If I remember correctly, the promise of the internet way back in the dark days of dial-up and corporate T2 lines was that we were going to get rid of those dreaded “middlemen.” Want your news? Why deal with the daily paper or the local TV network channel when you could go online and get the news from….someone?Groceries? Send your order directly online to PeaPod and "Presto", PeaPod would go and...get the groceries from a participating retailer and deliver it to you.Why deal with bookstores and and the big publishers when you could buy the book from a self published writer on Amazon? Oh, wait, Amazon is essentially both a book wholesaler and a book retailer and a book publisher.So maybe you want to subscribe to a magazine? Maybe you want the print version? Or the digital version? Or maybe both plus that weekly newsletter? Well guess what? You may not be doing business directly with the publisher. Nope. Sorry. There’s often a platform involved that handles all of the publishers’ back office functions (because it’s cheaper than hiring and retaining their own staff). Got a complaint about a subscription or can’t find the magazine at your local Walgreens? The person responding to you just might be me. In that way, I’m the “middleman” between you and the publisher. You’re not talking directly with them, you’re talking to me, (Or someone like me).Once more, and with feeling: I’m no Luddite wishing for the days when you had three TV networks and the library card catalog system was exactly what it sounds like. I don't yearn for incandescent bulbs and McDonald's fries cooked in animal fat.But the greatest, silliest, most foolish (and frankly very stupid) conceit of the tech world is that they have smoothed things out between consumer and provider. Customer and sales person. Yeah, sometimes. Maybe. But often, nope. Frequently all that's happened is the "middleman" was disrupted and replaced with a new "middleman."I’ve worked for a while now in magazine publishing - exclusively on the business side. The difference between now and my first year in? The work is harder, more isolating, more obscure. And sometimes the results are less inspiring. On the other hand? The latest deck I prepped for the 2023 promo budget is super cool.
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Meet The New Middleman, Same as The Old…
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If I remember correctly, the promise of the internet way back in the dark days of dial-up and corporate T2 lines was that we were going to get rid of those dreaded “middlemen.” Want your news? Why deal with the daily paper or the local TV network channel when you could go online and get the news from….someone?Groceries? Send your order directly online to PeaPod and "Presto", PeaPod would go and...get the groceries from a participating retailer and deliver it to you.Why deal with bookstores and and the big publishers when you could buy the book from a self published writer on Amazon? Oh, wait, Amazon is essentially both a book wholesaler and a book retailer and a book publisher.So maybe you want to subscribe to a magazine? Maybe you want the print version? Or the digital version? Or maybe both plus that weekly newsletter? Well guess what? You may not be doing business directly with the publisher. Nope. Sorry. There’s often a platform involved that handles all of the publishers’ back office functions (because it’s cheaper than hiring and retaining their own staff). Got a complaint about a subscription or can’t find the magazine at your local Walgreens? The person responding to you just might be me. In that way, I’m the “middleman” between you and the publisher. You’re not talking directly with them, you’re talking to me, (Or someone like me).Once more, and with feeling: I’m no Luddite wishing for the days when you had three TV networks and the library card catalog system was exactly what it sounds like. I don't yearn for incandescent bulbs and McDonald's fries cooked in animal fat.But the greatest, silliest, most foolish (and frankly very stupid) conceit of the tech world is that they have smoothed things out between consumer and provider. Customer and sales person. Yeah, sometimes. Maybe. But often, nope. Frequently all that's happened is the "middleman" was disrupted and replaced with a new "middleman."I’ve worked for a while now in magazine publishing - exclusively on the business side. The difference between now and my first year in? The work is harder, more isolating, more obscure. And sometimes the results are less inspiring. On the other hand? The latest deck I prepped for the 2023 promo budget is super cool.