death of print

DEATH OF PRINT

*
note: a heads up.  I notice my Kindle books I've bought, as in good cash money on the barrelhead, after a time of inactivity will "fade away" off of my tablet.  Then I have to download them again.  When Amazon goes tits up, and they will, there go all your books you thought you owned. 
*

We can all guess why newspapers have died.  The cost of a disposable media and transportation were subsidized by advertising.  You can see this clearly with the Thrifty Nickel type free advertising papers still given out ( Craig’s List and such haven’t killed them, but more on that below ).  Yet today newspapers everywhere are shrinking in size and not delivering all week long.  Online advertising is of course blamed, just as Amazon is blamed every time a corporation does something stupid and needs a scapegoat. 

*

But as we have already covered, Amazon is just a few percent of retail sales and they got that way by losing money.  They are not the cheapest prices anyway, just the most convenient One Stop Shopping like Wal-Mart used to be.  If you are smart like you should be a NEVER buy onesies and twosies but always in bulk, almost everything Amazon sells can be found cheaper.  Amazon is half the online market but the other half is comprised of retailers letting customers have access to more inventory.

*

So why are newspapers dying?  To my mind, they have offered such an inferior product that no one wishes to either buy what they are selling or advertise what you are selling on them.  If it was a question of out of control commodity prices, the recycling of newspaper wouldn’t be a money loser.  If it was a question of Craig’s List, there wouldn’t be other services locally that offer a better product than they do ( Craig’s list blows rabid monkey chunks ).  Newspapers, simply, aren’t even worthy of fish wrap anymore.

*

If you look at the NFL and its retarded-ness with allowing those poor financially exploited Black Bucks to spit on the national anthem ( not that I am one of those jingoistic “wrap yourself in the flag before you light it” idiots, it is merely symbolic like the Black Panther salute at the Olympics ), and see the crashing numbers of supporters for the sport, or see the six o’clock TV news get almost no viewers, what you are seeing is a backlash against PC indoctrination being shoved down our throats.  The more newspapers go PC and report Pravda “news”, the less people are going to support them.  It isn’t JUST politics, it is there being zero news reported.  Why buy a NO-news-paper?

*

I was watching a YouTube video, for no other reason than I wanted to vegetate my brain and stop thinking, on the lack of sales of the Star Wars toys.  The typical cool figures like Darth and the like were sold out, but the FemWarrior ones were still on the shelves, a year or even two after the movies release.  Girls aren’t interested in being warriors, no matter how much the Bitches Libbers push the agenda.  And boys certainly don’t think girls make cool fighters.  I find this hilarious, as biology is proving more powerful than LibTard indoctrination since Kindergarten.  Perhaps there is a bit of hope after all and not all boys will pop Ritalin and drink soy milk.

*

But why are niche publications in print failing?  Niche products are after all most likely to be supported even at high costs.  If you remember the widow of Tappon still publishing their newsletter from Oregon into the early 80’s ( I think-don’t quote me ), you’ll recall the very high price at the time.  And basically it was because there was few other alternatives.  I was publishing a ‘zine from the beginning of the 90’s and there was almost no other competing amateur survivalist publications.  There was American Survival and that seemed to pretty much it ( the attempt by Soldier Of Fortune to compete with Tappon and ASG failed quickly ).  Tappon’s went on for a time but it just wasn’t anything special.

*

American Survival Guide attempted to blame the Internet on its decision to close publication, but I’m of the mind that after Y2K, there simply weren’t enough preppers left to support its costs.  Yes, some advertisers would embrace the Internet, but the Internet doesn’t deliver eyeballs all that well.  If I don’t see a catalog in the mail or an ad on an article I’m reading, I forget the company exists ( for all but a few, anyway.  We already covered how most prepper companies aren’t needed anyway, but I won’t return to that subject ).

*

So, companies STILL need to advertise.  Why not on paper?  Why is everything online now?  Why haven’t there been any successful paper prepper magazines for nearly two decades?  There are plenty of posers, but they are so expensive you might as well buy a book on the subject.  Which includes the newly rebirthed American Survival Guide.  Which is terrible, by the way.  As are most of its cousins.  Do you remember the print mag “Survivalist”?  It ran for twenty or thirty issues and then its subscribers list was sold to Backwoods Home.

*

“Survivalist” wasn’t all that great, but it was good enough to subscribe to.  The articles were mediocre but, embarrassingly, better than what most online blogs were delivering.  So why didn’t they just go to Kindle publishing only like Backwoods Home did?  By avoiding print and delivery cost, a “paper” magazine could stay in business.  So, to be clearer, it isn’t the lack of paper magazines that is the issue, but the lack of periodical in any format.  Why can’t we have a prepper periodical ( that is more than a gun/camping overpriced attempt ), even an electronic version?

*

With the case of “Survivalist”, the original writers were all replaced by hacks.  I mean, the articles turned putrid.  It became embarrassing.  At first I enjoyed the arrival in the mail of the mag, and read most of the articles and all in all it was something I looked forward to.  The advertisements sucked-they were no where near as good as the old ASG ones.  But those could have improved if the magazine had increased circulation.  But why would the circulation increase when the articles were so damn bad?  They went from mediocre to unreadable.  So why buy the mag if there weren’t ads or articles?

*

I stopped reading Shotgun News ( I still refuse to call it by its new name-hump you, you bastards! ).  For decades, you bought it for the ads ( I even ran an ad in ‘90 ).  That was all there were besides the little columns on gun politics in DC.  But then the ads started to suck.  They just went to a few big companies instead of everyone and his brothers.  Perhaps some of that was due to the changes in the gun laws that penalized impulse buys.  Perhaps their paper and mail costs forced them to increase their rates too much.  So, why not go to an electronic publication?  No one keeps back issues anyway. 

*

As a customer, I subscribed to keep track on gun prices.  But with only a half dozed advertisers, I was better served just visiting a couple of web sites.  Then, I stayed with the subscription for all the articles they started including.  But even those went to crap.  Now they are all just like the other gun porn mags that pimp overpriced stuff.  I want a two thousand dollar scope?  Are you insane?  So, why exactly would I subscribe, with no ads and no articles worth a crap?

*

Look at “Gun Tests” magazine.  I don’t care if I read the paper newsletter or just online, they have a quality product.  They are also fair on their pricing.  For the cost of a mere two issues of ASG, I get a years worth of Gun Tests AND access to all their old issues online.  I think this is it at its core ( and why folks like Creekmore and Rawles are seeing problems getting advertisers ).  If you don’t offer quality, your business will not survive.  It can’t really be any more basic than that, can it?  Pretty and glittery and flashy might attract eyeballs and garner those ADD’ers that are easily distracted, but it doesn’t make a viable business.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2GYqxsp )

 

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me a buck and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there