[sdiy] Wakeman

[Rude 66]

i'll chime in for a bit because this is my field..;-)

most of these magazines form with freelance writers. hell, i'm a freelance
writer for a lot of magazines. the money made from publishing magazines is
generallynot sufficient to hire an entire staff of writers.
and working with freelancers is not a bad thing. on the contrary: you can
find people that still work in the real sound-world and can thus review
equipment with a very broad experience. because of all the things i've done
i've been in touch with some very cool and esoteric synths that broaden your
horizon. now, instead of calling something just 'a cool machine' i can add
'but it doesn't sound as nice as a moog 55'..;-)

imho what you need as a magazine these days are experienced writers that can
add something to a review. there are tons of reviewsand opinions to be found
online for free, but if you have someone who the readers know they can trust
and who knows his (or her) stuff, that's valued. it's almost the same as
with record and cd reviews: i used to buy lots of things 'blind' because
reviewer x said it was good, and i knew then it would be worth having.

what's a good way to look at how things are treated, is to look at the
publisher. if the magazine title is one of a whole bunch varying from nudies
to cars to computers, they have a different outlook on the magazine business
than the small publisher with 1 or 3 music titles.

the relationship with the advertizer is always a tricky one. on one hand you
depend on them: without their ads no magazine. without their help no scoops
or 'world's first review'. i must say i've never had any negative
expereinces with manufacturers of importers. on the contrary: some small
guys send compliments for reviews, even though they are balanced, and
certainly not always positive.
plus FM and SOS really have a different target group: fm is more for novices
and groovebox kiddies, while sos is far more written for professionals, even
though a novice could actually learn a lot more from sos..

and last but not least don't forget that almost all these writersare freaks
themselves.. no one gets in this business to get rich, because you won't.
ever. you even have to give the synths back that you review..;-). so the
people doing it, do it mostly because they love synths..


r./


> My opinion:
>
> As far as the general readership are concerned, there is no difference
> between a staff member and a freelancer, and at the end of the day it is
> the editor's decision to publish or not.  One would like to think that a
> profesisonal editor would keep informed about what their main competitor
> (i.e. SOS) is/has published, and be on the look-out for plagiarism.
>
> If they want to sue me, go ahead, not as if I have any money.
>
> Neil
>
> --
> Neil Johnson :: Computer Laboratory :: University of Cambridge ::
> http://www.njohnson.co.uk          http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~nej22
> ----  IEE Cambridge Branch: http://www.iee-cambridge.org.uk  ----
>
>