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The rich niche

therebooting.substack.com

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Re: The rich niche

#3
Most of this article seems to be one anecdote about how someone made the author a bad job offer once.

Couldn't care less.

Re: The rich niche

#4
Author's argument seems to be that the only profitable publishers are subscription-based, and therefore cater to the rich, because only the rich can afford subscriptions.

That seems to ignore...the entire history of publishing. Like how a newspaper used to cost a quarter and everyone read it.

Re: The rich niche

#5
You can argue that this is a feedback loop, though.

I can survive on minimum wage in the UK, therefore if I earn min wage + 1,000 (after tax), I can afford these subscriptions.

The question is whether I prefer that over other things.

I prioritised learning materials, computers, etc in my youth when I had a hilariously low budget and it paid dividends.

The questions IMO are:

1) to what extent is the economy zero sum, e.g. can everyone avoid being a retail worker

and

2) if we satisfy 1, how do we expand critical thinking such that people invest in themselves

Re: The rich niche

#6
I was recently a rep for the office's annual charity drive. At the end of it our office (west coast) was compared to offices in other parts of the country. While we had lots of one-time donations, literally nobody signed up for "workplace giving", to have money regularly taken off their paychecks. It is about fear an uncertainty. When people are stretched thin they will still give money when they can. But when is key. They will give money out of their pockets when asked but will not commit to future giving because they are unsure of that future. Subscriptions are for people who are confident in their month-to-month financial position. If you want to sell to the normal people, those who live from paycheck to paycheck, then you need to stick to single payment schemes.

Re: The rich niche

#7

I was recently a rep for the office's annual charity drive. At the end of it our office (west coast) was compared to offices in other parts of the country. While we had lots of one-time donations, literally nobody signed up for "workplace giving", to have money regularly taken off their paychecks. It is about fear an uncertainty. When people are stretched thin they will still give money when they can. But when is key…

[deleted]

Re: The rich niche

#8
post #4

Author's argument seems to be that the only profitable publishers are subscription-based, and therefore cater to the rich, because only the rich can afford subscriptions. That seems to ignore...the entire history of publishing. Like how a newspaper used to cost a quarter and everyone read it.

The newspaper price was heavily subsidized by ad revenue. If the paper had to depend solely on the sales revenue, the price would have had been much higher than a quarter, and consequently, much fewer people would buy it regularly.

Re: The rich niche

#9

I was recently a rep for the office's annual charity drive. At the end of it our office (west coast) was compared to offices in other parts of the country. While we had lots of one-time donations, literally nobody signed up for "workplace giving", to have money regularly taken off their paychecks. It is about fear an uncertainty. When people are stretched thin they will still give money when they can. But when is key…

Office charity drives are already bad enough in that they socially pressure employees to give money. I would be furious if the company I worked for asked me to start recurring donations out of my paycheck. Keep employer-employee relationships to strictly business. I can donate to charity on my own time.

Re: The rich niche

#10

I was recently a rep for the office's annual charity drive. At the end of it our office (west coast) was compared to offices in other parts of the country. While we had lots of one-time donations, literally nobody signed up for "workplace giving", to have money regularly taken off their paychecks. It is about fear an uncertainty. When people are stretched thin they will still give money when they can. But when is key…

Office charity drives are already bad enough in that they socially pressure employees to give money. I would be furious if the company I worked for asked me to start recurring donations out of my paycheck. Keep employer-employee relationships to strictly business. I can donate to charity on my own time.

It was a little more than that. There was some employer matching of funds, up to a point. And having it come off your paycheck saves a step come tax time.
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