Write Now and the Slow Death of Print
on March 19th, 2009
August company. I am extremely flattered to be on the same cover with these people. But alas, this is the final issue of Write Now. A real shame, these were good magazines. Is there an online alternative in their future?
You can get it at the publisher’s website. You can also buy any back issue at great discounts, or go whole hog and get the lot for $67.50.
Here’s a podcast interview with editor Danny Fingeroth. Do check it out. Danny has lots of interesting things to say about the industry.
Not a stretch to suggest that many magazines of this sort will be going home to Jesus. It’s all online now. But how to finance the new model?
Online, there’s no big bucks needed for printing, and you reach tens of thousands of people easily. Every day is a convention. But you have to be pulling in thousands of hits every day to really make money on ads.
I am often asked how much traffic I get and if I make any money at this blog thing. It’s hard for the average reader to tell what we’re getting from looking at Alexa or Technorati (especially since the recent revamp and move destroyed our stat rankings.) Comments are no indication of traffic, either. This Neil Gaiman photo from last month got 5,000 hits in two days, and only eight comments. Neil’s Twitter link sent so many people here, we overloaded the very unhappy server.
(FYI: People tend to comment more when they argue, actually, so if I were to post something vile implying Neil Gaiman supports child molesters because he stands up for free speech issues, as opposed to my posting cute photos of Neil, we’d get a lot of comments. Mostly angry ones. And deservedly so…and, um, no, I don’t think Neil is enabling icky child molesters.)
BTW, pop this link and scroll down for a look at Neil’s very first published illustration: a parody of Watchmen called Watchdogs.
More on the print publishing death watch: Clay Shirky wrote this fascinating and thought-provoking post about the fate of print newspapers.
Back in 1993, the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain began investigating piracy of Dave Barry’s popular column…they found many things, including the copying of his column to alt.fan.dave_barry on usenet; a 2000-person strong mailing list also reading pirated versions; and a teenager in the Midwest who was doing some of the copying himself, because he loved Barry’s work so much he wanted everybody to be able to read it.
…I remember Thompson saying something to the effect of “When a 14 year old kid can blow up your business in his spare time, not because he hates you but because he loves you, then you got a problem.”
Since anyone can link to a blog and transfer posts to their own blog, that means no advertising revenue for the content originator, which is problematic.
But the point of webcomic publishing is providing enough interesting content to encourage people to buy material goods based on the online presence, such as books, t-shirts and original art. I have certainly seen an increase in all of the above since I started blogging regularly.
People are still willing to buy the tangible form of entertainment. They are not so willing to buy information. Who needs to buy a fanservice book on J.K. Rowling when everything you need to know about J.K. Rowling can be had for free on the internet? Including the same interviews reprinted in the fanservice book?
The advertising money from all this blogging is chump change for most bloggers, including popular ones. It’s the aftermarket sales that bring in the cash – t-shirts, art, etc. I sold almost 150 originals last year online, for example. I would not have been able to do half so well without the blog.
Many thanks to author Rus Wornom for the hat tip on the Shirky article.
Rus is a very opinionated and tough-minded journalist and fiction author. He hasn’t been blogging for long. His entries concentrate on the newspaper industry, and his blog would be a good companion read to similar subject matter at The Comics Reporter.
I’m in full agreement with Rus’s observations, which is why I do things like this blog. The future is here. While I read the news everyday online, I don’t buy newspapers at all and haven’t for years, except the tiny local newspaper which has about 8 pages in it.
Rus and I met many years ago. We have had similar experiences in publishing with similar people. It is good to renew the acquaintance of such an intelligent man. I hope you will check out his work and consider adding him to your blogroll. His personal account of the death of the newspaper industry (including the death of HIS newspaper) is a must read.
I know we all wish Rus the best.
c
PS: And to a certain someone who railed at me to get out of comics (the only growth market in print publishing) and not to blog:
Wrong on both counts, old man.
Adapt or die, dinosaur.
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I’ve been seeing this coming for some time. And I think it a mixed … fate.
On the downside, there is the lack of physical object, which with some things is a detriment. If I were looking at something like… INTERNATIONAL STUDIO, I’d want the object, because to sit and linger looking at art reproductions is a pleasing thing, especially when I don’t get the radiant glare from a computer monitor (no matter what the resolution is, you are looking right at a LIGHT EMMITING object with a monitor – and that goes for things like the Kindle too).
On the upside, online, there is a great ease at archiving and FINDING things. Plus the great ease at increasing access to material.
When I started laying out the plans for my website, I conceived of it as a sort of permanent, yet growing, magazine. Which meant I needed both a good navigation bar and useful index pages. I had to make sure that copyright information was located on each page, and I had to decide how much I was willing to put up knowing that it might be copied without credit. I’ve had my website for nearly three years, and not put out a donation button. I probably should do that. The site needs some revision, plus major updating (and I have to get the domain pointing on it straightened out).
But I would not have been able to put out the things I have (at http://www.scribblerworks.us/_index.html) if I had to do print. I simply could not afford it, nevermind actually getting it into readers’ hands. Not that I have much traffic at present, but that’s more my failure to advertise and hype than it is anything else.
I’ve rambled about myself at this length because it’s just an example of the type of thing that is possible online that could not be done any other way. And that’s the upside.
But making money at it? It is as Colleen said. You have to figure out what people are still willing to pay for. They may contribute by way of donation buttons if they are so moved. But offering tangible product that reminds them of the pleasure they find at the website (or which may be pleasing objects in their own right) is where the real money online is.
Do I know this certain someone?
I do believe you do, though I have had nothing to do with the certain someone in years.
I get the impression you think as lowly of them as I do.
I will never look at tootsie rolls the same again.
Private joke. Nothing to see here!
Regarding your first point: the University of Michigan Press just announced that almost all of their future titles will be digital, with print-on-demand paper copies available. Libraries will be able to purchase licenses to their catalog of titles.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/23/michigan
(The comments section is worth the read. While I will continue to purchase hardcover monographs from university presses, having the ability to search the text (especially on ancillary titles) will facilitate research.)
I see serialization moving online, with both digital and print collections available at a later date.
Thanks for that, Torsten.
I spent about two months doing research for my new project.
The last time I spent a lot of time having to do research for a gig, I spent about $500 on reference books.
I spent less than $50 on reference books this time, with almost everything I needed being online form the New York Historical Society and the US Archives.
My father is an adjunct professor and one of the things he always grouses about is the cost of textbooks. I don’t see students buying textbooks at all, in future, but school simply having a surcharge on tuition which is applied to the costs of providing content by online publishers of texts.