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The Future of TUX Mag

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Linux

First, let me thank the hundreds of people who have taken time to email me about TUX. Virtually every message praised TUX and talked about why it was needed. Well, I agree. The issue is how to make it possible.

For a number of reasons--not all financial--the model we had built for TUX was not sustainable. At this point, a group of us who were involved in TUX are tossing some ideas around.

Bit More Here.

re: Tux Mag

Magazines and NewsPapers are oh so yesterday. Journalism is going thru a major paradigm shift, and the current business models (static release periods, rigid format, and hardcopy media) will soon (already) become a non-viable business model. The new Journalist dynamic will be more fluid and realtime, and almost definitely online only. Over a few years, this will expand past print media (magazines and newspapers) and into structured TV (like CNN TV and MSNBC TV). Its a whole new ballgame, and the existing players don't seem to see it coming (or at least they aren't willing to adopt to new trends and technologies).

In regards to TUX magazine - let it die already. Instead of releasing a handful of articles once per month, setup a Linux Newbie Wiki/Blog, and publish pertinent how to articles, Linux in real life stories, etc, as they're written (cause you just can't have toooooo many sites like that).

Evolve or die, that's the new (and old) business model for today.

Let's not be so anxious to declare print dead just yet

For the last several years I've heard about the imminent death of print, and it hasn't happened yet. Maybe I'm old-fashioned (something I've never been called before), but I believe there is still a place for print publications. (If the printed word were dead, there wouldn't be so many people with printers, would there?) I, for one, can only take looking at and reading from a computer monitor for so long, while a magazine does not have the same effect.

Instead, perhaps TUX or some other similar effort could marry both print and electronic media. The print publication would have the main (perhaps more general) articles, while the electronic side would have what is referred to in journalism as sidebars - stories that are related to the print article. There could also be a multimedia element as well, featuring extended interviews with people profiled in the magazine and/or real-time how-to's and demonstrations of aspects from a given article that might be of interest only to a subset of the magazine's audience.

Perhaps a tiered subscription plan would also work, with the most general information on the website available to everyone for free, certain more detailed information available to magazine subscribers, and other materials available with a separate subscription above and beyond that. As long as the rates were not exhorbitant, it could work. Just a thought. Regardless, I don't believe magazines and newspapers in particular or print in general are ready for the graveyard just yet.

re: Let's not be so anxious

Actually, I think for magazines and newspapers, print is ALREADY dead, the eulogy just hasn't been written (books, certainly fiction, and too a certain extent non-fiction still have some life left in them).

Looking at the 12-24 age demographic for new newspaper subscriptions, it's rapidly approaching zero. The current generation has moved beyond yesterday news and static magazine articles. If it's not current, not short, and not flashy, it's not of interest to that demographic (thanks public education).

Newsprint and Magazines take way more resources to write, edit, publish, distribute, and ultimately dispose of then their business model can provide. The age of "now" makes that distribution method not only obsolete, but un-profitable (for all but a few of the most traditional publications - and a handful of boutique photo-esque style magazines). They're being squeezed out by two fronts, TV and the Internet. When's the last time you picked up a newspaper to check out a stock price, or see who's won last nights ballgame?

The age of having 5 decades worth of old Popular Mechanics or National Geographics in the basement or garage is history, since todays cutting journalism focuses on such hot topics as which rap band shot which sports star, and who's marrying, screwing, divorcing who, and which politician -surprise- is lying/cheating/etc again, has absolutely no value in just a few days let alone a few years. Add that to the search power of placing all that info (and much more) online, and print is so very much dead, it amazes me that anyone today can still turn a profit working with it (gosh Mr. Economics, can you say get more advertisers?).

Regarding TUX Magazine, nice effort, but it's been done, is being done, and can be done by dozens of other similar projects. I see little to no chance they can produce a product of any type without a defining characteristic to separate them from the dozens of other Linux newbie sources - all competing for a limited (but slowly growing) number of eyeballs. Add to that the "open source and everything associated with it must be free mentality" and the prospects of making a TUX Magazine type project break even (let alone turn a profit) seems very very slim.

Let's not forget that while

Let's not forget that while the 12-24 demographic is the one advertisers covet, it is the baby boomer generation that has the most disposable income and also represents the largest segment of the population. As a member of that generation myself, I can tell you that, while I love my computer and the ability to access information quickly, I am not physically able to spend hours getting and reading all of that information online.

"The age of 'now'" sounds oh-so-trendy, but speed is not the be-all end-all it is often portrayed to be. Speed often sacrifices accuracy, while print allows for delay which allows for reflection before comment rather than the knee-jerk reactions I often see on the internet, reactions I don't usually see in print (except in Letters to the Editor sections) because the author has the opportunity to think while writing but also before publishing, which gives the opportunity to step back and reflect and also to weigh the information more completely before deciding which "facts" are closer to the truth.

Print may have to evolve and print publications may become more niche-type endeavors rather than mass market affairs like People, but until the 12-24s are the largest segment of the population, I don't see that print is dead at all. (Ah, the image of sitting by the fire to read the laptop just brings a tear to my eye.)

re: Let's not forget

The problem is, in business, you work for today, but plan for tomorrow. None of the big publishers are "ramping up" (i.e. building new publishing plants, planning more office space, etc.) even though in theory, there's more and more customers being born every day. In fact, the trend is the opposite, more and more independent publishers are either going under, or being bought out by bigger firms (and we only need to look to Radio to see how "good" that turned out to be). The baby boomer generation is quickly slipping into the blue hair gang (you know, the fixed budget, buy the special "big print" magazine, crowd), so planning to keep the current baby boomer demographic happy definitely falls into the short term profit category.

As to what's better, being fast or being "correct", since when did quality have a major impact on which product/service wins? History is littered with the better product/service being sucker punched by a inferior yet better marketed product (remember Betamax, real music, pre-AT&T breakup phone service?). The current generation doesn't care that newspapers are more likely to be edited and their stories checked and referenced, they just care that MTV.com posted photos of some flash star puking in her limo after some useless glitz party minutes after it happened. That doesn't make it right (or even make sense to most people) but that's the way it works.

With the new electronic paper manufacturing plant being built in Germany, sitting by the fire with your laptop will soon not be required. Electronic paper will become the norm, and I for one, look forward to it happening sooner then later.

So cynical, so sad

I am sorry you are so cynical and so jaded with regard to the current state of the world and the future ahead.

I remember Betamax well, having owned a player for many years. With regard to real music, what period of time are you referring to? Every decade, every generation has had its share of real music and really bad music, and what is good and bad is often in the eye of the beholder. The 70s brought us Led Zepplin, The Allman Brothers, John Denver, and the Village People, plus the first prime of David Bowie. Me, I liked the Allmans, Bowie, and even John Denver. The 70s and 80s also gave us Elvis Costello and Barry Manilow. Which was the real music to you? What constitutes "real music" anyway? To me, it is anything that touches me, moves me, relaxes me, even energizes me. Over time, my collection has reflected that, with artists ranging from ABBA to Elvis Costello, to Barry Manilow to ZZ Top to Duke Ellington and Chick Corea. I'm afraid you'll have to do better there. "Real music," however you define it, is still out there. You may have to look a little harder, but it can still be found.

As far as the pre-AT&T phone service being better, I don't recall that being the case. What I do recall was a monopoly not created or allowed for the greater good but for the greater greed.

Perhaps I am an idealist or a romantic, but I don't care to write off the current generation as you seem prepared to do. (By the way, which generation is current? Are the rest of us dead, then?) Nor am I prepared to stereotupe all baby boomers as you do. (I personally do not have blue hair, do not live on a fixed budget, and do not buy large print editions.)

You are welcome to your electronic paper. (Hasn't that been talked about for years as one of "the next big things"?) Personally, I have found that the greater the technological leap, the greater the chance for something to go wrong. Technology is a great thing, but it is not a god I choose to worship.

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