| ▲ | A Note from LWN(lwn.net) |
| 272 points by rwky 2 hours ago | 40 comments |
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| ▲ | AlexB138 an hour ago | parent | next [-] |
| LWN is one of the, if not the single, highest signal tech publications around. I hope they're able to maintain a stable subscription service. Being user funded, and avoiding having to maintain allegiance to advertisers, is likely part of why their quality is so high. |
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| ▲ | giancarlostoro an hour ago | parent [-] | | Not only that but lwn is one of the main sites that gets submitted to HN all year round (not daily, but maybe nearish to daily). So the audience here on HN has been exposed to it over the years. I'm not sure what more they could do to get new subscribers, I certainly hope they figure that out or how to get new ways to earn revenue without having to go the ad route. https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=lwn.net | | |
| ▲ | blks 8 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | I’m occasional lwn reader and I had no idea there are subscriptions there! | |
| ▲ | rdpintqogeogsaa an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | That's the thing though. You can get all the value from LWN through here. Even if it wasn't for them tolerating subscriber links being posted on HN, the week-long delay isn't nearly enough an incentive to actually subscribe, rationally speaking. | | |
| ▲ | tonyarkles an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Rationally-speaking, maybe not. I’ve been a long-time subscriber. When I first subscribed, my day-to-day involved embedded Linux and getting the “breaking news” was pretty valuable. These days I still do that somewhat but I’m stuck on a crusty vendor kernel and anything I read about a kernel newer than 5.15 is going to land on my desk in approximately 2028… but I still subscribe, mostly with a patronage mindset: I don’t acutely get value from the subscription every week, but I think it’s a community service and I’m happy to pitch in a few bucks to keep it alive. | |
| ▲ | roryirvine an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I think the generosity and straightforwardness are a big part of the attraction for many subscribers. They've always respected their readers and I hope that continues to pay off. | | |
| ▲ | excitedrustle 22 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Agree. I don't read it every week, but I greatly appreciate the quality (both of the technical content and the lack of advertising/sensationalism/clickbait) when I do read an article. Happy to pay to support this style of tech reporting and journalism. |
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| ▲ | WD-42 31 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Wouldn’t rationally speaking you’d want to support them to keep them around? Or did you mean selfishly speaking? | |
| ▲ | giancarlostoro an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Easy to say until they have to eventually make the hard decision to shut down. | |
| ▲ | freedomben 22 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Well for me, at least, it's those features that make me a subscriber. If not for those I wouldn't do it | |
| ▲ | classified 16 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | Rationally speaking, if you're getting value from it, you should be interested in its continued existence and therefore subscribe. |
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| ▲ | birdieop an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | They could also consider paying their employees less. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38106227 | | |
| ▲ | bayindirh 38 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | I'd argue otherwise. Crab-bucket mentality aside, what they do is extremely important and hard to do. I can't write an occasional blog post without wrestling with my ideas and words, and they constantly churn out this high quality material, without ever slowing down. They deserve what they earn. OTOH, thanks for nudging me towards subscribing to LWN a bit more. Edit: Just subscribed. Thank you. | |
| ▲ | giancarlostoro 22 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | That's such a weird take away, you're comparing Mozilla which has a diverse set of employees, versus an organization whose sole purpose is to hire high quality technical writers, which is already pretty niche. | |
| ▲ | k12sosse 37 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | If I can't have something, you shouldn't either, why didn't I think of that! Chud |
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| ▲ | Diederich an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| LWN is one of the cornerstones of my very successful career. Starting from the beginning, I have (at least) read through every story and every article, every week, since 1998. Especially in the beginning, there was a lot in each article I didn't understand. I would try to do some digging into those topics. One way or another, just the weekly exposure to absolutely top notch technical writing was foundational to me. When newer folk would ask me how to really get good with Linux, I would always point them to LWN.net. I've been a subscriber since the beginning. That small investment is the least I can do given the incalculable value LWN has brought to me. |
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| ▲ | simonebrunozzi an hour ago | parent [-] | | Sorry to be that guy, but... Please consider donating a significant amount to them, given that they have been a cornerstone of your very successful career. I did something similar in the past, in relation to Ubuntu, and I never regretted it, even if that money would have been very useful if spent in other ways. | | |
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| ▲ | farlight an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I know the editors visit these discussions: please, next time use a more descriptive title! I nearly had a fit when I saw that, really thought LWN is going down like it almost did 20 years ago. Happy to pay the new price, even though I can only afford the cheapest tier. |
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| ▲ | Iuz 19 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Are there more things like LWN for other fields/subjects? A math LWN of sorts, for example? I would happily pay for it too if it follows this model. |
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| ▲ | roryirvine an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Seems like only yesterday when they last increased their prices but it was, in fact, back in January 2022 - time flies! I'll have been an LWN subscriber for 22 years as of next week, and am very happy to continue to be one. It's easily the most worthwhile subscription I currently have. |
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| ▲ | microtonal an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Thanks LWN team for the honest and straightforward post! The prices you ask are well worth it for the incredible value that LWN provides. I forgot to renew my subscription a while back and it has been a bit busy, will renew now. |
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| ▲ | kfogel 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I will be paying the new rate, and with pleasure. LWN is great. |
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| ▲ | xpct 27 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Speaking of high quality publications, I wish we could get AnandTech back :( On some older blogs, I still stumble on dead links, and very few of them are on internet archive.. |
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| ▲ | Aissen 24 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Also, if you have any sort of buying power: make sure you company pays for a group subscription, and maintains it over the years. I try do that here. Nudge your colleagues to use the subscription and send them the occasional article! |
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| ▲ | excitedrustle 24 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This reminded me that I'd let my LWN subscription lapse after a credit card expired. Just renewed for a year and turned on automatic renewals (at least until the next credit card expiration). |
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| ▲ | claykkari 34 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Tried making an account but seems to take quite a while (forever?) getting the corresponding email. I guess their server is taking a beating due to this article. |
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| ▲ | mmooss 6 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > prices have changed considerably I'm not doubting it, but I wonder what costs have changed for them? |
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| ▲ | saberience 22 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This is literally the first I've ever heard of LWN (in over 20 years of being a professional engineer) so clearly they could be doing better marketing. |
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| ▲ | rvz 33 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Good. Increase the subscription prices against what the users think. There are no ads at all. But of course not everyone will agree and want it for free. Many know they want it for free. If you don't pay at all then it will force LWN to begin to place ads on their newsletter to cover the costs. There is no realistic in-between other than actually paying for your services. |
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| ▲ | 0xbadc0de5 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| tl;dr - LWN is raising their prices 20%. I have no opinion since I'm not a subscriber, just adding for clarity since the title is ambiguous. |
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| ▲ | DeepLogin 34 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I guess most people are about to unsubscribe from LWN. I don't think there news articles are even worthy enough to be paywalled at all this days. |
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| ▲ | 12398 29 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Maybe you should allow free speech again if subscriber growth has stalled. It is a self-congratulatory echo chamber. |
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| ▲ | thataccount an hour ago | parent | prev [-] |
| LWN, probably about to discover people are paying high prices for all manner of things and will find that LWN is, sadly, a disposable entity to pay for. |
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| ▲ | mrweasel an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | You could also see if it's something your employer allows to to expense. It's still cheap enough that it's something most managers can just approve directly, depending on organizational structures. | |
| ▲ | bryanlarsen an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I suspect everybody likely to do so has already done so. Anybody who thinks $6 a month is a lot of money will also think $5 a month is a lot of money for something that they can get for free by waiting a week. | | |
| ▲ | thataccount an hour ago | parent [-] | | 5 to 6 dollars is not much in terms of a donation. In terms of a subscription, though...One thing is voluntary if you find value, the other is mandatory to get to the value unless you are willing to wait. | | |
| ▲ | bryanlarsen an hour ago | parent [-] | | I think you're reinforcing my point. Both $5 and $6 a month are a lot of money to many people. LWN isn't "about to discover" this, they've likely already discovered this in their release + 1 week traffic over the years since they set the price at $5/month. |
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| ▲ | dcow an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Based on the initial response, it does not, in fact, seem like this is the conclusion. | |
| ▲ | giancarlostoro an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | They could always bump down a tier if needed, they have 6 months to decide anyway. |
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