To: Kimberly Patch 
Cc: "Brian J. Rupert" <0004903167@mcimail.com>, clocke ,
        online-news@marketplace.com, Christopher Locke ,
        lrathbone@mci.net, Bruce Thompson <0004941613@mcimail.com>
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Thank you for posting your piece.  I found the URLs and the overview
useful, if to bring together some threads.  Again, sounding like a broken
record (which unlike the bands mentioned by Rex Ballard, won't get a
contract), for those of you who think there will be a plethora of new
publications enabled by the Internet (I'll add the following point not
included in your piece) _that will be profitable for the journalists who
band together to create them_ you'll have to have great marketers.

The sponsorship model of advertising revenue isn't necessarily going to be
the panacea people think for digital publications, given the relatively
small "circulations."

And, it costs money to make money in publishing.  To reiterate, the
consumer group that I worked for used to spend $1.1 million/year in
getting new subscriber/members when their circulation was 250K/year.  Now
their circulation is 800K+ and they are probably spending at least $3 or
$4 million/year to do that.  Mind you, the editorial budget (excluding
the part of the organization directed to advocacy, which sometimes
generates content for the publication) is less than $500,00/year.

I'm curious, for those organizations not selling Internet access (like
infinet and nandonet), what are the people in the circulation and sales
end, saying about the future of digital publishing?

(Kimberly -- let me tell you, building a business through sweat equity,
see .sig below, isn't fun......)

Richard Layman, Mgr., Business Development, and Research Producer
Computer Television Network, 825 6th St. NE, Washington, DC 20002
(202)544-5722 - (202)543-6730 (fax) - rlayman@capaccess.org
http://www.phoenix.net/~ctn  (... I know, it needs work)



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