Now ask yourself how long this situation persists before the heavy hitters start using their financial muscle not just to support and shine a heightened light their own products, but to squeeze out or suppress potential competition. A quiet word here, a nudge and a wink there is all it takes: “Ohhh –have you heard about the problems with product A or manufacturer B? They don’t work/ pay their bills/mend broken products/supply products that have been paid for. They’re not nice people and they are dangerous to the good standing of all those trying to do the job properly – like me!” I heard variations on every version of that spiel, often repeated from the same distributor about wildly different individuals or companies. Ignore the hints (as I was wont to do) and they get less subtle and more menacing. Ignore them again and the hints get redirected up the food chain, to the point where that loss of editorial independence becomes formal rather than suggestive. Which is one of the reasons why I don’t edit a print magazine any more. As this bullying really started to emerge, it also became obvious that it was only going to become more frequent – and having your own, independent judgement, ideas or opinion was going to become seriously career limiting.
As the status quo set in with a vengeance, more and more brands found themselves excluded from the market, while the old established brands with their old, established distributors dominated the press and to a lesser extent, dealers (“lesser” because the shrinking market meant that there were fewer dealers). The natural response to this, fuelled by the increased global information reach of the internet, has been for smaller manufacturers (and dealers) to abandon the established three-tier distribution network, a natural consequence of proliferating brands in a contracting market. Increasingly, manufacturers wanting to sell overseas found the traditional distribution channels clogged or denied them, while dealers in those markets were quick to appreciate the attractions (and added margin) of importing a brand themselves. The old, locked in, economic model was starting to look like all it did was add a margin, increase prices and line the pockets of the importer – be that a dealer or a distributor.
And then came Covid…
Magazines, already weakened by the financial crash faced another round of unpaid advertising bills, while un-going ad sales collapsed almost overnight. Even worse, supply chain issues left them struggling to get products to review.
Meanwhile, customers, with time on their hands turned on their audio systems and rekindled their dwindling interest. But denied access to newsagents and dealers they sought new sources of information, turning inevitably to the web. In the harsh light of a new reality, it was all too often apparent that the promises written in expensive invoices weren’t being made good in terms of musical results – while the internet delivered a whole Greek chorus of commentary, suggestions and blame…
