Still here
view from the coalface (03/06/2009)
A couple of months ago I sent this email to the reviewers who write for IT Reviews, some of whom have been working for this site for a decade.
Given the constant flow of bad news from just about everywhere, I thought it was time to give you an update on the situation with IT Reviews.
As some of you know, I've been expecting something like the 'credit crunch' for many years now. And by 'expecting' I mean 'preparing for'. Unlike most companies, Unusual Publishing has no debt and has never used debt to fund expansion, even from the start. I grew this site and company on an organic basis, always making sure that revenues covered expenses.
So, while some other sites and businesses may have made larger profits in the boom years, we're sitting fairly pretty now. True, advertising revenue is down across the board and that has had an effect on the bottom line. But we have no debt to restructure, no banking covenants to breach, no obligations to the banking fraternity whatsoever. Revenue is generated in a variety of currencies from a variety of countries, so we're reasonably hedged in currency terms as well.
I'm saying all this in case any of you are worried about the ongoing supply of work from IT Reviews. Basically, even if the economic situation continues at its current level for many years, I will still be commissioning the same number of reviews from each of you. Things would have to get considerably worse (which is possible but unlikely, even to a pessimist like me) before we start cutting back.
I hope I never have to eat these words, but this is the situation as things stand in March 2009.
A couple of months on and not much has changed. We've noticed a significant drop-off in the availability of loan equipment, something corroborated with my contemporaries on other publications. I'm beginning to wonder if the PR companies are flogging the kit off on eBay to make ends meet.
And advertisers are spending less, but it's hard to say how much of that is due to a worsening economy and how much is due to the usual lull at this time of year. Six of one, half-dozen of the other, I suspect.
Larger web publishers are now seriously considering charging for their content, and I can understand why. But I think it's a mistake. IT Reviews has been around long enough to experience the technical recession in the early 2000s, and the industry recovered from that once the dead wood had been cut out. I am sure it will again, though unlike Alistair Darling I very much doubt it'll all be over by Christmas.
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