Wow. I’ve been a GOB subscriber since 1999, I think, nearly - but not quite - its beginning. I’d assumed it had reached some kind of equilibrium as the traditional publishing industry collapsed in so many other places around it. I was traveling last week when the issue came out, and while I did download it and saw the Thistle article, I didn‘t read the cover email or the publisher’s letter at the beginning of the issue.
My wife has attempted to ride the bucking bronco of that industry as an editor and writer, and it’s been horrifying to watch so many publications’ survival strategies dissolve in the solvent of fast, free, low-quality, low-standard text often only masquerading as information. There is simply no money to be made in high quality. Newspaper and magazine-style content now exist only when underwritten by a wealthy dictator willing to run publications as vanity assets, usually at a loss. And there are lots of municipalities and topics - most, I’d say - that don’t have wealthy dictators willing to do that, regardless of bias, intent, or mission.
I also worry, as Christian pointed out recently, about the future of forum content in general. These too require benevolent dictators to administer, thankless tasks, that don’t come with the same ego boost that owning a newspaper does. The alternative to forums seems to be Reddit topics and Facebook groups, none of which have the high level of discourse and expertise we see here. I’ve tried, and abandoned, various Ericson, Atomic Four, and general Sailing groups and found the signal-to-noise ratio so low as to be useless.
I greatly value the quality and consistency of the individuals and advice here, and on Don Moyer’s A4 forum, and wish the best to the benevolent dictators and dedicated henchpeople behind them. Vive la Forum! And down with democracy, at least here!
