A shift in editorial policy; giving small British brands a leg up

[Neil McCauley]

Recently, the increase in British equipment makers asking me to provide editorial coverage has increased. On the face of it, rather encouraging. However, below the surface I find it interesting to find out why. I’m not into self-delusion and consequently I’d be a fool to assume a range of flattering reasons as to their motivation. And so I won’t.

In a nutshell, quite a few makers feel the UK paper-based magazines don’t get sufficient editorial coverage, especially the start-ups, the temporarily small and the ‘un-anointed’ i.e. not part of the inner circle.

One common denominator being that these marginalised makers lack the public relations clout and marketing budgets of the big UK makers and/or the importer-distributors. Frankly, quite a few of these haven’t got the first clue about public relations, or how to put together a press release and so on.

But that, in addition to having negligible advertising / marketing budgets is not in my opinion sufficient reason to deny them a platform.

So starting tonight, I will give greater editorial emphasis to small British (and only British) makers with something relevant to offer and interesting to say to our readers and subscribers. And that means less exposure to the non-British equipment makers with substantial budgets.

I've run this past our subscriber ‘jury’ and they approve.

Any British maker appearing in the AoS Trade Impressions section is welcome to email my features editor Howard Popeck popeckhoward@gmail.com with press releases on new product launches. Please note that neither Howard nor I have any interest in publishing editorial that denigrates competitors. That’s the strict ground rule. Thank you

Neil McCauley / editor in chief

[Arkless Electronics]

Recently, the increase in British equipment makers asking me to provide editorial coverage has increased. On the face of it, rather encouraging. However, below the surface I find it interesting to find out why. I’m not into self-delusion and consequently I’d be a fool to assume a range of flattering reasons as to their motivation. And so I won’t.

In a nutshell, quite a few makers feel the UK paper-based magazines don’t get sufficient editorial coverage, especially the start-ups, the temporarily small and the ‘un-anointed’ i.e. not part of the inner circle.

One common denominator being that these marginalised makers lack the public relations clout and marketing budgets of the big UK makers and/or the importer-distributors. Frankly, quite a few of these haven’t got the first clue about public relations, or how to put together a press release and so on.

But that, in addition to having negligible advertising / marketing budgets is not in my opinion sufficient reason to deny them a platform.
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So starting tonight, I will give greater editorial emphasis to [I]small British (and only British) makers with something relevant to offer and interesting to say to our readers and subscribers. And that means less exposure to the non-British equipment makers with substantial budgets.

I've run this past our subscriber ‘jury’ and they approve.

Any British maker appearing in the AoS Trade Impressions section is welcome to email my features editor Howard Popeck popeckhoward@gmail.com with press releases on new product launches. Please note that neither Howard nor I have any interest in publishing editorial that denigrates competitors. That’s the strict ground rule. Thank you

Neil McCauley / editor in chief

Encouraging news... When I was bemoaning all of the above and more from my own perspective a month or two ago you wrote a reply that basically kind of politely explained why one man band companies such as myself had no chance of getting reviews, interest from dealers (should we wish to go that route) etc and that as we were not part of the "inner circle" we were likely doomed..... So it's good to see a magazine trying to help reverse the rot :)

[Neil McCauley]

Encouraging news... When I was bemoaning all of the above and more from my own perspective a month or two ago you wrote a reply that basically kind of politely explained why one man band companies such as myself had no chance of getting reviews, interest from dealers (should we wish to go that route) etc and that as we were not part of the "inner circle" we were likely doomed..... So it's good to see a magazine trying to help reverse the rot :)

Hello again and thank you. Well, not quite doomed but as far as i can see with my own eyes plus what I am told by others, paper publications are increasingly marginalising the smaller players. It's not getting any better, it seems.

I was, until recently, pretty much convinced that it was a hopeless challenge. However, i realised that it's far too easy for someone in my position to merely 'roll over' and let it happen. If, and it's a big if I and my colleagues can offer a more level playing field then it's a start. And that start, started yesterday. This is work-in-progress and can be seen at http://www.hifianswers.com/tag/british-stereo/ and my team have started by tagging relevant threads from some of the more civilised fora. After this, we'll make a start on British-stereo press releases, reviews and so on.

Neil