Re: S & T uses low end paper

John Steinberg wrote: 
Brian Tung wrote:


The only thing that really rankles is when a head-to-head is declared
a tie.  ("Again?!?!")  I remember the sidebar from the N5 vs ETX125
"duel."   That left a rather yucky taste in my mouth.


Mine too, although probably because I owned both and was also privy to
some unpublished info on that very review. It took a lot of Listerine
bourbon and recreational drugs to lose that taste.


Regarding the whole "insulting the advertiser" thing, don't Sky and
Telescope and either Meade or Celestron need each other? 


Absolutely.  But advertisers can often maintain a primus inter pares
relationship, even in a specialty publication with little competition.

For example, and I'm neither confirming or denying this ever happened,
but if Meade's CEO happened to phone S&T's publisher for a little
"reality check" after a less than glowing review, you might be
surprised at how compliant said publisher might become if things like
lawsuits, pulling or reducing their advertising, lawsuits, etc, were
discussed in this conversation.

True enough, especially in the current environment in which advertising is easily the largest source of revenue for magazines.

I was Astronomy's ad guy for a while long ago, and I've kept up with some of the happenings since then.

If the CEO had prior knowledge of the review some influence might be wielded. Once it's been published he would need to prove malice or sheer negligence in the review process in order to sue successfully, and that's tough. Freedom of the press has been very broadly interpreted and media have wide latitude.

In Meade's case, the former CEO (and founder) was "aggressive" in this area, very sensitive to the nuances of a review. Ahem. The only case I know of an advertiser taking retribution happened when Al Nagler pulled his ads out of Astronomy over their testing methods.

But yeah, some of the reviews have been pattycake efforts. Remember those "interviews" with major advertisers that S&T was doing just before the last editor left? John Diebel saying that at heart he was just an amateur astronomer? S&T also published a very gentle piece about Tom Cave which implied that his back order situation--the cause for my banning him from Astronomy-- was just one of those things. 

M & C may not have alternative outlets that offer the same bang for the
buck as S&T, but both have demonstrated a willingness to use other
advertising vehicles in the past.  At least M has, I'm not sure about
C.  And we all know just how much litigation we've seen with these two.

At one point Meade tried a number of different media, popular scientific magazines, the Edmund catalog, etc. The approach was less than successful. The magazines remain the largest source of business for them. Fortunately, the demographics on amateur astronomers are impressive--HH income about twice the national average, plenty of disposable income, technologically informed, and of course with raging acquisitiveness. Me too. 

Further, a publisher might see his first dibs on new test samples going
to a competitor first.  And then there's payola, which is only illegal
in the radio biz but quite common in the business world.  I know that
sounds ugly to some, but it's a fact of modern business life. And there
are other tools manufacturers can utilize to shape things to their
satisfaction.

Knowing the editors of both the magazines, I suspect that this is not applicable. 

I'm not saying this is or has ever been the case with S&T, but you
might be a bit surprised to see the kinds of leverage that can be
exerted, and here I'm not talking about a visit from Johnny Bagodonuts,
although that can happen as well.

Goes both ways. Rumor has it that an editorial staffer of one of the magazines was released in part because he was actively trying to put a major advertiser out of business! He and the CEO just didn't get along.

Bob

.

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