From: Bill Douglass (douglassbill@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Jun 10 2001 - 07:08:42 MDT
Max More wrote:
[snip]
>>>>>>>> The funding point is crucial. If Extropy ever were to be
>>>>>>>>re-launched,
readable content and good design would not be enough. Funding and
distribution would be essential. Considering that we could not afford to
pay anyone to write, we got a good and improving level of writing, but a
major new launch would *have* to be able to pay writers to be sustainable.
We would also need a paid staff to focus on the tedious but important
things like collecting from distributors (who are a major pain), marketing,
and the mechanics of production. I learned those things as I went along
(though I had done four previous small scale magazines), but I was not very
business minded and did not like those tasks. I'm much more business-smart
these days, but still would not want to do those jobs. I did them only
because I had to, and I had the time when I was employed full-time by ExI
to do those jobs among others (although at a pitiful salary).
It's interesting that ExI reached a peak of paid members when the magazine
was coming out -- a level it has not reached since despite the enormous
expansion in awareness of the ideas. (Though we're climbing back up, and we
have a large number of "Free Electronic Members".) >>>>>>
[snip]
Max,
It seems to me there could be a workable "third way" for _Extropy_ somewhere
between the old, almost no-budget operation, and the ideal, well-funded
approach you mention. _Liberty_ comes to mind. IMO, _Liberty_ does a
pretty good job of getting its ideas out, on what is clearly a very minimal
budget. They don't pay any of their writers, but overall the writing
quality ranges from OK to pretty good, and sometimes very good. The
production values are very spare, no doubt, but each issue has a lot of
articles, and when it comes down to it, content is more important than
production values in a magazine of ideas, right?
I gather that Liberty's publisher, Bill Bradford, is independently wealthy
to some degree and keeps the magazine afloat himself (aside from revenue
from subscription fees, a bit of advertising, and donations to Liberty's
foundation), but he's no Mike Milken.
Not real relevant here, but I do think the quality of the magazine has
slipped since it went to a monthly format, from bi-monthly.
Then again, I've been breathing massive quantities of second-hand smoke for
around three hours at this Beijing cy-bar, so forgive me if there's any
muddled thinking in this message :)
Best wishes,
Bill Douglass
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