Don't panic!
Discover more from The Magazine Diaries from Grub Street
Hello fellow magazine makers,
We’re moving into full production mode for issue three of The Grub Street Journal and the rising panic is real: panic that we won’t get it done on time, panic that no one will buy it, a general sense of publishing panic.
I don’t mean the full on debilitating panic that our stupid society induces in too many people. Just a mild panic that, hopefully, will ultimately prove useful for focussing our minds.
I actually remember the feeling from way back in the day - one issue done, the next one looming – and I honestly think it was one of my favourite things about working in magazines. Yes, there was the tyranny of the empty flat plan, but also the promise of a brand new issue.
I’m not sure what it says about me and my ‘good enough’ philosophy of life, but in magazines every new issue is an opportunity to do things just a little bit better. You have to stay in your lane, but every time you can drive a little faster, a little further and end up somewhere a little more interesting than the last time.
If you can get past the panic, the future’s so bright you’ve gotta wear shades.
Speaking of the future…
Subscriptions: If I can be brutally honest for a minute, launching Grub Street with subscriptions felt like hubris. We had no idea how the first issue would go, and asking people to pay for multiple issues seemed like tempting fate. Two magazines in and with the next on the horizon, I wish we had sorted a subscriptions option from day one; lots of people have asked for it.
So, we’ll be offering a multiple issue bundle and recurring payment options with issue three.
Digital edition: This one is slightly different. We deliberately didn’t launch a digital edition of Grub Street because we knew we had to focus hard on the print. Now that we think we’ve found our print sweet spot and, again having being asked by several people for a digital version, we’re on the hunt for a digital solution that will work for us.
Right now, we’re considering digital editions and micropayments. Watch this space.
Podcast: Joanna and I have been talking about doing a podcast for a while, but you know, we got busy making a magazine. We’re now thinking about it again, with some behind-the-scenes chat about the stories we’ve published, decisions we’ve made and general magazine tomfoolery.
If you would be up for listening to a 20-minute episode every two weeks or so from a couple of magazine geeks from Northern Britain, let us know…
Future funding
We have also been thinking about how we fund future issues of The Grub Street Journal. As we’ve said, selling single copies is a slow burn and, while we build up a head of steam we need to figure out other ways to bring money in.
It’s early days, but we’re confident that by the time we annouce pre-orders for The Walking Dead issue on October 1st, we’ll be able to share at least some of our plans to cement the magazine’s sustainability.
Joanna’s posted about the challenges of selling a new indie print title on the new Media Voices forum. Chip in if you have any genius ideas.
Buy this
Meanwhile, if you’re not already a paid-up Grubber… do us a solid and buy our first two issues at Grubstreetjournal.com if you’re in the UK, or at Newsstand if you’re elsewhere in the world. Slàinte Mhath!
Steal this
Media analyst Thomas Baekdal has a really interesting model for tackling subscriber churn. Looking closely at the reasons readers choose not to resubscribe, he has come up with four demotivations:
Can't afford
Got bored
Don't see the value
Pissed off
Thomas offers suggestions for each situation, but his ground zero is figuring out which type of churner you are dealing with. But be careful – the last thing you want to do is push ‘boreds’ or ‘can’t affords’ into the ‘pissed off’ group.
Think about this
A study in the journal Social Science and Medicine has found that that people who read live longer than people who don’t. Researchers discovered that people who read over 3.5 hours a week lived a full 23 months longer than people who didn’t read at all. Basically, Grub Street is a bio hack.
*These researchers focused on books, but you know, book schmooks.
Shout about this
When she turned 60 last year, artist and writer Mich Maroney decided she was up for a big challenge and decided to set up literary and arts magazine Swerve. While the magazine is connected to her life as an artist, she says the world of publishing and writing still feels new and exciting: “I am using a different part of my brain to write and produce a magazine... It helps me to explore the world.” Perfect!