TC-Forum - to Print or Not to Print?
Early this year the question came up again
whether or not to continue printing TC-FORUM.
One reason was the observation that the number
of visits to the web site have grown from 842
(Febr. 2000) to 2100 (Dec.2000). Whatever the
absolute meaning of "visits" is, doesn’t matter in
this comparison. We asked ourselves:
- "Are these subscribers or additional readers of TC-FORUM?"
- "How many of the 2000 copies of TC-FORUM per issue could have been saved,
if many used the web issues?"
- "What do our subscribers want? Paper or monitor?"
We also had to look at our budget. Printing and
distribution of TC-FORUM accounts for more than
half of our annual budget.
Having this in mind we decided to make an experiment: we would print
only the March- and the December issues in 2001 and have the other two
issues (June and September 2001) only on the website. We also attached a
questionnaire to the March issue (and inserted it on the website). About 90%
of the replies were returned by subscribers to TC-FORUM (printed).
Results from the replies show that
- Approximately 97% of our subscribers are equipped to visit our website, and
- Approximately 80% visit our website (occasionally or regularly).
But:
- Only about 35% replied that they were prepared to pay
for a subscription to the print version; 65% were opposed.
And:
- 80% signalled a positive general attitude
towards going electronic. But are they prepared
to drop the printed issue? Or did they
appreciate having a web-version as well?
I confess this was not a good question. Many
comments explained in speaking and writing to
have understood the cost aspect; but they would
appreciate "having a piece of paper" in hand.
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The following considerations arose:
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- Requesting a subscription fee might exclude
some subscribers (especially free-lancers) from
receiving the printed TC-FORUM (especially in
3rd World Countries). The costs for bank
transfers would be unacceptably high,
compared with the net-income, and it would
require additional administrative efforts.
- Because we understand the preference for a
paper issue, we intend to continue printing
TC-FORUM for as long as the financial situation
permits (the question of sponsoring and other
income, for example advertising, will be
discussed later).
- To provide the basis for a new financial
solution, TC-FORUM needs to have an official,
legal structure. Therefore, the TC-FORUM team
offered TC-FORUM to INTECOM, the
International Council for Technical
Communication at its General Assembly
meeting in October 2001. INTECOM seems
to be the most appropriate because it is a
worldwide organization. The offer has been
accepted in principle; further thoughts will be
given concerning the financial side during the
following months.
At the end of the 5th year of TC-FORUM there are
new perspectives coming up to establish what
had been created by a "group of four" to make it
a stable information and PR-instrument for
technical communicators under the aegis of
INTECOM.
We will publish further steps in this development
in following issues of TC-FORUM.
© TC Forum 1998-2001 - http://www.tc-forum.org - file last updated 16 Dec 2001
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Editorial 4-01 
4-01 (December 2001)