Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 13:33:43 -0400
Reply-To: Isaac Taylor <irtaylor@fas.harvard.edu>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Isaac Taylor <irtaylor@fas.harvard.edu>
Subject: Adventures in Publishing | Vanagon Magazine
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Hi all, longtime lurker Isaac in Cambridge here. It struck me the other day
while catching up on last month's listmail backlog, that there's a better place
to do all this reading than here at my desk. The porch, the couch, even the
can beckon. But without a laptop and a wireless connection, what are volk to
do?
And then it hit me: what about that other technology, paper? Think of the
download speeds -- you can just turn the page, and bam: more Vanagon content.
Pictures? Yep. Diagrams, sure! So here it is: I'd like to start
brainstorming with anyone who's interested about how we might migrate some of
the interesting and helpful content that piles up in our inboxes over to a
newsletter, magazine or other paper-based periodical. There's an amazing
community here; this is far and away the most active list I have ever found.
Despite the increasing amounts of spam and off-topic dialogue, there's a lot of
truly useful (and often entertaining) content generated here... but I wonder if
we could do better, or more, or at least... different than the faithful
listserv?
Some Pros
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Stable Archive - Useful information that fits in glovebox filing cabinet!
Mobile Medium - You can take a magazine wherever you want!
Editorial Control - HOT TEENS and FREE DIPLOMAS be damned!
New Audience - Think of all the PC-less Vanagon enthusiasts!
Revenues - Subscription and Advertising: ugly but proven!
Some Cons
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Logistics - Printing, Binding, Delivery?
Money - Are we willing to pay, and/or accept advertising?
Green Guilt - E-mails recycle really, really well.
Editorial Control - Who decides what gets published?
Speed - Do For Sale, and Help Please work a month later?
Time - Who has the free time to publish a magazine?!?
If any members have experience with newsletter, or niche-market publishing
please weigh in here. I'm also interested to hear from folks with design and
editorial skills, and everyone with relevant small-business experience!
There's
a lot of smart and capable people on this list, and I'm interested to hear your
thoughts.
Isaac Taylor
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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