I'm not quoting posts on purpose, because I hope my reply covers all complaints in this thread. If not, please point out what I have failed to address, and I will.
Warning: Extremely long post ahead. Get some refreshments if you plan to read the whole thing... If you want to understand Digit, why we do what we do and understand what exactly is it that we're trying to do, please take the time to read it all.
Some readers I meet – online or in person – have somewhat similar complaints. Yes, I have no doubt that this magazine cannot please everyone, all of the time. We focus on trying to please some of our readers all of the time, and all of our readers
most of the time. Trying to do anything else would be insane.
Just as it did with some of you, Digit also taught me how to assemble a PC... However, will it teach you or me to assemble a PC again? Of course not; that's done.
However, if we decided to do a Fast Track to Assembling a PC today, we'd probably still get a lot of good feedback, but also get negative feedback as well. Some readers would say "Yawn. Digit is boring this month!". A year ago, many of you would have loved that topic. Five years ago, perhaps ALL of you would have loved it. However, even 5 years ago, there would be many others (the people who were your age or your level of knowledge back then) who would complain.
Go back and read those issues which you "loved" so much. Not just of this magazine, but any magazine out there. Chances are you'd find that information a little "boring" now. Why? Because it was timed right, for you, and even back then, was too advanced for some, and too basic for some others.
Another way to illustrate this is to look back at your schooling, or childhood: Some of us appreciate and remember our teachers, even if we surpass their knowledge later in life. Others, it seems, prefer to call those same teachers "bevkoofon".
Someone taught you to ride a cycle, a motorbike or drive a car. Today you may do those things without thinking, but you don't call the people who taught you idiots, do you? You don't call the people learning those things today idiots, do you?
Now, a little insight:
The major reason why Digit got so popular in India was because it had one aim: to make geeks out of those who aspire to be geeks. It's made by geeks, for geeks. Thus the "Your Technology Navigator" tagline. For over a decade we've felt that India, and Indians, have the potential to rule the technology world, and our goal has been to try and play even the tiniest part in helping achieve that. Maybe we have, maybe we haven't, but we'll certainly keep at it – it's for you guys to decide whether we were any use at all in the grand scheme of things.
We are proud of all our readers – past, present and future – and are delighted when we meet some of the young people in top posts of technology companies in India, because more often than not, we find out that they used to be Digit readers earlier. They tell us how this little magazine sparked their passion for all things tech, and that feels wonderful!
We also get a lot of heartfelt letters from readers, who may not be tech big-shots (some run their own small business, work for companies, are students, in the army, are retired, etc.), thanking Digit for doing exactly the same thing – fueling the same fiery passion for technology that most of us on this forum also have.
Yes, this is a business at the end of the day, there's no two ways about that – like everyone else in this space, we're in the media business, and of course we have to make money, or else we'll shut down. In my 9 years here though, it's always seemed to me that this place is much less "businessy" (not a real word, I know) than most others. I'll give you a few examples:
Think about a business that's centered on
teaching it's customers, or at the very least, trying to fuel the
desire to learn amongst its customers. Since customers pay on a time-based schedule,
good business would be to dole out information in extremely small doses, and keep the customer paying for as long as possible. It would be bad for business to try and teach the customer really quickly, and get them to
graduate at their
own pace, especially an accelerated pace. Right?
Now, think of any education institution today: it has you for a predecided amount of time (12 years for a school, 3 or 4 years for bachelors, etc), thanks to population explosions, it is always assured of re-filling the ranks, and also assured of price hikes because of increasing competition. What's more, since education is pretty much seen as a mandatory requirement... you get the picture... a
great business.
Now think of a company that's in pretty much the same business as the one above, but charges you on a monthly basis, tells you what it will be covering this month
before you pay (thus making it completely optional), has no assured way of refilling ranks, has no assurance that it will be able to raise prices (even to meet inflation rates), and has no real hold over its customers – some may never read, some may read without paying (through friends), some may read occasionally, some may be regular and a few may like you enough to make a long term commitment – however, you have absolutely no control over who does what. Now that has
bad business written all over it right?
That's the magazine business...
Now think of one such
bad business that not only attempts to get its readers to graduate to the next level of knowledge as soon as possible, but also gives away accumulated knowledge in rather large chunks for free!
That's Digit.
Theoretically, we've got the worst business model ever. Not only do we give away older PDFs for free (on a regular basis, like clockwork), but we also keep pointing you to interesting articles and content from others, effectively sending you away from us. In fact, we try our best to get you to level-up your knowledge as soon as possible.
Do you honestly believe that we do not know that some of you think the smart thing to do is to "Buy only special issues, and read PDFs of older issues."? Of course you can do that. Much like some of us only cram before exams, and only sit with the solved sample papers to score marks – thanks to the way our education system works now, a lot of such students get good marks.
Yet, deep down, all of us know that the really successful students are the ones who understand everything that is being taught, all through the year – the guys/gals who seem to never cram for exams, and yet get good marks. Those are the people Digit is aimed at.
We want to be much like the good teachers – the ones who didn't try and earn more money from us in the form of tuition, or threaten to fail us, but genuinely helped us and taught us how to study on our own. Those are the teachers we remember fondly, and that is how we want people to remember us.
As per the latest IRS results, Digit has a readership of 250,000+. That's more than double ALL other tech magazines put together. It is also in the top 10 of all monthly English Magazines, across ALL genres (which includes auto, lifestyle, gossip, general knowledge, business, celebrity news, etc.). In fact, it is one of the few magazines that have shown a growth in readership, while most have fallen – another trend we have been bucking for quite a few years.
Why? Thankfully, it seems that more and more people appreciate our efforts. Despite our only marketing tool being word-of-mouth, our readers still seem to recommend us to others. It's because in this day and age of information overload, we don't just give you information, we try and give you the right information, and more importantly, try and give you some new ways of looking at said information.
For example, when we test products, we look at them in the Indian scenario, and look at your specific needs. What use is a US review of a product that is targeted at Americans to you – unless you live in the US.
Another example is this month's cover story. Yes, maybe none of you is interested in Facebook's IPO, so we've not sat down with their IPO documents to give you financial details.
What makes you guys believe that we'd be interested in that ourselves?
Just because the word IPO is used, doesn't mean it's about finances or full of
"Share Market fundas". Give it a try before you knock it. Maybe it is a terrible cover story, maybe it isn't, but form an opinion
after you read it at least.
Some of our stories will try and give you a fresh perspective, just to get you thinking. There's no real "need" for them, or no real "goal" that we're trying to achieve. It's not "How to build a robot" or "How to assemble a PC". There are no right answers to some questions – "How do I build a successful business?" "How do I get people to like me?" "How do I get ahead of all the other millions of Indians who are probably vying for the same seat/opening/job as me?" All of these will also be a part of your life, whether you build apps or push buttons in a soap manufacturing company for a living.
[rant]Personally, I think that India's biggest problem is that we're all too "goal" oriented. Do BTech (Comp Sci), get a job in coding, join famous code monkey company, in three years become team leader, by 26 get married, at 30 have kids, by 40 make GM... at 55 have a stress induced cardiac infarction, wondering what you really did with your life other than make some money, buy a house and raise a bunch of ungrateful kids who have no respect for you and will fight over their inheritance 12 seconds after you kick the bucket...
[/rant]
Seriously though, what we've lacked in the technology field especially is creativity and lateral thinking. We (Indians) are geeky, good at code, and can build anything we really want to – the problem is, we end up copying instead of innovating.
Digit was a simpler "how to use" mag earlier, because that's what you needed back then. We're sort of an advanced "how to use", "how to build", "what to buy" mag now, because that's what people want today.
However, in order to make sure we're heading in the right direction, we're going to keep challenging you to think about new things, or look at things in a new light. Maybe we'll do it well, maybe we won't. Maybe you'll like it, maybe you'll hate it, but uncertainty is not an excuse to stick only to tried and tested formulae. Where's the fun in that? No one ever built anything innovative that way!
That said, of course we need to improve. Do I think the articles we do are the best around? Of course not, far from it. We're learning as we go along too, and we will screw up often, or else we can't claim to be pushing any limits.
All we'd like is for people to continue to give their unbiased opinions – when we're wrong, but also when we're right, or at least thinking in the right direction.
Thankfully, speaking one's mind has never been a problem on this forum
All I ask is that you don't knock it till you've tried it!
)
