Sad news from JPG magazine

[Dr. Harout]

Here's the link:
http://jpgmag.com/blog/#000611

[David Kilpatrick]

I didn't even know this existed. I have studied their website, and have no problem understanding why they had to close their magazines. The model was unsustainable - you can not support a staff of that size, print 116-page physical magazines and put them into the retail chain, and also budget $18,000 per issue just to pay the contributors (for photos alone - plus over 90 free subscriptions added to that). What is sad is that when a publisher has that level of ambition, wanting to become a huge corporation with an office full of employees on the back of one successful idea, it is bound either to succeed or fail totally. They can't even keep the website on-line - and how much does that cost? As an archive, almost nothing. But because they had finance, borrowing money I guess to create a dream, it all has to end - gone.

With the small number of advertisers they had, and the nature of their website, I could have run/produced what they do with a staff of six at the most - two web, two print, one adsales, one secretarial. They maintained a team of 19 staff including a bunch at managerial rather than production level, and five sales representatives!

David

[Dr. Harout]

Here's what I received today:

"We couldn't ask for a better community. In the week or so since our last email, the outpour of support has exceeded our wildest expectations. Your efforts, such as starting savejpg.com, writing blog posts, commenting on Twitter and Flickr, and generally making your voices heard, have provided exciting new opportunities for us.

We're thrilled to say that because of you, we have multiple credible buyers interested in giving JPG a home. We will be keeping the site up after all, and hope to have a final update in the next week or so on who the acquirer will be. Thank you for making all of this possible.

Laura Brunow Miner
Editor in Chief "

So, should we guess that was kind of a business trick? Or was it the good will of people?

[David Kilpatrick]

So, should we guess that was kind of a business trick? Or was it the good will of people?

Sometimes announcing closure is a good way to make sure you can fire all your staff without too much conscience!

That after all was their problem, clearly, far too ambitious a staffing and office establishment. The business was perfectly viable, just not viable the way they had run it. A buyer will fix that.

David