Well, once again, we have a crabby person, that knows nothing about me, my business or my industry relationships, suggesting that I am a dishonest person.
I run a magazine. I charge money for advertising, and I pay my writers, photographers and editors to create content. Pretty much like every other consumer magazine out there.
I also find it particularly amusing that you can't even properly spell the insults you throw my way. So let's address your issues, shall we?
As for TONE being "self-righteous" "self-promoting" and "highly biased" where do we get this from?
Most of the reviews I've written barely, if ever are even written in the first person. I ask all of my staff members to do the same. If you look at many of the reviews from the other online and print publications, they are usually full of "I did this, I did that, then I did this, and when so and so asked me to review their amplifier, I was so excited." There's none of that in TONEAudio. Sorry.
Self promotion, the same thing. Please explain how I use the magazine to promote anything beyond itself.
The highly biased part is also pretty funny. Again, please explain how we are highly biased towards ANY manufacturer. We write more articles about gear from NON advertisers than any other audio magazine, period. We write more articles about vintage audio than any other magazine. We have not written particularly negative reviews about anyone, because we have always stated our mission is to find our readers great gear, at all price points. So if we think something is distinctly under par, we send it back, end of story. We have always been up front about this. No hidden agenda here. And, we have used the word "Best" in maybe two reviews in eight years and over 600 product reviews, in addition to awarding fewer product awards than any other magazine.
I am not saying this to criticize my competitors, but it is a definite choice that we have made and stuck to.
Unlike many other publications that claim to be "the world's best this or that," we have never made that claim, anywhere, ever. We do our job in a professional, courteous and timely manner. We would not have access to the gear and people that we do if we did not.
So, I'm not quite getting the self promotion aspect of this. I easily leave 6 figures on the table every year because of the advertisers I DON'T court.
I own 95% of my reference gear and have the cancelled checks to prove it. As do almost all of my staff members. Again, more than any other magazine going.
So, if for whatever reason you have an axe to grind and can do it in a civilized, constructive and adult format, bring it on. But for now your analysis is pretty flawed.
