[Ipg-smz] Not the greeting I was expecting ...

[Tom Henderson]

Saw those. No greatness comes from a $250 review. Vendors want control 
of editorial, and they have purchased it.

See MS Ignite this week, where many millions are being used in a 
vacuum-sealed conference center to insulate people from that tawdry 
press stuff.

Non-aligned conferences are another problem for another day. This is why 
the "open" conferences have become so valuable for non-partisan 
information.

Tom


On 11/5/19 6:46 AM, Tom Geller via Ipg-smz wrote:
> On 5 Nov 2019, at 12:31, Tom Henderson via Ipg-smz 
> <ipg-smz at netpress.org <mailto:ipg-smz at netpress.org>> wrote:
>
>> Amazingly, I may have the largest independent test lab, enterprise 
>> grade, left. Who's left doing enterprise-grade product reviews?
>
> Quite right.
>
> Theresa W. Carey recently posted some jobs at DotDash that looked 
> good, including one for freelance tech reviewers -- a job I did 20+ 
> years ago. They wanted 1,000-2,500 word reviews, tested on multiple 
> devices, with "crisp, well-lit photos of review products in clean 
> settings". Exactly the sort of thing a lab would do.
>
> Well, fine -- I can do all that. Then I realized that the chances of 
> them paying more than $250/review are nearly zero.
>
> They'll get someone, of course. Probably someone just out of school, 
> starting up a ladder to a point they don't yet realize no longer 
> exists. Or a hobbyist, part-timer, or retiree. Doesn't matter, because 
> those 2,000 words be gone in a few days.
>
> ---
> Tom Geller  *  Writer & Video/journalist  * http://tomgeller.com
>        Rotterdam, The Netherlands, +31 (0)6 87071468
>             Oberlin, Ohio  *  +1-415-317-1805
>
>
>
>
>> On 5 Nov 2019, at 12:31, Tom Henderson via Ipg-smz 
>> <ipg-smz at netpress.org <mailto:ipg-smz at netpress.org>> wrote:
>>
>> Amazingly, I may have the largest independent test lab, enterprise 
>> grade, left. Who's left doing enterprise-grade product reviews?
>>
>> I wonder if this is the emergence of the tech oligarchy.
>>
>> It's my humble opinion that I have but a fraction of what might be 
>> realistic: 500 Xeon cores, 40K GPU cores, 100TB NVMe SAN, 10GB with 
>> 100GB core router. This is crazy. There should be ten dozen of me.
>>
>> This is how the media becomes controlled: asphyxiation.
>>
>> Imagine: I'm using this stuff to make cryptocurrency because 
>> enterprise-grade product journalism has been starved off-- choked.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>> On 11/5/19 2:20 AM, Tom Geller via Ipg-smz wrote:
>>> On 5 Nov 2019, at 08:01, Howard M. Cohen via 
>>> Ipg-smz<ipg-smz at netpress.org <mailto:ipg-smz at netpress.org>>  wrote:
>>>
>>>> many of us have changed who we write for
>>> If you write for a vendor, are you a "journalist"? Open for debate, 
>>> but I'd say "no", and my comments here reflect that. Certainly the 
>>> consensus answer was "no" twenty years ago.
>>>
>>>> Ours is a vibrant and vital community.
>>> Arguing against that:
>>> * Far lower freelance rates, down over 75% from the 1990s.
>>> * Far fewer staff positions, probably down over 90%.
>>> * Far less care and oversight (copyeditors, managing editors, etc.). 
>>> Again I'd say 75-90% shrinkage.
>>> * Far fewer publications, so less mobility.
>>> * For less exposure from each piece (shorter pieces, in the public 
>>> eye for only days or hours).
>>> * Far less publication revenue from our work, causing all the above.
>>>
>>> I'll grant that it's a "vibrant and vital community" -- of 
>>> part-timers, hobbyists, and retired folks looking to stay busy 
>>> (*ahem*). But for only a tiny number is it a profession nowadays.
>>>
>>> It's nice work if you can get it. And if you get it, won't you tell 
>>> me how?
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Tom Geller  *  Writer & Video/journalist  *http://tomgeller.com
>>>        Rotterdam, The Netherlands, +31 (0)6 87071468
>>>             Oberlin, Ohio  *  +1-415-317-1805
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> -- 
>> Tom Henderson
>> ExtremeLabs, Inc.
>> +1 317 250 4646
>> Twitter: @extremelabs
>> Skype: extremelabsinc
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Ipg-smz mailing list
>> Ipg-smz at netpress.org <mailto:Ipg-smz at netpress.org>
>> http://netpress.org/mailman/listinfo/ipg-smz_netpress.org
>
>
-- 
Tom Henderson
ExtremeLabs, Inc.
+1 317 250 4646
Twitter: @extremelabs
Skype: extremelabsinc

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