(Message written on January 2, 2010)
The Internet magazine LeStudio1.com inaugurates today a new format while the publishing of stories and blogs will now be made exclusively on social sites and on the official website
http://www.lestudio1.com/ rather than directly by email.
The use of email was essential to familiarize the public with the magazine but the Internet is changing so that today, email has become a less effective method of communication given the targeted traffic on each of our permanent sites and the Internet habits in general.
However, our decision is mainly motivated by economic as we must take into consideration the financial aspect of our Internet vehicle. LeStudio1.com always targeted a convergence with a large media group rather than a solitary action. Unfortunately, our research for funding partnership has not worked and no negotiations have yielded a positive result either in French language (Quebec and France) not more than in English language (United States). Several small local media groups have proposed to use our mailing list (66 451 email addresses) from time to time for advertising but no serious financial contribution was neither offered nor available for the development of LeStudio1.com as a Internet magazine.
A final appeal was launched last December to various individuals, some readers, friends and media groups, to find a funding formula for LeStudio1.com but again, nothing has been productive except for a warm welcome, congratulations for the journey and, ultimately, the wishes of "good luck ...".
It should be noted that several media groups are also being restructuring either in Quebec, in the United States or in France. In Montreal, La Presse has almost ceased its operations permanently last December due to serious financial difficulties and eliminated the Sunday edition while Le Journal de Montreal will be endangered in 2010 because of the lockout of its employees that has lasted nearly a year (January 24, 2009) and whose obstacles for a solution are also financial issues. It should be noted that the
website Rue Frontenac will face the same problems as LeStudio1.com at the financial level even if their site is very popular. In the U.S., several major newspapers including The New York Times are laying off employees in their newsroom to reduce operating costs and the same situation is happening in France.
If a media want to inform the public and his subscribers well, he must have the means of his ambitions. For this reason, we decided to continue our efforts in information and opinions with a formula exclusively public by partnering with various social websites. This formula will require less time from our team and we can define it as "low-maintenance." It should be noted that all social sites also seek to find their way to the financial profits but they have the advantage of being already large entities with a broader reach than LeStudio1.com. Their power will support our efforts and will enable our continuity and our survival.
The media magnate, Rupert Murdoch has clearly explained in an editorial published last December in The Wall Street Journal: "The free Internet is a myth that must be quickly amended or it will be the bankruptcy of major media groups as we know it."
(See full text of the editorial on page LeStudio1.com - December 21, 2009) To reach financial profits as an Internet project, it is necessarily to have a convergence between the message, the vehicle and the consumer products. It is useless to spread a message that does not contribute in any way to create an economic action from the public. Believing in a free product is unfortunately a utopia, whether you are a media or commercial enterprise of any kind. And we believe only a large media group has the financial resources and influence necessary to achieve an effective convergence between the message, the vehicle and products.
We present below the link to our official website LeStudio1.com hosted by Yahoo! on which the number of visitors in 2009 ranged between 1000 and 3 000 visitors daily, or close to one million in total throughout the year. We also present the links to our other sites within the major social networks, bilingual in French and English, from Facebook to WordPress, Google Blogs, Flickr, MySpace and Twitter. Note that communication via email will always be done from time to time since we have a database that will be kept active but its use will be made only for exceptional events.
In a sense, the history of LeStudio1.com somewhat resembles to the one of the novel
Millennium but in a much less dramatic way ... Our project was launched in 2005 by a small group of passionate in journalism, photography and Internet technologies.
(See team LeStudio.com) In the beginning, there was an expert in the Internet (sort of Lisbeth Salender), a journalist and former manager of Quebecor (a kind of
Mikael Blomkvist who is like me somehow), a professional manager in public relations (a kind of Erika Berger who is Miss X) and also a retired business man, very rich, who wanted to demonstrate the truth about a great historical event using journalistic method. Today, the businessman has died, the computer expert is gone and the team has changed entirely along the way.
As sing so well the great French artist
Charles Aznavour: "We must learn to leave the table ..." We add: "This is only a farewell!"
But we do not want to make false promises or create false expectations as it would lead to deception... LeStudio1.com ends today an important chapter in its history because the project has failed to succeed financially as was our forecasting our business plan. And as it is the finances that lead the world, we must move on and pursue other roads!
Goodbye, thank you and we hope to continue our exchange with many of you on the Internet.
Bernard Bujold - Creator of the concept LeStudio1.com
Picture 1: Bernard Bujold and the official Mascots;
Picture 2: Charles Aznavour;
Picture 3: Some members of the team LeStudio1.com;
Picture 4: Mademoiselle X LeStudio1.com
