4 ms·
Inc. Magazine: Is it crap?
Inc. Magazine brands itself "The Handbook of the American Entrepreneur." I'm curious to know what the Hacker News collective intelligence thinks of it.
I recently picked up a cheap subscription to see if there was anything to learn. Topics vary month-to-month, but there are usually case studies on successful entrepreneurs, tactical articles on subjects like marketing or management, and general interest essays.
I wonder, though, whether I ought to ignore everything inside and spend that monthly hour elsewhere. There are ads for shady companies. They have annoying 'special advertising features' that pose as articles. The back pages swell with MLM-type scams. It seems like the sort of advertising that would target dreamers and fools instead of busy entrepreneurs looking for tips during downtime. This leads me to question the reputability of the editors and thus any advice inside. Hence this post.
What do you think?
And if not Inc. etc., where's the high signal-to-noise entrepreneurial reading?
- run4yourlives 19y agoWhat do you think? It's your hour afterall.
- jakewolf 19y agoCoffee at barnes and noble while reading through their magazines for free. Can get everything in worthwhile during a single cup.
- pg 19y agoCuriously enough, they were the first print publication ever to write about YC, the very first summer. But the editors killed the story, presumably because at the time we were so obscure. They could have scooped the NYT.
- Shooter 19y agoI've had a subscription to Inc. for 10-12 years. I can attribute a great deal of time/money savings to things I've learned or found out about in Inc., especially regarding general management and HR issues. I consider it a solid investment. Granted, quite a bit of what they publish is common-sense type stuff, and their slant is definitely NOT towards the small tech startup...although I've bought a few companies I've read about in Inc. and I've discovered new business trends by reading it over the years. It's a great way to get a feel for the small business market, which is my primary customer base in many ways...it also helps me figure out when niche products/services I'm already following are likely to break out into more mainstream popularity. Many internet startup guys tend to have 'Silicon Valley goggles' on and they would laugh at the technical expertise of the average Inc. reader, yet the Inc. readers are often slightly ahead of the tech curve when compared to the broader small business market. Anything that helps you to get into the shoes/mindset of your potential small business customers is worth the time. Even if you don't market DIRECTLY to small businesses, you would be a moron not to be aware of their purchasing power. You can also learn a great deal from the less 'glamorous' industries featured in Inc. - lessons that you can transfer to software startups in sometimes surprising ways. Regarding the ads/advertorials: that is their business. The advertorials are marked as such. They are not going to turn away ad dollars unless the ad is clearly illegal. I wouldn't either if I were in such a competitive industry. I wouldn't judge, say, 37Signals based on the customers they accept money from...so I feel it would be unfair to do so to a magazine. You just have to think for yourself and view everything with a critical eye. Just like anything else. I don't think their ads unduly influence their actual editorial content. I also read Entrepreneur magazine, which is even sleazier ad-wise (and I must say I lost respect for them when they started publishing the lies/idiocy of Robert Kiyosaki in an actual monthly column) but the occasional gems I learn more than make up for the time spent reading magazines like that and the sleaziness/crap factor. I read almost every business magazine I can get my hands on (Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes, Business 2.0 before it was killed, FSB, etc. - as well as about 30 industry-specific business magazines.) I think the more you read, the more likely you are to understand business and to see new opportunities before others do. I almost bid on Inc/Fast Company when they sold to Mansueto, but I knew I didn't have the time to follow-through on it. I now regret the decision not to at least bid.
- dcurtis 19y agoInc. is the only magazine I regularly read. If I don't have time to skim through the entire thing, I always read the section that documents an entrepreneur's story. Many of those stories are informative and inspirational. One of them a few years ago about the Xerox CEO's humble beginnings kick-started my entrepreneurial spirit, I guess you could say. In my opinion: definitely worth subscribing, if only for that section.