Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: CallTheShots.com
Author: Brian Carnell Posted: 11/17/1999; 8:31:58 AM Topic: CallTheShots.com Msg #: 13142 (In response to 13141) Prev/Next: 13141 / 13143
Is it such a bad thing if the web can't support large superstructures? I though the whole knock on the traditional media companies was that they were these huge corporate behemoths?Anyway, let me just tell you my personal story of how I fell in love with the web. I am a non-fiction writer. Everything I write now goes immediately on the web before I ever submit it to traditional media outlets.
Is the web a threat? Far from it. What the web gives me is complete independence. I have absolute control of every word I publish. One of the newspapers I write for occasionally recently sent me a contract to "formalize" their arrangement -- i.e. they wanted me to enter a work-for-hire arrangment and give them ownership of everything I ever write for them. Before the web I probably would have signed it and gone through the small, but not insignificant, hassles it would create. With the web it went immediately into the trash. I don't need them anymore to reach a large audience -- this year I'll have reached well in excess of 2 million readers just on my web site and next year I'll be in the 5-6 million reader range all on an investment of a piddling $150/month. When they publish an article of mine I got maybe two or three letters to the editor. When I put a new article on one of my web sites I usually get 20-30 email comments in the following week.
Can I get rich doing this? No. Absolutely not, but I will be making more than enough to live comfortably while being completely independent and doing something I love -- what more could anyone ask for?
Well, I guess they could ask for the huge bloated media conglomerates, but I doubt those will ever completely disappear.
I'm not quite sure what you mean about the food problem. You can have any sort of economic model you like, but as long as there are armed guards on the North Korean border there's no way I can give food to the victims of famine there even if I wanted to. Same problem exists in Sudan, Ethiopia/Eritrea and elsewhere. The problem with hunger is not with economic superstructures but with local governance.
This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:53:33 PM.
© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.