Always interesting to read some of these comments. Sometimes entertaining...
Firstly, I would love to see local covers forever, which is what I tried doing. Remember, the last international cover was in October last year. Between then and now we have had local covers. The reason why we keep using the sales argument is simply because it is the only reason there is. At the moment I am sitting with the stats in front of me so I am the only person on this thread who can quantify this argument so please listen up.
International covers sell an a average of 20% more than local covers. Check these stats out: Busta Rhymes (90%) VS Ben Sharpa (55%). The Game (89%) VS Pro Kid (72%). Jay-Z (80%) VS Flabba (62%). If you want to look at our spreadsheets, make an appointment and I will show you. I'm that open. Cats who have visited us will know that they can come through and even sit with me in front of my pc if we working on something together. Watsup CASH, Da L.E.S, Sharpa... We not on some FBI tip. We just headz. Please do the maths. I obviously cant go as far as to post our financials etc.
What I'm trying to say, and what I've been trying to say is this. I hate international covers. I said this in one of my previous editorials. I hate them as much as you. But somehow, the people buy them. And somehow, they buy them at a rate which is much higher than local covers. Now, when our copy sales go down to 60% just after they reached 90%, we have a huge board meeting with the publishers and you can emagine what goes down in there. Firstly, the advertising and sponsorship revenue we rely on suffers as a result of bad copy sales. Audi and Adidas want to reach as many people as possible. If we let copy sales suffer, relying on advertising sales, advertisers stop advertising. Advertisers need to place their product on a platform that will reach as many people as possible. They want to be on a popular mag and 90% is popular.
Now, back to local covers VS international covers. How many HYPEs have been printed since the begining? The answer is 25. How many of those have been international covers? The answer is 8. Only 8. Do the math there before labeling HYPE as a mag that produces international covers to the detrement of local artists. Please guys, quantify your argument. This is public information.
HYPE is a business. The business needs to stay afloat. Ad sales are not enough to keep it alive. Copy sales play a huge role. Copy sales also affect advertising sales. Its just logic. This is the truth. We have always put the reader first. If readers say they want local, we say, meet us half way and buy local. What am I doing to promote this? Im on radio all the time, saying just this. When I get on TV, I say just this. Whenever I get a chance, I speak about this issue. Cats say they dont want Jigga on the cover yet they buy 80% of the stock. Cats say they want Pro on the cover, yet they only buy 72%. So what is it that the people really want? I struck a deal with cats in my October editorial. I promised a local cover in return for support of local covers. What did I get, 55% sell through on the December cover with Sharpa on it. Anybody else would have given up on the readers at that point, instead we took another risk and printed another local cover, dispite the fact that the deal was not kept on your (the consumer) side. We then went with a third local cover, which worried our shareholders but we had to fight them. Risking all, just to please you. And you turn around and tell us we do nothing for local cats.
We need to be smarter and develop the ability to read between the lines. This Wayne cover WILL give us the revenue we need and allow us to make up the revenue lost in past months. It has been placed very strategically, and will be followed by another string of local covers. Its like swimming. Every now and then you have to come up for air so you can stay alive. Compare one lap in an olympic swimming pool to a year on shelf. This means we come up for air once a year... haha. Come on cats, school is cool.