TobaccoReviews.com Bought by Pipes & Tobaccos Magazine

[admin]

Since we're in the habit of being the best at breaking news, I thought I'd be the first to post this here. Actually, it was posted on Smokers Forums around 2:46 AM, and I heard about the post at 3:00 AM ... and I already knew the news before that.
TobaccoReviews.com is now owned by Pipes & Tobaccos Magazine (the quarterly print magazine).
I guess Fred and ChuckW are taking the day off from the forums as I was waiting for one of them to post about it here so I could then comment on it.
As to the news of P&T buying TR.com, my official comment is this:
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That's a great move for them as they really need to do something to boost their online presence. I'm not sure how it will work out though as A LOT of work will have to go into it if they plan on making it a professional commercial site. We actually made an offer on Tobacco Reviews over a year ago, but then decided to develop our own cleaner web 2.0 type of tobacco review site; LuxuryTobaccoReviews.com. I think it's a smart move for them though. It is exactly what I would have done if I was P&T, and I wish them the best of luck with it.

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[hilojohnny]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out over time..... :?

 

[admin]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out over time

Yes, it will, and it will be fun too.

 

[fred]

That's a savvy move by P&T. Yes Kevin, I spent the day at the local

B&M that I frequent, loafing and burning fine blends in Meerschaums,

with a Cigar thrown in for good measure. It was a good time of sparkling

conversation & company, while not accomplishing anything in particular.

 

[pstlpkr]

The game's always more fun when you have someone to play with.
I wish them luck.
::

 

[cortezattic]

TR.com needs to be cleaned up in some way, but I'm at a loss for suggesting a promising strategy.

Perhaps archiving reviews by decade. Having an abundance of reviews online is a tremendous resource,

but there's a lot of substandard material out there. It's a classic case of being impoverished by abundance:

wading through 150 reviews can be a daunting experience. Their star rating system and "advanced search"

feature are great assets, but they need a "deep search" like LuxuryTobaccoReviews.com has.

 

[krgulick]

Should be interesting to see what P&T does with TR.com. I agree with cortez about the searching through all the data they have there in a better way.

 

[strongirish]

As a big contributor to TR, I just hope they don't ruin a great resouce! If they improve upon it then power to them!

 

[admin]

This is just complete speculation on my part, but I am guessing they are going to hire an Internet / Website professional to overhaul the site.
That's what I would do if I didn't already have my own company that does that.
(Not looking for the job myself, of course, as it would be a conflict of interest.)
If they do hire an Internet professional, I am betting that the P&T flagship site will get an overhaul at some point too.
On the one hand, it's competition for my sites, but on the other hand I wholeheartedly welcome it as there is nothing I would like to see more than our hobby keep growing as it has been over the last 2 or 3 years.
A big part of the formula for that to happen is to have full-time professionals helping nurture it along.
Think positive guys.

 

[lordnoble]

As a greenhorn, I'm too new to even know about other pipe sites with the exception of Brothers of Briar and Puff.com, which (I think) is where this move on P&T's part is going to pay off. I've never heard of P&T, so this will definitely give them exposure to people like myself who only know what we find online and usually only the first few sites that Google shows us (this is where being an expert in SEO makes it easy for newbies to find your site).
-Jason

 

[sparroa]

I agree fully with strongirish. I've used that site from day one, I enjoy sifting through the reviews and trying to get a coherent impression from them all. I hope for the best but will be displeased if they tamper too radically with the site; the extant reviews are a great resource no matter where the ownership lies.

 

[admin]

@lordnoble

As a greenhorn, I'm too new to even know about other pipe sites with the exception of Brothers of Briar and Puff.com

Kind of off-topic, but since you mentioned it ...
Puff.com bought my old site Cigar-Review.com, along with 4 other sites. My cigar site was the crown jewel in the overall purchase as it had the same level of traffic as Cigar Aficionado (when they bought it), and it was the only site they bought that had steady monthly advertisers. (They are all gone now.)
Sadly, their plan, unbeknownst to me until after the purchase was to shut down all 4 sites, and import their content into the new Puff site. That was a colossally bad move, but not my problem anymore. I have a non-compete in cigars, but it was an overall good deal for me and helped self-finance the launch of this site, PM.com.

 

[krgulick]

Amazing how things work out, isn't it. I say we are definitely the better for it in the end.