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Limit the weekly editionLimit the weekly editionPosted Jul 30, 2002 17:24 UTC (Tue) by nas (subscriber, #17)Parent article: LWN status update
I think you should limit the weekly edition. It provides incentive for people to subscribe. It's not that everyone is a freeloader but that people are lazy (e.g. "I'll subscribe next week"). I still have to wonder if you will be able to make enough money to give the LWN staff fair compensation for their excellent work. Don't torture yourselves if the money is not there.
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Other options? Posted Jul 30, 2002 21:02 UTC (Tue) by BogusUser ((unknown), #2981) [Link] I am somewhat worried about the subscription idea - I'm not sure that you can charge enough to get a decent revenue stream.I think your main assets are: The subscription idea lets you treat LWN like it's the point of your commercial life. It might be the case that you need to find a new commercial focus, but maybe it can be a commercial focus that builds on LWN as one of your key assets. That way you aren't walking away from this great thing that you've built or wasting this great asset. Instead, you get to continue with LWN but get your money elsewhere. It very well may mean you end up having to scale LWN back. You may have already thought about this or plan on doing this. I think it might be viable to pursue the analyst route. A lot of analysts have publications where they demonstrate their knowledge of a field or industry to the larger community. Although you don't use LWN to pontificate in the same way that the Analysts public reports are used, I do think that LWN gives you credibility. It also means that you have a wealth of insights gained from all the information your have processed and published over the years. You should be able to capitalize on both the insights and your credibility perhaps in the form of custom reports about the technical direction of Linux and the commercial future of open source - to large enterprise IT departments, telecom companies, software development houses, etc. You can also offer to do custom research. Maybe you might choose to affiliate with one of the analyst houses? I would suggest IDC. Last time I looked Al Gillen was Research Director for Systems Software at IDC, focusing on Linux. He may be an ally. Maybe co-host exec briefing sessions with IBM's WebSphere group? You can do consulting in evaluating whether open sourcing code makes sense in a given commercial context or come up with a tool kit / methodology that you sell for measuring the likelihood that a proprietary software project that runs on Linux violates the GPL. I'm not sure if this appeals or is a better idea than selling subscriptions. There are other vendors doing this already but LWN gives you a significant competitive asset. It's just my two cents. Very best of luck to you. I always thought you've done an amazing job with this community. - Kim Morrison
Other options? Posted Jul 30, 2002 21:35 UTC (Tue) by BogusUser ((unknown), #2981) [Link] One other thing... (as if I wasn't long winded enough already)...The LWN community has been pretty amazingly willing to pay subscriptions. What about instead of paying subscriptions, the LWN community participated in surveys developed by the LWN consulting arm for high tech corporate customers? Getting a large number of survey respondents can be expensive for customers. What if LWN conducted online surveys for companies surveying the LWN audience? Would all you folks out there who have enjoyed LWN to date be willing to occasionally answer questions about technical product preferences in order to help the LWN folks support the online community? The LWN Neilson polls. :) - Kim again.
Limit the weekly edition Posted Jul 31, 2002 2:55 UTC (Wed) by BogusUser ((unknown), #2989) [Link] >> I think you should limit the weekly edition. It provides incentive for people to subscribe.This very idea of subscription is obnoxious. If LWN Weekly is made a subscriber one, consider another reader as gone. You can provide VAS without making LWN a paid online newsletter. Publishing a newsletter which reports on *free* software activities is actually built on the *goodness* of the Community which generates all this stuff as Libre! Making such a newsletter a paid one is doing a disservice for this *freedom* loving Community. I sincerely hope that you would think twice and drop the idea suggested by the above poster. Thanks any way for the wonderful newsletter that is LWN.
Limit the weekly edition Posted Jul 31, 2002 8:26 UTC (Wed) by pointwood (subscriber, #2814) [Link] As have been stated several times, - it costs serious money to make the newsletter. The freedom that you get with free software is free speech not free beer.I would be more than willing to suscribe to LWN (of course, depending on the price). I don't understand the people that will not pay for this great newsletter. It's probably because people are used to everything on the net to be free. This is not much different from subscribing to a paper edition of any other computer magazine. Just because they write about free software, it doesn't mean the content should be free. If LWN is able to survive by limiting the weekly edition to subscribers only, then do it! And please keep the credit card payment option. Some people seem to forget that the internet also exists in the rest of the world. We more or less don't have any other options than to pay with our credit card!
Limit the weekly edition - I'll second that Posted Jul 31, 2002 18:38 UTC (Wed) by a9db0 (subscriber, #2181) [Link] Limit the weekly edition for a week. The readers who value your work will subscribe, those who don't can wait.Remember: Content is the most valuable thing you have. Distribute it wisely. Dave
Limit the weekly edition Posted Jul 31, 2002 20:38 UTC (Wed) by groler (guest, #3016) [Link] lwn.net has been my HOME page, repeat, HOME page of my browser. I haverun Slackware on my server since '97. The new format is terrible. My monitor is set to 640x480 and I cannot even read the comments of this thread. Also, I have to scroll to the right to read the stories. Why are the stories not centered??? I have run my web site as a total loss (no ads) since '97. The idea of making money with a web site is strange to me (maybe I'm strange?). Just my 2 cents.
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