Let me be the first to leak to you that we’re at a point where almost anything goes in terms of ideas with the 8BIT Team. One of those ideas that’s in the backburner but comes up frequently enough to cause burn is something like that of a “magazine.”
We could go digital on it or go full-bore physical. Not sure, but would love your thoughts. Lame? Done? Are we jumping into a sinking market?
Russ says
Depends on the intended audience. About a year ago I actually left a full-time music/media ministry position to join a small firm in South Georgia that publishes print magazines. We cover small towns that haven’t previously had a “community oriented – hometown living” type of publication.
Business is BOOMING. We’ve opened up new markets left and right. We expanded and now have a branch in Texas with 4 markets there. We’re also adding markets there.
I spend my days designing ads and laying out articles for these publications. Most of them come out 2x per year, which means I’m constantly designing. I don’t make a killing, but it’s a steady, secure job and I don’t have to wrangle up clients as I would have if I had stepped into the freelance world.
That being said…had we gone into a big city with 2, 3 or even 4 community magazines already in place, we probably would have been met with failure instead of success. The success was totally wrapped up in finding the right audience.
Find the right target group and print media can still be booming.
Dave says
I think print ain’t dead, but I think YOU should think twice about entering it. Dang hard to start and sustain a print rag these days.
You guys do what you do very well. Think about sticking to your speciality.
Ben says
I like it. I would think it would be a good addition to communicating with the community by compiling some of the most popular posts from that month or quarter. It also would be a great way to promote the active community online. Something we could hand the members and volunteers in our churches and groups. The more I think about it the more i’m liking it.
PhillipGibb says
hmmm, I guess if you are going to make use of advertising then Advertisers would prefer digital (well, online – digital does not always mean online – although that is becoming synonymous nowadays).
I love print – it is tangible and engages you within the confines of it’s pages.
I think full-bore digital is the way to go.
I am reading a book called the Viral Loop – some interesting thoughts on Print Media there and how Advertisers just prefer the instant feedback on online distribution. Yet readers are so fickle and skim back and forth.
Zachary House says
Just a thought on this phrase from your post: “hmmm, I guess if you are going to make use of advertising then Advertisers would prefer digital (well, online – digital does not always mean online – although that is becoming synonymous nowadays).”
Adblock doesn’t work on magazines, but sure as heck works on digital ads. I would assume that a print ad, for this reason and others, would be more attractive?
Zachary House says
The church I work at, Highland Park Presbyterian Church, began publishing ONE Magazine a little over a year ago. It has been well received and hqs been amazing tool for building community (both with church members and non-church members), and the content in it certainly is more readily accessible and easier to share than online media. (www.hppc.org/one for our online page and a PDF download if you are so inclined.)
I say that if you have the resources to try out a print edition, go for it! I’d buy one.
Plus, print design is delicious and a lot of fun to work with.
JayCaruso says
Maybe it’s just me because I’m from a generation that was not raised up in the digital age, but there’s something about holding a magazine and flipping through it that just isn’t the same as looking at it on a screen. This goes largely for any kind of creative outlet be it photography, design, film making, etc. If it’s just news and opinion, then yes, I will more likely wind up reading it in some kind of digital format.
Go to any book store. The magazine rack is still deep and wide.
Stephen Bateman says
I’m with Jay, but I *was* born in the digital age ([email protected], so 1996!), but I love the magazine concept.
There’s gotta be a difference between dying and shrinking. Big magazine and newspaper companies think they’re at the morgue, when they’re really at the gym. A lot of them will die, but their *industry* isn’t dying, just the organizations that are 600 pounds “overweight.”
Patrick Woods says
There’s something to be said for the emotional response a reader experiences when holding a printed piece and discovering it’s content. But there’s also something to be said for the high margins enjoyed when doing things digitally. Would a printed magazine, even if it became profitable, net similar margins to what your online properties bring in?
Also consider the opportunity costs associated with restructuring your team, finding new people and/or gaining new core competencies, ramping-up a sales staff to sell ad space and build partnerships, dealing with distribution channels, and of course actually paying for the production of the magazines.
I love your content and I know a magazine would be solid, but considering the time it takes to pivot your business model, it seems like you’d be redirecting tons of resources away from higher-margin lower-effort projects already in your core competencies. Of course that’s my view from the outside, so I don’t really know.