Save the Socialist Standard
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alanjjohnstone wrote:Oh and my own apologies for neglecting to mention the sterling contributions of those members who are using Twitter and Facebook to advance the ideas of socialism. Unlike myself, they quietly get on with the task without whining and moaning.
Not true! I am always whining and moaning.
The issue is a simple one, as i see it.The time has come to re-evaluate the merits of a print edition of the Standard as it may well be a drain on the Party's resources and could be directing energy away from other worthy ventures that possibly will be more potentially fruitful in the future.We have the evidence of our own eyes. The circulation of the Standard has been falling consistently for a number of years, the outlets selling it has been dropping and for all the passion of the members who support the printed edition, there is practically no member willing to street sell it on a regular basis (i have previously added a caveat making an exception of the street stall.) The hope that this declining trend can be reversed by an advertising campaign is in my opinion overly-optimistic. But i will be happy to be proved wrong and see the circulation climb. Our treasurer has often spoken of our economical viability as a Party being reliant on the arbitrary legacies from the dead and the long-term survival of the printed standard is also dependent on such money.Whereas, once a webzine of the Standard is set up, maintenance is very cost effective and sustainable, leaving more money for other activity such as standing in elections or producing commercial quality video or employing paid organisers in the Party. I have asked in an earlier post for a few facts…the print-run to compare with the online visits, for example. Hopefully, members of the respective committees will produce them, long before actual conference arrivesBut i will concede to you, Tim, that it is a gamble on a future…but what you seem to overlook is that if the future does not turn out as expected, you can return to the print Standard with very little consequence for there is little to lose, (subscribers can be re-registered)….That interruption is to be compared with the missed opportunity of concentrating on the internet and forever playing catch-up.And as the treasure rsuggests …being able to ensure the financial health of the Party is a gamble on the ill-health of our members. Since we have had others make comparisons, i note that the WEEKLY WORKER, only prints 500 copies a week compared with an online readership of 20,000. (wiki) and they are out and about at every left-wing political event, off-loading those limited hard-copies of WW, whereas ourselves…the work-load is unfairly placed on a few stalwarts…Anyways, looking forward to your blog contributions…we need a fresh approach…and you did offer…
Quote:PrintRumours of my deathIn spite of the challenges facing print today, it is by no means dead. The printed page remains a more profitable vehicle for editorial content than the internet. And while circulation may be on a downward trend, people are still more likely to pay for a print product than a digital one. Print ‘eyeballs’ are more valuable, because on average, people spend five times longer looking at an article in print than they do online.Meanwhile, paradoxically, there is a growing buzz around certain types of print media, particularly independent, alternative magazines. According to Jeremy Leslie from MagCulture, ‘we are experiencing a golden age of magazine publishing’.New players are on the scene that make a virtue of print’s limitations – creating an engaging experience for the reader, leisurely long-reads, optimal design – and they are thriving as they experiment with frequency, page design and formats.From here page 8http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/uploads/communityshares/newint/newintbusplan.pdfvia http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/new-internationalist-magazine-secures-future-after-exceeding-500k-crowdfunding-target/
Quote:Circulation currently stands at 25,000, compared with a high point of 75,000 at the turn of the millennium. New Internationalist has helped secure its future after raising £550,000 in just over a month through a crowdfunding campaign. It now hopes to reach £600,000 by 6 April.More than 2,700 supporters have made contributions ranging from £50 to £10,000.JWD, if your suggestion is that we unlock our "rainy-day" investments and use it to boost the Standard's circulation to 25,000, then i may well support such an initiative.But it does seem that the New Int. suffers our own predicament – declining readership and a half-million quid is required to remedy the situation. A little bit more than we intend to spend on our campaign.As one of our own strategies for the Standard's survival is to place an ad insert in the New Int. they may well welcome our financial contribution.
UpdateOn 6th Apr 2017 they successfully raised £704,114 of £500,000 target with 3409 investors – so all respect to their organisers.Of course, the donations were more than a mere donation but buying shares in a co-operative with voting rights and they all got a free t-shirt to boot.And note some of the money is to be spent on their digital journalism and finance their wider publishing ventures…(books and pamphlets) plus expand their online shopping experience.They too have restrictions on their internet version to protect circulation of their print copy.
jondwhite wrote:Quote:PrintRumours of my deathIn spite of the challenges facing print today, it is by no means dead. The printed page remains a more profitable vehicle for editorial content than the internet. And while circulation may be on a downward trend, people are still more likely to pay for a print product than a digital one. Print ‘eyeballs’ are more valuable, because on average, people spend five times longer looking at an article in print than they do online.Meanwhile, paradoxically, there is a growing buzz around certain types of print media, particularly independent, alternative magazines. According to Jeremy Leslie from MagCulture, ‘we are experiencing a golden age of magazine publishing’.New players are on the scene that make a virtue of print’s limitations – creating an engaging experience for the reader, leisurely long-reads, optimal design – and they are thriving as they experiment with frequency, page design and formats.From here page 8http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/uploads/communityshares/newint/newintbusplan.pdfvia http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/new-internationalist-magazine-secures-future-after-exceeding-500k-crowdfunding-target/
Thanks for the info about Weekly Worker, but it looks like its not just Jacobin as the exception to the rule as suggested earlier, but New internationalist as well.
Quote:someone should email the EC and tell them that if they are to succeed they need to first restrict access to the online version (which ALB took pleasure in poking fun at Lancaster about), employ several paid staff (even when we decline to pay a HO Organiser), accept adverts from commercial businesses some who we are expected to be hostile towards, and unlike those who say we shouldn't try to follow the example of for-profit publications on this thread, we should adopt a commercial ethos. But once more, let this be noted, there exists an amendment that if passed will still retain a print copy of the Standard (in book form) and from YMS post, i think NLB are willing to be very flexible on the frequency of this anthology. It would put a print Standard on the same quarterly standing as the print Jacobin, but allowing for a monthly e-zine same as Jacobin does which we would strive to make weekly and then update daily.All these things to put the SS on a more commercial footing, are things that could be considered (and may have been before – didn't Jacomb advertise his printing business in early issues?) as long as the motion to discontinue the printed standard doesn't pass.With financial viability not being a conclusive argument in favour of discontinuing the printed Standard (especially given the current surplus of party finances), the amendment might be a moot point. However, I think reducing the print frequency from monthly (North London's anthology amendment) would have the effect of reducing print circulation rather than increasing it. Its probably not intentional but having artificially limited circulation, this would then enable the motion to discontinue the printed Standard to return years down the line – making the amendment in effect a way to wind down the print Standard rather than abolish it straight away.
As i have already said, i don't envisage the Lancaster or NLB being passed but this is the beginning of a long debate that will continue and i think we will eventually have a number of options to choose from, and it will never be an either/or resolution. IMHO, we will face also in several years time the question to retain or sell-off either partially or totally our currently under-used but expensive to up-keep HO. Yup, i do tend to have a pessimistic view of the future – But i also like to be proved wrong and be pleasantly surprised, rather than be an eternal optimist and be sorely disappointed.I mentioned previously that our continued activity relies on legacies left to us by deceased members…next time a comrade (particularly the treasurer) is looking you up and down and enquiring about your health, in his or her mind, he'she will be wondering if you have any next-of-kin inheriting your money If you don't, they'll also be hoping you are leaving behind a house in the stock-broker belt I do find it a bit disconcerting that my appeal for some facts and figures has so far gone unheeded by the respective committees. I'm sure it is not in the interest of the Party to make decisions based on a dearth of information and only have them available at the last moment for conference attendees.
alanjjohnstone wrote:I do find it a bit disconcerting that my appeal for some facts and figures has so far gone unheeded by the respective committees. I'm sure it is not in the interest of the Party to make decisions based on a dearth of information and only have them available at the last moment for conference attendees.Oh goodness me! What "facts and figures" would be sufficently salient to alter the inevitable outcome of this increasingly tedious discussion? The argument has already been won hands down – the print version of the Socialist Standard will continue and go from strength to strength.
Well, Gnome, maybe you can now answer me what proportion of our sales of £8388 is not largely a cross-subsidy by the other elements of the party…branches and individual members and the companion parties. I seek the number of paid subscribers and of course the sales of the Standard to the public by the branches. Shouldn't we know how many people actually buy the Standard, in particular, the number of non-members. I'd think that is a very basic bit of information i'd personally like to see.Calculating how many actually read the print copy it is much more difficult to ascertain since we often pass on and share our copies. I expressed a similar questioning attitude to internet visitor figures and sought more clarification of those too.If it is mostly members and branches buying and hoarding unsold copies (and i gave my personal anecdotal evidence that this happens) should we now treat the Standard as an in-house journal? No doubt you can tell me how many copies KSRB sold to non-members for the month of March and how many they have left over. A full list of questions, BTW, are at message #23 in reply to your "who knows" riposte
There are lots of facts and figures herehttp://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/conde-nast-suffers-biggest-audience-decline-magazine-market-drops-6/1423814but bear in mind this is for the mainstream magazines. 'Alternative' publications will tend to have a more committed readership.
alanjjohnstone wrote:As i have already said, i don't envisage the Lancaster or NLB being passed but this is the beginning of a long debate that will continue and i think we will eventually have a number of options to choose from, and it will never be an either/or resolution. IMHO, we will face also in several years time the question to retain or sell-off either partially or totally our currently under-used but expensive to up-keep HO. Yup, i do tend to have a pessimistic view of the future – But i also like to be proved wrong and be pleasantly surprised, rather than be an eternal optimist and be sorely disappointed.I mentioned previously that our continued activity relies on legacies left to us by deceased members…next time a comrade (particularly the treasurer) is looking you up and down and enquiring about your health, in his or her mind, he'she will be wondering if you have any next-of-kin inheriting your money If you don't, they'll also be hoping you are leaving behind a house in the stock-broker belt I do find it a bit disconcerting that my appeal for some facts and figures has so far gone unheeded by the respective committees. I'm sure it is not in the interest of the Party to make decisions based on a dearth of information and only have them available at the last moment for conference attendees.Hi AlanYou might find this magazine a useful example:http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1887872,00.html
JWD, i know you have over the years tried to address the Party's low public profile from everything from a banner to a calendar but when Gnome gives you the thumb-up for highlighting the fact that a magazine has had a drop of 50,000 in a decade and required half a million quid for a relaunch, with not all the money going to the print edition but to the digital and online side, i truly despair. NT judge half a million to stem and reverse the trend of falling circulation…i'd be over the moon if we devoted just a tenth of that ..50,000 for a Standard advertising campaign …And the claim that the Standard or the Party is going from strength to strength is …. delusional.An argument has been made that there is a demand for the Standard, and so far only Tim can present a case that a strong demand does exist within the Party for its continuanceBut what i seek to learn is what the demand is outside the party, how many non-party fellow-workers actually buy the Standard – the demand which is the most important – reaching an audience to interest them in socialism, not preaching to the converted and singing to the same choir – is described as too tedious. If it is found that the readership is predominantly members/sympathisers then it gives us an alternative to make it more a discussion journal along the lines of the old Forum, something i know are receptive to and such as magazine being more controversial and argumentative might just bring in increased readers.Ideally, we should also be finding out how many get to read it…how many at the libraries are actually read…how many family and friends such as our Inverness comrade get to read it. That is a bit harder to determine but not impossible.Tim, we're doomed i tell yah, dooooomed
gnome wrote:This is a completely thoughtless and potentially detrimental motion to the interests of the party. The proposing branch clearly doesn't engage in any other activity other than to hold its rather spasmodic internal meetings. If it did it would soon become obvious to it how essential the print version of the Socialist Standard is to the branches that hold public meetings and street stalls, not to mention the bookshops that are still more than content to display it (and sell it) such as Bookmarks in London and Barrett's in Glasgow.The secretary of the branch also refused to publish the relevent minutes, attendance, voting figures etc when requested to do so by members on spintcom. Even offered two fingeres to the request. The minutes remaim unavailable. I for one finfd this unacceptable.
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