Dead Tree Western Standard Dead
To my deep regret, the Western Standard has decided to stop publishing our print edition.It’s a purely financial decision. Even though our advertising revenues were stronger than ever, with marquee brands like GM, Mazda, BMW and Air Canada filling our pages, and even though we had the most loyal subscribers in the business, with an unheard-of 80% renewal rate, we just weren’t close enough to profit. western standard
Making a magazine work is hard. Doing it on limited funds is very nearly impossible. Ezra gave it a shot for which he deserves kudos.
Conservative magazines tend to have a relatively limited audience in Canada (or the US for that matter). The only thing which will allow them to expand that audience is the ability to bring something fresh to the mix. Having Mark Steyn or Colby Cosh writing was a good move; but not enough when the news value of the magazine was minimal. (Which, of course, it almost by definition had to be given the publishing schedule.)
Dead tree magazines and newspapers make increasingly less sense as more and more people consume their news and opinions online.
What’s unfortunate about the Western Standard story is that, had Ezra spent the same money building a serious online publication it would be a huge, well read, must read website. All that paper and all that ink was just overhead the web lets you do without.
It’s encouraging that the Western Standard may rise from the dead with it’s online presence - and hats off to Kevin Steel who is pretty much the whole of that presence. But it is discouraging that Kevin - no doubt following orders - has been asking Canadian conservative bloggers to contribute to the Shotgun for free.
Here’s a hint: go read Nick over at Ghost of a Flea. The couple of million dollars Ezra pissed away on the paper version of WS would have bought a huge, vibrant, well informed and largely untapped conservative resource. Instead, it has sent a lot of trees to the landfill.
Written by jay on October 6th, 2007 with
3 comments.
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Jonathan W
#1. October 6th, 2007, at 9:14 AM.
Obviously, I was annoyed when I wrote that post; I am sorry to see one of the only truly alternative media outlets in this country stop printing.
That said, Ezra could not be bothered to reply when I told him I would no longer be contributing to his on-line content. I would be delighted to discover that was some sort of oversight. Given I was approached three years later to once again kick in free content it seems clear this is not a bug but a feature of the Western Standard’s business model.
I am someone who should be one of their biggest supporters. They have made that impossible.