[plug] starting a linux mag?

[Shayne]

Indeed. 

On this idea , perhaps if one wants to take an open mind then may I 
suggest an organisational model that may help to get it off the ground.
.....drum roll for extremely contraversial suggestion........
The Online Collective!

By that I simply mean do the following;-
(A) Set up a groupware powered site. My recomendation;- Moregroupware,
as it's no nonsense as opposed to PHP and it's godawfull mixed-meat 
slow-ass navigation. This will make coordinating *SO*MUCH*EASIER.
Oh, and definately use Amphora if you can! (bad mojo debian)
(B) Set up a mailing list & a blog for article submission, the blog 
will eventually double as online version of mag.
(C) Get some people to volenteer for copy (writing stories etc)
(D) Get other people to volunteer to do some market research.....
(E) Get people people to volunteer to edit a 'pilot' issue up.. Be smart
about this, pagemaker or quark or publishers will think your on crack.
(F) Set up a steering committee to coordinate this.
(G) Bombard every techy you know to join in.

Now to get this cranking in the early stages back off from apointing 
heirachy and roles and let people swap around doing what they want.
It will become clear naturally who are leaders and who are followers,
this is just to get it off the road, it's not the destination. 
With a loose anarchic coalition forming, you can then get a pilot issue
pdf'ed up and ready for print. Don't take it to print however, start bombing
publishers with it and see how that goes. If all else fails, perhaps a fund
raiser to get it started indy-mag like.

Just a suggestion.

On Saturday 16 November 2002 13:23, Peter J. Nicol wrote:
> Shayne's advice is excellent.
>
> I may add the following (from having published a mag before, and been
> involved in the graphic design biz for a while also).
>
> Ad sales are the engine of any magazine.  Without this, just about
> everything else is moot.  So you need advertisers, and ad salespeople. 
> Good ones are out there working already ... so it may be an interesting
> task to convice people to join your effort.
>
> The other road is to find a financier, and having been involved in a
> venture funded business previously, I can attest that this is also an
> interesting task.
>
> There are a few local success stories.  WA Style went successfully for
> years, and then became Australian Style and I think is still going.  Scoop
> manage to put out I think 4 magazines a year.  There are a couple of local
> Bride magazines.  Pete Collins and crew got out quite a few years worth of
> issues of REVelation Magazine out of Perth.  Of course, there is Xpress and
> such as well.
>
> Design Graphics is an excellent graphic design magazine that comes out of
> Australia and is read internationally, so it can be done.  A really great
> team and a really great product is the key.  Does anyone know of any great
> Australian Computer/IT websites with an international rep?  They may be a
> good start for a print magazine ...
>
> There is a chicken and egg thing with advertisers and magazines.  They only
> want to put ads in mags that people read, and without the advertisers it is
> hard to get the magazine out ...  So you have to be going for a while
> before they will come on board ... unless you want to give the ad's away at
> the beginning.
>
> The other way is to put a team together, and go to a publisher.  But there
> is little to stop them stealing your idea outright and starting up with
> their own team.  In this instance also, you would lose a degree of
> independence.  This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your
> opinion (regular wages=good, loss of independence=bad).
>
> I could be talked into helping out a bit, depending on how serious the
> effort is.
>
> >  I'd suggest the first thing to do is to work out the demographics.
> >  (A) Identify Audience. You have to work out WHO the mag
> >  is targeted at, in terms of (A) Broad demographic [linux heads]
> >  and (B) Specifically [IT commercial sector, IT hacker sector etc], and
> >  if multiple targets, how compatible are they in terms of aust market.
> >  (B) Just how many of these people exist, and do they have the
> >  disposable income to buy such a mag.
> >  (C) Advertising targetability. If the mags gunna be cheap, will the
> >  target market be responsive enough to advertising to allow advertising
> >  to subsidise costs.
> >
> >  Then you need to work out a cost analysis. Based on your demographic
> >  figures (research research research!) , how many do you intend to put
> > out each edition, and whats the production cost.
> >  Factor in;-
> >  (A) Writers. $100 a pop an article will be a good figure once the mags
> >  established, until it is, perhaps you can rely on goodwill from
> >  Pluggers etc.
> >  (B) Artists / Layout. A bit harder cost wise, but keep in mind
> >  the market is
> >  always flooded with desperate unemployed graphic designers.
> >  (C) Printing costs. Is the standard mag format do-able, or
> >  perhaps a small
> >  newspaper/broadsheet format is the go. Doing it this way may
> >  bring end price
> >  down to $2-$4 bucks a pop. Plus a newspaper format is novel.
> >  (D) Plant. Factor in 2-3 linux boxen, plus a mac for the artist.
> >  (Reality
> >  check;- Artists love macs.. So OS.X stacked with gnu-goodies + standard
> >  adobe toys is the go. Gimps fun , but it's no illustrator/photoshop) And
> >  location.
> >  You will need at least one machine at good spec to fiddle with ,
> >  and sadly
> >  it's probably got to be red-hat flavored as opposed to Debian. Make sure
> >  to pressure suppliers into giving samples to play wi^H^H^H review.
> >  (E) Admin.
> >
> >  Maybe the trick is to put together a sample edition to give you
> >  an idea of
> >  logistics, and start BOMBING publishers with the proposal. Do you know
> >  any marketing guys? They will be GOLD in helping you pitch the idea.
> >
> >  Anyway, I'll be happy to help out and GOOD LUCK!
> >  Shayne.