Lack of FreeBSD coverage in the UK media

[Julian H. Stacey]

Paul Waring wrote:
> I've noticed over the past few years that there has been a growing 
> number of Linux magazines available in the UK (Linux Format, Linux 
> Magazine and Linux User/Developer are the ones that immediately spring 

What one can leverage with magazines depends on local turnover/
size of national business, & if you can amortise costs by publishing
abroad too: 

It's a lot harder to write an article (more work, that fewer can
do), than it is for foreign magazines to find local people
to translate to local language. eg many Germans in computing read
English without problem, so its worth offering any BSD article
anyone writes to non English speaking countries world wide.

Best bet to be paid, might be to go for a USA / world distributed
mag like Dr Dobbs, (that has a hopefully decent turnover to start
with), & sell an article to them & simultaneously give them contacts
to the UK etc book trade to expand their international sales.

Mags want exclusive rights if paying, but if they get article free
(& translate to German, Korean or whatever themselves) then you can
dictate terms.

SKIP REST IF NOT INTERESTED IN BRITISH & GERMAN MAGs.

I've been in Munich many years, but British, so fell in to conversation
with a Brit. from Linux Mag. few years back when he was visiting
Systems, a trade fair in Munich:

    Germany was Linux mag's cash cow, & Britain was a struggling
    low turn over low\profit extension (*), so they often took
    German stuff, translated it & tossed in a bit of local UK if
    they found it.  They weren't overflowing with money for the UK
    op. ( I was asking them if they wanted a BSD CD mastered, &
    they said ask German parent co. as more money)

   (*) Still, remember the Beaching effect, the end station only
   _appears_ unprofitable, but if cut, the whole is less healthy,
   so UK probably helped toward commercial health of whole.

   He thought UK was pretty small market as a whole: far
   more MickeySoft addicted than Germany (chimes with what I saw):
   
      In Waterstones Tun Wells, UK: MS everywhere, virtually zilch
      else I recall (but TW has no university or polytechnic, no real
      industry or manufacturing, just inumerable pen pushers, (TW was
      1 of 12 designated zone centres for admin. in event of nuclear
      war, presumably 'cos no industry, (& Unix is since found where
      more technicly sophisticated users are perhaps ?).
   
      In Canterbury (small agricultural town with a cathedral, hence
      called a city, with a University (significant to early UK Unix),
      even in the Uni. bookshop there seemed rather a lot of MS & I
      dont recall BSD, but must have been some Linux.
   
      In Munich Germany, (city of ~2x 10^6 with lots of Universities
      & industry etc) although most is MS; Easy to find a variety
      of Linux Mags, & in main computer shopping street, shops
      sell h/ware without OS, & they Have heard of Linux & sometimes
      BSD, & dont assume pirate just 'cos you dont want to buy
      MS with h/ware.
   
... SO unless things have changed in last half decade, UK Linux mags
might not have lots of cash for articles, & Linux mags are hard to find
some places eg TW, & BSD ie exotic beyond belief.

German Mags (apart from Linux mag & Linux User mag):

   FreeX is not exactly a BSD mag. but nearish ... they publish in
   German, They are small & Not flush. Editor Rosa Riebl speaks
   English, they'd likely be interested if you weren't looking for
   [much] money http://www.cul.de +49.911.400030.

   IX mag. by http://www.heise.de (who also publish a great hardware
   mag `CT', but in German & off topic) `IX' mag has occasional
   trials in English, & an English web http://www.heise.de/english/

-- 
Julian Stacey. Munich Computer Consultant, BSD Unix C Linux. http://berklix.com
	Escape Microsoft 20th April 2007: http://berklix.com/free/talk/
		Ihr Rauch = mein allergischer Kopfschmerz.