TVR help forums
Discussion
ChimpOnGas said:
swisstoni said:
You'd be nuts to buy a website and then trash one of the elements that make it popular.
The forums are one of the things that attract people to the site in the first place.
I personally don't think that much will happen to the forums.
Where are the stats to support this The forums are one of the things that attract people to the site in the first place.
I personally don't think that much will happen to the forums.
We all as a group may well visit PH for the forum, but that doesn't mean we're in the majority
My guess is Haymarket need to offload because the PH purchase never fulfilled their hopes, the truth is they only bought it in panic anyway, and because their traditional core business of magazines was being disrupted by the forum model.
The problem is they never had a viable well thought out business plan for their purchase or the expertise and knowledge to run it properly, that's only ever going to end one way, not only did they a start without a clear plan they also failed to understand the forum model they bought was itself another dead man walking.
Enter stage left Facebook and PH contributors left in droves for a more instant, brightly colored and modern interactive platform, traffic plummeted and so did the advertising revenue killing off any viable and commercially sustainable business model in the process. Fast forward to today and it should come as no surprise Haymarket are desperately trying to offload their relatively recent and failed purchase.
If I was Haymarket I'd be breaking up what I was selling as each element has more value sold separately, the WebMag element needs to go to one buyer and each specific PH forum (Lotus, TVR, Porsche ect ect) needs to be sold to a relevant parts specialist to run just as with my Pelican Parts example.
In today's business environment things change fast, really fast, one year the traditional magazine market is being disrupted by the internet forum model, the next year the PH type forum model is being disrupted by Facebook. Modern consumers are very fickle creatures, new technologies and platforms are appearing almost on a daily basis so this years Facebook is very likely to be so last year as something more exciting and interactive to use hits our laptops and smart phones.
Disruption is clearly very disruptive, but when discussing this with a good friend of mine who founded and subsequent sold Play.com his response was this...
"If you're worrying about disruption your business is already dead, the secret is to stop worrying about disruption and become a disruptor yourself"
Clever words from a multi millionaire but easier said than done, of course being a disruptor like Play.com means being innovative and creative, it also demands you understand technology and what it can do, Haymarket royally failed on all counts! What they did was a classic panic move, Haymarket saw their traditional market of hard copy magazines in free fall and in response they started buying the very internet forum based websites that were killing their sales.
This type of reactive panic strategy never works in business, what you've got to do if your traditional product isn't selling is come up with something new and better, something innovative so you can switch from being disrupted to becoming the disruptor. You also need to accept even that idea (no matter how smart) will itself have a shelf life, so a very important part of the process is knowing when to sell up, you need to sell when the price is at it's highest but one or two years before the fickle consumer decides your product or platform is oh so last year
Sadly if if was that easy everyone would be getting it right, which as Haymarket clearly demonstrates,,,, They aren't
swisstoni said:
You'd be nuts to buy a website and then trash one of the elements that make it popular.
The forums are one of the things that attract people to the site in the first place.
I personally don't think that much will happen to the forums.
Where are the stats to support this The forums are one of the things that attract people to the site in the first place.
I personally don't think that much will happen to the forums.
We all as a group may well visit PH for the forum, but that doesn't mean we're in the majority
My guess is Haymarket need to offload because the PH purchase never fulfilled their hopes, the truth is they only bought it in panic anyway, and because their traditional core business of magazines was being disrupted by the forum model.
The problem is they never had a viable well thought out business plan for their purchase or the expertise and knowledge to run it properly, that's only ever going to end one way, not only did they start without a clear plan they also failed to understand the forum model they bought was itself another dead man walking.
Enter stage left Facebook and PH contributors left in droves for a more instant, brightly colored and modern interactive platform, traffic plummeted and so did the advertising revenue killing off any viable and commercially sustainable business model in the process. Fast forward to today and it should come as no surprise Haymarket are desperately trying to offload their relatively recent and failed purchase.
If I was Haymarket I'd be breaking up what I was selling as each element has more value sold separately, the WebMag element needs to go to one buyer and each specific PH forum (Lotus, TVR, Porsche ect ect) needs to be sold to a relevant parts specialist to run just as with my Pelican Parts example.
In today's business environment things change fast, really fast, one year the traditional magazine market is being disrupted by the internet forum model, the next year the PH type forum model is being disrupted by Facebook. Modern consumers are very fickle creatures, new technologies and platforms are appearing almost on a daily basis so this years Facebook is very likely to be so last year as something more exciting and interactive to use hits our laptops and smart phones.
Disruption is clearly very disruptive, but when discussing this with a good friend of mine who founded and subsequent sold Play.com his response was this...
"If you're worrying about disruption your business is already dead, the secret is to stop worrying about disruption and become a disruptor yourself"
Clever words from a multi millionaire but easier said than done, of course being a disruptor like Play.com means being innovative and creative, it also demands you understand technology and what it can do, Haymarket royally failed on all counts! What they did was a classic panic move, Haymarket saw their traditional market of hard copy magazines in free fall and in response they started buying the very internet forum based websites that were killing their sales.
This type of reactive panic strategy never works in business, what you've got to do if your traditional product isn't selling is come up with something new and better, something innovative so you can switch from being disrupted to becoming the disruptor. You also need to accept even that idea (no matter how smart) will itself have a shelf life, so a very important part of the process is knowing when to sell up, you need to sell when the price is at it's highest but one or two years before the fickle consumer decides your product or platform is oh so last year
Sadly if if was that easy everyone would be getting it right, which as Haymarket clearly demonstrates,,,, They aren't
Penelope Stopit said:
http://www.httrack.com/ Is very good for offline browsing
What is the advantage in that?phazed said:
Penelope Stopit said:
http://www.httrack.com/ Is very good for offline browsing
What is the advantage in that?Gassing Station | Chimaera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff