This step today has been hinted at for a long time for the attentive observer, but many things should always be approached with care and as unemotionally as possible, but with a long-term, strategic goal. It's no different with the media than in private life, because at some point you just realize that you don't really feel comfortable in your current suit or have just lived with certain partners. You don't even have to argue, no, it's just like that and happens in the best families.
Precisely for this reason, and also out of respect for colleagues and many long-time companions, there will be no general consideration here. But then let me write a little bit about my own sensitivities. Because for 10 years I have invested a lot of (life) time in the project Tom's Hardware Germany. After 2016 almost even over long distances also as a lone fighter. The community and the readers have thanked this with their presence and growing reach, which is actually priceless as a fee and was also the necessary daily motivation to test and write often enough beyond the normal limits.
Since the end of February, there is also a youTube channel, which now has more than 12,000 subscribers after almost half a year and which has reached the limit of 1 million video views this week and is constantly growing. In fact, I've done all of this in the side. The fact that this can only be accompanied by a major change in the area of privacy is only a tiny facet on the whole. Website, social media, laboratory – that is often hard enough to do, but it is also quite fun if at least the success is not missing out.
What I learned very quickly on YouTube, however, is that you have to sell yourself to the last button and also pay attention to what you end up giving up price- and thus often enough. So that you perform exactly as you are and what you are. Anything else would stand out in the long run anyway. By the way, this is no different with the website in the end.
And that's why we as a team decided to end the Tom's Hardware Germany project from today and return the license completely.
All this is also done in good agreement and in close cooperation with Future PLC, the owner of the trademark rights to Tom's hardware, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the relevant administrative staff, who have helped to achieve a clean separation, which was also about the preservation of the already published content. Almost everything is preserved, but has to be completely rebranded step by step.
But if you 'have to do the big sensation now (perhaps a little bit hurtful', I have to disappoint. Because from today we are only putting the whole story back from head to toe, but not in. If, like me, you invest a large part of your life in such a project, then it is only logical that you also give your own content your own name. This is much more honest and the reader and video consumer also knows what and whom he is going to get involved in.
What does the future bring us?
I do not only orient myself to the mainstream when it comes to content, but I also deliberately look for the niche, provoke and realize very elaborate tests, which are also individually designed and thus deviate from the usual scheme. We will expand this further and also offer the community an even bigger stage. The RTG is certainly only the beginning. Linking "classic" media and social networks is an absolute must if you don't want to be bitten off. And that's really fast if you're not careful.
The re-design of the page with a new brand and new URL is just one of the visible changes, much of it has been done in secret for days. This also includes the expansion of the editorial staff here in Chemnitz with additional rooms and even more innovative equipment, up to a real green wall room for the videos, in which I can also move freely. It is all, in fact, a show of strength that is not ending, but it is now showing its first successes. That alone is motivation and incentive enough to get this through to the end.
Of course, such a change is also associated with various problems, which will not be hidden from the visitor of this new site. Since the licensing in May 2018 alone, well over 10,000 individual graphics have been displayed, whose logos now need to be replaced. Overall, the entire database comprises an almost unimaginable amount of such material, so we had to decide to take the content temporary offline before that date for licensing reasons. I am currently programming a software solution that will take off with this work, so that we can also take this content back online step by step.
And otherwise? The technical possibilities that I have here and which perhaps go beyond some averages are certainly also the result of my many years of work in parallel with what can ultimately be seen in the media at least in fragments. I cannot (and may not) show everything, but the transparency of the publication is very important to me, because you can only correctly classify the results and tests if you know how they came about.
In summary and conclusion, I would like to thank all our colleagues, readers and subscribers who have been loyal to us so far and who will hopefully continue to do so. New wallpapers and a new name on the door, the rest is and remains safe as usual. However, there are also completely new opportunities that we want to use in a targeted manner.
I then have a small addendum in this regard. Anyone who is a little bothered by the apostrophe in igor'sLAB should also point out that the barrier of the publication language will now also disappear. Important content can and will be multilingual in the future, so I would like to meet the feedback and wishes of many international readers. Unfortunately, this was not possible under the previous licence.
And as far as I am concerned personally, if you are already effectively giving up as a private individual for such a project over long distances, then at least for something of your own. In this sense: Salve!
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