Conquista -The Cycling Quarterly
Issue 6
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CO$T ● PRIC€ ● VA£UE ● ₩ORTH
Four little words that are often taken to represent more or less the same thing. In everyday language they can be interchangeable, but in terms of business, economics and even philosophy, they have very different meanings.
Cost and price, I guess, are the most similar and straightforward – both mean the amount of (usually) money required to purchase something. When we talk about cost this usually sounds like a negative thing – especially if you are the one putting your hand in your pocket.
The value one places on something tends to indicate more its usefulness or its desirability. It’s less about an absolute number and more about how much you want or need to have something and what you are prepared to do, or sacrifice, to have it.
And worth – well I guess eventually price and worth might meet squarely in the middle, but until you actually put something on sale then you can speculate about worth as much as you like. In the end that age old adage will always prove true – everything is ultimately only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it, whatever value its creator may speculate.
These four little words have been kicked around Conquista Towers for a while now, during which time we have observed major changes in the world of media. The seemingly neverending desire of industry and business to squeeze the bottom line, compromising impartiality and objectiveness in pursuit of profit. We’ve always maintained that editorial control of content is paramount to us – we won’t ever print something because someone paid us to. As others see editorial merge with marketing, you might wonder just how much so called ‘free PR’ is actually paid for these days. You might ask yourself is it a coincidence that certain product advertising spend is directed to publications with favourable reviews. This approach feels like a race to the bottom and it’s not a race we are going to enter. We don’t do product review and we won’t. Our content comes from our heart, which does rather strip us bare, since if you consider our content to be shit, we have no one else to blame but ourselves.
The adverts we place in Conquista are very much valued by us. The fact they are included in the magazine is testament to our trust in these brands, companies and organisations. We don’t want to rid our publication of commercial partners, but we do feel compelled to maintain the vast majority of space for beautiful imagery and thoughtful, intelligent comment. And clear delineation, no blurred lines. An ad is an ad – lets not call it “advertorial”, that’s just insulting to everyone’s intelligence.
I guess thats quite a long way of saying Issue 6 (February 2015) will be our first digital publication that will include ‘paid for’ content. We are a pretty lean operation, but we value our contributors and we want to ensure their work is appropriately rewarded. We have re-invested every cent we have ever got back into the magazine and we intend to for the foreseeable future. The price for a Quarterly Issue will be US $5.00, that’s less than the cover price of most cycling monthlies and about the price of a (fancy hipster craft) beer. It will ensure we are able to continue to maintain a platform for some of the best emerging talent in the world of cycle sport photography and an outstanding level of unbiased journalism from our scribblers.
We remain committed to providing top quality free content, and will continue to deliver galleries and features at conquista.cc/blog.
As ever, we thank you for your continued support.
Keep ‘er lit,
Benjamin & Trevor
Conquista CC 