* Overhead costs for the typical online magazine: server cost (might either
be a dedicated server or managed account), paying authors, paying magazine
staff (editors, layout, advertising person, etc), advertising costs, paying
taxes on advertising and subscription dollars you bring in, paying your
accountant to write up your taxes each year, etc.
* How are you going to get authors to write for you as opposed to FAMA, TFH,
AFM?
* How often will you publish a magazine? Monthly/Quarterly?
* How will you publish your magazine? Online articles like the above two
examples or download the entire issue as a PDF?
* Where is the money going to come from to pay your overhead costs? You
really need to pay authors a fair price for their articles that are at least
competitive with FAMA, TFH, AFM, etc. I can tell you that subscriptions
alone aren't going to cut it until you have a large subscriber base. For
argument's sake, let's say you pay authors $200 per article to be
competitive with the print magazines. To pay for one article, you'd have to
sell 10 subscriptions at $20/subscription to pay for one article. Assuming
you have 8 articles/issue, you'd have to 80 subcriptions to pay for one
issue. If you're a monthly magazine, you'd have to have close to 1000
subscribers before you'd break even on author costs alone. That's not
factoring in any of the additional overhead costs yet.
* How are you going to manage subscriptions? It sounds simple: "give them
a username and password and that's it." However, there's no reason a group
of people couldn't potentially share a user/pass. People are cheap and some
will do it. You'd have to restrict that user/pass to an IP to make it
effective. You're also going to have to somehow manage those subscriptions
and keep everybody happy.
* If they are downloading the issue each month, how are you going to stop
them from circulating their downloaded copy to multiple people?
* Will you accept advertising to help pay your authors? If so, how are you
going to get advertisers and what software are you going to use to manage
those advertisers and how are your advertisers going to know that they're
getting a good "bang for the buck" for what they're paying you for
advertising on your magazine?
* How are you going to get the word out that you have an online magazine to
get a lot of subscribers or readers? Advertising on Google using Adwords
isn't cheap. Advertising in the print magazines isn't cheap either.
* There are automated software systems to do a fair amount of what's covered
above, but they can cost anywhere from $1000 to $5000 to purchase a good
newspaper/magazine content management system (CMS). I guess you could hack
PostNuke to do something like that but it's not ideal and it'd take a fair
amount of hacking. You might be able to find an open source CMS to do what
you want to do (Salon.com uses Bricolage and that has a large learning
curve), but it'll take a fair amount of digging through sourceforge.net and
Google.
I've touched on some of the major issues, but there's more things that would
need to be addressed as well...
hth
Shane
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stan Perkins
> Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 11:07 PM
> To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> Subject: Re: NANFA-- New Fish Magazine?
>
>
> I have been giving this idea some thought. I believe that an
> electronic
> magazine accessable only to subscribers or those who pay a
> fee to read the
> magazine issue. Paper magazines require too much capitol for
> too little
> return. Electronic magazines do not have that many overhead
> problems. No
> surplus magazines printed with no readers. No printing costs,
> no large staff
> costs, minimal equipment costs, and the only overhead is the
> cost of the
> site it's self. No problem with sale of back issues - just
> pay your money
> and download. I know the guys at AKA have been considering
> this possibility.
> Deals could also be made with on line printers to produce
> printed versions
> at additional costs for those not computer literate.
>
> Stan Perkins
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mysteryman" <bestfish_at_alaweb.com>
> To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
> Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 8:08 PM
> Subject: NANFA-- New Fish Magazine?
>
>
> > No, there isn't a new magazine...yet. If there WAS one,
> though, and YOU
> > found yourself on the high editorial staff, what kind of
> magazine would
> > you make?
> > What types of articles would you run?
> > What target audience would you try to reach?
> > How would you market it? Where would you market it?
> >
> > Would you make a "small boutique" of a magazine catering to the
> > discerning reader?
> > How about a mass-market free-for-all?
> > A specialist magazine for certain hobbyist groups or one group?
> > A feel-good fishy fluff rag designed to sell advertising?
> > A politically slanted one geared for social change?
> >
> > What kind of fish magazine would you produce if you really had the
> > chance to make a magazine you felt was perfect?
> >
> > Finally, what kinds of columns and features would you want
> your magazine
> > to have? What would you try to avoid?
> --
> > /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do
> not necessarily
> > / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
> > / Association"
> > / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
> Association
> > / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
> help, send the word
> > / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject)
> of an email to
> > / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the
> command to
> > / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
> > / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page,
> http://www.nanfa.org
> ----------------
> /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not
> necessarily
> / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
> / Association"
> / This is the discussion list of the North American Native
> Fishes Association
> / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help,
> send the word
> / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject)
> of an email to
> / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
> / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
> / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page,
http://www.nanfa.org
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org