Why are YBW article-downloads so damned expensive??

[Me_has_a_Boat]

My reading between the lines (possibly also including making sh#t up ) is that some folks at IPC are only too well aware of the shortcomings discussed (and no doubt various others within IPC towers) - but can't admit that publically............for both commercial business and personal career reasons .....so get to defend the nonsensical instead of simply saying: "You have a point - but unfortunately the people I report to are complete f#cking morons who need to be both handheld and spoonfed and whose primary mission in life is not to get blamed for anything - acheived mostly by doing SFA, whilst constantly wondering / demanding "results" ....if that be the position - you are certainly not alone........it's one of the reasons why I went self employed many many moons ago. The pay is directly related to the effort expended , but the boss is a lazy b#gger, so pay is all over the place - but the vacation time is grrrrrrrrreat. and next to zero new dents on me forehead ).......the barriers to entering the magazine industry have never been lower, even if the competition never been fiercer. "There must be a better way" was how PBO got started originally.........

But sounds like there may be some light approach at the end of the tunnel.............Oh, look - it's a(nother?) train

 

[Greenheart]

Five dozen + another 1.

Current price not acceptable, at £1 would have bought several boat tests etc.

Thank you, Troubadour.

This is the point...we're not interested how IPC selects its socks each morning - we don't care how the office works, or who is accountable to whom, for what, or who is free to make announcements, or why the only IPC chap in this discussion, hasn't yet done so...

...the only matter that concerns us, and the message that stands out, is that the existing availability of archived materials is so ambitiously priced, most of us here aren't buying. We're a willing customer-base, being prevented from shelling-out, by crazy pricing.

That's all. Anyone at IPC who is stressed by clamouring disapproval of this seemingly strangled marketplace, should point his bosses towards this thread - let them assess whether it's worthwhile trying a reduced rate of, say, £2 per article, for a month. I'd buy 5 today!

I doubt I'd be alone.

 

[Sybarite]

Ever heard of VAT? .

VAT is not a business expense. You only act as a collecting agency for the VAT paid by your customers.

 

[Richard Shead]

VAT is not a business expense. You only act as a collecting agency for the VAT paid by your customers.

Indeed but digital magazines are subject to VAT, print magazines are not.

 

[andymcp]

Tell you what Richard, if this thread keeps running for weeks, I'll buy you a beer at SIBS for putting up with it.

 

[Me_has_a_Boat]

Indeed but digital magazines are subject to VAT, print magazines are not.

Come to Jersey

 

[jerrytug]

I also would buy plenty of used boat tests @ £1,even if I just saw an example and wondered,what's she like. At current thieving prices I would rather give the money to a tramp for beer,at least it would be appreciated. What a dumb waste of resources,retards.

 

[Sybarite]

Indeed but digital magazines are subject to VAT, print magazines are not.

That doesn't change the principle. VAT only transits through your books. It's not a cost to you.

 

[Richard Shead]

I also would buy plenty of used boat tests @ £1,even if I just saw an example and wondered,what's she like. At current thieving prices I would rather give the money to a tramp for beer,at least it would be appreciated. What a dumb waste of resources,retards.

And you wonder why I bother even beggining to engage in conversation still I guess it won't be the first time I will be called a retard this weekend ... I am heading out on the water.

Thank you and goodnight.

 

[colind3782]

That doesn't change the principle. VAT only transits through your books. It's not a cost to you.

It still has to be charged to the consumer so it's part of the price.

 

[Richard Shead]

It still has to be charged to the consumer so it's part of the price.

Thank you - at least one person agrees with me ! as I said print does not carry it digital does so what ever way you look at it there is 20% somewhere.

 

[Me_has_a_Boat]

And you wonder why I bother even beggining to engage in conversation still I guess it won't be the first time I will be called a retard this weekend ... I am heading out on the water.

Thank you and goodnight.

Chillax It's only the internet - bluntness used for clarity.

sometimes

 

[jerrytug]

Chillax It's only the internet - bluntness used for clarity.

sometimes

That's right,"retards"plural. Not a personal attack. Although I shouldn't be so sensitive if I demanded €10 per smudgy old photocopy

 

[Greenheart]

...print does not carry VAT, digital does, so what ever way you look at it there is 20% somewhere.

Speaking for myself, (although I suspect everyone else would also like to know), I'd love to hear from Mr Shead, how the other 80% of £6.95 breaks down. Not for any important reason - just in order to work out why exactly these lightweight, back-dated data downloads aren't allowed to be offered at a price the majority of us is willing to pay.

I think it'd take some pretty extreme professional misjudgement, or some undisclosed private reason, to set a price so far above the customers' preparedness to pay.

 

[Richard Shead]

That's right,"retards"plural. Not a personal attack. Although I shouldn't be so sensitive if I demanded €10 per smudgy old photocopy

Must try harder and get them to spill coffee on it too ...

 

[Me_has_a_Boat]

Must try harder and get them to spill coffee on it too ...

For £2 extra?

 

[dunedin]

I am frankly staggerred by this exchange. A group of loyal customers point out that they would be keen to buy more product from IPC if the price were more realistic (but still with reasonable profit margin for seller). All seem agreed that current price is meaning minimal usage.
However the responses to this are very much of the ancient school of - the customer is wrong, and the customer is ignorant (sorry by the attempt to explain that vat is chargeable is insulting our intelligence - so £1 plus vat is £1.20, we can do maths)

Some folks need to think more about response to polite customer suggestions

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Ok so lets put all of our content on the web for free....oh and lets not pay the journos as I am sure they would happily write for free if it appears in the electronic version.....

Ever heard of VAT? Apples Cut? software licences? Just a few things that need to be considered when publishing stuff on line (the paid for stuff)

As I said a lot of assumptions here, I am very happy to talk through it at Southampton if you are coming to the show.

I fully agree with your first sentance Richard - the idea that even back content should be free is silly. IPC is there to make money.


I wish you luvvies would get away from Apple Stores and things though. 99.9999% of devices that can access either Apple's App Store or Google's Play Store can access the web*. If you put a decent easily found search page for the back numbers with a simple payment mechanism you don't need to give Apple or Google anything. If you gave me a digital subcription along with the printed one for slight price increase but required me to buy it on-line so you had my card details and then sold me test reports, etc. at a £1 a time you'd have made a fortune out of me. Instead I buy copies of the mags when I see something that interests me in them. MBY I can't even find in most shops down here. Multihulls World offered one copy of a test for 5 Euros or all of them for 50 Euros. End result they got 45 Euros more for the cost of about 2Gb worth of download or something.

*I made the 99.9999% number up because I knew if I said all someone would mention the Mucklethurger 1.3" BeOS tablet or something.

 

[Richard Shead]

Has any one read each and every post I have made ? If so you should by now realise I have taken everything on board.

Please read every post before replying.

No one is ignoring the customer, try asking the 23 readers I helped out today in one way or the other outside of the day job.

This whole thread has been noted.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Thank you - at least one person agrees with me ! as I said print does not carry it digital does so what ever way you look at it there is 20% somewhere.

This is just whining.

Any imbecile with a basic undemanding of finance understands that a VAT inclusive price has an element of cost involved to the provider.

Actually it's not 20% but 16.6% recurring of the sale price but that's hardly the issue!

The real point is that, having been caught out for charging stupid prices that fail to understand the first thing taught in economics classes (supply versus demand versus price), the VAT element is not a suitable excuse. For a business like this, the price/sensitivity dynamic is nowhere near 16.6% and if you can't spot that you should be doing something else like working for the Treasury and making your financial incompetence a matter of public record.