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Stacking the odds for Indie Magazines Success
I'm re-posting this news story from the downthetubes blog as I think it's an interesting service that comics publishers might well be interested in... what do folk think? Is it a viable way of promoting comics as well as magazines?
Here's an idea which some enterprising comics publisher, or comics distributor, might consider as a way to drum up interest in their full range of titles.
The financial crisis will make 2009 a year of high innovation for independent magazines, according to Stack, a new association of independent publishers, described as the world’s first independent magazine recommendation and subscription service.
In an interesting way of drumming up new readership for the magazines, using Stack's new service readers can sign up to a single annual subscription and every month a different independent magazine is sent direct to their door. They never know exactly what’s coming next, but they do know that it will offer a beautiful and intelligent view from outside the mainstream, and at just £3 per issue, it’s cheaper than buying the same magazines in the shops.
“When we were researching Stack, people told us that their personal tastes were creative, intelligent and independent,” says Steven Watson, the group's founder, “but when we asked whether they read magazines that reflected those values, nearly 60% said no. Stack aims to bridge that gap by making it easier than ever for people to get hold of fantastic magazines.”
Without the marketing budgets of the bigger publishing houses, independent magazines have always had to find creative and cost-effective ways of reaching readers, and Stack is just one innovation currently emerging from the UK’s cash-strapped independents.
Magazines featured on the service include titles such as Russia!, Worn, Bearded, Plan B, Bad Idea, B-East and Electric Sheep.
BAD IDEA presents... Printomortis – Episode 1 from BAD IDEA magazine on Vimeo.
In related news for indie magazines promotion, the features magazine Bad Idea (www.badidea.co.uk) has this week launched Printomortis, a fictional TV mini-series that follows life at an independent magazine in the dying days of print. (The first episode may ring bells with many indie comics publishers, I suspect...)
Made in association with Channel 4 filmmaker Bronwen Parker-Rhodes, the series will run online and takes a satirical look at the troubles currently faced by print magazines.
“In the current climate, publishing businesses who remain overly reliant on advertising revenues will find life difficult,” says Jack Roberts, a founding editor of Bad Idea. “We’ve had to diversify our business and also experiment to reach new audiences, whether that’s by creating a web TV mini-series, conceiving and running new event concepts for clients like the V&A and Channel 4, or setting up the world’s first fully integrated online submissions facility for aspiring contributors. Stack is a brilliant example of the kind of fresh, imaginative thinking that is necessary if independent magazines are to hurdle the financial challenges we all face.”
Meanwhile, movie magazine Little White Lies is demonstrating that a magazine can both profit from and remain independent of the industry it covers. Renowned as the UK’s most honest and unmerciful film title, LWLies’ design team also create award-winning movie posters and branding for individual film distributors. The synergy between magazine and industry is demonstrated perfectly in the posters currently advertising the LWLies ‘Che’ issue.
The posters, which feature the magazine cover and the release date of the movie, were paid for by Che’s distributors Optimum, in a mutually beneficial move designed to get people into cinemas to see Che, and to get people into WHSmith to buy the magazine.
“We never pick cover movies for commercial reasons, or are paid or influenced by film distributors for our choices. We just love them, and we want to shout about them,” says Danny Miller, publisher of LWLies.
“When we work with great film distributors like Optimum, they understand this and are keen to help us out.”
• Check out Stack and the titles offered at: www.stackmagazines.com
Here's an idea which some enterprising comics publisher, or comics distributor, might consider as a way to drum up interest in their full range of titles.The financial crisis will make 2009 a year of high innovation for independent magazines, according to Stack, a new association of independent publishers, described as the world’s first independent magazine recommendation and subscription service.
In an interesting way of drumming up new readership for the magazines, using Stack's new service readers can sign up to a single annual subscription and every month a different independent magazine is sent direct to their door. They never know exactly what’s coming next, but they do know that it will offer a beautiful and intelligent view from outside the mainstream, and at just £3 per issue, it’s cheaper than buying the same magazines in the shops.
“When we were researching Stack, people told us that their personal tastes were creative, intelligent and independent,” says Steven Watson, the group's founder, “but when we asked whether they read magazines that reflected those values, nearly 60% said no. Stack aims to bridge that gap by making it easier than ever for people to get hold of fantastic magazines.”
Without the marketing budgets of the bigger publishing houses, independent magazines have always had to find creative and cost-effective ways of reaching readers, and Stack is just one innovation currently emerging from the UK’s cash-strapped independents.
Magazines featured on the service include titles such as Russia!, Worn, Bearded, Plan B, Bad Idea, B-East and Electric Sheep.
BAD IDEA presents... Printomortis – Episode 1 from BAD IDEA magazine on Vimeo.
In related news for indie magazines promotion, the features magazine Bad Idea (www.badidea.co.uk) has this week launched Printomortis, a fictional TV mini-series that follows life at an independent magazine in the dying days of print. (The first episode may ring bells with many indie comics publishers, I suspect...)
Made in association with Channel 4 filmmaker Bronwen Parker-Rhodes, the series will run online and takes a satirical look at the troubles currently faced by print magazines.
“In the current climate, publishing businesses who remain overly reliant on advertising revenues will find life difficult,” says Jack Roberts, a founding editor of Bad Idea. “We’ve had to diversify our business and also experiment to reach new audiences, whether that’s by creating a web TV mini-series, conceiving and running new event concepts for clients like the V&A and Channel 4, or setting up the world’s first fully integrated online submissions facility for aspiring contributors. Stack is a brilliant example of the kind of fresh, imaginative thinking that is necessary if independent magazines are to hurdle the financial challenges we all face.”
Meanwhile, movie magazine Little White Lies is demonstrating that a magazine can both profit from and remain independent of the industry it covers. Renowned as the UK’s most honest and unmerciful film title, LWLies’ design team also create award-winning movie posters and branding for individual film distributors. The synergy between magazine and industry is demonstrated perfectly in the posters currently advertising the LWLies ‘Che’ issue.
The posters, which feature the magazine cover and the release date of the movie, were paid for by Che’s distributors Optimum, in a mutually beneficial move designed to get people into cinemas to see Che, and to get people into WHSmith to buy the magazine.
“We never pick cover movies for commercial reasons, or are paid or influenced by film distributors for our choices. We just love them, and we want to shout about them,” says Danny Miller, publisher of LWLies.
“When we work with great film distributors like Optimum, they understand this and are keen to help us out.”
• Check out Stack and the titles offered at: www.stackmagazines.com
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Shane Chebsey on
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This is a great way to get folks to try new stuff.
And hopefully if they like anything they are sent I hope that Stack are also able to set up subscriptions to individual magazines, otherwise it'll quickly burn out as a concept.
A model to watch I reckon... as it could work for comics too.
Shane
www.smallzone.co.uk
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Permalink Reply by John Freeman on -
Is it something Smallzone could do, do you think Shane?
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Possibly John.
What concerns me is the fickle nature of comics fans.
Would they expect to be able to send back books they don't like? What happens when all the same books constantly get sent back? Who loses all that money?
The other question would be finance. It would take a considerbale amount of cash to market and promote this for comics. Where would that money come from? I think I could run it, but I couldn't finance it right now, and not for the next two years with all my current projects on the go. The new Frontline Online catalogue is nearing the end of it's develpment and I plan to roll that out to publishers an retail venues asap. This will take up a lot of time and money, so i doubt I'll be able to look at new ventures any time soon.
S.
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Permalink Reply by John Freeman on
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I assume the magazines involved in Stack must be contributing to the promotional costs? There must also be something to prevent mags being sent back, or those who decide to use such a service would realize they might not always get something they don't like? (I assume there is no danger they would get the same magazine twice in a row is the same issue)...
What's the Frontline Catalogue? Bung over some info if you need it plugged, I'm intrigued.
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Cheers John,
Once it's ready to roll out I'll make sure you are one of the first to get info.
Shane
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Permalink Reply by Adam Grose on -
This is an interesting concept. I can see no way of it not working, so long as the Independent publishers were receiving their cost prices. If there was a concrete amount of subscribers, for example a definite amount (500 people subscribed), then this would allow us Independents to order to print that amount of books, knowing that their costs would be met and therefore not be left out of pocket, even if it was at cost price. Although, if I know there was definitely 500 people subscribed and already paid their subscriptions, then the cost for my books would drop dramatically, therefore creating not only a better price to the customer, but also a little profit for all the hard work that has gone into the books. I'm thinking here in terms of my book The Prison.
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Permalink Reply by John Freeman on
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I'm thinking that some of the bigger indie comics titles could perhaps contact Stack and see if they could join up -- Spaceship Away, for one, which has a high price point but is always seeking new readers. If CI returns then it too could perhaps benefit. The email contact I have for Stack is steve@stackmagazines.com
The concept has worked in other sectors -- Green Boxes of Veg where you pay a set amount every week/month and get seasonal veg. I'm sure similar things have been done with books, maybe the DFC team can chip in here.
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Permalink Reply by bambos georgiou on
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I can see that there's a need for this for indie magazines (I'd never heard of any of the mags offered by Stack), but I can see most of the comics on offer in Previews and actually flick through them in the comic shops. My problem is that I don't really like the comics on offer. Plus the mags on offer from Stack will probably cost £4-£5 normally, so the publisher's are willing to drop the price to £3 to try and drum up business. They are also stand alone issues whereas comics usually contain a continued story line.
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Hi Bambos,
Yes this thought occured to me also. If a reader receives say issue #4 of a title with a continuing storyline, then will they be able to subscribe to the rest of the series too on top of their "Stack" subscription? And will they be able to get back issues?
And if this is the case, then how long before readers have found all the stuff they like, and start dropping the varied sub in favour of specialsed subs?
S.
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Permalink Reply by John Freeman on
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Haven't looked at the Stack site in detail so don't know what the set up is if someone decided to subcribe to a magazine. I assume they'd just tell Stack not to include that title in their selection in future.
Well, if you were going to actually do this, you could take four routes:
1) Offer sample issues of weekly UK titles in partnership with the various comic publishers. This would be a task that would be pretty impossible given how slowly some - DC Thomson being a specific example - respond to any commercial overture from outside their company.
2) Offer a selection of the 'anthology' indies and one shots rather than series. Futurquake, Zarjaz, Omivistascope all spring to mind in the first instance.
3) If you were talking US comics -- which I wasn't -- then again, you only include one shots or perhaps offer a different service offering garphic novels or collections only (you could include UK publishers in this). Again, it would be a nightmare to set up, dealing with US companies is even more complex and anyway, Book Clubs probably have that market sewn up.
The fourth option is for indie comics publishers such as Spaceship Away to join Stack as an existing service. Or Comics International, if it ever comes back...
And no, apart from ELECTRIC SOUP, I'd never heard of the magazines on Stack either, but I have now... so by creating Stack, that's an achievement...
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Permalink Reply by Harry Markos on -
I have reservations about this working.
Firstly, as mentioned, it is unlikely that your typical comic book will go down well if received by a subscriber, as it more likely is part of a mini-series or ongoing story. I wouldn't want something like that turning up out of the blue in the knowledge that I probably won't see the rest of that story.
Secondly the subscribers paid their money for magazines, how will they feel about a completely different format, especially one with a stigma attached as it is?
I think what would work is instead of sending a comic, send the entire 4-issue mini-series in a bundle, or a complete graphic novel. Sure the price point may be an issue, but it is a great way of moving some older stock/titles that would otherwise dribble out.
Someone needs to get STACK involved and find out what they think, whether comics would appeal or indeed work for them. It may open different avenues for them, there may be a way to do something similar specifically for comics/trades whereby you'd know that the subscribers want that format. Who knows?
Harry
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Permalink Reply by McScotty on -
I think Stack is probably good within the limited circle of the readership of the mags on offer (I assume the STACK offer is contained in these very mags and not aimed out with that list?). However, personally I wouldn't be that keen on recieving an issue of "Russia" (no offence to Russian's ) or in most of the fashion mags on offer (I like clothes but they look a bit too extreme for little ole me) - I would like some of the cinema and music mags though (actually might look out "Electric Sheep") - but considering its a recession (yep its now official) I wouldn't think subscribers would be too chuffed recieving 5 issues that they had no iterest in (at £3 a pop thats £15 down the drain) if you could tick subjects (ie fashion) that don't or do interet youi then thats a way forward - I agree adding comics tot he mix (within Stacks) wouldn't work - Indie comics are not mainstream to the type of person that buys "Bearded" - but a separate service offering a selection of indie comics only would be interesting after all lots of Indie titles take ages to get to the next issue so a new comic every month sounds good to me (again witht he option of ticking what someone doesn't want)
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