Can you make a magazine publisher in a weekend ? Of course you may . But can you make it well ? That ’s the question48 Hour Magazineis essay to answer , using online medium instrument to make an old - school tabloid in two Clarence Shepard Day Jr. .
I talked to the collaborators , a group of San Francisco - based writers and creators who have put to work in and around the medium industriousness , older and new , for year . I asked them all the same simple-minded question in a fairly limp attempt to get some skillful quote . I should have imagine — these bozo have a lot more to say about their project than could be easily decoupaged into a 800 - Word of God reverse Great Pyramid .
In the liveliness of the project , I ’ve taken their responses and attempted to weave them into a cohesive conversation — in 48 moment .
And … go !
Joel Johnson – What ’s the example of 48 Hour Magazine ? Are you guys assay to show the grown magazines something ?
Sarah Rich ( former senior editor atDwell , co - founder ofThe Foodprint Projectand co - author ofWorldchanging ) – I do n’t know if I ’d say we are trying to show the grown powder magazine something so much as try out to exhibit the potential difference to produce an fantabulous media Cartesian product using “ raw tools”—meaning on-line coaction , crowdsourcing , vane - to - print production system . I make love traditional powder magazine ; This is n’t an attack to dig their grave , it ’s just an example of the possibility of something young .
Mat Honan ( Giz contributorand Wired contributing editor , who madeBarack Obama is Your New Bicyclein four minute ) – We ’re not trying to show established cartridge a way out of the wilderness , but I do think we all have aspiration to seek to make something new and different body of work in footing of the way magazines can be produced and financed . We were all pretty inspired by MagCloud ’s possibilities , and in particularStrange Light — the magazine Derek Powazek put together on the tent flap from the Australian dust storm . It was why we approached him before we got this off the solid ground and convinced him to come onboard . We thought that by using our networks on Twitter and Tumblr and that atrocious art object of shit Facebook , we could likely get a mountain of part in really apace . And because it ’s print - on - demand , we would n’t have to run around essay to find advertisers first , or estimate out what our print run was going to be , or any of that other bullshit that traditionally makes launching a new form of address so cost - prohibitory .
https://gizmodo.com/ipad-etiquette-the-official-faq-5509938
Derek Powazek ( founder ofFray , JPG Magazine , as well as advisor to MagCloud , a print - on - demand service for independent publishing firm ) – Back in September 2009 , when a giant dust storm hit Australia , people started post these stunning photos . I consider they deserved to be in print , so I started asking for submissions . And after a day and a one-half , we published a magazine publisher call Strange Light . Iwrote about the process .
It was a great exemplar of how print on demand was changing the way magazines could be made . And one of the people who saw it was Mat Honan .
So when Mat contacted me about 48 Hour Magazine and bring up that they needed a hand with the print design part , I signed up to help .
Dylan Fareed ( designer , programmer , cofounder Ay Are Tee , the company that produces Artlog.com and Arlosites.com ) – None of us are draw a bead on to topple the magazine / print media industry , but I suppose all of us are count at this as an experimentation with relatively low wager — a chance to calculate at “ cartridge holder ” from a different slant , without an existing publication ’s inertia , and with few assumptions about how things have to be done on the web and in print . None of us are declare this up as a model for how matter will be done in the future , but we all may instruct a bit about where medium is heading first deal and can go back to our other jobs with those lesson .
Mat Honan – Years ago , I asked Jack Boulware , a longtime figure in the San Francisco indie magazine publication scene , if he had any advice for start up a novel title of respect . He told me to receive a dumb , young , rich backer and bleed him teetotal because that was the only path have a character mathematical product . Well , as luck would have it for young , dumb , fat guys there ’s a Modern room to do matter now . you may set up with small - to - no command processing overhead time . you could be in touch modality with dandy writers , photographer , and illustrator from all over the world in second , and provide them interesting ways to make money . I do n’t know that what we ’re doing would be leisurely for a traditional claim to replicate . But for start ups , and entrepreneur , it might be a coolheaded model . And of course of action it ’s tight , which give it a chance to be more well-timed .
Alexis Madrigal ( staff writer at Wired.com , generator ofGreen Tech History ) – Most everyone get into this clientele because we loved to make beautiful and startling things . Turns out , in the genuine praxis of modern sidereal day news media , that ’s the least of your vexation . So , for a weekend , we want the fun turd to be all that mattered . Just as a reminder of why we do what we do . Like a beautiful summertime day in the Pacific Northwest that you’re able to carry around in your core through the dreary - atomic number 33 winter . Or maybe a articulatio coxae flask is a well metaphor .
There are thing — fact checking , foresight — that bountiful magazines do better than anyone . We bow before them for that ; it ’s a gift they give to society . But sure , we need to show that the tools now uncommitted to everyone for almost nothing allow you to do incredible things using only resourcefulness from outside the money thriftiness . That ’s awesome , and it ’s one of the best part of being live and a journalist right now . ( recollect about it like this : if this was 30 years ago , most of us would be act at regional newspapers writing obituary and eminent school day football game ; not that that ’s not a worthful journalistic practice ( it really is ) but this is the young playing field of operations , and we wish it . )
Mat Honan – The other thing we ’re doing , that I hope is somewhat innovative , is the way we ’re compensating people . We have n’t divulge this publicly yet , but I ’ll go ahead and put down out our plan .
We ’re shooting for a 48 page mag . MagCloud has a base Leontyne Price of $ .20 per page [ so the total cost per issue would be $ 9.60 ] . We ’re going to charge a mark up on each issue , and then pool that money for 45 sidereal day from the date it move on sales agreement .
After 45 days , we ’re going to pass out the money in several ways . We ’ll take 25 percent , and split it evenly among all of the release contributors and product staff . For contributors , this means the more you hawk the title , the more money you earn . It give people a vested interest , instead of a fee . We ’re going to take another 25 pct and grant it to the three best contribution to the magazine , as determine by a vote of all write contributors . Hopefully , this encourages hoi polloi to send us bang-up employment , because if it ’s really ace , you ’ll earn more for it . We ’ll bank 25 percent for the next issue , so we can put out an even better product with more resource next meter . Finally , we ’re going to take that last 25 per centum and do something crazy .
The approximation is that , again , all the contributors get to vote on exactly what stigma of flakiness we cover . There ’s slightly more to it than that , but I ’d like to keep some hooey secret to discover afterward . We were barrack by the story of Stewart Brand and the$20,000 he handed out for the last subject of Whole Earth Catalog at its demise party . Except , hopefully this will be less of a disaster .
We ’re assuming the overpowering majority of sales will take place in the first 45 days . Whatever comes in after that will also go towards the next issue .
I realize this is pretty hard to stick with , so I ’ve confiscate a pie chart Alexis whipped up that should explain thing . [ There was no Proto-Indo European chart – Ed . ]
Joel Johnson – How much are you lead for “ polish ” over “ heft ” ? Will you stress to give everything an edit pass , an artistic creation crack , etc . , or will you seek to cram in as much stuff as possible ? Will you turn submissions down ?
Sarah Rich – There will definitely be submissions that do n’t make it in . The legal age , most likely . As of right now there are 3357 hoi polloi sign up to be notified when we let out the musical theme . We plan to record / front at every piece that comes in during the meekness full point , take the content we want for the publication , and have all of the editor take a pass through everything before ship .
Mat Honan – The plan is to read everything and triage it into a stage set of pamphlet . We ’re get to have a few citizenry helping with that . We ’ll assort through the best stuff first , hand everything a reasonably light edit . Sarah , Alexis and I will then go back and do a top edit on everything that ’s definitely going to scarper . But quite frankly , I really doubt we ’re going to have meter to do the form of ancestry edit you ’d bear with a long lead clock time .
Alexis Madrigal – Everything that goes into the magazine publisher will get a lawful edit . 48 time of day is n’t a prospicient time , but when you ’re sprint , time slows down . We ’re banking on a bunch of help from protagonist .
Mat Honan – We ’ve approached quite a few really bad - ass writers ( as well as illustrator and photographers ) and so we ’re hoping that a lot of what come in will be in corking shape to start with .
Joel Johnson – excuse you technical school workflow . All from email , then into … Pagemaker ? ( I have no theme what magazines are laid out in . )
Sarah Rich – We ’re using InDesign for layout and a customs duty system for the vane part of this .
Alexis Madrigal – If Dylan is around , I ’d love him to take a crack at explain this . Because it ’s so gruesome . Herokuis somehow the antonym of hara - kiri .
Dylan Fareed – I ’m building the web app that ’ll brace up the submission , editing and web - publication process . I do n’t really have a magazine background and that may be one of the reasons the guys asked me to help out as I am approaching the job – managing tons of submission ( perchance ) in an extremely pie-eyed timeframe ( unquestionably ) with few editor in chief ( relatively)—without the welfare of baggage or expectation about how it ’s typically done .
So the app I am building as I mentioned handles the public facing internet site ( to be designed next week — one version for your computer ’s browser app and a nomadic version as well ) and submissions . The back ending user interface is designed to support the editorial procedure and is ground on the assumptions we are making about manpower , time and volume of submissions .
Derek Powazek – Once the submission start add up in and go through the edit summons , the accepted ones will put down on my desk . I ’ll be head up the photographic print design , laying out the magazine in InDesign . I ’ve been doing this form of layout since college . Print design is my well-chosen billet .
When it ’s done , we ’ll output it all as a PDF , and upload it to MagCloud . It can then be put up for sale immediately . MagCloud will cover the billing , printing , binding , wadding , and shipping … essentially all of the really unfun constituent of running a magazine . ( I ’ll show you the piles of box I have of past Fray issues that I ’m still mail by hand . Oy . )
Joel Johnson – What ’s your feel on the current state of the magazine industry ?
Mat Honan – It ’s disturbing ! I ’ve been work out in the magazine industry since 1997 . Recently , however , I ’ve been recollect of becoming a folk farmer because it seems like it might be a good long - term vocation move . Of naturally that ’s not true , I know magazines are rebounding . Yet I do think you ’re break to continue to see a winnowing down of major form of address . There will be few major powder magazine on the stand , and those that are there will really have to prove themselves . But I also think there could be lots of room for niche histrion , like us , with weird simulation . Only magazines can make unnecessary magazines .
Sarah Rich – Obviously photographic print magazines are confront serious challenges to their long - defy way of doing things . I do n’t think print is going to die but I think the magazines that will really thrive in the hereafter are the ones who reckon out how to embrace the tools of the web and apply their on-line bearing as a way not only to bolster their print product but also to deepen and radiate their overall identity and ethnic role . Integrating the political program and being unforced to experiment and take jeopardy are vital .
Joel Johnson – 48HR is a fun one - off , but what sort of issue or position can you guess this quick turnaround format being utilitarian for ?
Sarah Rich – One example that come to mind in terms of the public utility of quick flip-flop was the yield of a SXSW newspaper this year , done by Newspaper Club . The paper was produce essentially overnight after the capacity was get together , and distributed during the event . Awrite - upabout it characterized Newspaper Club ’s message to traditional paper as , “ We have transgress your business , now we want your machines . ” I do n’t know if we conceive of ourselves as conquistadors this way , just . I almost imagine it more as saying to traditional cartridge newspaper publisher , “ We number in pacification . We can exist harmoniously , print and digital , and maybe even find new way of life of relate that make us both better . ”
Mat Honan – Certainly this rapid production crowdsourced magazine seems like it ’s already prove itself . You ’ve puzzle title like Strange Light and Ash Cloud emerging around event of the day . I can see it being a agency a metropolis might , say , use it to celebrate save their baseball game team ’s miracle season . Instead of just pull up stakes it up to the local paper to put out a half - assed relic rag , local bloggers and fanatic could crowdsource their own passionate , agenda - driven powder magazine .
Joel Johnson – Why paper ? Why ’s that so important ? Is it symbolic ?
Alexis Madrigal – This is the opposite of how I think about this . Things happen in the man and when they do , you want to preserve them . Most news accounts of how thing happen tend to run on narrative rails , even though that ’s clearly a contraction and distortion of what happened . Having pass a lot of time thinking about history and how events are ordered by journalist — the information design of newsworthiness writing , just to be annoyingly jargony about it — I call up there is tremendous note value in make software program of content that allow for the diversity of the world to be seen .
Mat Honan – I have a deep awe for magazines . I hump them . I grew up in Alabama in the pre - Internet era , and magazine subscription were my ethnic lifelines . I grew up take Rolling Stone , National Geographic , The New Yorker , Spy , and Spin . magazine let me drop into a macrocosm without cracker , and then advert out there for hour on end . While the cyberspace has mostly have over that cultural delivery vehicle role , I still witness the experience of immersion you get from a newspaper mag unequaled . It ’s free from distractions . It does n’t pink every prison term you get a new e-mail or @ content . It wo n’t parade links across the pages that will whisk you away to a wholly unrelated history in a completely different issue . If you could get hold a form of address where you trust the editor program to get you the commodity month after month , I think that ’s still something special . For me diving event into a magazine , offline , offers a way to focus my mind and soak up myself in a cohesive experience that I still do n’t find elsewhere . I ’d like to offer that same immersive experience to others .
Sarah Rich – Sure , I suppose it ’s symbolic . The “ bundle ” for this ultimately look the same as the older affair ( minus a few small formal detail ) , but the path we got there could n’t be more dissimilar . This could n’t have been done even five years ago . Plus , a mag is a beautiful , physical artefact . I ’m not imagine of the printed object being disposable . Biodegradable , maybe .
Alexis Madrigal – Turns out , too , that paper is a great way to uphold thing . It ’s relatively crummy , it lasts , and it does not get out - SEO’d by a soft drink company ’s microsite in 2023 . restrain paper can also be beautiful and allows you to have both linear and random reading experience . As a writer , I ’ve always been jealous of how artists can give you a painting for a gift and you ’re like , “ Wow , give thanks you ! ” You ca n’t just publish out a storey you compose some clip and hand it to someone for Chanukkah ; or you’re able to , but it better be one of the trivial one . You ca n’t give someone a web site for a giving , either . But you could give someone 48 Hour Magazine ( or a Blurb al-Qur’an ) .
Derek Powazek – Print is , at some point , done . However imperfect . It has a rhythm of creation , editing , and issue . And when it ’s done , everyone involved can sit back , look at the thing we made , and feel realised .
The web is never done . It ’s in a constant state of flux . That ’s not good or bad , it just is .
So there ’s something about create print on a deadline like this that make emotional good sense , both to the creators and the consumers and everyone in between . The deadline , and the doneness , give the intact project momentum .
Joel Johnson – What ’s response been like so far ? How do you manage contributors ?
Sarah Rich – Response has been wildly beyond our expectation ! Since I write 3357 a few paragraphs ago , we already have 3370 . There ’s a lot of enthusiasm and it ’s come from people in Israel , Turkey , Brazil , New Zealand , Spain . The feeling of a global coaction coming together is in my view one of the most awesome parts of this .
Mat Honan – Overwhelming . I really thought we ’d be dying for submissions , but now I revere we ’ll have the diametrical problem . I ’m already go on very little rest strain to get this affair off the ground , mostly just because of all the email that ’s coming in that we ’re trying to stay on top of .
One matter you did n’t ask about is the spectacle of it all . We ’re going to taste to make this matter a genus Circus . To that conclusion we ’ll U - Stream the entire weekend , and set ourselves up for a painful 48 hour of study . We expect there will be some conflict and drama — and that ’s part of the show and part of the appeal . We want people to pay attention , because the more they pay attending the more they ’re probable to want to be a part of it .
Alexis Madrigal – First , why would we do it in 48 60 minutes ? That ’s the blank of a weekend , the parentage - besotted , unvoiced - gain ground triumph of the proletarian , an calming that coincides with and partially replace the Sabbath . The weekend is when you celebrate what you * are * not just what you do , crafting your superfluous - economical part with lawnmowers and hiking boot and Jagermeister shots . It ’s My Time .
And that ’s the kind of clip we ’re interested in , the free sort , the most precious kind . The Good Internet is built with it — and now we ’ll be making a magazine out of it , too . [ 48 Hour Magazine ]
GawkerNew mediaSan Francisco
Daily Newsletter
Get the effective tech , skill , and acculturation tidings in your inbox day by day .
tidings from the hereafter , delivered to your present .
