by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
Earlier today it was observed that there have been no posts on the Structured Settlements Wire in 3 weeks. and no Structured Settlements Report since July 16, 2008. This was despite all of its other publications have had postings. This evening I learned that there has been a decision to cease the publication of Structured Settlements Report by Deal Flow Media.
DealFlow Media tried to hitch a publication on structured settlements to its other publications which deal with the folks that fund companies that tear structured settlements apart
DealFlow Media's foray "into the structured settlement industry" was trumpeted with mostly self serving great fanfare from Beyond Structured Settlements' and S2KM's Patrick Hindert, to promote his factoring promotion appearance in a structured settlement webinar that never happened**. Subsequently DFM tried to hitch a publication on structured settlements to its other publications which deal with the folks that fund companies that tear structured settlements apart.
In the opinion of this author, Structured Settlements Report was an utter failure for DealFlow Media because Deal Flow Media...
- DealFlow Media failed to properly assess the market in advance.
- DealFlow Media made the mistake of adopting the primary/secondary structured settlement market business model promoted by Hindert which alienated many settlement professionals from the start. In a December 11, 2007 blog post Hindert characterized DFM news as a "secondary market (factoring) development".
- DealFlow Media failed to recognize the problem and given the opportunity to correct it early enough to avoid an avalanche of criticism, it didn't.
- DealFlow Media failed to hire writers with a fundamental understanding of the business which might have earned credibility.
- DealFlow Media continually published poorly researched and error laden articles from the very start and lost structured settlement industry credibility within the first month. The errors were so frequent that this author created a special sub-category to catalog the errors.
- DealFlow Media charged ridiculous subscriber fees for the aforementioned content.
- Other structured settlement information sources such as Structured Settlements 4Real®, The Settlement Channel, Speaking of Settlements and even Beyond Structured Settlements, publish much more accurate, much more frequent and better researched content on structured settlements and settlement planning related issues and are free.
- DealFlow Media failed to attract advertisers which had to make the publication unprofitable. Its only advertiser was the Society of Settlement Planners and that was at a discount, according to our sources.
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