< PREVIOUS ] [ 1993 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
As an occasional contributor to the Ziff-Davis line of computer magazines, I have avoided commenting on that company's possible move to Colorado, the impoverished state which lacks money for schools, and the firm's negotiations with Colorado, the rich state which can always find money for corporate seduction.
But conflict-of-interest be damned. Proximity could breed more paying work for me, and it could be a good deal for my fellow Coloradans. Ziff-Davis wants a key to the state treasury, and in return, Gov. Roy Romer should demand:
1. Preference for Colorado writers. Unlike the companies that buy our work, we're a poor, disorganized lot, so we'll never be able to purchase favorable tax incentives. Thus, the more money we get, the more the state gets, and it's a good deal all the way around.
2. No more check-endorsement-copyright-transfers. Most
magazines buy first serial rights,
which means you
can sell the work elsewhere after they publish it.
But when you get a check from Ziff-Davis, the fine print on the back transfers the rights to everything except your first-born child to Ziff-Davis as soon as you endorse the check. Given the parlous state of a writer's finances, this amounts to forcing someone to sign away his rights under duress, and Colorado should put a stop to this.
3. No more Windows. All Ziff-Davis magazines that I see are full of hints for Windows users and glowing paeans to Windows software.
Your current computer, which seemed like a big, fast machine when you bought it, turns into a small, slow clunker under Windows. So you need more hardware, which is good for Ziff-Davis advertisers, but bad for your bank account.
You may have seen those studies which show that American businesses invested $600 billion in computers, and have yet to see any productivity gains. That's because Windows users are busy tweaking INI files, selecting wallpaper designs, defining the number of pixels in an icon title window border and adjusting the palettes of flying-toaster screen savers; though they're certainly busy, they're not performing anything like productive work.
Colorado can make it a condition of economic assistance that Ziff-Davis give up on promoting Windows, and the resulting American productivity will astonish the world.
4. That Ziff-Davis move to Washington County instead of Douglas County.
Douglas is rich (second in the state in per-capita income) and growing fast (first in the state, 140.1 percent increase in the past decade); it needs economic stimulus like Somalia needs more AK-47s.
Washington is poor (46th with half the Douglas income), and losing population (9.1 percent drop). Further, Ziff-Davis would demand a modern telephone system as part of the state package, and so the current residents would actually benefit from an economic-development deal -- a historic first, which would give Romer a good start on his 1994 campaign.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 1993 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >