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View Camera
Here are some thoughts about the future
offering a first class subscription to people in the US. This would cost about 40/year for 6 issues
offering an online sub to people in the US
dropping retail distribution. This is close to a loser for magazines such as View Camera.
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steve simmons
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Re: View Camera
I know from even large magazines that news stand sales are a wash, but do they not attract customers to become subscribers? Or is a that not so important for niche magazines that serve a well defined and informed community?
About online magazines.....I might feel differently if I had a huge computer screen, but I don't......I still vastly prefer a real magazine to an online magazine. A print magazine is much more user friendly and portable. There are places I like to read that a laptop is just not very handy.....
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Re: View Camera
As my interest in the contents of View Camera varies from issue to issue, being able to only purchase the ones I'm interested in has been a good thing. Removing it from retail stores will make a niche magazine even more obscure (I have doubts about LensWork's decision to do that), and I wonder if out-of-sight will lead to out-of-mind completely, let alone being completely invisible to first time buyers who are also unfamiliar with this website.
As to charging $6.67 per issue for a first class mail delivery, if that's an improvement over the current delivery mode, it'll likely be very welcome.
From what i recall of Magnachrom's on-line offering, though it was beautifully made, it was a pain to scroll through in PDF form. Besides, there are some favorite reading places that aren't available with an on-line magazine. :D
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Re: View Camera
My online service is dial up. I don’t see that changing for many years. An online magazine becomes slow and painful. I will vote for the current system.
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Re: View Camera
As to charging $6.67 per issue for a first class mail delivery, if that's an improvement over the current delivery mode, it'll likely be very welcome.
A regular sub is 25 so 40 is for the extra expense of first class mail.
I understand about laptops not being taken everywhere:).
We could offer both printed and online to US subs so people could make a choice or get both.
All magazine publishers have the fantasy that we can turn all retail buyers into subscribers. It just does not happen. The bookstore gets a small piece of the price but the distributor gets most of the money. We just get a few cents per issue. However, with gas prices going up people who like going to the bookstore may decide to have the copy sent directly to them - especially if it comes first class which would now be the same price as the retail price.
steve simmons
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Re: View Camera
Well, I usually don't read from my laptop while I'm in bed. Never have, in fact. But novels, View Camera, the Bible, other magazines, the newspaper--all are very enjoyable before turning the light out for the night.
Also, the images! View Camera comes to me on high-quality paper; the images have power because the printing process better serves the silver print than other media. How is a pdf on a glowing laptop screen going to produce the same quality of images?
So, if View Camera were only available electronically, that would be a big disappointment to me.
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Re: View Camera
As an overseas electronic subscriber to View Camera I have to echo the comments made above.
The magazine certainly loses much of it's appeal in PDF format, you can't casually browse, flick through etc. I would rather have a printed copy in many ways, but the extra cost in postage, plus the fact that post doesn't always arrive means the online version has to suffice for now.
Ian
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Re: View Camera
I'm not in the magazine business so what do I know, except that it seems to me that the web is the way of the future, like it or not -- and with ad-supported models, not subscription based models.
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Re: View Camera
As the Editor of a technical journal that is also archived on line, I have a definite opinion about hard copy versus electronic distribution.
Electronic distribution makes a lot of sense when two conditions are met:
1. The magazine primarily serves as a publication of record - that is, when the main purpose is to to provide a repository in which information can be published for retrieval by those who have a need for that information, and not when the primary objective is that the content will be read as issues are published.
2. On line publication is part of a permanent scheme of archiving - that is, once having appeared on line, the content is available on line in some kind of perpetual archive accessible to subscribers.
But for casual readers, there is no substitute for words (and pictures) on paper, so that would clearly be my choice.
The idea of offering first class mail distribution is fine, but in my experience, the issue is more associated with distribution beyond the borders of the US. About half the subscribers to my magazine are in the US, and while there is some variability in the delivery date, readers generally receive it within one or two weeks of the formal publication date. Its very unusual for a reader in the US to not receive an issue, and when this happens, it tends to be because of a problem in their local post office.
On the other hand, the delays in getting to readers in other countries are very long, and in some countries, delivery is a real hit-or-miss situation. And from the dialog that has appeared in LF Forum in the past, this seems to be the major complaint with Large Format. Offering a first-class/airmail option may be a better answer for those folks - but the premium price could be a show-stopper.
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Re: View Camera
Since we began working with a series of distributors in Canada, France, the UK and Australia and China overseas delivery has improved considerably. Actually, overseas subs are increasing with this new system. We also offer readers outside the US an online version which is increasing in popularity as well.
The increased cost for a first class US sub is due to the cost of mailing each copy in that manner - it does not give us any additional profit, just better delivery.
steve simmons