Nooooooo!! [LWN.net]

Nooooooo!!

Posted Jul 25, 2002 5:53 UTC (Thu) by cpeterso (guest, #305)
In reply to: The end of the road by cyanide
Parent article: The end of the road

For the past few years, LWN has been my favorite Linux news site. The content is short, sweet, well-researched, and intelligent (unlike some other Linux sites). I will definitely miss LWN.. <:~-(

If this is truly the end and we are waiting for a miracle, why not discuss the financial realities of such a miracle? How much does it cost to run LWN? How much "real" money for ISP/hardware/etc costs? How much time per week is invested by how many people? How many regular readers do you have each week? How can we keep LWN afloat? Even if we don't find that miracle, I think this data (and the personal stories behind LWN!) would be interesting and useful for other people who might want to try their own hand at a news site.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

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Sorry to see you go.

Posted Jul 25, 2002 6:51 UTC (Thu) by addw (subscriber, #1771) [Link]

Yes, do say how much money is needed, and please break it down into at least staff and web hostings costs - someone may be able to help with part of it.

Many thanks for what you have done over the years - I have read the weekly edition religiously.

Sorry to see you go.

Posted Jul 25, 2002 8:41 UTC (Thu) by pflykt (subscriber, #2757) [Link]

Yes, definitely put up the amount of money you are still missing - and update it when we readers donate some.

Thanks for lwn, it has been an extremely useful source of information.

Real action (Was: Nooooooo!!)

Posted Jul 25, 2002 10:03 UTC (Thu) by leandro (guest, #1460) [Link]

If this is truly the end and we are waiting for a miracle, why not discuss the financial realities of such a miracle?

Not only that, what can be trimmed? It’s hard to achieve the right balance among popularity, conciseness and completeness, but I particularly don't care about proprietary software news, about anything other than News, Resource and Events at the Security section, and anything but Recommended Reading in the Linux in the News section. And I don't care about comments: for me Letters to the Editor were just nice – I could live with comments or letters, but both are just a waste.

I already said this at Slashdot: it's a pity that so much in the Web must grow until it's not viable anymore. Perhaps we'd have better stuff if Web news ventures like LWN would start small, find its financial ground, and only then grow. Perhaps a return to the roots would do the trick. For example, the format of the oldest edition available at the archives, January 29th, 1.998, perhaps is enough for most people and much cheaper to run.

BTW one can go further back even more with the Archive, way back to January 15th, 1.998 – and that looks even simpler and cheaper.

Real action

Posted Jul 25, 2002 20:26 UTC (Thu) by other-iain (guest, #2810) [Link]

I've read LWN for about 4 years. My guess is that a reasonable subscription
price would have been $30 a year. That's $120. I gave $20 earlier, so that
leaves $100 unpaid.

I've just put that $100 in through PayPal. Consider this payment for
services rendered. I'm sorry to see you go, but I understand why...

Three people need about $300K a year to keep going full time. I'm sure
LWN was a full-time venture for you all. $300K a year is 10,000
subscriptions, and I note that your contributions page shows 546
contributors, just 5% of the way to breakeven.

My employer is now considering contributing something as well, since I serve
as our primary means of surveying the Linux scene, and LWN is one of my
better sources. The information of most use to my employer is the
security page.

Personally, I find the front page and the kernel page to be the only
things I read for myself, and the security page as part of my job. The
rest I have no interest in. If, by trimming the rest of the 'zine you
could get your expenses down to $100K a year, that would be great, but
I suspect you couldn't keep up your editorial excellence going part-time.

Good luck in your post-LWN ventures. Let us know who you're writing for
next so we can tune in. Like stock brokers, you have a long list of
clients that you bring with you to your next job. Remind your next
employer of that when negotiating your salaries.