 31, 2007 12:04 UTC (Thu) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link]

Subscriptions constitute the vast majority of our revenue. I don't think that indicates that there is nothing to be had in advertisements, though; instead, it shows that zero effort has gone into developing the advertising side of the business.

ad revenue vs subscription revenue?

Posted Jun 7, 2007 13:29 UTC (Thu) by simosx (guest, #24338) [Link]

I believe it would be good to enhance the text ads for non-paying visitors.
Currently you offer a single ad in a box on the left column. This can be enhanced to include 3 to 5 ads. If the ads are targeted, this will have the advantage of Linux companies to position themselves where customers visit.

An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 10:53 UTC (Thu) by dyork (subscriber, #2819) [Link]

Jonathan - Thanks for the update and a big welcome to Jake! Like others who commented, I've been an LWN reader (and later subscriber) since the early days and have always seen LWN as the best source to provide the *context* for issues that are going on within the world of Linux and open source. That has always been - and continues to be - your strength. Not just providing a link and super-brief summary but also providing more context for *why* the issue is important. I wish you all the best with the move and I do hope having Jake on board gives you more cycles to do all the other things you need to do to grow LWN. Congrats!

Dan

An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 11:56 UTC (Thu) by a_hippie (subscriber, #34) [Link]

What a road we've (all) been down!

I originally read LWN as a free site to what it is today. When subscriptions started, I had to use the starving hacker rate, then I had to drop that during the first year of work, but it was SO nice to buy a regular subscription and start reading the subscriber content again!

I really missed LWN. I don't read it every day, but when I go there, I'm logged in and feel right at home!

Thanks LWN and welcome aboard Jake!

wishing you well.

Happy subscriber

Posted May 31, 2007 15:13 UTC (Thu) by filker0 (subscriber, #31278) [Link]

I originally came to LWN from a pointer in the Linux Device Driver's book to read about changes in the Device Driver API, and it took me a month or two before I clicked on the penguin and found the main content. I subscribed about 2 months later, and have renewed.

This site is about the content. It's clear that you (the LWN staff) care about the content. It's not overburdened with presentation, which is a good thing.

I'll keep my subscription current as long as I have the ability to do so.

Keep up the good work.

An update from LWN

Posted May 31, 2007 17:07 UTC (Thu) by i3839 (subscriber, #31386) [Link]

Making it easier for Europeans without a credit card to subscribe would probably help a bit.

I doubt that promoting LWN more will help much, I suspect most technical readers that would be interested already know about it. That said, perhaps publishing co-operative or shared articles with other sites might be an idea (e.g. Kerneltrap.org, linuxdevices.com).

What about asking money to publish all those press releases/marketing babbles?

I've no fate in ads, as at least I never click on them (and block).

Maybe publish a book composed of the best articles, once per year?

But simply asking people to subscribe or upgrade their subscription might help too...

An update from LWN

Posted Jun 9, 2007 3:59 UTC (Sat) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]

I just hope part of Jake's working on site-code will be to do whatever's
left to do before that "once it gets...<whatever>"[1] release of LWN
source code, so I can resubscribe.

Honestly, what would have been our response to say Cisco/Linksys, had they
had the same delays in making their sources available for their routers?
If others haven't a problem with that, that's their business. For me
however to resubscribe after it became plain this promise didn't appear to
mean much, years later [2], well, that'd undermine my own integrity as it
would demonstrate I didn't seriously value my own commitment to the ideals
of freedom, and that integrity is one thing I /do/ have control over.
Thus, despite the personal inconvenience [3], I personally cannot sponsor,
including with a subscription, an LWN that has yet to open its own code,
as it keeps preaching that others should do with theirs. Not that my
individual subscription makes much difference to LWN, but it does to me,
because it's a principles/integrity thing.

Duncan

[1] http://lwn.net/op/FAQ.lwn#site

[2] To put it in community world terms, the promise was there before the
SCO case began, IIRC, and from the looks of it, could be there long after.

[3] I really /do/ miss being able to read and comment on stuff the week it
first appears, and having reply notifications, LWN really isn't the same
without a subscription, and I'd ordinarily resubscribe in a heartbeat, for
this and all the other reasons. It's incredibly frustrating not to be
able to, but I value my own integrity and commitment to freedom higher
than the comparatively small value of the loss of convenience of an LWN
subscription, or even of the loss of LWN entirely, if the implications of
my actions were to ultimately force that.