Radio Free Registry

[356JAGER]

DELETED

[admin]

I missed your last part about the free issues that I pass out at events in my gift bags. Well, they are in fact "free"
Little know fact about print, there is usually an overage of about 5-10% of the run, it takes overages to get the final number, and they are in fact free, the printer charges you for that run, the overages are a bonus, to be used in stuff like selling back issues or promotions.
So if the Registry runs 7000, they get charged by the printer for 7000, the overage is just boxed up.
The hard costs in print isn't paper and ink, it's pre-press and actual press time, but once the press is dialed in and running running out an overage is easy, and part of the business.
Also, most of the magazines I put in my gift bags don't come from the Registry, they come from the Registry brothers, like Bruce Baker, he gave me about 20 boxes of old mags at Roundtop, I was stuffing bags last week for the Stoddard meet and was using all Bruce mags, but I get about 10-15 guys a year who either give me all their old magazines, rather than throw them away, or just the last couple of years. Hope this answers your questions.

[merbesfield]

As mentioned above by someone, just because the Registry did not Print would not mean that it was not considered a Press type organization, or whatever you would call it. For that matter, what's to prevent me from calling a person or organization and saying I am a freelance author writing an article for the Registry? I am not a professional, but if I wrote an article worthy of printing I guess I could offer to sell or provide it to the registry. Is that wrong or just widely stretching the truth? Never the less, the registry does print amateur writers, yes?

[merbesfield]

[quote="356JAGER" post=8089]Any of you guys heard of Kindle or any of the other digital library devices ? Bookstores are becoming extinct except those that adapt.
Why don't the advertisers in the Registry pay the tariff, if they want the printed media ? Seems to me the members are footing their bill.

Mark,
No offense, but Adam (Captain U) is the one who adopted that moniker. So was he disrespecting himself, or just being silly ?

Silly I guess?

Are you saying that the advertisers don't pay to be in the Registry? Surely they do? Or do the pay for one price gets all, web and print? I agree, advertisers should carry the brunt of the costs, but according to the P&L it does not look like it. Also, where are all the archives stored? If the Registry dies, what happens to the brain trust? I know Google has likely stored it, but not sure how this works.

[356JAGER]

DELETED

[admin]

Why profit on what I get for free? I would rather put them in free gift bags and pass the mags on to people that will enjoy them. You are talking about the mags I get from other Registry brothers, right?
If you are talking about the Registry overages, well, they are used in promotion of the club, which if the club wants to stay alive, it needs to promote and get new members. So giving them out is just good business, selling them on eBAY may be a quick fix, but not sound finanically for the long term.

[admin]

Mark-
Times may catch up but for now it is hard to get respect if all you have is a website, at least when it comes to getting press credentials. There are just too many websites. Just think of the amount of Porsche websites compared to print? They don't want to let everyone into Rennsport for free and give them one of those cool vests.
You could say you are writing for the New York Times, but people tend to check press bonefides.
As far as selling an article to the Registry, I have never seen a dime, and I have been typing for them for over 10 years.

[Bill Sampson]

Mark:

Your estimate of the percentage the trustees pay for publication may be a little low. For the last two years the gross revenue reported was $706,940. [That's the total on the tax returns. The latest return indicates that the 2010-2011 return overstated revenue by $2580 but I did not take what the trustees called a deposit error into my computation.] Publishing costs as reported by the trustees for those two years (12 issues) were $535,830 or 76%.

Gross revenue includes about $65000 per year in advertising in the magazine. There would be a certain logic in including, therefore, the agent commission paid. The total for the last two years for commissions is $32,997. If those commissions are included in publishing costs as I think they should be the total costs for publishing are: $568,827 or 80% of the gross. I have privately discussed this with others, some of whom think commissions should not be included and some of whom think that the costs of flying the editor around for meetings and what have you should be included although no one knows what they are. I suspect a few thousand per year but that is only a guess and I don't include it.

My wife still subscribes to the magazine and she enjoys it. She wishes the club was not steadily losing money and thinks improved stewardship of funds would eliminate that problem. I never disagree with my wife.

[S.J.Szabo]

Well, why have a great and very well respected magazine? I can give you a couple of reasons.
1. Without a quality print magazine the coverage of the Registry would suffer. Try getting press passes to Rennsport if you say you have a website, or getting an interview with a famous racer, or getting pictures from a well established photographer. The answer to all three is you won't.
2. The archival quality of the magazine is phenomenal, which is one of the aims of the Club, by doing stories and establishing facts can be knowledge that will be pass through the ages.
3. The demographic of the club is older, and they want the magazine, so why deny the members who pay their dues what they want.

[S.J.Szabo]

sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales..

[bbspdstr]

I am a product of two products of The Great Depression and as a child told to "clean my plate, as there are starving children in China."
Look at us now. Overweight and owned by the Chinese in the name of "good business."

Yes, sharing rather than throwing away is why I give old magazines to others, like Adam. I know full well that it is good PR for Adam, of whom I think as someone soon to be one-upping another hero, Saint Harry of Pellow.

This is all perspective. History is important, but here is the most important question to me: If not one "over there" again or already, why isn't a (polite and productive) discussion like this going on, openly, within the Registry, on the Registry website?

Thanks to all who are getting involved here, for settling down to productive discussion and with that, I hope more will offer ideas and observations. Name calling and abusive sarcasm has no place, having fun with a sensitive topic is just fine if it breaks the tension. Some of us "original owners" of the Club DO actually tend to be a little sensitive about how things are being handled "over there." OUR enemy is apathy and apathy is the enabler of those stuck on themselves to perpetuate their own version of 'status quo.'

It's like the question "When did you stop beating your wife?" if I ask "Are They so arrogant or just plain stupid enough to let it become necessary for a lawsuit to open up club information of ANY kind to Members who care enough to want to know?" Especially if laws already exist that guarantee such access. Is it accurate to assume that those of us who have been asking questions for years now are out to 'destroy' the Registry? That's laughable! I'd like to see reasons better than "We elected them, now they get to govern any way they see fit."

[admin]

SJ,
I think you need to take a step back from this and make it a little less personal, it is skewing your perspective.
For the record, I have never received Press Credentials to an event because of the Registry. In fact, I have only received Press Credentials once to enter an event, Steve's PRCC, which I covered after doing a series of articles and interviews on my blog about the event.
Also, I don't have a photography collection.
So if you want to continue this discussion let's not make it about me and trying to attack me and my motives as a defense to my arguement, it makes you look petty and ill-informed.

[bbspdstr]

I am very leery of conflicts of interest, "volunteer" or not, eventually there is personal money involved. However, I got over that when I realized most "leaders" of the Registry are involved in some sort of Porsche-oriented business. (Check the Registry's magazine masthead and Hall of Fame and do a quick percentage review) I took it that members didn't mind if the pros gave advice and worked on their behalf...kinda like 'altruism,' sorta. I even ran for Trustee.

Since then, everything has been changing. 356ers need to keep up and have fun doing so or just find a rocking chair and read a magazine about them.

Make no mistake, I am well aware that the Registry has always been a magazine first, but that was back when that was the ONLY way to tie enthusiasts together on a broad scale. It was never going to be a PCA.

BUT, it was also always a business. That's where we are now, where the most friction begins.

From it's inception, Jerry Keyser ran the club like it was his. It was. He did the newsletter and volunteers offered columns and articles, racing reports were by those who actually raced...get this...356s. It was a loosely organized reason to get involved with 356s and the ONLY way to share all sorts of information was with Jerry's newsletter/magazine. The events on the 2 roughly-termed 'sides' of the country became the best way for expansion of meeting those 'kindred spirits'...and naturally the Club grew.

No one really knew or cared about what Jerry was doing with or about money. We paid 'dues' and never thought about that as a 'subscription' to his magazine...it was all 'ours.' It was a fun distraction to PCA....it was ALL about fun with 356s. Working on them, using them in all different ways. "Miles of smiles."

That makes us long-time members wonder now what ever happened to our old friend Jerry Keyser. He is noted in the origins blurb of the Registry website, along with his original respondent, Vic Skirmants. Vic is STILL running the show...but what happened to Jerry?

Anyone out there (willing to post here) know?

Without me formulating a guess, I'll suppose that's what's going down now is a full-circle kind of thing, as some of us Members still want to know what's going on with those who are running the Club like it's Theirs. Unfortunately, those who have softened into or joined since as 'Subscribers' don't really care...as long as the Magazine keeps them entertained.

To the majority, the 'dues' are still a low-buck subscription even if no other benefit is offered or used. IT comes to them, they need not even own a 356...or a computer.

That's but one area where the true term "Club" has run aground.

Thus, as "times have changed" new ways of balancing communications and enjoying a common interest in the 356 have yet to be determined in the Registry. A 'mixing in with the morphing' isn't being implemented or even discussed, and why do you suppose, is that?

Communication and personal, social media has and is continuing to change. We, as either Members or Subscribers, are naturally changing the demographics. What IS the interest in the Registry, or, what IS the Registry? We would be, I'd think, responsible for encouraging whomever our successors will be to enjoy what we have enjoyed. We determine the values of the cars and Lord knows, those have changed. Seriously, about everything has changed, including the name on the cover of the magazine.....except for THE CARS THEMSELVES!

IS Club 'leadership' keeping up? Is it not our boat to rock instead of a chair? A legal challenge to the Registry is not the ONLY challenge and younger enthusiasts would be best suited to meet them.....

Thanks for reading!
-Bruce Baker

[Pat]

Bruce,

Well said! I wish some of the old timers could fill us in on Jerry's departure from the scene. Must have been interesting! I also agree about Harry Pellow--what a guy!

I first became a member of the Registry in 1995 when I got my 356B (after 52 years of waiting for her). I saw my first 356 in Munich in 1950 or 51 and had wanted one forever. Life and a career in the Navy got in the way, but finally I got "Fast Frieda" and still have her.

I am thankful for Justin allowing this wonderful website to be so open and so diverse in content. It has become my favorite website, with the Registry site now in second place. There are a few other sites (Samba and others) that are contending for second currently -- in my humble opinion anyhow. The only complaint I have is the snarkiness that sometimes show ups--we could all do without that!

I feel here, we can be adults, express our opinion, and say what we think. The Samba also helped in that way, but this site has much more activity in all things Porsche, but I still love the Samba because I love VWs and own a Karmann Ghia Cabriolet that I bought new in Sept 74--one of the last ones.

To all of the readers here -- please keep things civil and don't let this discussion become a re-do of the terrible sessions that angered so many on the Registry site. It really turned me off--and I now rarely post there. I am 70 years old and a certified old fart, but I think we need more emphasis of the future as Bruce and others have so eloquently discussed. I supported that last year in the elections. Thanks to all of you for helping make being a 356 fanatic so much fun!

I do agree with Adam that the magazine is the union card at the Registry. One of the first things I did when I joined was to buy all the back issues available. Shortly thereafter, while recovering from gut surgery, I read and re-read every issue I have. Adam, if you need my back issues (from mid 70's on), you can have them since they are now available in digital format---that is the key for keeping the younger folks and us somewhat computer literate old farts involved. Some day the Registry might get the message. To loose all of the content on the web that emanated from Registry members over the years, including 356 Talk, would be a terrible thing.

Again thanks for putting up with my rambling messages-- keep discussion going--silence is akin to death.

Pat Daily
Richmond, VA

[bbspdstr]

Radio Free Where? Not, apparently, where it should be:

"I would recommend that you go back and read the forum rules, Mark. The subject matter should be addressed via e-mail or other means to the Trustees rather than using these forums. If the Moderators feel that it justifies further discussion, they can set up a forum specifically to handle it.

I thought we pretty much had settled the issue of how to hold discussions such as this before, during and after the last elections.

I'm not saying you are not entitled to your opinion. You certainly are, but in my opinion this particular forum is not the place to be expressing it."

It is from a man I thought was an open-minded 356er, so I think I'll send HIM an invitation to THIS site, along with Mark. Apparently, surprisingly , the Screws still have the Forum over there on lock-down.