RoR: Forum

It's important to bear in mind here what an incredible competitive disadvantage The Atlas Society has relative to its rival The Ayn Rand Institute. ARI owns the rights to all of Rand's works -- which they certainly don't properly use or deserve -- but which nevertheless gives them a stunning revenue stream to fall back upon, as well as to fund a great deal of foolishness and malice. TAS operates on a shoe-string and without a net. They're also hugely deserving of support.

It may also well be the case that these TAS guys don't know how to effectively call upon the resources of the available lively and energetic Objectivist community. This seems true of their bare-minimalist writers and publications.

TAS may also not understand or properly exploit the phenomenon of "work-study" college students, interns, and volunteers. Maybe they can borrow or share some from their neighbors at the Cato Institute. I think there are many more people willing to help out in DC than they realize.

Post 1

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - 1:48pm

I didn't mean this to be a criticism of TOC (I am a sponsor after all). I just can't get hold of them via the Internet. I'll give them a call and see what's up.

Post 2

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - 1:51pm

OK - they are home ;) They replied via email but it went into my spam filter (this becoming more and more of a problem these days). Apparently, the problem will be fixed in a day or so.

Post 3

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - 3:03pm

Jordan -- Yes, we've had technical problems that are being corrected. We are processing all the registrations and should have the server working, we hope, by tomorrow.

Post 4

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - 3:05pm

Jordan,

Yeesh. We are NOT spammers!

;^)

Seriously, sorry there was a foul-up. Our people are working on the web glitch; but we certainly wouldn't simply ignore your messages.

Andre -- You're mistaken about the rights to and "revenue stream" from Rand's works. The Ayn Rand Institute does not own the copyrights to Rand's works. Profits from sales of her works go directly to "the Estate of Ayn Rand."

Also, I must object to your characterization of TAS's "bare minimalist writers and publications."

Huh???

Have you actually seen and read The New Individualist lately? For example, the March issue, at 68 pages and in full color, easily rivals (in content OR graphics) any political-cultural magazine on the newsstand, and, in my humble opinion, it is far superior to any publication currently issued by Objectivists or libertarians. And I'll stack our writers against anyone's.

I invite you and others to get acquainted, first hand, with The New Individualist.

Post 5

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - 3:28pm

Robert, I strongly second your statement about the quality and quantity of your work.

It's first rate in both content and appearance.

I also want to congratulate you and Ed and David, and extend my gratitude to you all for your lucid and thorough dissection of the Republican Party in your recent Straight Talk About the Soul of the Republican Party.

It was well-worth my efforts -- I read it twice and took notes.

Any feedback from republicans yet?

Steve Shmurak

Post 6

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - 3:39pm

Seeing as it came up...

TNI is getting better with each issue both in content and production. The latest issue that I got rivals mags such as Reason in production values. It easily beats Reason in content quality.

Post 7

Thursday, April 5, 2007 - 2:36am

Robert writes:

Andre -- You're mistaken about the rights to and "revenue stream" from Rand's works. The Ayn Rand Institute does not own the copyrights to Rand's works. Profits from sales of her works go directly to "the Estate of Ayn Rand."

I guess I really don't understand this. Does Peikoff own this, and donate some or most of the income to ARI?

Robert adds:

Also, I must object to your characterization of TAS's "bare minimalist writers and publications."

Huh???

Have you actually seen and read The New Individualist lately? For example, the March issue, at 68 pages and in full color, easily rivals (in content OR graphics) any political-cultural magazine on the newsstand, and, in my humble opinion, it is far superior to any publication currently issued by Objectivists or libertarians. And I'll stack our writers against anyone's.

I'm actually very aware of how good The New Individualist is -- and how good a job you seem to be doing as editor. I think TAS is lucky to have you. I just wish I could find this publication at Barnes and Noble alongside Reason, Liberty and Commentary!

My idea here is I think you guys should take a page out of ARI's book and write weekly or twice-weekly commentaries/analyses on the issues of the day, and then try to syndicate them to all the daily newspapers. You can't really trust ARI with its hidebound, thinking process and clunky, stilted writing style to get it right. I think TAS could find the writers for this pretty darn easily, and it would give you a much bigger and badly-needed public voice.

Post 8

Thursday, April 5, 2007 - 12:27pm

All,

Thanks for your kind comments about the magazine.

Andre,

1. Peikoff, as heir to Rand's estate, owns the rights to her works and gets royalties from them. What he does with the money, I don't know. I do know that he has distanced himself somewhat from ARI over the past years, stepping down from any titled capacity, and issuing caveats at ARI events asserting his independence from any other speakers. What that means or implies, I don't know, either.

2. We are working diligently in getting TNI on national newsstands. The process proved a bit trickier than we anticipated, but it WILL happen.

3. There's a limited market for op-eds, and a glut of op-ed writers. We prefer to focus on areas where we have a competitive advantage in the marketplace of ideas. I think our magazine is a good example. However, TAS does issues op-eds, mostly by Ed Hudgins, as time permits and subject matter warrants.

Post 9

Thursday, April 5, 2007 - 5:04pm