Posts Tagged ‘Media’

Print is Dead by topgold

I love magazines. I love the look and the feel. I know that in most cases I can find the same information online, but the experience is not the same.

With that said, let me also say that I stopped reading magazines for a while. The price kept getting higher for less and less information. Instead of more content the ads were taking over.

This is a result of a cycle. Less people read the mags and revenue falls–so the mags increase the advertising which brings in less revenue from individual ads as the readership lowers–so the magazine sells more ads with less content until the end finally comes and the magazine goes under. How is that for a run-on sentence?

At times, especially now with the economy so uncertain, it seems like this is an unbreakable cycle. Blogs and news sites run stories about the troubles of the print media. People like Rupert Murdoch talk about the shift and suggest charging for online content that was once free. It is the start of a whole new cycle.

Well, I have an idea, and it involves everyone’s favorite price point, free. I put forth that the new paradigm of print is free. For free, people will accept more ads and less content. For free, more people will subscribe to magazines previously abandoned. More eyeballs means that the mags can charge a higher premium for the advertising content. A whole new cycle breaks the old.

Now, before you bolt from this blog calling me an idiot, let me give you some background on how I came up with this idea. It comes from the most frugal person I know, my better half, Effie.

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Their are a couple of news sites I like, but I am seriously thinking of avoiding from now on. Now before you think this is about ideologies, it’s not. For that reason, I am not naming the news services. This is totally about my aggravation levels and sanity. These are professional services and I feel they should live up to that mark.

It drives me insane when a news website can’t maintain a consistent link structure.

It drives me insane when any form of media loads without my consent. I mean, really, is it that hard to put up media with the default on false when it comes to autoplay? No, it is not, to answer my own question.

I really only ask two things of a news website, and these two things have to do with the way I consume my news. I go to the site and scan the headlines, which I then open several at a time in separate tabs. This way I get my browsing done at once and then I can read each piece in turn.

Well, one site I visit everyday can’t get their link structure together. Most of their links are set to open in another window or tab when clicked. I like that as it feeds into the way I read news stories. So, it really irks me when they occasionally don’t set the target to blank and I get shuttled off to another site, which then means I have to go back to the original page, find my place again, and then right click and chose another tab.

I know that seems like a silly thing to get worked up about, but I read a lot of news. As such, I came up with my system to help me get through it quickly. By not keeping a set standard, they eat up my minutes, and it drives me nuts.

Now, looking at the way I read news, you can probably guess why my second peeve gets to me. When loading multiple windows, and then one starts to play music or a video, it is aggravating. Heaven forbid it happens on a day where I was watching a movie online or something the night before and the volume is up. Nothing says morning like a blaring news story, which you don’t even know where it is coming from.

It gets worse, who ever had the great idea of embedding ads with sound and video was an idiot. When those start, and you have multiple tabs open, it often seems impossible to find the culprit as the ads are small and often far down on a page. Heaven forbid there may be more than one tab with autoplay content.

Haven’t we just about reached a consensus as web users and developers that autoplay is pretty much akin to murder? The murder in this case is against my sanity.

Just had to vent. I really wonder when people will start to get it. Everything online is a choice. You take my choice away, to play or not to play media in this case, I will choose not to visit your site. Fair enough?

Oh yeah, and fix the links as well.

Cheers!

My production arsenal includes many well known titles. I use Sony Vegas, Adobe Photoshop, Fireworks, and more.

The problem with these titles is the price, unless you want to go the pirate route. The cost of these titles can be the reason people stay out of media production.

There is, of course, the open source path. Many of audio folks use Audacity for their projects, and it is a great program. The problem sets in if you want to do more video oriented stuff, there is not a whole lot available. Add to this the fact that with open source, you don’t get support for the products. You get forums and such, but for some, this is a negative point.

Enter the German company Magix. This company has been producing cheaper variations of the programs needed to produce quality media. The products they create are almost as feature rich as the high priced counterparts, but at a fraction of the cost. Get Sony Acid for a few hundred, or get Magix Music Maker for $50-75. You get 95% of the functionality, but really, few people even need that extra 5%.

My computers were loaded with Magix software when I got started. Now, I keep my old versions around. I never get rid of a computer, unless it goes belly up. I use my older Magix programs on my retired systems and still mess around with them to this day.

Well, Magix is making it even easier to jump into media production. They are having a clearance sale to blow out some of their titles to make way for new versions. The sale lasts until Aug. 17th, or supplies run out. At least one of the titles is already gone, so check it out quick.

The price of all the sale titles is $19.99! That is 20 freakin dollars! Add shipping and the final comes to around $25. That is a deal, or a steal.

Just so you know, this is a good time to say that I have no financial dealings with Magix. This is not a paid endorsement or an affiliate deal. I really believe in these products at the regular price point. To get them for 20 bucks is a great deal.

Titles offered in this deal include Music Maker 14, which is competition for Sony Acid, Audio Cleaning Lab 12 which helps to digitize records and clean up rough audio, Webradio Recorder which allows recording of audio as it is played on your system, and more!

So, go HERE and check it out. Get your supplies before they run out.