I love to debate with people. I love debating people who genuinely respect your point of view, but truly believe in what they are saying. Those opened minded enough to consider everything, and take (even if it is not the popular) a view on a subject. Writer John Martellaro is just such a person.
I had talked to John on the phone a few times, but it was at Macworld Expo in sunny San Francisco when I first met him. It was early in the week, and we would see much of each other the next few days, but that first time, face to face, was a lot of fun. We had a great talk, and debated (somewhat) the state of the Macintosh web. While John and myself do not see eye to eye on many things, it is our view of the Mac web that causes me to write this.
Go read “The Warp Core” particularly this column. (http://www.applelinks.com/warpcore/jan00/wc-47.shtml) Like I said, John is a great guy, and I really respect his opinions. Even when he is wrong…
To quote John “I have been saying all along in the Warp Core that, eventually, technologies would come along that would make it impossible for the amateurs to compete.” I hate to disagree, (ah, who am I kidding, I love to disagree!) you could not be more wrong John. As I will show you in a moment.
You also wrote “But there will be naysayers. There will be small Internet publishers who, like the crusty old editors of small town newspapers of days past, will claim that the truly erudite and discriminating people will continue to come to their Websites and seek out quality journalism.”
Here, I know, John is talking about me. That is almost word for word what I told him in San Francisco. And while I may be a little crusty around the eyes after too many beers, that does not make my statement any less true. As I will show you in a moment.
Next, we get to the crust of why John does not “Get” the whole Mac web-publishing phenomenon. John writes “But what if you don’t have a product to sell? What if the only thing you have to offer is an opinion? Or some warmed over press releases? Or some links to other Web sites? Or easy links to free software? In that case, you’re living in the early 1990s. The Internet has passed you by.” Ah, John, John, John…
Okay, my friend, listen closely. WE DON’T DO THIS FOR THE MONEY! Sure, some do, but those are the diluted few. For the small publisher, there is no real money to be made doing this. Even less for writers and artists. We do this for one reason, and one reason ONLY. We LOVE it. Don’t you get that? It is NOT about competing with Apple’s new web services. In 1995, I was not competing with MacUser or MacWeek, though they are both long since gone from the newsstands. And My Mac Magazine is still here. Why? No overhead to speak of, no payroll, no taxes, no cost of publishing, none of that stuff. Stuff Apple, however, DOES have to worry about. They have to dole out mucho cash to compete with me.
Am I a threat? Nah, not at all. In fact, I promote (by association) Apple everyday. See, John, this is not about business. Never has been. You don’t seem to be able to comprehend this truism. The Internet has not passed me by. In fact, I have been riding it’s ever rising wave for more than five years. Right now, looking at the statistics at My Mac Magazine, we are more popular than we have ever been.
Some people (and I don’t mean John here at all) cannot figure out this whole “for love of Mac” things. I know John does, but for some reason he keeps looking at the Internet as if it were no different than any other medium. The Internet is NOT Radio, Movies, TV, or newspapers. Never has been. It encompasses many of the best (and worse) of those medium’s, but it is not them. Never will be. Because, unlike all the others, the Internet is truly the first medium in which the average person can communicate on a even playing field with the “big boys”
The true origins for My Mac Magazine were laid in 1994. At that time, the web was a poor anemic thing. AOL, First Class Servers, BBS’s, eWorld, and other online services ruled the online world. MacWeek, Macworld, and MacUser ruled the Mac newsstands. And My Mac had no chance to ever compete. Ah-ha! But who was competing? I wasn’t. I gave of myself to the few remaining Mac users something for free, no different that the many shareware program authors of the day. I offered other Mac users an opportunity to write, get their stories, reviews, column, and opinions read by more people than they could have done on their own. And guess what? We have succeeded in doing just that.
In an email from John, he noted that he does not consider My Mac a small publisher, at least not such as he defined in his column. Well, I would love to think we are (as John put it) one of the “Big Boys” (with all difference to Beth Lock, Susan Howerter, Lysa, Lyn Price, and Barbara Bell, which makes almost half our staff women!) But the truth of the matter is, there is only one “Big Boy” in the Macintosh publication arena, and that is Mac Publishing. (Just ask Jim Capparell, president of Machome Journal) Mac Publishing looks at My Mac, AppleLinks, As the Apple Turns, and all the other Mac Websites as an irritant, at best, but not a threat or competition. They make buckets of money, rank in the big advertising dollars, buys up great Websites (and makes them less-than-great, i.e. MacCentral) and rules the land. But I don’t see Joe Ryan, the owner of AppleLinks, closing the doors.
John, you’re a brilliant man. A great person I like to think of as a friend (loved our chats all week at the Expo!) but I think your wrong here. The Internet will continue to evolve, and the small-time guys (like you and me) will evolve with it. In fact, we can change and adapt even faster than the Big Guys. (Little or no overhead, no committee meetings to make the decisions, and the like) The technology you claim the Big Boys will use to kill us off is actually products we can afford ourselves, thanks to companies like Apple (iMovie, Streaming QuickTime, iTools, and the like) or RealNetworks.
John knew I was writing this “rebuttal” to his column. And he was right. I had to, actually. And for sites such as my own, as well as the plethora of other Mac-centric websites our there, I hope I am right, and John is wrong. But you know what? John will be the very first to say he hopes he is wrong, too. That is just the sort of stand-up, intelligent, great guy John Martellaro is. And I should know, I know the man.
Tim Robertson
Publisher, My Mac Magazine
https://www.mymac.com
publisher@mymac.com
Tim Robertson
publisher@mymac.com
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