[plug] starting a linux mag?

[John Knight]

I finally took the time to go through this one (see below): ;)

Make lunch, not war.


>
>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.

I wouldn't have any qualms about giving ads away at the beginning, provided 
we can get the ball rolling afterwards.

>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'm not bothered by independence too much, I'd rather have steady pay, but 
as this would be a group effort, I wouldn't speak for everyone, that'd be 
one for a meeting.

>I could be talked into helping out a bit, depending on how serious the
>effort is.

What doing? I've got a mate that's dead keen on doing the graphic design 
side of things, a fellow 18 year old, but business stuff would certainly 
help.

> >  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.

Basically the kind of audience that read APC and PC User, but using Linux of 
course. ;)

> >  (B) Just how many of these people exist, and do they have the
> >  disposable income to buy such a mag.

They buy $18 mags atm, so that's not a prob. Going by all of the LUGs in Aus 
and people in New Zealand etc (they always end up going to NZ), I'd say we 
have decent chances. :)

> >  (C) Advertising targetability. If the mags gunna be cheap, will the
> >  target market be responsive enough to advertising to allow advertising
> >  to subsidise costs.

Certainly not my area (soz).

> >  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.

That sounds decent, and a few PLUGgers would probably be keen to go on 
goodwill to start with for the chance to be heard, but it's unfair to rely 
on that.

> >  (B) Artists / Layout. A bit harder cost wise, but keep in mind
> >  the market is
> >  always flooded with desperate unemployed graphic designers.

I've got just the man, don't you worry! :D

> >  (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.

Perhaps a newspaper at the start if need be, but I was hoping for about 
$8.95 for a single CD mag, or $9.95-11.95 for a two CD mag, standard format, 
what do you think?

> >  (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.

I've got one well powered Linux box, SuSE 7.3 on a 1 Ghz Duron with 256 meg 
of RAM and a nice graphics card, more hdd space would be nice though. The 
bloke I've got for design would rather drink a pint of his own diarrhoea 
than a Mac, probably a dual-boot situation here.

(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.

No marketing guys I can think of, the sample edition intrigues me, I assume 
a few people would have to work for free on a sample edition though?

> >  Anyway, I'll be happy to help out and GOOD LUCK!
> >  Shayne.


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