Wouldn't It Be Cool...?

Raoul Duke, Jr. · Post by **Raoul Duke, Jr.** » 2003-02-03 01:45am

I'm not sure how you guys feel about this, but my original idea was indeed for a print zine, written in much the same style as was done to create the Leah Brahms page; with one subject being tackled by several SDN voices -- with, of course, the typical SDN flair.

We have plenty of topics for articles -- look how much material pops into the SLAM forum every week. And yes, anyone could come in here and read it for free -- but we'd be taking it to the general public, and condensing our conclusions into concise and well-defined articles.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-02-03 09:14am

While I agree that if we did it, it would likely be an online magazine only or a regular newsletter, you COULD sell advertising space in the magazine depending on who and how you did so. A close friend of mine works as editor on a variety of specialty mags, some of them outlandish, and they operate with advertising. There's a LOT of people out there with products to sell even in strange niche markets. Still, need someone willing to do it full time for it to work and even then, it wouldn't turn a profit.

If anyone is doing this, and would like some advice, I will help. I have some small experience as an editor of research documents intended for public release (read: dumbing down detailed reports for laypeople magazines like TIME Canada).

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-02-03 10:17am

Raoul Duke: Thanks. THe two covers I made are just two potential layouts. I'm going to create a third when I get home, one that follows your vision (one issue, multiple voices) more closely.

Lagomonster: I'm starting to soften a little bit on the possibility of a print 'zine. Still, as you pointed out, there's going to be a lot of difficulties; somebody is going to have to pay money each month to get it printed, unless it's astronomically successful (pun intended--har har), and distribution will be a cast iron bitch. It might be doable, though, if we can maybe work out some creative solutions to the problems...

EDIT: P.S., Raoul. I just about pissed myself laughing at the first line in your sig.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2003-02-03 02:43pm

erm... RedImperator: are you a professional layouter or somthing like that? i´m not sure about this, but unless you are a professional layouter 15 minutes per page seems way too little.

i´m sure you can put up a page in 15 minutes that people could read. but you want a mag that people DO read. in order to acomplish that you need a concept for the whole layout, everything needs to be set up logically. then there´s all the font stuff, text sizes, text styles, and probably a whole bunch of other stuff i´ve never even heard about.
you cant just take a couple of articles and couple of pictures, glue them together somehow, then print them and expect people to buy it.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-02-03 02:50pm

RedImperator wrote:Lagmonster: I'm starting to soften a little bit on the possibility of a print 'zine. Still, as you pointed out, there's going to be a lot of difficulties; somebody is going to have to pay money each month to get it printed, unless it's astronomically successful (pun intended--har har), and distribution will be a cast iron bitch. It might be doable, though, if we can maybe work out some creative solutions to the problems..

The key to print is advertising. Hell, even online news sites need it to some degree. Frankly I think it's something that Mike operates this site without charging us admittance. Again, it depends on the focus of the magazine. If it's pure Star Wars news and analysis then you're competing with either big-money publications like Cinescape magazine or the various Star Wars fan mags, and you can't do that - or against the plethora of websites that operate for free. There may be some ad dollars in companies like parksabers and lithtech industries and other fan companies that barely turn a profit because of the small niche, but I won't bet my ass.

A mag based on the SLAM concept would be more successful, that seriously downplays the SW influence, because you can sell pretty much any advertising you like at that point, because the focus would be so broad. At that point, I don't know who you're competing with.

People often like to get information - I don't know how reading articles talking at length about who is wrong and why we should make fun of them would go over. It'd be like a magazine full of editorial columns. Determining features would be a bitch, even for a quarterly publication; I wouldn't set pen to paper without some kind of agreement of cooperation on behalf of a good portion of the forum, for example.

Raoul Duke, Jr. · Post by **Raoul Duke, Jr.** » 2003-02-03 03:18pm

Okay, kids, meant to mention this last night, but didn't get around to it;

If you're looking for a good mag to emulate here, as far as productions and distribution goes, we should check out 2600. They are quarterly; maybe a good pattern to examine.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-02-03 08:05pm

I say we do more than just science, logic, and morality. On one page, there would be some editorials on stuff like morality and religion, and on the next page, there would be a 2-page report on anal sex, and a survey on what sex between Trinitry and Mary Poppins would be like.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-02-04 02:55pm

salm wrote:erm... RedImperator: are you a professional layouter or somthing like that? i´m not sure about this, but unless you are a professional layouter 15 minutes per page seems way too little.

i´m sure you can put up a page in 15 minutes that people could read. but you want a mag that people DO read. in order to acomplish that you need a concept for the whole layout, everything needs to be set up logically. then there´s all the font stuff, text sizes, text styles, and probably a whole bunch of other stuff i´ve never even heard about.
you cant just take a couple of articles and couple of pictures, glue them together somehow, then print them and expect people to buy it.

I'm not a professional, but I've spent the last four years working as an editor for my college newspaper, and my job description included layout, originally as the OpEd page editor, later as the editor in chief trying to get the whole newspaper together (we never had a dedicated layout editor--it was hard enough finding writers, let alone people to do thankless chores). If I had all the articles and photographs for one page were prepped and ready to go, I could have them assembled in the template in 15-20 minutes. We had a basic layout plan for each section and an overall plan for the entire paper that we wouldn't deviate from unless we had a good reason to do so. The front cover took the longest because there were more elements that needed to be updated each issue and we couldn't stick with just one basic design for it--the monotony would become obvious very quickly. I will grant though, that for this, 15 minutes per page is probably an exaggeration because the 15 minute figure assumes nothing goes wrong, and that happens so rarely we talked about it for months whenever it happened to us. Still, short of my comp catching fire, an hour per page would be the absolute maximum it would take, and that would be a full-bore, screaming red-alert disaster that caused that.

Raoul: Quarterly might be a better idea than monthly or bimonthly. I've apparently repressed memories of staying up all night twice a month trying to get the newspaper out.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, another cover test design:

http://link.freepichosting.com/image.cg ... x=95&y=130

I don't have the slightest idea why it's posting in thumbnail size. I'm tired of fighting the image server, though, so that's what you get for now.

EDIT: Corrected the problem. Thanks, Ando.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-02-04 03:27pm

RedImperator wrote:Quarterly might be a better idea than monthly or bimonthly. I've apparently repressed memories of staying up all night twice a month trying to get the newspaper out.

I haven't repressed those memories, and I've been out of university for a shitload of time. Nonetheless, I think you've got the right idea. Pic looks good...or looked good, once I got out my magnifying glass.

Raoul Duke, Jr. · Post by **Raoul Duke, Jr.** » 2003-02-04 05:14pm

I like it. This is starting to sound very feasible.

Post by **weemadando** » 2003-02-04 08:28pm

I'm happy to help on this project.

Is it possible for me to get a column of my own?

Post by **weemadando** » 2003-02-04 08:29pm

http://link.freepichosting.com/image.cg ... =400&y=544

I don't have the slightest idea why it's posting in thumbnail size. I'm tired of fighting the image server, though, so that's what you get for now.

Change the x and y numbers to get a new size....

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-02-05 11:12am

Thanks, Ando. (see the edit in my last post)