Hello everyone,
If you don’t know me (Mihai Alisie), I have been involved with Bitcoin Magazine since its original conception and creation with Vitalik, Matthew, Adam and Vladimir over 1 year ago. While Matthew and Vladimir were the outspoken ones in the community, I have always been in charge of the creative content that everyone reads and sees.
Since issue #1, we have continuously improved the quality and originality of our content. As Editor in Chief, I am in charge of all the writers, illustrators, web content, layout, and the entire creative team. I am remaining in this role and the people on the creative team will be staying also.
From our original small staff, which included Vitalik Buterin and Justin Porter, the creative team has expanded and now includes members such as Jon Matonis, Teri Buhl, Nicolas Mendoza, Wendy McElroy, Frank Braun, David Perry (CodingInMySleep) and S3052 (BitcoinBullBears) among others. All of our writers are independent thinkers and journalists, and I can personally assure you that all the articles and reviews will be as unbiased as possible. As a matter of fact I believe that the writers would be offended if they are asked to write something that does not reflect reality.
I should add that none of our investors are involved with writing or any of the creative content. Our investors are active bitcoin enthusiasts who see our magazine as a great marketing tool to expand and educate the bitcoin user base. There are actually 10 owners of Bitcoin Magazine now, including myself and Vitalik, and everyone is 100% dedicated to the growth of the printed publication, digital publication, and some exciting expansions that will come next year.
We are also planning to open the magazine more to the community, and have you more involved in the topics and interviews that will be featured in each issue of the magazine. I remember that a while ago there was a thread where the community was nominating the persons that Bitcoin Magazine should interview. I encourage these styles of actions and so far I think that we have already interviewed a couple of persons from that list.
Aside from this, I want to tell all of you that recently Bitcoin Magazine has become a place where journalists are coming to learn about bitcoin, and to ask for advice or clarifications. We have received questions from publications such as BBC and from Emirates Airlines’ Open Skies magazine. I think that it is a good thing for the community, and in fact this was one of the first reasons for founding the magazine - to have an accurate and accessible source of information regarding Bitcoin, not focusing on all the scandals but on the real economic, political, and social impacts of this new technology.
The new owners are bringing strong business experience, new capital, and new excitement to our team. We now have more resources to improve our website, improve our writing, expand our distribution, publish digital editions, and even do a little advertising for Bitcoin Magazine around the Internet.
The goals of the magazine remain the same, regardless of this change of ownership. Everyone wants the best for the magazine and that translates in the best for the community as well. We will continue to improve, as we did with each issue starting from issue #1.
If you order a Christmas bundle, or if you already have all the issues, align them one next to each other and you will see the continued improvement. Starting from issue #5 you can also see that we have decreased the clip art/photos ratio and we will continue to go in that direction until we will find the perfect balance between the two of them.
I think that we are heading in the right direction and to support this claim I am posting one of our readers’ feedback message:
“Dear Editor(s),
I just wanted to say that I use your magazine as a tool when I'm presenting Bitcoin to people who haven't heard of it or don't know much about it and want to pass along the feedback I'm getting from the field. Before that, I want to say thank you for all of your hard work! I do really enjoy the publication and look forward to many future issues!
So here's my feedback: When I am showing the magazine to people who are unfamiliar w/Bitcoin, there is a pretty significant difference in interest shown between the magazines that I have (Issues #3 & #4) and even between the articles that people seem willing to read and are interested in.
You may already know where I'm going with this... Issue #3 - People seemed to totally dismiss. They looked at the cover, saw a comic of a gorilla & a shark driving a car and the conversation took a turn as if they weren't really interested in teenage kids games. They sat the magazine down without opening, or if they did look in it at all, they seemed to see more of the same style graphics and even a couple said "What is this a comic book?". At any rate they did not take me or Bitcoin seriously - at all.
Issue #4: With it's more corporate looking cover and some professional looking ads (IE: back cover, Bitpay inner cover, BFL, and Bitcoin Wireless Ad) they seemed to tend to believe me that Bitcoin is a viable up and coming technology. The more mainstream graphics like "Bitcoin for Beginners" and the "Int'l Payment Svcs Comparison" were of particular interest and door openers to further questions and conversations. They spent much more time perusing the magazine and talking with me about BTC further.
(...)
Since the latest current issue (#4) seems to be positively received by people new to BTC, I plan to buy about 8 copies to give to family & friends as Christmas gifts. (also serves to give them more info on what I've been telling them about)
Thanks for your time & all of your hard and important work!”To conclude, I would like to assure you that the magazine’s integrity will not be affected in any way by the change of ownership, and that the changes will definitely be beneficial both for the magazine and the community as a whole. Also if you have any suggestions please send them to
help@bitcoinmagazine.com and we will take them in consideration.
Thank you all for your continued support!
