WIX Archives

Websites - a thought...

Posted by Steve Young on Thu Dec 27, 2001 05:05:20 AM

In reply top and a website john? N/T posted by Tony on Wed Dec 26, 2001 12:16:09 PM

Just a thought - and I'm probably leaving myself open to a flaming on this - but... much as I like sites such as this, Flypast, and the old WW Forum, I can't help but think that the sites which are run by existing publications might actually be to the detriment of their owners.

Let me explain what I mean: At the moment, FlyPast (for argument's sake) sell 'x' amount of magazines per month; if we want to read the contents of the magazine, we buy a copy. Nice and easy, and that's the way it's been since the year dot. Now however, we have this wonderful thing called the internet, where information is accessible at the touch of a button. (Or the long and tortuous thumping of a keyboard, swearing at your PC, and finally giving up for half an hour while you calm down a bit. Depends who your ISP is... ;) ). Okay, so FlyPast appear to have maybe got the balance right - they'll trail the contents of this month's issue on their front page as a taster, and that prompts us to go out and buy it. We get the information we want, they get the sale. Everyone's happy.

But my point is that for the publishers it's a delicate balancing act between embracing new technology and being left behind in this age of improved communications. We mere mortals now have access to information that we don't have to pay for, which is great for us, but presumably not such an appealing proposition for the publishers / website hosts.

And I find myself wondering whether this free exchange of information - fantastic though it is - could have been a major contributing factor towards Warbirds Worldwide's demise? Not so much a case of biting the hand that feeds, as maybe starving it of it's revenue stream, as we found we could get our information for free via the very website which WW provided for us, and which was supposed to help the organisation grow into the 21st century?

So I'm thinking that maybe, instead of looking for information overload, we should be taking a step back and thinking about just how beneficial it really is to all parties. Is our clamouring for more, better, faster really in the best interests of all concerned, or are we unwittingly contributing to the demise of the organisations that we rely on?

Steve - hitting the send button and immediately donning my asbestos trousers

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