[jondwhite]

gnome wrote:

jondwhite wrote:

Vin wrote:

1.  So the movers of the motion did not vote in favour  their own motion?

IIRC the movers of the motion abstained on their own motion.

I think you'll find that only one of the movers abstained, the other abstention was the comrade in the chair who abstained on every vote as a protest against the principle of 'indicative voting'.

As delegates, wouldn't they have been obliged to vote for the motion agreed in branch?

[jondwhite]

This just got 1428 votes on reddit. Good workhttps://www.reddit.com/r/FULLCOMMUNISM/comments/68m8aj/some_tory_wanker_gets_fucking_rinsed_by_the/

[jondwhite]

gnome wrote:

jondwhite wrote:

Vin wrote:

1.  So the movers of the motion did not vote in favour  their own motion?

IIRC the movers of the motion abstained on their own motion.

I think you'll find that only one of the movers abstained, the other abstention was the comrade in the chair who abstained on every vote as a protest against the principle of 'indicative voting'.

Cheers, I stand corrected.

[jondwhite]

Vin wrote:

1.  So the movers of the motion did not vote in favour  their own motion?

IIRC the movers of the motion abstained on their own motion.

[jondwhite]

A play is starting in London about Young Marxhttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/apr/19/karl-marx-comedy-first-season-new-london-bridge-theatre

[jondwhite]

We're not stopping you trying your idea, just pointing out we think ours is better and more effective (or less ineffective) if the working class would rather try it. So far, they haven't taken us up in great numbers, but we will continue to try.

[jondwhite]

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.

[jondwhite]

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.

[jondwhite]

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/

[jondwhite]

Academic publishers actually have a terrible reputation (look up Elsevier) even among publishers that we would be unwise to try and emulate. They actually artificially impose supply and access restrictions on ebook availability in academic libraries and are notorious for not passing on cost savings. As for students happily taking e, I will have to take your word for it.

[jondwhite]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

Jacobin, may well be the exception to the rule having acquired circulation of 25-35,000, having started as online ezine. It has now 40,000 paid digital subscribers A quarterly and not a monthly magazine, something i also suggested the print Standard could become, if anyone cares to look back at my posts. But its web audience is one million, three hundred thousand.It has a paid circulation manager – 15 hours a week at $15 an hour. Someone else might tell me how many other paid positions are held. It accepts adverts

The adverts don't seem to provide the main funding for the publication.

Quote:

He's disarmingly forthcoming about the site's finances. Every full-time worker makes between $35,000 and $39,000 at the moment — "if you're a professional socialist, it's not that bad." The magazine gets insurance on the Obamacare exchanges, opting for a silver plan with a Flexible Spending Account. "People can get whatever health care they need," he says; I resist the temptation to make a cheap crack about his enthusiasm for corporatist sell-out health care reform.

Someone should e-mail Jacobin and tell them print media is dead and they need to go web-only.

[jondwhite]

Young Master Smeet wrote:

Commercial journal publishers are increasingly becoming E-only, as are libraries, so there is a chance that libraries will begin to refuse to stock the print standard (especially as it is available free online), so at the least, looking at cutting the free subs to libraries could save a few quid.

This appears to be conflating two different things. As I understand it, the only library Socialist Standard subscriptions are public libraries. The 'commercial journal publishers increasingly becoming e-only' are academic publishers and the libraries they provide are university libraries – which in any case ignores that multiple studies show students almost always prefer print to digital;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/print-textbooks-vs-ebooks_us_56ba4091e4b0b40245c4534e

[jondwhite]

Here's a profile of Jacobin from last yearhttp://www.vox.com/2016/3/21/11265092/jacobin-bhaskar-sunkara

Quote:

Sunkara started publishing copies of the magazine in his George Washington University dorm room back in 2011, when he was all of 21. The financial crisis appeared to have given socialism and Marxism another inning, and Sunkara wanted an outlet that took socialist theory more seriously than existing outlets like the Nation. Jacobin took off; it now boasts a print circulation of about 20,000 and has gained about 400 more subscribers a week since Bernie started his ascent in November. Jacobin's success is a sign that even if Bernie fades, there's still a constituency for socialist ideas — a fact that could turn out to be much more important than the Sanders campaign itself….The approach works. Sunkara tells me the magazine is up to a paid circulation of nearly 20,000, from both subscriptions and individual issue sales. The website gets nearly 1 million unique visitors and 2.7 million pageviews a month….Forbes's design deserves credit for the fact that tens of thousands of people are willing to pay money for a print publication in 2016 that they can read online for free. (Some stories are initially paywalled for a period of time, but all are eventually released to non-subscribers.) It's part of what makes Jacobin a profitable business….Jacobin is not dependent on the backing of a major corporation or a wealthy donor, which is unusual for a left-wing publication in today's publishing landscape. It makes the overwhelming share of its money the old-fashioned way: by selling subscriptions and print copies. That provides about $500,000 in revenue annually, enough to pay for printing costs and salaries and have a bit left over for a rainy day.

So, although print media may be in a period of decline, not only can individual magazines grow print circulation but "socialist" magazines can grow print circulation through subscriptions and be profitable. According to the Guardian most circulation of Jacobin is subscriptionshttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/19/jacobin-magazine-staff-union

[jondwhite]

Whether EC, CC or 'rank and file' (ugh hate that term) you can't sell / give me a PDF / e-zine in the street, at a meeting or on a demo. At least (if it were on a USB stick) not as easily, appealingly or cheaply as a printed magazine. (Particularly if you are Chris Harman who can do neither, since he died in 2009). This is one of the points that comes across in the SWP pieces (most written after the internet's popularity) and its not worth dismissing simply because of the fact they expect cadre to fulfil paper sale quotas, even if out of their own pocket.If everyone already has access to the internet on their phone in the pocket, you have to ask why online publications haven't already replaced printed publications? Why do printed publications still exist and advertisers still buy adverts in them?

[jondwhite]

I would say its not Leninist to have a printed regular publication but the Chris Harmam article is interesting enough to read in fullhttps://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/1984/xx/revpress.html

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