I thought somebody (maybe Steve) mentioned a month or so ago that Baen was closing their submissions queue. Might have been at last meeting. At the time we all assumed it was just that they had a backlog and masked our deeper concerns. Sad, indeed. But as Dave H. noted last night, some outlets are doing relatively well: Escape Artists (EscapePod, PodCastle & PseudoPod) are apparently doing well enough that they might start paying people.
Which in a way illustrates that we're talking about different levels: If you're shutting down a professional 'zine with actual staff who make their living off of it, you were operating at a whole different level from someone who is now deciding to pay people. What I think this illustrates is a matter of scale: "The Free" (as Chris Anderson insists on capitalizing/article-izing it) just doesn't support much if any cost scaling, because the margins (where they even go positive) are so razor thin. This is just true in general on the web: For example, hosting companies start big but inevitably devolve to crappy customer service just because the profit margins are os narrow that to keep making money they've got to cut somewhere, and humans answering questions is the first obvious place. We are accustomed to living in a marketing ecosystem with fat margins, and on the web, they're very very thin. (Yet we've continued to behave as though they're fat. We didn't learn that lesson from the dotcom bust.) That's going to mean things have to be done differently. It doesn't mean that Anderson is right about "freeness." IMO he's almost certainly and very spectacularly wrong, just as he & Kevin Kelly were about the "long boom." Put another way: This is one illustration of the "dark side" of "Teh Free". On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 2:33 PM, Jonathan <[email protected]>wrote: > > > Sent to you by Jonathan via Google Reader: > > > Jim Baen's Universe is > Closing<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Sfsignal/~3/Hvk65hMHNGs/> > via SF Signal <http://www.sfsignal.com/> by John on 8/5/09 > > <http://baens-universe.com> > Editor Eric Flint notes that the online magazine *Jim Baen's Universe* is > closing <http://baens-universe.com/articles/Universe_Closing> after the > April 2010 issue. Says Eric: > > In a nutshell, we were simply never able to get and retain enough > subscribers to put us on a sales plateau that would allow us to continue > publishing. From the beginning, we were too dependent on the income from the > Universe club. The Club's purpose was to provide the magazine with a > much-needed initial surge of income--which it did indeed provide--and then, > after the first year, to continue as an important but subsidiary source of > income. Instead, the Club wound up being the source of about half of our > annual income, from beginning to end. > > It also looks like they are doing right by their writers and paid > subscribers, so nobody needs to worry on that front. > > This is too bad. > Of<http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2007/08/review-jim-baens-universe-7/> > the<http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2007/09/review-jim-baens-universe-8/> > issues<http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2007/12/review-jim-baens-universe-10/> > I've<http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2008/02/review-jim-baens-universe-11/> > read<http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2008/06/review-jim-baens-universe-12/>, > *Baen's Universe* struck me as a short fiction goldmine supplemented with > thoughtful and entertaining essays as well. > > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Sfsignal?a=Hvk65hMHNGs:VtDXWeRry-E:yIl2AUoC8zA> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Sfsignal?a=Hvk65hMHNGs:VtDXWeRry-E:dnMXMwOfBR0> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Sfsignal?a=Hvk65hMHNGs:VtDXWeRry-E:7Q72WNTAKBA> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Sfsignal?a=Hvk65hMHNGs:VtDXWeRry-E:V_sGLiPBpWU> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Sfsignal?a=Hvk65hMHNGs:VtDXWeRry-E:qj6IDK7rITs> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Sfsignal?a=Hvk65hMHNGs:VtDXWeRry-E:gIN9vFwOqvQ> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Sfsignal?a=Hvk65hMHNGs:VtDXWeRry-E:Tr0MBUDVXP8> > > > > Things you can do from here: > > - Subscribe to SF > Signal<http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsignal.com%2Findex.rdf?source=email>using > *Google Reader* > - Get started using Google > Reader<http://www.google.com/reader/?source=email>to easily keep up with > *all your favorite sites* > > > > > -- eric scoles ([email protected]) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
