pipes|drums celebrates first anniversary
pipes|drums, the world’s only independent publication for pipers and drummers, on October 2, 2007, celebrated its first anniversary with a year of milestones that far exceeded expectations.
Since October 2, 2006, pipes|drums has enjoyed 1,533,221 unique visits from its growing base of avid readers to the electronic magazine – and average of 4,201 visits every day. During that time, some 5,475,196 page-views were tallied, making the magazine by far the most read publication in the piping and drumming world.
The largest single-day total for unique visits was August 11, 2007, when more than readers logged on to pipes|drums more than 12,000 times to get the latest on the 2007 World Pipe Band Championships. The site published Grade 1 results from every 2007 UK major pipe band championship as they were announced on the field, eclipsing even the RSPBA.
In addition to separate visits, the 2007 World’s Week also was the most active in terms of page-views, with more than 155,000 being recorded over the seven days alone.
The number of readers who paid $9.99 for a year’s subscription numbered 2,131 over the year, with total number of registrations coming to 4,523.
Other metrics from the past year:
- 168 News stories
- 38 Feature articles
- 18 product and event Reviews
- Eight Interviews
- 123 stories reporting competition Results
- 103 Blogpipe entries
- 168 Polls
- 1,342 Comments to articles from registered readers
- “Richard Parkes: The pipes|drums Interview”
- “Is the current sale of World’s recordings legal? A pipes|drums investigation” – an expose of the ongoing practice of recording piping and drumming events
- “10 Questions With . . . Donald Mackay”
- “The Reedmakers” series of articles by five of the world’s greatest craftsmen
- “Iain MacInnes: The p|d Interview”
- “The Battle’s O’er? – Piobaireachd vs. Staff Notation”
- Fred Morrison: The pipes|drums Interview
- “Diary of a historic restoration: Thomas Doucet’s refurbishing of John Wilson’s MacDougalls for Troy Guindon”
- “Ian Green: The pipes|drums Interview”
- “10 Questions With . . . Dr. Jack Taylor
The total number of articles published on the e-magazine during its first year was 790.
These metrics blow away the relatively tiny numbers that a quarterly or even monthly print magazine can offer at a far higher subscription price and far slower time-to-publish. The previous quarterly print publication would have included roughly four much shorter Interviews, eight Features, about a third the number of Results stories, a fraction of the News stories (which would have been news to very few by the time they appeared in print), and of course no Comments, Polls, or blog entries.
A few article-highlights from the year:
“The first year of pipes|drums has been great, and we’re planning even bigger and better things for the next,” said Andrew Berthoff, editor of the online magazine. “All proceeds from subscriptions and advertising go back into the site and to worthwhile piping and drumming causes, and we are constantly thinking of ways to make pipes|drums’ subscription-only and free content even more valuable to our readers.”
Among other improvements, the magazine is in the process of improving its Events section to be the most comprehensive in the piping and drumming world.
Berthoff went on to say that the yearly subscription rate will remain at $9.99 and advertising rates will hold steady, bucking the inflation trend in the print publishing industry.
“pipes|drums readers are the smartest in the piping and drumming world,” Berthoff added, “and many of our ideas come directly from them. We’re all about constructive and intelligent dialog, and we look forward to continued success in our next fiscal year. We thank all of our readers for their support.”
p|d
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I wasn’t sure when you abandoned the print version that it would work, and I suppose you had one or two doubts as well. Well it has worked, and beautifully. Congrats on making a real difference in the journalism around piping and drumming. Mind you, my beef is that there isn’t nearly enough new daily scoop. Don’t you have stringers out there to give you all the latest? Or maybe it’s just that our world is so finite that there are only so many good bits worth publishing. One thing’s for sure….with the MLB playoffs (for those outside North America, sometimes referred to in P/D as overseas” folk
What an incredible job!!!! You have out done yourself again Andrew. The online publication is by far more in depth than the print version could ever be. Keep up the great work!!!!!! Cheers.
Congratulations on the one year milestone! What an awesome job you are doing!!
Congratulations! May you have many more years of success as THE most interesting, informative piping website in the world.
Happy Birthday! and many returns of the day
Way to go Andrew! A world class web magazine! You enlighten us all on the important global issues affecting our piping community and make our piping experience even better. Great job!
Congrats! It is a great site. Think back to the early stages of the magazine and how it evolved over the years, makes the future of this site quite exciting. …Thanks for the latitude you allow with some of the personal stuff we throw back and forth (Joel, save it for the f…ing field)…..Agree with Bill, more dirt”. Its along time till the spring.”
Happy Anniversary to P/D! The world’s best on-line source for pipe band news. Great job Andrew!