Baseline: A Magazine on a Diet
August 11, 2009
I have saved some back issues of Baseline, a publication aimed at enterprise information technology executives. The January 2005 issue contained what I lovingly describe as “crazy numbers”. What this phrase means to me is an analyst / journalist prepares cost estimates for an enterprise software system. The January 2005 article was “Calculating Costs of Installing a Work Flow Management System”. The analysis appeared between pages 44 and 45 as a foldout. The cost for the system was presented as two numbers and the editorial content showed where those numbers originated. Robert McNamara would have been proud of the zero base approach. The assumptions were not as precise as I would have liked, but I did find these estimated costs most useful:
- The start up applications cost was $1,574,720. I don’t know what this phrase means exactly, but, please, keep in mind these are 2005 dollar estimates.
- The operations applications cost was $174,460, which was about 10 percent of the start up applications costs.
- The total applications costs were $1,749,460.
To this total, Baseline’s analysts added:
- Startup infrastructure costs of $247,160
- Operations Infrastructure costs of $39,320, about one-sixth the total infrastructure costs.
I found these numbers useful to explain why a different and more detailed cost analysis was needed. The reason was the various costs that are not included in the Baseline analysis. One example: where is the provision for indirect costs associated with managing the IT crowd when an outage causes extraordinary expenditures. And, where are those provisions for urgent fixes, opportunity costs when the system fails, and the cost of manual workaroiunds as the workflow system undergoes surgery.
Baseline is in rough seas. Image Source: http://www.yourglobaltravelguide.com/wp-content/gallery/namibia/abandoned-boat-in-rough-seas.jpg
I loved this feature in Baseline; it was my stalking horse to show why and ArnoldIT analysis was needed to avoid another information technology cost surprise.
The publication in 2005 had high production value as well. The charts and graphs were painstakingly illustrated. The magazine had 84 pages, some interesting advertisers like Hitachi who paid for a booklet glued into the magazine itself. The editorial was interesting. There was a good mix of features on old shoe subjects like customer service and some briefer items I found interesting like “Jail Break”, which told about a prisoner who compromised secure information.
The Baseline that arrived on Thursday, August 6, 2009, caused me to ask the question, “Why bother?”
The publication was 34 pages and lacked the features that prompted me to save issues for years. The stories were very similar to ones that appeared in earlier issues. The ads, well, were skimpy. The cover showed an illustation about risk but the magazine came in a second cover that said:
Maybe you were out of own. So we are sending you another reminder to renew your subscription to Baseline.
Nah, I was not out of town. I just don’t find the publication compelling any longer. The feature I liked was long gone. If the publication shrinks, what is the justification for paying for paper, ink, printing, distribution, and the entire non editorial work force. Post the information on SquareSpace.com and call it a day.
I did click on the renew button and I was greeted with one of those number online surveys. I know that much of the data collected in this way is bogus. I used to click on the first choice in order to qualify for a free subscription when I used to read trade magazines. Now I look elsewhere. If I want an opinion, I can find a podcast and listen to a pundit.
I think the trade magazine sector may be in for some rough seas. Those numbers were crazy but they helped me sell more sophisticated analyses. I suppose creating those flights of fancy, like the nifty graphcs, were too expensive. Like those professionals, I fear I am a gone goose from the Baseline subscription list.
Stephen Arnold, August 11, 2009
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2 Responses to “Baseline: A Magazine on a Diet”
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Hi There .I noticed in your blog that you have taken a photo from my travel blog.Thats ok and yes it is my photo taken by me .What do you know about this web page setup? That is the mother web site that my blog is in ?Cheers
Allan
Allan,
I cannot recall how we located the ship in the storm picture. I originally tried to link to images, not put them in the Web log. Some folks complained that the images would not load or slow down page access. I have removed the image. Thanks for calling this to my attention. We try to dot the eyes and cross the tees but some days the crush of posting four or five stories seven days a week leads to errors. I take full responsibility for the mistakes and I don’t want to rip anyone off. When I saw the story, I thought the ship was a good way to explain the magazine publishers’ business challenges. If you can be more specific about your question or give us a url or code, we can try to answer your question.
Stephen Arnold, August 26, 2009