³½Expensive diskmags?
¼
   ¹How  much do you have to pay for an
issue  of R.A.W., the Eurochart or any
other popular mag/chart?  A quick look
at  the  prices reveals pure rip-offs,
and this isn't limited to subscripton.
The  adverts  are  far  too expensive.
But  are  everybody  paying  for their
advertisements or does some people get
ads for free?

   I'll  use  ²R.A.W.¹   as  an  example
throughout   this  article.   My  goal
isn't to slag off R.A.W.  as the major
villain.  R.A.W.  is a very good disk-
magazine,  but  is it worth the price?
The  price for one issue of R.A.W.  is
40  NOK or 5 USD.  What do you get?  A
mag  which contains articles about the
scene and your favourite computer, not
all  of  the same quality though.  Now
let's  take a look at the expenses for
Lord  Helmet.   One  disk costs around
3,50  NOK,  the  postage and packaging
costs  no  more  than  10.00 NOK which
leaves around 25 NOK (3 USD) for  each
issue sold.  This should cover all the
expenses  Lord Helmet has of spreading
the   mag.    Would   you   buy  Amiga
Computing  if  that magazine contained
the  same  articles  as  R.A.W.?  As a
comparison:   CU  Amiga  costed  (last
year) 39.90 NOK.It had above 200 pages
with articles of various topics.  When
you   subscribe  to  a  magazine,  you
usually  expects  to get it once every
month  or  so, but with diskmags which
constantly  are delaying their release
you'll  never  know  when  you  get it
next.   Sure it's great to have R.A.W.
at the release date, but you'll get it
after  a  few days anyway.  Why bother
subscribing?   The  price  doesn't fit
the quality of the articles and you'll
get  it for free from a friend anyway.
The   only   reason  for  having  such
outrageous  prices  must  be  to scare
away  people who want the mag, so Lord
Helmet  doesn't have to copy dozens of
disks every time he releases R.A.W.  (
Which isn't often anyway - ED ;-))  Or
maybe  he's  just  trying  to get some
money  from the beginners.  Well, if I
was  to start swapping, I wouldn't pay
$6 to get something new to send.  It's
so  unproffesional to charge a fortune
for  a  diskmag.  If you want to offer
your  readers  real service, make your
subscribtions cheaper.

   Then  there  is  the  adverts  (I'm
still  using  R.A.W.   as an example).
With a price as high as 20 NOK (3 USD)
this  is  nothing  more  than daylight
robbery!  A quick count of the adverts
in  R.A.W.   issue 6 reveals an income
of at least 140 USD.I did even cut the
figures  in  half due to a suspicion I
have that certain people who knows the
main-editor  or  well-known  guys gets
their  adverts  for  free.  This means
that  Lord  Helmet  has  earned around
³5000-6000 NOK¹ of his mag. Wonder  if
any of  the contributers have  recived
some money, or  what  about the coder,
the graphician or the musician who all
made  the  magazine  worth looking at.
Without  them it would be nothing more
than a bunch of text-files.

   Stop  paying  for  the  adverts  in
diskmags.   They need the adverts, and
they   need  you  as  readers.   Think
again,  is  a diskmag really worth the
same   price   as   a   "professional"
magazine?   ²Don't  be  fooled  by  the
charts, don't belive the hype!¹