BD subscription
It had to happen eventually: Building Design has gone subscription only.
Up until now, the weekly news rag BD has been free to all registered architects (see this post). However the ravages of the recession have taken their toll and the classified ads have all but dried up, meaning that BD has no option than to go subscription only if it wants to stay in business.
This means, of course, that there's one less reason to register with the ARB, which I was just considering doing and I doubt they'll take £29 off their £86 annual registration subscription. It does mean, however, that anyone can subscribe now - I tried subscribing once before with no luck, so it means the paper will be less exclusive to the closed circle of the architects only club. I hope they keep the web site open and free too, though.
It's a good paper with some good content, if you ignore the yawnsome Bill Mitchell. I usually like Jonathan Glancey in the Guardian, but he seems uncomfortable at BD. Ellis Woodman and Owen "Bloody Tragedy" Hatherley are always good value, though.
With the RIBA Journal just enjoying a tweak and the AR a much-needed major refit, it's all-change in the archiporn world. I'll be looking at these latter two in more detail after my holiday next week.
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2 comments:
At the amount they're charging it'll never plug the gap in revenue. They were selling 10 pages of recruitment ads a week last summer at around £7000 per page. They'll need more than £30 per reader to ride this one out. They've just fired two editorial staff, too.
This could be the last knockings for a British architectural institution. Sad indeed.
£70k a week takes some subscription to catch up with. Say half registered architects take up the subscription offer, making approx £10k per week. Something doesn't add up here. As you say, sad indeed. Thanks for the insider info, Mr. Anonymous.
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