Fourteener Motoring Magazine - UPDATE |
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Fourteener Motoring Magazine - UPDATE |
stevegm |
Dec 21 2014, 12:04 PM
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#1
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Advanced Member Group: Members Posts: 2,111 Joined: 14-July 14 From: North Carolina Member No.: 17,633 Region Association: South East States |
See Post #457 for update
_________ JANUARY ISSUE IS OUT (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/fourteenermotoring.files.wordpress.com-17633-1454589762.1.jpg) _______ I hope I don't regret asking. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I am looking for feedback on the magazine. We now have an automated distribution system set up, so that should be fixed and you should see a large improvement with the upcoming issue. I am particularly interested in feedback on content. Here are my questions: Content - The most important thing is - what do you think of the stuff we are covering? Is it what you want to read? What would you like to see added? Then beyond content here are some things that I am pondering: A. Balance between features, tech, and news/events. Do you like the balance? B. Balance between photos and text - What do you think? C. Length - We are at 44 pages now, but, we have very few ads. Most magazines run at least 50% ads. So from a content standpoint, I don't think we are doing too badly for a brand new magazine. I'd like to add 4 pages soon, but, I may wait until the January issue to do that, unless you give me feedback that there isn't enough in each issue. D. Size - this is an important one. I went with the small size for two reasons: 1: I like it and think it is easy to carry around with you. And then 2: Cost. It cut our print costs almost in half. But, the size makes for doing full stories difficult. As a solution, I have considered doing a more detailed story on the website and readers could go over to the website for more photos, build sheets, etc. But, I wonder how many people would actually go from the magazine to the website to read more. E. Overall feel - it is important to me that the overall feel be that of a professional magazine. Are we accomplishing that with the size and length? Is there anything we can do to improve in this area? F. My original intent was a more "tech-related" magazine than say a Pano or Excellence. Not just features, but, useful info. Have we accomplished that? Do you value that angle? G. What other resources would you like to see included in the magazine? Any other comments? The magazine is about you. So your feedback is really important to me. _______ I wanted to make sure that you everyone saw that the downloadable PDF of the July issue is available on the website. Just go to - FourteenerMotoring.com - and click on - Read Issue 2 in the menu. The print version of the October issue goes to press September 7th, and will be mailed October 1st. We have moved all of our deadlines up to make sure these go out on time. If you want a subscription to the print version of the magazine, you can subscribe here. ________ UPDATE: Last call to subscribe and get the second issue. After August 15th, new subscriptions will start with Issue 3 (October issue). We also have a limited number of copies of the first issue. So, if you want your subscription to start with Issue 1, PM me. ________ UPDATE: Last call to subscribe and get the first issue. We will have some of the first issue available for sale as single-copy back issues. But, we are closing out the first subscriptions. So, subscriptions after this week (May 10th) will start with issue number 2. ________ We are excited to announce that the the first issue is done and will be mailed out the first week of April. Thank you for your support. The magazine includes:
Event coverage News Product Reviews Tech articles Project cars and more If you would like the to receive the magazine you can subscribe here: PRINT MAGAZINE - Subscribe to Print version ELECTRONIC VERSION - Available at FourteenerMotoring.com If you have a 914 story that you think should be told, or are interested in writing an article (or two, etc.), covering events, or helping in any way, please PM me or email me at - stevegm@mac.com In particular, we are looking for the following stories for upcoming issues. If you are interested in helping with any of these, or would like to be featured, please let us know. Feature car - Subaru conversion Feature car - Original six Tech article - Six conversion Tech article - Megasquirt conversion Racing stories Product reviews (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-17633-1427586748.jpg) ------- OLDER POSTS ------- UPDATE: The Fourteener Motoring Magazine website is live. It is a "soft launch," and is by no means complete. The website will carry articles between issues, long running series' (like project cars), and the articles from issues after they are published. The first issue of the print magazine ran behind because of design conflicts (we are using a unique format that took some working out). We have worked them out now. In addition, given the importance of the Amelia Island honoring of the 914 I thought it would be good to include it in the first issue. The first print issue will be out the first week of April, and will include Amelia Island, Eric's Trip, and some other great stories. We will be sending emails out to subscribers in the next couple of weeks. We have decided to provide the PDF for free, and the print version for a subscription of $19.99 per year. ___ In assembling the 914 calendar we just finished, I had the opportunity to go through a lot of pictures of great 914s. They were very inspiring. In addition, a number of people sent me the "story" of their car. What struck me the most was that each car is a work of art (regardless of its current condition), with a story behind it. A story that should be told. I decided to take on the project of creating a print publication dedicated to the 914, called Fourteener Motoring (since the car was called the "Fourteener" internally at Porsche). A decade or so ago I founded a small, industry magazine for the field I was involved in. It is something that I think will fit in the 914 community well. The magazine will be published quarterly, at least initially. I am using a small format that will fit in the glovebox. It will include feature stories, tech articles, product reviews, racing coverage, as well as event news and stories. My goal is to put something out closer to the magazines that were actually fun and useful to read when I was getting into cars in the 1970s. A traditional magazine revenue model would likely not work in this small of a niche. So, I am going to do it a little differently. Subscriptions are FREE, at least for as long as I can make that work. I will evaluate it more as time goes on. But, I would like to try a free model. |
MikeInMunich |
Dec 26 2014, 03:38 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 392 Joined: 19-November 13 From: Munich, Germany Member No.: 16,674 Region Association: None |
Greetings from Germany! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_flagge6.gif)
I personally really appreciate good print material and have a lot of experience over 20 years of printing my own brochures / publications here in Munich for Mike's Bike Tours, my Good Food Guide, a guide of Munich, my board game, Globopolis...www.globopolis.net among other projects, the latest being an 8 page (A4..similar to 8.5x11) brochure for a campaign I am leading in my community to have a so-called Multi Aktiv Sportplatz built here. www.mas-unterfoehring.de That background is intended to serve as perspective for the opinion I want to express here. I know about labor of love for no profit...MAS is such a project for me, and as mentioned, I know about printing and the satisfaction one has when the product comes off the press. I called that, when my board game was finished...MIC. Multiple Identical Copies. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) It's sweet, yes, it is. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) That all being said, I would like to offer my opinion regarding this idea of a free, as I imagine it "newsletter-like" quarterly publication. Clearly as conceived thus far it will require a lot of time (especially if it goes beyond being "newsletter-like") and require money to print and deliver. IMO a website can offer those interested more content than the magazine concept and INCLUDE the magazine format as a pdf. For those that would like to have it in hand in a relatively "production" format as opposed to just coming off their own printer...they can take it to their local Kinkos or copy shop and have them print it, which could also be done by email. But that is not the main thrust of my opinion, which is to print a really NICE magazine on an annual basis for the following reasons: 1) consolidated material...best of the year kinda stuff in a larger, nicer magazine will have a much sweeter degree of satisfaction for you, Steve, as this would be the culmination of a year's work and material. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif) 2) it would be something which most of us would pay e.g. $5 for which would at least cover your production and shipping costs 3) it is something that would more likely be preserved and never thrown away, so that in 50 years there would still be some or many of them in the hands of 914 owners 4) it would be easy to get AA, Camp 914 et. al. to sponsor for advertising 5) there would be less, constant pressure to get the next (quarterly) issue out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif) 6) the website format / project would more easily allow for it to be a community project which many would contribute to. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) ...and I could come up with a few more reasons beyond those as well. No matter what you choose to do, you may want to compare printing costs online with these two online printers which I have used extensively over here, just for purposes of comparison with North America prices, which I believe are higher and higher than they need to be, giving you an idea of what kind of margin the printers over there are working with. It is easy to choose a format, paper quality, number of copies, etc. and immediately find out what the cost would be, over here at least, in Euros. Multiply that figure by 1.20 or whatever the exchange rate is to get the US$ figure. www.wir-machen-druck.de and www.flyeralarm.de Good luck. I would love to buy your annual, top-notch production for $5. I would pay $10 for it if it was really well done, which naturally it could and I imagine would be. Again, IMO, this concept is, at least for me, far more interesting than a more frequent yet "lessor" production that would not as much be a real collector's item in and of itself. And beyond that, the idea of doing it all for free...beh! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif) Screw free. We don't and you certainly don't need "free". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) With best regards from Munich, Mike in Munich (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif) |
MikeInMunich |
Dec 26 2014, 03:47 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 392 Joined: 19-November 13 From: Munich, Germany Member No.: 16,674 Region Association: None |
Just checked Wir Machen Druck...
152 pages, 70g inside, 300g cover...A4 (30cm x 21cm)...2000 copies: Under $2 apiece. For 500 copies...$5.50 apiece but $1,500 less total production cost. https://www.wir-machen-druck.de/Broschuere-...detail,747.html This is clearly just to offer an idea of print costs for a larger magazine. Larger than 152 pages not possible with them. Paper other than 70g also not, which I think is too thin. Looking at a smaller production with 48 pages...90g inside and a 170g cover... 1,000...running at about $1.50 apiece. This, times 4 would be over $5.00 production cost per year per subscriber...and shipping...500 subscriptions...times 4 = 2000 mailings annually...2000 envelopes and over $2000 additional costs. This adds up to something like $5k per year, not to mention your time, and again, I'm not sure if you can get these prices over there, though I reckon it should be possible. Costs are in any case the same or less. Mike |
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