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2600 Distributor Withholds Money, Magazine's Future In Limbo
First time accepted submitter themusicgod1 (241799) writes According to 2600, their distributor (Previously known as "Source Interlink", now recently renamed to "TEN: The Enthusiast Network") has decided to consolidate its resources and is keeping the money retailers paid for the last two issues of the quarterly magazine. 2600, in the meanwhile, is still busy trying to organize the upcoming HOPE X conference. However, according to the link: "In the worst case scenario, being ripped off at this level would make it almost impossible for us to continue publishing. We would have to make a lot of painful choices and cut back on things for no reason other than some outside company's mismanagement. Our readers have supported both our print and digital publications and we've been doing quite well overall."
Note: As it says at the linked explanation, 2600 is not a charity, and they're not seeking donations -- but they would like you to buy the magazine (in print or Kindle form), and to attend the upcoming HOPE X conference. (I wish I could make this year's HOPE but can't; as conferences go, HOPE is a wildly good bargain.)
Or.. Why haven't they taken the distributor to court? The longer they wait, less chance of recovery. Little sympathy
Has anyone pointed out to the distributor precisely who the target audience for the publication is?
Next week on pastebin: All of their dirty laundry.
As it says at the linked explanation, 2600 is not a charity, and they're not seeking donations -- but they would like you to buy the magazine (in print or Kindle form),
If you feel like buying the current issue isn't enough, and/or can't make it to NYC for the conference, they have bulk prices on back issues ($5/issue or less). I don't regularly read 2600, but I think they are an important resource for the security community.
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I'll paste the relevant bit for you, since actually doing basic research is beyond your capability:
Say, it seems to be available on Amazon' Newstand for Kindle. Do you know if the sales there go through this fscking distributor, or does the money go directly to the magazine?
A publishing company decided to piss off and steal from a bunch of really organized hackers? This should be fun to watch....
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
I am surprised a magazine devoted to the original Atari video game console is still going
In other words, they tried to Wal-Mart strongarm their distributors/vendors, and when the biggest one said "fuck you" and went elsewhere, their business imploded. And so an uber-distributer middleman dies. So sad.
I'm curious, did someone else noticed that?
If the distributor has already shipped the issues to bookstores and pocketed the money, would it not be the best course of action NOT to buy the magazine to send the message? Would it not be better to instead buy back issues until they find a better partner?
According to whois look-ups the company - Source Interlink Media, LLC - owns the 'new' domain name. As the group of companies is in chapter 11 bankruptcy the trustee and court should be (made) aware of the debt and the activities of enthusiastnetwork.com, since the bankruptcy filings do not describe moving operations to enthusiastnetwork.com:
"June 23rd 2014 Case 14-11553-KG SOURCE HOME ENTERTAINMENT, LLC, et al." http://www.deb.uscourts.gov/recently-filed-chapter-1115s
"Declaration in support of first-day motions" http://bankruptcy.morrisjames.com/files/2014/06/0002-Declaration-of-S.-Dube-in-Support-of-First-Day-Motions.pdf
It is worth noting that 5,500 people have already lost their jobs as part of the restructuring.
It would seem that 2600 Magazine will be an unsecured creditor.
Just further proof Print is dead.
"we've been doing quite well overall."
Except for the bit where your business had little cash reserves, and apparently no line of credit?
2600 is a business with plenty of history and should have lots of proof they're doing OK, if that is in fact the case. Getting a line of credit to make up for the lost issue or two shouldn't remotely be a problem...which means one of three things: they're not doing "quite well", they're incompetent, or they are, in fact, trying to take advantage of the community.
Please help metamoderate.
I have been personally ripped off more than once by companies that "went out of business." The parentheses because, in many cases (like this one) the closure is not what people visualize, with chained doors, etc. There are still assets, employees, offices. In one case I was able to recover what was owed by calling the officers of the "old" company at their "new" jobs, every day, until I got my money. Did they legally owe it to me? Technically, probably not. I shamed/annoyed them into it.
I don't know 2600 from The Readers Digest, but I DO read several titles distributed by TEN: The Enthusiast Network; in one case I know the people at the magazine personally. I'll be writing letters and having conversations with these publishers about the people they're doing business with.
I understand it is in a nerd's nature to be paranoid but if 2600 hasn't proven to be a trustworthy entity by now then practically none could ever do so. They get money from sales and subscriptions, not ads, and they stay unbiased and true to their mission. So I think you have a false trichotomy. You just don't like the definition of "quite well" they are using, and you aren't qualified to judge that term since you have no experience with the field.
I actually worked for TEN up until ~May. The 'legal' side of things is that Source Interlink was a single company. It then split into Source Interlink Distribution (whom owes 2600 money and does/did the distribution for magazines) and Source Interlink Media (who owns a ton of magazines).
SID lost the Time Mag deal and decided to close its doors. Sadly, 2600 is now needing to extract blood from a (dead) stone. SIM underwent some major internal upheaval and renamed themselves to TEN and laid off a ton of people.
At this point, the people 2600 needs to talk to are part of a company that is closing/closed. I dont know what their options are as IANAL, but I think they're going after a company that has nothing to do with the distribution of their magazine and therefore nothing to do with said profits. This happens all the time when companies go under and its sad. My heart goes out to 2600, as I was an avid reader back in my high school days of learning to phreak.
Source/Ten actually utilizes a larger distributor for most of their volume. Turns out they owe that -single- partner ~12 million dollars. Plus, they're weird for a production company anyway. Lots and lots of unnecessary office space, empty legacy warehouses from this or that project. They basically hit a critical mass of mismanagement and accumulated resource costs from something like ~40 yrs of operation.
If the distributor/organizer isn't paying out when they should, WHY THE FUCK WOULD I BUY AN ISSUE OR ATTEND THE CONFERENCE?
Timothy, you're a fucking moron.
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Ask why they have not paid 2600 yet.
Even if you cannot attend, you still can buy a ticket. Cheap bastard.
nah, wait until some scumbag buys the '2600' name and uses it to push articles buy people pimping services and crap security software...
THEN they will be buying ads on Slashdot and that is when the slashvertisements will begin
It only sounds like they operate on a tighter budget than some larger magazines would. Also, "We do intend to survive, even if the actions of TEN: The Enthusiast Network put us massively into debt." It sounds like it's less about being able to get a line of credit, and more about them hoping they don't have to.
The problem is, the magazine industry, much like the newspaper industry, isn't doing all that great. And niche publications like 2600 aren't doing that great either. First, they don't take advertising, which means if you've actually shopped 2600, it's among the more expensive publications out there for what you get on the surface. It's actually very high priced.
Second, it's not like they're a mainstream magazine - while you can probably find them at Barnes and Noble, they're not really available elsewhere other than at a specialist magazine retailer (mostly again, from a cost and audience perspective).
Third, well, the information in it you can probably find it online, like most other computer and information technology magazines. And that is killer. Most other computer related magazines have stopped printing a deadtree edition for that reason.
Finally, while they have gone electronic, I'm not sure if their distribution is all that great - I see them on B&N, I don't know about Amazon as I don't use Amazon for ebooks.
Their distribution in the end isn't that big - I have to look it up, but every magazine sent through the USPS as media mail has to have a distribution panel in it where it describes how many issues were printed, sold (broken out by subscriptions and retail sales), returned, and pulped. I'm fairly certain it isn't a huge number - perhaps 10,000 or so issues per quarter. That isn't a lot of money after printing and other costs.
Basically they've been the victim of the internet age.
"Getting a line of credit...shouldn't remotely be a problem"
Either you don't run a business and don't have a clue, or you or someone you pay blows your bank manager.