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ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
http://cookaholics.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2783		 Page 1 of 4
Author:  ivy [ Sun Dec 23, 2012 4:03 pm ]
Post subject:  ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
While waiting for a flu shot for my son at CVS, I spied this. It is a compilation of many, if not all, of the equipment reviews they have done over the years. I had not seen such a publication before now. Yours for only $7.95. Never a missed market opportunity!

ATK 2012 Buying Guide
Author:  pepperhead212 [ Sun Dec 23, 2012 10:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
Doesn't that look more like a one time publication than a magazine? It doesn't seem like they could fill a magazine with enough tests for every issue.
Author:  Tatoosh [ Mon Dec 24, 2012 2:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
I am, to be honest, pretty disgusted with most of the ebook landscape. I can't really hang CI from a higher limb. About the time I get to the end of all my fingers AND toes, I'll see an ebook that reflects the real savings in publication and delivery charges. Most of the time it is simply a way to increase profits by vastly reducing production and delivery expenses.

I would quit CI if they weren't so danged handy. They balance a fine line of annoying the heck out of me and then providing something I really need when I need it. Without my going through twenty different websites or a dozen different books to find a reasonably good recipe for <insert required item here>, I can hit CI and *usually* come away with something that's pretty good. But that falderah about paying extra for their super secret extra good recipes, please upgrade your membership and downgrade your wallet to the SuperDuper Member Status. Gimme a break!!!

I suppose if you DIDN'T have a membership to their Magazine OR their website, the magazine might be a good one time buy.
Author:  Cubangirl [ Mon Dec 24, 2012 7:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
I cancelled my print membership when it expired in Dec. and got the digital. I am so impressed at how beautiful and well designed the digital version is. It is 10 times better than the print and cheaper as well ($19.99). I still have the web, but you do get a break if you have both. Since it still is my number 1 recipe resource, I feel I get my money's worth. I stopped buying the cookbooks year ago.

Granted it would be nice if you got both the digital, print and web for the price of one subscription the way you do with BA and F&W, but those are at least half ads.

I would love to have the buying guide digitally so I could have it in one compact list, but it is available online, so I can access it.
Author:  ivy [ Mon Dec 24, 2012 9:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
There are a baffling & overlapping array of products, and I guess this is how ATK keeps their brand fresh to increase market share. You are correct Alina, the buying guide is a one time publication, like Consumer Reports buying guides. It would make a nice last minute stocking stuffer. I did not realize that the monthly was available digitally. I let my magazine subscription lapse a while ago but then Groupon tempted me with a deal for print issues due to expire in the spring.
Author:  gardnercook [ Mon Dec 24, 2012 10:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
I've been tempted to go digital, but keep finding excuses not to. I dropped the print subscription and now just get the end of the year book. While it might not be timely, I still like to see what they have offered over the course of a year.
Author:  Paul Kierstead [ Mon Dec 24, 2012 1:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
I went to search for a recipe today. Yet again, it forgot I was logged in (I think they are joking with the remember me button...) and YET AGAIN they asked me if I wanted to join Editor's Choice. Their cookies do not stick well at all. Yet again, I had a hard time finding the list for this month's recipes. But the editors choice thing was definitely the bale of hay that snapped this camel. I don't pay them to be inconvenienced or advertised to (house ad or not). I just cancelled my account.

Of course CI having their usual spectacular record on subscriptions, I have to actually ask for a refund, it isn't automatic. They kill your access instantly, then say oh, email us if want a refund on that remaining bit. I am not impressed at the level of honesty in that.
Author:  TheFuzzy [ Mon Dec 24, 2012 1:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
Tatoosh wrote:
I am, to be honest, pretty disgusted with most of the ebook landscape. I can't really hang CI from a higher limb. About the time I get to the end of all my fingers AND toes, I'll see an ebook that reflects the real savings in publication and delivery charges. Most of the time it is simply a way to increase profits by vastly reducing production and delivery expenses.


Well, I don't have the figures on magazines -- but for book publication, the cost of printing and distribution is only about 15-20% of book publication costs; the other 80% is author, editorial, design, marketing, legal, etc., none of which is any less with ebooks than it is with paper books. eBooks also increase technology costs. So if ebooks should be cheaper compared with paper books, it's only around 5-10% cheaper. In some cases, it's actually more expensive to produce an ebook than a paper book (for example, 3rd party rights tend to be more expensive).

This is one of the major challenges to ebook adoption; readers feel that they should be substantially cheaper, but the economics don't actually work that way. The bigger challenge, of course, is the plethora of incompatible formats and devices.
Author:  Paul Kierstead [ Mon Dec 24, 2012 1:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
Those are the numbers trotted out every time, but they are BS as a basis of comparison of expected costs of an ebook and a 'real' book. Of course, if publishers insist on being idiots and using the exact same sales and distribution model, etc. for an ebook that they used for physical books, it might mean something, but that would be exceptionally stupid. Not that the publishers can't be exceptionally stupid. But an ebook can be sold directly from the publisher (or author, for that matter) to the end user, with no middle men. That alone should significantly reduce the consumers cost of the book. Who cares what it cost to make, what it is being sold for that matters. In addition, ebooks don't lose sales to borrowing and used-book re-sales, have no residuals to get rid off, no over-production, etc. The simple cost breakdown of sold books is a figure given by the industry to justify selling ebooks for as much or more then physical books. Apparently they think I'm stupid and believe that the cost break down of a single sale of a book is representative of the overall cost structure and would be same for an ebook.
Author:  TheFuzzy [ Mon Dec 24, 2012 2:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: ATK Kitchen Equipment Buying Guide 2012
Paul Kierstead wrote:
Those are the numbers trotted out every time, but they are BS as a basis of comparison of expected costs of an ebook and a 'real' book.


Paul, my wife works in publishing; HarperCollins for 8 years, freelance for 3. I think she knows just a little bit more about the economics of book publication than you do.

Quote:
Of course, if publishers insist on being idiots and using the exact same sales and distribution model, etc. for an ebook that they used for physical books, it might mean something, but that would be exceptionally stupid. Not that the publishers can't be exceptionally stupid. But an ebook can be sold directly from the publisher (or author, for that matter) to the end user, with no middle men.


eBooks can be sold that way, but the fact is that they aren't. Amazon, B&N.com, and iTunes account for more than 90% of eBook sales, and as retailers they charge as much margin as any brick-and-mortar retailer ever did. In fact, Amazon's commission on the sales of eBooks is higher than discount physical retailers.

Let me also point out that data centers capable of supporting large volumes of purchases and downloads for eBooks are not cheap. The cost of Amazon's infrastructure is measured in billions of dollars at this point. Nobody's done an across-the-board economic comparison, but I wouldn't be shocked to find out that the technological infrastructure required for mass online ebook sales was more expensive than the trucks and warehouses required for paper sales.

Quote:
That alone should significantly reduce the consumers cost of the book. Who cares what it cost to make, what it is being sold for that matters.


If publishers cannot make more revenue than it cost them to produce a book, they raise prices or stop publication. Book publishing is not, in general, a charitable activity.

Quote:
In addition, ebooks don't lose sales to borrowing and used-book re-sales,


That's not entirely true (or example, the Nook allows borrowing). Also, ebooks suffer from a much higher percentage of illegal copying than paper books.

Quote:
have no residuals to get rid off, no over-production, etc.


And that's not true at all. Again, you're working under the misconception that the cost of paper is a majority cost in book production. It's not.

Quote:
The simple cost breakdown of sold books is a figure given by the industry to justify selling ebooks for as much or more then physical books. Apparently they think I'm stupid and believe that the cost break down of a single sale of a book is representative of the overall cost structure and would be same for an ebook.


You're laboring under the same set of misconceptions which a large number of readers are, and which is a major inhibitory factor in the development of an ebook market. Intuitively, it makes sense that something as substantial as 2lbs of paper and cardboard would be the major cost center for book production. It just happens not to be true.

This misconception was fostered by the original ebook promoters themselves in the publishing industry, who sold both consumers and the publishers themselves on the idea that future ebooks would both lower prices and increase profits. Once ebooks became a major commodity this was found to be a convenient fiction, but now the idea has taken root in the public mind and can't be easily shaken.
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