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April 8, 2011 - 10:23am
#1
Bob Deutsch's All-Purpose Stereophile Pandering to Advertisers Grumble
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For me, if I read enough of a persons writings I tend to reach an understanding or feeling of the kind of person the writer is.
I have been a regular visitor to the web site long before I became a registered user and a hard copy subscriber. I have concluded that there is a reason that Stereophile is THE audio authority. I believe the editor and his staff to be people of integrity.
I do not believe that people of integrity are capable of throwing a review in order to curry favor with a manufacturer and in turn get their advertising dollars.
Nothing else needs said.
Jeff
5. A product that has never been advertised in Stereophile is not mentioned: punishment for not having advertised in Stereophile :-)
As long as your in the spotlight you'll have critic's .
I can be bought. Manufacturers, please send me any and all high "zoot" gear you make. I promise I'll say good things about it until you ask for it's return. I promise not to stay bought in the interest of getting and trying more gear. I could also be persuaded to buy said gear at scratch and dent prices.
Friend of mine used to work in the motorcycle magazine world as a reviewer. The conventional wisdom there says that the manufacturers withhold ads (and associated revenues) if a bad review is published. Note: these are lifestyle magazines and they rarely come out with a review that hammers a bike and in some cases dig out the copy of Roget's to make it sound good. Personally I never really thought about it but one day we were chatting and he was complaining that folks assumed that the reviews were needed to get ads. Turns out that the real currency was not ads but rather testable bikes. If a vendor does not like your reviews, they do not lend you bikes, you then have no material to write about and in a few years you are not relevant. So I would ponder if the lack of ads or test equipment is a bigger stick.
Note that I'm not in any way saying that the crew here is selling reviews for any currency, rather that until I understand their business I cant really comment on what their drivers are, and therefore have no reason to question their honesty.
Read the Manufacturer's Comments in the Jan 2011 issue. A lot of them are carping about the review and yet they still spend their ad dollars.
Jeff