Re: [APML]: Magazine reviews

[Chuck Vaughn <aa6g@aa6g.org>]

The Astro-Photography Mailing List
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Wil,

I'll keep this short and anything else will go to private e-mail as
we're rather far off topic.

>From the sounds of post from others S&T has printed reviews that have
not been entirely positive. They have also stated when the manufacturer
was notified of a problem and the outcome. This is the way it should be
handled and can even make the manufacturer look better if prompt attention
was given to the problem and it was resolved.
 
> They'll tell the manufacturer there was a problem and the
> manufacturer may take it to heart, but the negative review won't
> be printed for all the world to see. That's not lying, but it is
> omitting bad news, for which the manufacturer is grateful. And if
> because the bad news were never printed you, as a consumer, end
> up buying one of those lemon products you may be unhappy with the
> manufacturer, but not the magazine, because you don't know about
> the killed review.

Not lying? Not in my book. Withholding negative information to protect
one when that has the potential to hurt many is lying.

> But they
> could make their displeasure known by pulling, say, 5 pages out
> of their usual 20 pages.
 
> I didn't say they're "controlled" by the advertisers, because
> they're not (or at least usually not -- there are exceptions).

Again, not in my book. If the publisher even thinks that an advertiser
will buy less ad space because of a negative review then the advertiser
has some control over content. Now I'm not naive. I'm sure this goes on
all the time but it doesn't make it right.

> But certainly major advertisers wield some influence in that the
> magazine will go out of its way not to offend them, and that
> particularly includes not printing reviews that trash their
> advertisers' products.

I said from the start that problems found with a product can be 
handled in a way that doesn't trash the manufacturer. Certainly
there's no reason for a magazine to go out of its way to offend
one. The manufacturer should be given the opportunity to respond
to problems found and correct them whether they be manufacturing
defects or design problems. The magazine needs to present this as
part of the review.

Chuck  <aa6g@aa6g.org>