D&D 5E Kickstart Dragon Magazine or any other rpg type magazine?

[aramis erak]

can you even kickstart a magazine? isn't there something in KS rules like "You can't kickstart things with ongoing costs, just one time costs" maybe I'm thinking of something else...

It boils down to being able to get the startup capital for the office, but not money for ongoing issues and operation. Many kickstarters have been for projects that will have yearly upkeep/fees, but the KS includes 1 year.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

Agreed.

Jason Bulmahn once described to me the logistics of putting print magazines on shelves in bookstores and hobby stores. I don't recall enough of the specifics to describe accurately here, but suffice it to say that it's more complex and expensive than most of us realize. It's just not something that can be easily done nowadays, Kickstarter or not.

Kickstarter adds an additional complication that reputation comes into play. WotC probably could never Kickstarter magazines because of their current rep in handling things like that.

Morrus could probably do it with ease, though.

 

[Staffan]

The KS rules, as far as I can tell, say that the project has to be, well, a project. There must be a defined goal and a way to say "Yep, goals fulfilled."

That pretty much rules out ongoing things like magazines - though I guess you could kickstart something like "publish X issues of my magazine." I know ComicBookGirl19 used Kickstarter to finance her Youtube show for a year, including upgrading their equipment, so it might be possible to get it to work. But Patreon is probably better for ongoing stuff. Perhaps use Kickstarter for the startup and a few issues, and then Patreon for the ongoing stuff?

 

[trancejeremy]

There was a Kickstarter for a video game magazine last year. Er, 2013.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/socalmike/retro-the-multi-format-throw-back-video-game-magaz

 

[Shasarak]

Hmm, I would back a Dragon version of that for $30 plus $3.50 per issue.

 

[Parmandur]

Who here subscribes to *any* magazine? To be honest, I haven't subscribed to any for over a decade, as the coat is hard to justify with Internet access. Something nice like Dungeon might be different, but how many people would be interested?

 

[Ranes]

Traditional mag publishing (and I have some experience of this, from Crash and Zzap!64 to White Dwarf and a swathe of titles from Future Publishing) depends (watch out for that tense) on ad revenue. The maths would work out like this: your monthly (or whatever period) sales, from newsstand to subscription, would cover your print and distribution costs (even for titles with six-figure audited circulations) but your staff cost (contributors, artists, editors, production bods, publishers and even the basic salaries of your commission-driven ad sales people) would derive from advertising revenue.

I used to attend meetings in which people would tell me how many seconds my cover had to sell itself on an average newsstand, and even which colours would affect my chances. These are well-studied subjects, believe it or not.

The days when those calculations could justify a case being made for a games magazine of the kind we're imagining are long gone. I think Morrus's approach with his forthcoming titles is one possible way forward. Another that I know still works for certain high-quality specialist publications is a premium-price subscription model (to compensate for the lack of ad revenue, which has evaporated over the last fifteen years for niche interest print titles).

When we have a couple of months of articles in the bank. I want a buffer of at least 8 weeks.

Russ, if your objective is monthly output, I strongly recommend you aim for three months' working collateral (but eight weeks will get you started, for sure).

 

[wedgeski]

Traditional mag publishing (and I have some experience of this, from Crash and Zzap!64 to White Dwarf and a swathe of titles from Future Publishing)

You were associated with Zzap!..?

Careful, I may start worshiping the ground you walk on.

 

[Bayonet]

I would happily pay for a subscription to a Dragon-ish magazine; whether that manifests as a physical copy, or as some sort of e-mailed or downloaded pdf, I don't really mind. But I want one. If Kickstarter is the way to go, I would participate happily.

There, that is one data point for you budding magazinists out there.

 

[fjw70]

Who here subscribes to *any* magazine? To be honest, I haven't subscribed to any for over a decade, as the coat is hard to justify with Internet access. Something nice like Dungeon might be different, but how many people would be interested?

With the multitude of message boards and blogs about gaming I don't really have a need for magazine articles.