March 25, 2009
I did something last night that I haven't done for the past 367 days: I got my drums out and actually laid some licks on them. The last time I did this was on March 22, 2008 at the Old Elks Lodge in Kingman. Didn't have the heart to do Wipeout, yet.

Ha.

The benefit concert to raise money for Kingman Regional Hospital is this Saturday night at the Fairgrounds.

We're having a big debate here at the magazine on how to monetize content. As newspapers and magazine all around us bite the dust, the industry conversation sounds like this:

Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni (in Publishing Executive magazine) claims "Print is not dead—its publishing model is." He goes on to say, "We have to reinvent our publishing model. We have to continue to create that great content we are known for, but we have to charge for it. It is time for our publishing model to depend once again on circulation as a major source of revenue. We have to be in the business of selling content."

Of course he doesn't say how to do it, but he points to Consumer Reports and Cook's Illustrated as each having 1 million paid circ online.

He ends with "The illness has been diagnosed: It is the publishing model and not the ink on paper. . .It is time to find a cure. Long live print."

"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."
—John Wooden