From: Simon Smith (simon@betterhumans.com)
Date: Sun Aug 11 2002 - 10:25:33 MDT
I have a bit of insight into this. I graduated from a journalism program in
Toronto where I spent the latter two years of my degree studying magazine
journalism. About a year ago I started a Website called Betterhumans
(http://www.betterhumans.com) with the long-term goal of bringing
transhumanism to mainstream society.
I've also been through the process of producing a print magazine and, for
anyone who's never done it, let me say that it's completely nuts -- even
more so when I compare it to my experience with online publishing. I'll go
into details off-list for anyone who is interested. For now, let me just
outline how ridiculous print publishing is compared to online publishing.
Just a few examples:
- It can take months to bring a magazine article from commission to
publication whereas I could publish an article online immediately if I
chose.
- The cost of printing is exhorbitant. Newspapers sell for less than the
cost of the newsprint that makes them, making up the difference largely with
advertising revenue. I can post 10 gigabytes of information online for
about $40 a month on a very good server.
- Print distribution is a nightmare. Mail -- if you don't get good bulk
prices, which you wouldn't with only 100 subscribers -- could cost as much
as printing. Getting the magazine in with a national distributor is your
best bet, but they may not take you on unless you can guarantee a certain
sell-through rate. Also, the transhumanist community is dispersed, so you'd
have the added problem of international distribution. Now look at the
Internet. For the $40 mentioned above I can reach a worldwide audience.
Actually, I can even reach people out of this world since I believe they
have Internet access on the space station.
- Print publications are totally static. Besides letters to the editor there
is very little interaction. This prevents the creation of user-generated
content, which is an important feature of online publishing. Many Websites
can exist with little produced content if they get a large enough community
contributing material.
Why take a step backwards? Look how dynamic the transhumanist community is
online. Look how great a list such as this is, allowing people (I'm a case
in point) to ramble on about topics of the day. Look how democratic the
process is -- everyone has an opportunity to express their ideas, rather
than a small publishing elite. This last point is important. Inevitably, in
putting out a print publication you would have to make decisions about what
went in because printing and distribution costs would force you to make hard
economic choices. Online, this isn't the case. We won't shut anybody up
because printing costs prevent us from adding an extra page.
Yes, print has many advantages -- you can drop a book in the water, for
example, as Isaac Asimov pointed out, and it still works. But technology is
catching up. Xerox and other companies are working on e-paper. Microsoft and
other companies are working on tablet PCs. I think the transhumanist
community should be at the leading edge of electronic publishing, not turn
back to print publishing. It would be a shame to cram such a dynamic
community into a such a limited medium.
Best,
Simon Smith
Editor-in-Chief
Betterhumans
http://www.betterhumans.com
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