Post by Editor in Chief on Feb 21, 2008 18:25:03 GMT
Many times over the past few months, players have asked: Why does the Papyrus cost so much? Why's it such a pain to find a copy I can read? Why can't I read it online like the other papers?
OPERATIONS
The simple answer to this is that the other newspapers (The AM Daily and The Green Slab), have hard-coded facilities specifically designed for the writing, editing, and publiciation of a newspaper. Reporters for those papers can go to their office in-game and submit their articles. By doing this, the reporter can format the article. The alternative methods used by The Papyrus are email and mudmail, which tend to reformat whatever the reporter intended, meaning the Editor has to reformat the article to get it back in a form that looks good.
For the AMD and TGS, multiple editors can then review and alter the submitted articles. They have access to each others changes, hence there is no worry of two editors essentially duplicating each other's work. Furthermore, they can edit the articles from the website, for even easier manipulation of the articles. Articles submitted by The Papyrus cannot be reviewed prior to print, in their final format, and then altered. The very act of writing on the articles on the final medium, a papyrus notebook or bundle, requires that the entire notebook or bundle be discarded if a typographic or error is discovered at this point. When ANSI colour codes are added, the situation becomes even more complicated, and further problems arise. Unlike the hard-coded papers, at The Papyrus we're forced to discard all transcribing work already done on the template, and start over from scratch. This can be a very tedious process, especially when switching ink colours between one article and the next. The other papers simply fix the typo or formatting problem using the web or mud-based editor, and no prior work need be discarded and redone.
Once all of the articles are in the proper order and look appropriate, the Editors of the AMD and TGS need only enter a single command to go to print. Newspaper boxes are automatically "filled" with the new edition, and subscriptions immediately filled for readers using that functionality. Paper boys and girls automatically start advertising and selling the new editions. Players either subscribing or buying individual copies can dispose of them immediately and read them on the web instead, rendering language issues moot. At The Papyrus, we have to sell our copies in various languages so that players can read them, due to the lack of website support. This means that prior to printing, they have to be transcribed into templates of varying languages. While the printer we use does do translations, ASCII pictures translate poorly from foreign languages using ANSI colours. Hence we need to hand scribe a different template for every language prior to going to print, using a native speaker (transcribing alts) for each copy. Once we have the templates completed, they need to be taken to a printer in AM and copies ordered. While fairly simple, this step requires a considerable wait compared to those experienced by other papers. Instead of entering a single command, followed by a mudwide lag burst, followed by immediate availablity of that edition for sale, the printer we use requires waiting a day or so for all copies to be printed. After that, the copies have to be collected (kept in seperate bags to avoid mixing languages), and transported to player shops. The books are then offered to the shops for sale, usually a few at a time due to player shop inventory constraints, and eventually, depending on when a manager logs on and gets around to it, the books are accepted by the shops and put up for sale to the public. Periodic restocking is then required.
COSTS
Many people have noticed the price difference between the Papyrus and other newspapers. Trust me, it's less than it used to be! Printing costs are non-existant for the AMD and TGS. They are never over-stocked with excess copies, because they're cloned when people buy them, and even if they were over-stocked, there would be no consequences due to the lack of printing costs. The Papyrus used to print solely on papyrus bundles, which cost $12 or so per copy for printing. While they were often given away at reduced prices, or for free, The Papyrus was doomed to be unable to fund its own club fees, much less actually pay reporters. The creators of Klatch, however, generously implemented a cheaper papyrus notebook that was suitable for use as well. This brought our printing costs down to a bit over $3 per copy for standard copies. By selling them for $5, we can make a profit of nearly $2 per copy. Selling cheaper copies also allows us to sell fancier copies for a greater profit, while ensuring that nearly everyone that wants to read The Papyrus can afford to do so. Papyrus bundles are still sold in limited numbers (2-10 each) in Morporkian and Djelian, but for $50, giving a profit of over $35 for each of those copies. Hand-written templates on papyrus bundles also can be a huge help in getting enough profit to pay reporters, cover future printing costs, and offer prize incentives to readers. The value of those copies is approximately 1-5 royals, but only two are sold per edition.
How about the AMD and TGS? Their copies cost only 5 pence! But those papers don't make 5 pence per copy. They make 1 royal per copy. For every A$0.05 spent by readers, the newspaper gets A$100.00. Not only is that $100.00 pure profit, it's grossly inflated based on what is paid for the copy. The Papyrus gets $5 for every $5 spent by readers, and only $2 of that is profit. The hard-coded papers get $100 for every $0.05 spent by readers, and $100.00 of that is profit. This is justified based on the presumption that NPCs and such would be reading the paper as well, presumably at a ratio of 2000 NPCS buying a paper for ever 1 player. Because The Papyrus does not get hard-coded support, NPCs evidently don't like it as much.
Let's look at what that means in profits for hard-coded papers versus The Papyrus, if sales where the same. If The Papyrus sold 100 copies under ideal circumstances ($500 for each of the two hand-scribed premium copies, $50 for each of 20 premium copies, and $5 each for the remaining 78 copies), we would have an income of $500 * 2 + $50 * 20 + 78 * 5, or $1000 + $1000 + 390, which comes out to $2,390. This is an extremely generous estimate for hand-scribed and premium copies based on past demand. Deducting printing costs would reduce our profit. $0 * 2 for hand-scribed, $12 * 20 for premium, and $3.15 * 78 for standard copies. 0 + $240 + $245 = $485 total. $2,390 sales - $485 printing costs = $1,905 profit for 100 copies, or 19 royals.
It's simpler to calculate profits for the AMD or TGS. If selling 100 copies, they get 100 royals, compared to our 19 royals. Of course, they'll probably sell more due to various conveniences and reduced costs, even if the newspaper content was identical to ours.
That's 100 royals that can be used to pay reporters, versus 19, less than one-fifth of that. Naturally, it's hard to obtain reporters when they're happily raking in 5 times the salary elsewhere for the same effort. Not only can reporters at hard-coded papers be paid vastly more, they also get experience for articles submitted, in the neighborhood of 60K each for the first two articles per edition printed.
Of course, hard-coded newspapers have the downside of being purchased at auction. Or do they? Unlike playerhouses, playershops, or even the lone player theatre, newspapers never go up for auction unless the owner decides to let it go up for auction. After an initial outlay of cash when the hard-coded paper first entered the Disc, no one needs to spend any money on it ever again. Owners can transfer it to friends, or sell it for a low amount, and still make a bigger profit from the sale than they would if went up for auction.
COMPETITION
So why are such rare resources never offered to the public at large? Why are they permitted to be monopolized at all, much less by creator alts, as they have been in the past? Perhaps the justification is that the owners are responsible for "making" the newspaper, for creating its reputation for quality, and for gathering excellent reporters in a way that would somehow not apply to the player run theatre. Or perhaps the answer is that Pinkfish implemented the newspapers, and no one else is interested or feels qualified to change how they operate. As an ex-creator, I'm inclined to believe the latter reason has been more important in the lack of evolution in the basic way hard-coded newspapers operate.
Keeping the newspapers under the control of the same entities indefinitely will not foster competition for those resources, nor force the obtainers of them to produce quality articles. People routinely complain of stock articles with little or no entertainment value (see quotes articles), yet papers continue to produce them. They earn the writer some xp and a bit of money (maybe just 3-5 royals, instead of 7+ for the typical article), and they add a page that helps the paper look more legitimate and filled out. If there were a real consequence to owners producing camel dung in their papers, in the form of low or no profits and a chance to be outbid by groups of concerned citizens in future auctions, there would be a motivation for hard-coded newspapers to aim for true quality.
Newspapers have a monopoly. It's even worse than roundworld monopolies, because the resources to create another newspaper operating in the same way literally do not exist. The Papyrus cannot build a new press, or save up money and eventually buy one. Outsiders will never have access to a newspaper, no matter their qualifications or determination or resources. It may be very hard for roundworlders to compete with a monopoly, but here it is literally impossible.
REFORM
One bar to unlimited newspaper facilities operating in a manner similar to bank facilities (purchasing a press and putting in a player shop), could be fear of abuse. As discussed above, hard-coded newspapers are very profitable, in addition to being abusable if reporter alts, etc, buy papers to boost sales and income for their alts. Boosting sales with alts is a viable option due to the cheap cost and huge profit. Perhaps those two values (5 pence to buy creating $100 income) should be brought closer together. A gap of some sort is necessary, but a less obscene one would make abuse less attractive, while keeping the newspaper profitable enough to keep running. All players can afford $1 easily, so that seems like a good place to start for purchase cost. If the profit per copy was reduced to $50, that would a 1:50 cost to income ratio, rather than a 1:2000 ratio. Still huge, but less obscene. Would reporters still write for half the costs? Probably, especially if dead weight is tossed overboard, and there's a greater share of the resources for the real reporters. This would not combat potential abuse, however, though it might make it slightly less attractive. Reporters and Editors should probably be directly forbidden from purchasing newspaper copies with alts.
Experience rewards shouldn't exist in their current format. Sorry. The problem is that xp rewards assume all articles required the same amount of effort, and this simply isn't the case. A well-researched and written article should get a better reward than a cut and paste list of talker quotes. One solution is to remove xp rewards entirely, but that shouldn't be necessary. Instead, perhaps, XP for the edition should be pooled like monetary profits, and passed out by the Editor. Better articles could be rewarded, up to a maximum amount per player, though more than the current 120K. Worse articles could be bypassed entirely. Of course, the downside to this is that players are making decisions on rewarding other players with experience, a balance issue typically handled only by creators. Though if the papers continue to be permitted to be owned by creator alts, that is less of problem.
Printing and distribution costs and difficulties should be more realistic. Well, they should at least exist. Pressing a magic button and having it all fall together is not realistic, and does not encourage planning, foresight, and creative solutions. Filling a newspaper box should cost money, and if those copies aren't all bought, there should be a consequence (a loss). If enough copies weren't printed initially, there should also be a consequence (delay in purchasing). If The Papyrus can do it on a shoestring budget, the "real" papers should be able to manage it much more easily.
Finally, and most importantly, the monopolies need to end. Additional newspaper facilities should be purchasable, and they should all go up for auction periodically, just like player shops and the Dysk theatre. This would help ensure real competition and a higher level of quality, as well as fairness for people that have been literally blocked out of the newspaper industry since its implementation. And some of us might prefer to avoid the cre-alt censored news we've been stuck with in the past.
OPERATIONS
The simple answer to this is that the other newspapers (The AM Daily and The Green Slab), have hard-coded facilities specifically designed for the writing, editing, and publiciation of a newspaper. Reporters for those papers can go to their office in-game and submit their articles. By doing this, the reporter can format the article. The alternative methods used by The Papyrus are email and mudmail, which tend to reformat whatever the reporter intended, meaning the Editor has to reformat the article to get it back in a form that looks good.
For the AMD and TGS, multiple editors can then review and alter the submitted articles. They have access to each others changes, hence there is no worry of two editors essentially duplicating each other's work. Furthermore, they can edit the articles from the website, for even easier manipulation of the articles. Articles submitted by The Papyrus cannot be reviewed prior to print, in their final format, and then altered. The very act of writing on the articles on the final medium, a papyrus notebook or bundle, requires that the entire notebook or bundle be discarded if a typographic or error is discovered at this point. When ANSI colour codes are added, the situation becomes even more complicated, and further problems arise. Unlike the hard-coded papers, at The Papyrus we're forced to discard all transcribing work already done on the template, and start over from scratch. This can be a very tedious process, especially when switching ink colours between one article and the next. The other papers simply fix the typo or formatting problem using the web or mud-based editor, and no prior work need be discarded and redone.
Once all of the articles are in the proper order and look appropriate, the Editors of the AMD and TGS need only enter a single command to go to print. Newspaper boxes are automatically "filled" with the new edition, and subscriptions immediately filled for readers using that functionality. Paper boys and girls automatically start advertising and selling the new editions. Players either subscribing or buying individual copies can dispose of them immediately and read them on the web instead, rendering language issues moot. At The Papyrus, we have to sell our copies in various languages so that players can read them, due to the lack of website support. This means that prior to printing, they have to be transcribed into templates of varying languages. While the printer we use does do translations, ASCII pictures translate poorly from foreign languages using ANSI colours. Hence we need to hand scribe a different template for every language prior to going to print, using a native speaker (transcribing alts) for each copy. Once we have the templates completed, they need to be taken to a printer in AM and copies ordered. While fairly simple, this step requires a considerable wait compared to those experienced by other papers. Instead of entering a single command, followed by a mudwide lag burst, followed by immediate availablity of that edition for sale, the printer we use requires waiting a day or so for all copies to be printed. After that, the copies have to be collected (kept in seperate bags to avoid mixing languages), and transported to player shops. The books are then offered to the shops for sale, usually a few at a time due to player shop inventory constraints, and eventually, depending on when a manager logs on and gets around to it, the books are accepted by the shops and put up for sale to the public. Periodic restocking is then required.
COSTS
Many people have noticed the price difference between the Papyrus and other newspapers. Trust me, it's less than it used to be! Printing costs are non-existant for the AMD and TGS. They are never over-stocked with excess copies, because they're cloned when people buy them, and even if they were over-stocked, there would be no consequences due to the lack of printing costs. The Papyrus used to print solely on papyrus bundles, which cost $12 or so per copy for printing. While they were often given away at reduced prices, or for free, The Papyrus was doomed to be unable to fund its own club fees, much less actually pay reporters. The creators of Klatch, however, generously implemented a cheaper papyrus notebook that was suitable for use as well. This brought our printing costs down to a bit over $3 per copy for standard copies. By selling them for $5, we can make a profit of nearly $2 per copy. Selling cheaper copies also allows us to sell fancier copies for a greater profit, while ensuring that nearly everyone that wants to read The Papyrus can afford to do so. Papyrus bundles are still sold in limited numbers (2-10 each) in Morporkian and Djelian, but for $50, giving a profit of over $35 for each of those copies. Hand-written templates on papyrus bundles also can be a huge help in getting enough profit to pay reporters, cover future printing costs, and offer prize incentives to readers. The value of those copies is approximately 1-5 royals, but only two are sold per edition.
How about the AMD and TGS? Their copies cost only 5 pence! But those papers don't make 5 pence per copy. They make 1 royal per copy. For every A$0.05 spent by readers, the newspaper gets A$100.00. Not only is that $100.00 pure profit, it's grossly inflated based on what is paid for the copy. The Papyrus gets $5 for every $5 spent by readers, and only $2 of that is profit. The hard-coded papers get $100 for every $0.05 spent by readers, and $100.00 of that is profit. This is justified based on the presumption that NPCs and such would be reading the paper as well, presumably at a ratio of 2000 NPCS buying a paper for ever 1 player. Because The Papyrus does not get hard-coded support, NPCs evidently don't like it as much.
Let's look at what that means in profits for hard-coded papers versus The Papyrus, if sales where the same. If The Papyrus sold 100 copies under ideal circumstances ($500 for each of the two hand-scribed premium copies, $50 for each of 20 premium copies, and $5 each for the remaining 78 copies), we would have an income of $500 * 2 + $50 * 20 + 78 * 5, or $1000 + $1000 + 390, which comes out to $2,390. This is an extremely generous estimate for hand-scribed and premium copies based on past demand. Deducting printing costs would reduce our profit. $0 * 2 for hand-scribed, $12 * 20 for premium, and $3.15 * 78 for standard copies. 0 + $240 + $245 = $485 total. $2,390 sales - $485 printing costs = $1,905 profit for 100 copies, or 19 royals.
It's simpler to calculate profits for the AMD or TGS. If selling 100 copies, they get 100 royals, compared to our 19 royals. Of course, they'll probably sell more due to various conveniences and reduced costs, even if the newspaper content was identical to ours.
That's 100 royals that can be used to pay reporters, versus 19, less than one-fifth of that. Naturally, it's hard to obtain reporters when they're happily raking in 5 times the salary elsewhere for the same effort. Not only can reporters at hard-coded papers be paid vastly more, they also get experience for articles submitted, in the neighborhood of 60K each for the first two articles per edition printed.
Of course, hard-coded newspapers have the downside of being purchased at auction. Or do they? Unlike playerhouses, playershops, or even the lone player theatre, newspapers never go up for auction unless the owner decides to let it go up for auction. After an initial outlay of cash when the hard-coded paper first entered the Disc, no one needs to spend any money on it ever again. Owners can transfer it to friends, or sell it for a low amount, and still make a bigger profit from the sale than they would if went up for auction.
COMPETITION
So why are such rare resources never offered to the public at large? Why are they permitted to be monopolized at all, much less by creator alts, as they have been in the past? Perhaps the justification is that the owners are responsible for "making" the newspaper, for creating its reputation for quality, and for gathering excellent reporters in a way that would somehow not apply to the player run theatre. Or perhaps the answer is that Pinkfish implemented the newspapers, and no one else is interested or feels qualified to change how they operate. As an ex-creator, I'm inclined to believe the latter reason has been more important in the lack of evolution in the basic way hard-coded newspapers operate.
Keeping the newspapers under the control of the same entities indefinitely will not foster competition for those resources, nor force the obtainers of them to produce quality articles. People routinely complain of stock articles with little or no entertainment value (see quotes articles), yet papers continue to produce them. They earn the writer some xp and a bit of money (maybe just 3-5 royals, instead of 7+ for the typical article), and they add a page that helps the paper look more legitimate and filled out. If there were a real consequence to owners producing camel dung in their papers, in the form of low or no profits and a chance to be outbid by groups of concerned citizens in future auctions, there would be a motivation for hard-coded newspapers to aim for true quality.
Newspapers have a monopoly. It's even worse than roundworld monopolies, because the resources to create another newspaper operating in the same way literally do not exist. The Papyrus cannot build a new press, or save up money and eventually buy one. Outsiders will never have access to a newspaper, no matter their qualifications or determination or resources. It may be very hard for roundworlders to compete with a monopoly, but here it is literally impossible.
REFORM
One bar to unlimited newspaper facilities operating in a manner similar to bank facilities (purchasing a press and putting in a player shop), could be fear of abuse. As discussed above, hard-coded newspapers are very profitable, in addition to being abusable if reporter alts, etc, buy papers to boost sales and income for their alts. Boosting sales with alts is a viable option due to the cheap cost and huge profit. Perhaps those two values (5 pence to buy creating $100 income) should be brought closer together. A gap of some sort is necessary, but a less obscene one would make abuse less attractive, while keeping the newspaper profitable enough to keep running. All players can afford $1 easily, so that seems like a good place to start for purchase cost. If the profit per copy was reduced to $50, that would a 1:50 cost to income ratio, rather than a 1:2000 ratio. Still huge, but less obscene. Would reporters still write for half the costs? Probably, especially if dead weight is tossed overboard, and there's a greater share of the resources for the real reporters. This would not combat potential abuse, however, though it might make it slightly less attractive. Reporters and Editors should probably be directly forbidden from purchasing newspaper copies with alts.
Experience rewards shouldn't exist in their current format. Sorry. The problem is that xp rewards assume all articles required the same amount of effort, and this simply isn't the case. A well-researched and written article should get a better reward than a cut and paste list of talker quotes. One solution is to remove xp rewards entirely, but that shouldn't be necessary. Instead, perhaps, XP for the edition should be pooled like monetary profits, and passed out by the Editor. Better articles could be rewarded, up to a maximum amount per player, though more than the current 120K. Worse articles could be bypassed entirely. Of course, the downside to this is that players are making decisions on rewarding other players with experience, a balance issue typically handled only by creators. Though if the papers continue to be permitted to be owned by creator alts, that is less of problem.
Printing and distribution costs and difficulties should be more realistic. Well, they should at least exist. Pressing a magic button and having it all fall together is not realistic, and does not encourage planning, foresight, and creative solutions. Filling a newspaper box should cost money, and if those copies aren't all bought, there should be a consequence (a loss). If enough copies weren't printed initially, there should also be a consequence (delay in purchasing). If The Papyrus can do it on a shoestring budget, the "real" papers should be able to manage it much more easily.
Finally, and most importantly, the monopolies need to end. Additional newspaper facilities should be purchasable, and they should all go up for auction periodically, just like player shops and the Dysk theatre. This would help ensure real competition and a higher level of quality, as well as fairness for people that have been literally blocked out of the newspaper industry since its implementation. And some of us might prefer to avoid the cre-alt censored news we've been stuck with in the past.