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LWN in Trouble
DanDan writes: "It seems that Linux Weekly News may be on the rocks. Tucows has cut support and they have lost their Senior Editor. It would be sad to see them go." Anybody who has bright ideas or cash burning a hole in your pocket should check out their discussion list.
Just a quick glance at the discussion list showed a good number of posters suggesting a subscription. Though it seems obvious, just pay for the product, subscriptions also offer another benefit: Payment in advance. This will ensure a steady stream of cash for production of the magazine.
I like fire ants. They are very spicy!
...these types of pages could support themselves with four guys and a rackspace co-lo? I don't see why they can't again. I don't understand why they need the backing of Tucows to survive. If they've changed so much that they need the backing of a dot bomb to continue, maybe they should start fresh.
Luck favors the prepared, darling.
As I think the app is pretty neat (it is a HTTP NNTP bridge, effectively turning USENET into a website), and they later sent a couple of emails boasting about how I could pay to improve my visibility on their site, I had a sneaking suspicion maybe GPL software was not quite what they had based their business plan on.
Actually there seems to be something of an impedence mismatch althogther having Windows and GPL in the same sentance.
I have worked for a couple of firms restructuring - and they are always difficult. I will list a couple of suggestions regarding restructuring and then some general strategy notes.
Restructuring
1. Do it as fast as you can.
If you need to reduce your overhead by $10,333 a month, which may not be easy but sure beats the alternative (chapter 11). The longer you wait, the more drastic the cuts will have to be. If you wait too long, cuts alone may not be enough to save the site.
Layoffs can do serious, long-term damage to a company's culture, but sometimes they're necessary. First think about freezing salaries, eliminating perks, postponing company parties, and so on. And if it turns out you can't save jobs without laying some people off, don't allow the process to drag on. Make all the necessary cuts at the same time, and then let the remaining employees know their jobs are secure. You will destroy morale--and lose good people--if everybody is wondering who will be the next to go.
2. Marketing is hit first in a recession
In a recession companies cut back on advertising first. In an effort to conserve cash, they cut back in the one area they should be expanding -- namely, sales and marketing. So get ready for the long haul.
3. Check your cash flow.
You need to look at your cash flow over the next 90-180 days and determine how much you need to survive.
Options....
Here are some personal suggestions that may or may-not work.
1) Put a donate button on the website. Suggest a small fee - say $5.00. Make it secure and give the users the option of saving the credit card numbers so they can re-donate frequently and easily.
Small amounts are easier for users to swallow than $100 subscription fees.
2) Focus on your core competencies.
Main page - Core
Security - non-core
Kernel - core
Distributions - core (maybe)
On the Desktop - non-core
Development - core
Commerce - non-core
Linux in the news non-core
Announcements core - ( I would call it events calendar and market it as such)
Linux History - non-core
Letters - core (inexpensive)
My feeling is that the real strength of the site is in reinterpreting the different mailing lists(kernel etc). - Not in re-posting press releases like linuxtoday.
Target technical information for programmers. Programmers have money and create trends - and thus get attention from advertisers.
3) Require registration so that you can prove the quality of your readers to the advertisers. Then market yourselves to those who want to get developers attention such as IBM, Microsoft, Borland and Sun.
4) Get a mailing list going with the info. - more fodder for marketers - "Push marketing"
5) Look at relicensing opportunities for sections of the website. For example license ibm developerworks the content of the kernel section. Don't sell the all your content though - get the users to visit your site for the full overview.
check inc magazine for more: www.inc.com
Anthony Barker
Question: since this is a news site, just like LWN, how much profit does /. make? /.'s bandwidth is gonna cost tons!).
/. needs to make adjustments to keep afloat of the falling economy?
/.
Enough to survive the Economy? Do the advertisements really pay for the bandwidth (I can imagine the
How long until
Are the editors reading the comments on how to survive and taking notes, just in case?
This isn't a troll, just compairing LWN to
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
They indicate that the problem is funding the staff, not hosting the site. If new sponsorship can't be found, I think we need to find out how much effort the staff can affort to spend on a volunteer basis, and then look for ways to spread out their talents. See if we can find a way for the community to provide some of the raw material, legwork, and editing, with Liz and Jon providing coaching and putting the pieces together.
For starters, there is a great quantity of raw material in the comments on slashdot. A lot of the high-rated posts are really good stuff, even if they're not polished. Many of them could be turned into stories with some revision, fact-checking, and proofing. Perhaps slashdot or a parallel system could even provide the infrastructure for doing revisions of high-quality comments.
I don't have the time or imagination to come up with a full solution now, but I really think there is some promise along these lines.
The evaluation of an action as 'practical' . . . depends on what it is that one wishes to practice.
But why must the model work like this:
A. Website starts with little or no funding. Is wildly popular. Attracts a large crowd. Website operates as a hobby for the people that run it.
B. Company buys website and puts big dollars into site. Pays everyone involved a salary.
C. Money runs out....website dies.
Why can't a site go from Grassroots, Sugar Daddy, back to Grassroots?
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.