>>ICOM Economy: can money be earned through advertisements in ICOM News? Valerie Jullien's comment on this question is very valuable. I see her comment not as an opinion from the ICOM Secretariat, but as information. I must admit that I sometimes during debates in the Advisory have wished that a representative from the Secretariat could be invited to give brief information on legal matters, earlier experiences and concrete, practical consequences of this and that suggestion. Not in order to stop a proposal, but in order to enable us to continue a debate with more background information. The reason for asking the question above was the obvious need to strenghten ICOM's economy. If the legal restraints are as described, it also has impact on several other possible sources of income for ICOM, and that is indeed quite serious. French law surprises me, since say in Norway, we would not be met with such legal restraints on income as long as we are not making a net profit - that is, earning more than we use for the organisation's non-commercial purpose. Are the legal problems in this matter the same within all countries in the EU? Legal matters aside: would it be economically worth while trying to get advertisments? Certainly not in the start, but probably after a while. If a national museum periodical with a thousand or two readers can cut some costs through advertisments, it is extremely surprising that a global museum periodical with around 15.000 subscribers (and increasing) should have such a hard time finding companies that are willing to advertise. Most of the companies offering their services to the museums are international and the museums are increasingly using commercial companies for exhibitions, transport, etc, etc. Per B. Rekdal ICME chairperson - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Change ICOM-L subscription options and search the archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html