Feadship still in business?

I will not say what applies in this case as I don´t have the full picture, but you may be closing in on what "new media" is confronted with compared to "old media".

Because lead times of printed publications usually are months, they don´t like to see their editorials on new yachts coming on the net long before and often with more pictures. Not on their own websites, nor on others. In fact, some publications only allow full access to their websites to the subscribers of the printed version.

This of course raises the question if they are interested to publish "old news" that has been on websites like YF:s for months? Naturally not and the shipyards are therefore asked to not display their new yachts on the web before the printed magazines are out. I know YF:s have experienced and respected this in the past.

Fortunately this is slowly changing, people are more interested in websites like YF:s and expect to read about what is going on when it is going on, not months later. I think there is a future for both kind of publications, I love to grab an old magazine and read editorials on yachts as they were launched, also to look at the old ads, something you will never find on the websites.

I think shipyards (and printed magazines) must open their eyes and understand that the Internet has become the number one source for information, and adapt to this.

The income of advertising has been little or nothing on the net compared to other media, but this is also changing rapidly. I think the millions of hits we have are worth a lot more than what you are paying compared to traditional media, even though internet advertising is still in it´s infancy when it comes to sophistication.

This said, I know that YF:s is not using the ad sales for blackmailing or blacklisting, but some builders attitude may make them less appealing to support with free coverage. And as opposed to printed media, the web has the on-off button in real-time. Off and a membership is off, a thread is gone, or a forum is at least put on hold.

As Carl said, we are a community that share our interest and our experience, many spending hours a day to read and write, all for free. This calls for some cooperation from the industry who benefits from it and also from our members, who generally also gains from the shared knowledge.

Your observations may be important, but nothing to make an issue about. This whole website is also an on-off operation that can disappear in a blink, if people don´t appreciate our combined efforts of keeping it alive.

Simple as that.

It would be completely inappropriate to publicly discuss any communications that take place behind the screen, or the reasoning behind the decisions made in guiding YF. We have carefully considered, long term, the evolution of our media in conjunction with several different groups, including several of the world’s leading webmasters and a new media-planning group that tracks sectors and trends. I believe everything we have done to date has been carefully considered and above all, fair. Our acceptance and growth would indicate the same.

There is a technology that underlies YF that has great value. It has brought about a true Internet portal, putting YF on top of 1000’s of keywords in major search engines. The result? 25 million hits a month and 150,000 readers monthly. To the best of my knowledge, we have more readers than any yachting magazine in the world.

Unfortunately, there are a few builders that still don’t recognize the value of YF or the Internet. Personally, I think they’re living in the stone ages, but that’s their choice. In the meantime, we have a number of builders who appreciate YF and I think it’s only fair that they have some exclusivity.

I have spent an inordinate amount of time educating the industry on our media. I’ve had to overcome tremendous resistance in some cases. Still, even with our stats, acceptance and propagation, there are still builders that offer very little cooperation. Therefore, if they are unwilling to help us, then we are not obligated to provide exposure for them. It’s really that simple.

In closing, because I really have to move on to other things, I think it's important to note that a number of new build contracts and serious inquiries have come as a direct result of coverage we have provided. I sit in the precarious position of fielding questions from buyers on a weekly basis. These are buyers who prefer to remain anonymous; therefore they don't pose their questions in the forums. This affords me the opportunity to share my experiences, including the difficulties that others have shared with me privately about their experiences with certain yards.

Times change. So do tides…

And therein lies the problem. It’s not the timeliness of information, it’s the delivery. We have a BIG problem, perpetrated namely by another magazine forum, which has given rise to clandestine websites that have no publishing experience. Nor do they have any actual hands-on experience with yacht building or ownership. They are conveying images that are deemed inappropriate by some yards and they are publishing information and news without a full understanding of the consequences involved.

This is what happens when you combine one part magazine editor with NO understanding of internet protocol, search engine technology or code writing, coupled with members who seize the opportunity to capitalize on the same. I hope everyone here now has a better understanding of WHY we have not allowed YF to become a "link-fest"!