1/6th magazine idea

[tankgirlfuzzy]

Hi all,

I personally think our hobby has gotten to the point where it deserves a 4 color periodical. I'm seriously considering putting in the effort to get one started up, but before I put in that kind of investment of time, money and "heart," I wanted to get a feel for whether such a magazine would get much support from the community. This would also be a good time and place to hear if people have any ideas on what should go into the magazine.

I envision something along the lines of Fine Scale Modeler, or better yet Military Modeler (anyone remember that one?). I imagine that probably half the content would go toward WWII figures, with maybe 1/3 going to modern and the rest would be miscellaneous stuff, like historical figures (pre-twentieth century) and movie related stuff (these proportions would be flexible, of course). Obviously it would be important to have in-depth reviews of products by the major companies, mostly complete figures, but also accessory kits. The how-to section would be a major part of it as well, showcasing the talents of some of the hobby's best, most of whom frequent this board. There would also be a vehicles section, although I'm not sure how big it would be or often that would run. A diorama section would also be an idea. The major conventions would be covered, and perhaps regional ones could be covered by local contributors.

These are just my initial ideas, and I would love to hear from you all about what you think. I've already posted over at the Sixth Division about this, so apologies to those who have already seen this. Please realize that this is in idea-stage only. There's no business plan, no financing, I don't even have any like-minded partners yet. The challenge of putting this together is daunting, and if I commit to this would probably take up to a year to get a first issue out the door. Still, the horse needs to go before the cart...

[laughinggravy2]

I'm in here, too.

[Solid Snake]

Sounds good to me...

[toy soldier]

Answering you as a magazine publisher and journalist, the idea is great, but its been tried before and failed.

You haveto ask yourself two things? Will the magazine sell through news trade and more importantly will the industry support the publication

The answer to the first question is yes, but only limited amounts, the answer to the second question is strangely no, there’s not enough advertisers out there to make a 1/6th magazine commercially viable

A publishers in the Uk launched a 1/6th scale magazine which didn’t make it pasted the 3rd issue that’s why the 1/6th market (here in the UK) is covered by Model and Collectors Mart and as of May this year there will be an new international magazine called Impact which will have a large 1/6th scale section in it

I personally think that your idea is great, but be prepared to lose loads of money if you decide to try and publish a magazine

Here’s a near as dam it cost break down on publishing a small run (5-7k) magazine

Print and paper £5,000.00
Design & Repro £1500.00
Distribution £2,000.00 (that’s quite a difficult figure to forecast as there are a number of factors that will change the amount,

Total £8500.00 that’s around $16,000

That’s without staffing costs and business costs as you can see heaps of cash
that’s just for one issue, you won’t get feed back from the news trade for three
months on how your first issue sold, overseas you can wait up 6 months before you
get you final sales figures

regards

Paul;

[1delta10tango]

Sounds like a great idea to me.

[Pivot]

TS raises some good points. We're already a pretty fringe hobby. Getting mass market support would be incredibly difficult.

Although you can look at modern day solutions. Monthy E-zines posted on message boards (pay a subscription to for a year of access). E-mailed PDFs by subscription. Small press mail outs instead of mass market distribution.

Where there's a will (and a market).

[strangelysaucy]

I'd be more than happy to chip in some help with any graphical requirements

[Miketek]

I would enjoy a 1/6 magazine. Even though we are a "fringe" hobby, I would think that there are enough people to support it. Take a look at the Garage Kit/Figure Model hobby, there are 3 different magazines published on a quarterly basis, and all of them are great magazines with tons of content. The 1/6 hobby is at least as large if not bigger.

I think for it to succeed, it would have to focus on the "model" part of the hobby and not the collector part. Just think about the in depth articles that someone like Boot25 or Aly could contribute about some of their "build-ups".

[toy soldier]

Mike
I hear what you are saying, in a perfect world it would work, the ironic thing here is the publishers who launched the 1/6th scale figure mag have a US office

In fact their flagship magazine Toy Soldier has far more US subscribers than the rest of the world

In actual fact Action Figure magazine sold hardly any mags states side, the majority of the magazine sales were in the UK and HK

[Clown fart]

all for it. I agree with every point that has been raised on here so far. They are all very valid points. Why not make this a community effort. If any are willing to help let them submit some work and see if they could be helpful. I'm willing to throw my hat in.

[newpilot]

I love the PDF file idea and pay for a year of subscription, low cost=low price
best wishes
-jeff

[maxmike]

Having also done the magazine thing (Animag, VMax) I have to echo what my business mgr said; " a magazine is a great way to throw money into a hole in the ground." Your two major obstacles will be 1) finding advertising support, because you will NOT make it on newstand sales. and 2) finding a way to provide enough content without busting your budget (you'd be amazed how many people who would normally do the article for free will suddenly want bocoups bux when the mag actually goes to print.)

maxmike

[G.I.Joe]

wow toy soldier thanks for pointing out the cost here in Asia is much cheaper to print magazine.

I work in a publishing company before if you can get advertiser to buy ad space why not... it will cover the cost...

[Mark.L]

The thing is, do you think you can fill 12 issues a year with enough content or do you only come out quarterly?
Are you going to be able to do reviews on products fast enough or is it going to be sold out before the article is a edited and sent to print?

E-magazines and PDF file subscriptions? I 've seen the likes of these fail or fade away. And who's going to pay for that when you have great forums like the one we're on just now.

This forum is a living, breathing Magazine, where you can get the latest news and reviews on products and vendors, a wealth of How-to's! Even if you can't find something, you ask and you can get usually an answer /solution the same day!

If you still feel like publishing some thing, why not go low scale and produce a 'garage' magazine. One that you produce and print on your own. Make it a half size magazine, have a combination of B&W and colour pages, edited it on your computer, printed it at kinkos or such like. Fold and staple it your self. Sell it through the the forums like this one, other model type forums, Local model and figure shops. Set up a Web page properly so that it advertises you magazine and is caught by a search engine when people go surfing the net all things 1/6th scale.
This way, you get to see if you've got what it take to put a magazine together, see if you can keep people interested in the magazine, see if you can keep getting enough material to sustain the magazine and see if there really is a market, without laying out all that money T.S. outlined.

Also, by doing a 'garage' magazine, you can scale your printing run as required. Print as many magazine as are ordered or to the closest print/cost ratio

If it gets popular, you could eventually think about moving it on to the commercial market.

You could always publish a book instead. Make it a how-to type of book. There is plenty of material that could go into this:- Head painting, clothes and weapon weathering, parts bashing, custom parts making, figure modifications, tanks, cars trucks, bikes, dioramas, clothes making, cloth printing, etc, etc. Have a section on different brand of figures and how they differ, Show case some bashes.
This book could be also done with a combination of B&W and colour pages. The colour pages could be scattered thoughout the book or a collection in the middle like I've seen lately. You only need B&W photos for showing things like sculpting and sewing, Leaving colour for the likes of painting and showcasing etc.

Anyway, just my thoughts

mark