Bass Player Magazine - Subscription offers

[yorks5stringer]

Just now, Rich said:

 

Abracadabra.

 

Now that's Steve Miller Band......

[Silvia Bluejay]

43 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

The big problem with on-line "magazines" is that they still look and act like paper magazines and fail to take advantage of any of benefits of not being tied to a fixed page size and therefore photo and word count. You do get videos, but they are generally full of waffle, and can't be skim-read to get to the important (for me) parts.

 

I'll look at on-line magazines again once they actually start to present themselves in a way that uses the strengths of the medium. 

This is a very pertinent observation. I guess one of the reasons is that articles are usually paid by the word, so a writer's contract will cover a certain number of words or the writer will feel justified in asking for a pay rise. Same with photos; with proper publications they are usually acknowledged and paid for, in print or online format. I imagine a video will be subject to the same rules, even if it's simply re-posted from Youtube. So it's not just the limit given by the number of pages, it's also a budget limit.

While an online magazine doesn't have paper and distribution costs, it does have IT/storage/hosting/designer costs. And if any aspect of it is made to be properly interactive, there will have to be one or more social media experts, or similar roles, who are paid to lead and keep alive the conversation with the audience.

I assume that, at least at the beginning of the existence of a proper online-only magazine, the total costs will be comparable to a printed version. Once it's successful and has been going for a while it may feel a bit richer, or maybe just less poor. We shall see.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Silvia Bluejay

[BigRedX]

4 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

This is a very pertinent observation. I guess one of the reasons is that articles are usually paid by the word, so a writer's contract will cover a certain number of words or the writer will feel justified in asking for a pay rise. Same with photos; with proper publications they are usually acknowledged and paid for, in print or online format. I imagine a video will be subject to the same rules, even if it's simply re-posted from Youtube. So it's not just the limit given by the number of pages, it's also a budget limit.

While an online magazine doesn't have paper and distribution costs, it does have IT/storage/hosting/designer costs. And if any aspect of it is made to be properly interactive, there will have to be one or more social media experts, or similar roles, who are paid to lead and keep alive the conversation with the audience.

I assume that, at least at the beginning of the existence of a proper online-only magazine, the total costs will be comparable to a printed version. Once it's successful and has been going for a while it may feel a bit richer, or maybe just less poor. We shall see.

 

Having done some research for a couple of my clients who were thinking about producing on-line versions of their various printed publications, I can tell you that the single largest cost involved is either the licensing of the on-line magazine display software, or the subscription to an on-line publisher. For about the last 5 years there have been a very limited number of on-line magazine interface formats and all of them follow the same basic format which means that to non-magazine parts of the interface all tend to look very similar. Also IMO none of them make the best use of a computer screen where vertical space is at a premium and ALL of the interface should be positioned at the side of the content.

 

Hosting costs for text and low resolution images is negligible compared with adding an additional 4 pages to a printed publication. As for the actual content, especially photographs AFAICS they are either manufacturer's product shots or have been taken by the editorial staff of the magazine. If you don't need print resolution quality an up to date phone (which nearly everyone has) plus a ring light and maybe a light tent will give fantastic results and you buy these for the fraction of the price of hiring a photographic studio for the day.

 

Maybe when printed magazine are completely dead maybe designers will start to question why the on-line versions are still constrained by the worst aspects of the physical version when there is no longer any reason for that to be so.

[Silvia Bluejay]

Yup, the most irritating thing to my eyes and OCD is the portrait format of any publication, which is usually repeated online, clashing horridly with the widescreen format of the computer.

I was among those who fought the demise of nearly-square PC screens until the end, but lost.

[BigRedX]

16 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Yup, the most irritating thing to my eyes and OCD is the portrait format of any publication, which is usually repeated online, clashing horridly with the widescreen format of the computer.

I was among those who fought the demise of nearly-square PC screens until the end, but lost.

 

However for the production of printed publications the wide screen format works very well because it allows me to see both pages of a spread and all good page layout programs are design in such a way as to give over as much vertical space to the content and keep the interface at the sides (on my system the interface has been mostly removed to a separate screen).

[Silvia Bluejay]

Of course. I was thinking about reading the PDF - or whatever format the as-printed version ends up in - rather than designing the actual magazine. Tablets are fine, phones too small. There used to be PC screens that could rotate 90°, them were the days... 😄

[BigRedX]

For magazines (certainly in print) some articles are designed to work across both pages of a spread.

 

Again this highlights another shot-coming of the on-line format. Thos on mobile devices (phone and smaller tablets) will want to access it one page at a time in portrait mode, whilst everyone else may want to view a spread at a time in landscape mode. If half your readers can't view a double-page spread in a single screen and still be able to read the text, then maybe it is time stop designing as spreads. After all the "spread" format only exists because of the printed version. If there is no printed version, or if it is less popular than the electronic one then now is the time to stop designing and presenting on spreads? I'd also be interested to know if any on-line only versions of magazines have stopped producing issues where the page count is not divisible by 4, as there is no longer any physical requirement to adhere to this format?

[yorks5stringer]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

Having done some research for a couple of my clients who were thinking about producing on-line versions of their various printed publications, I can tell you that the single largest cost involved is either the licensing of the on-line magazine display software, or the subscription to an on-line publisher. For about the last 5 years there have been a very limited number of on-line magazine interface formats and all of them follow the same basic format which means that to non-magazine parts of the interface all tend to look very similar. Also IMO none of them make the best use of a computer screen where vertical space is at a premium and ALL of the interface should be positioned at the side of the content.

 

Hosting costs for text and low resolution images is negligible compared with adding an additional 4 pages to a printed publication. As for the actual content, especially photographs AFAICS they are either manufacturer's product shots or have been taken by the editorial staff of the magazine. If you don't need print resolution quality an up to date phone (which nearly everyone has) plus a ring light and maybe a light tent will give fantastic results and you buy these for the fraction of the price of hiring a photographic studio for the day.

 

Maybe when printed magazine are completely dead maybe designers will start to question why the on-line versions are still constrained by the worst aspects of the physical version when there is no longer any reason for that to be so.

Just a point on photos, I made the observation in my earlier post that there are loads of Getty/licensed images in the current issue of hardcopy Bass Player, yet many  have no relevance to the article other than it is a picture of a famous Bass Player i.e. Lee Sklar and seem to be used in place of editorial.....

Oh and another moan, why can't they be consistent about pricing, this last edition has items in editorials priced variously in £ and $; given the additional costs that US stuff incurs  is usually the same in £ and $ why not just use £?  When I last looked it was our currency.......!

[BigRedX]

22 minutes ago, yorks5stringer said:

Just a point on photos, I made the observation in my earlier post that there are loads of Getty/licensed images in the current issue of hardcopy Bass Player, yet many  have no relevance to the article other than it is a picture of a famous Bass Player i.e. Lee Sklar and seem to be used in place of editorial.....

Oh and another moan, why can't they be consistent about pricing, this last edition has items in editorials priced variously in £ and $; given the additional costs that US stuff incurs  is usually the same in £ and $ why not just use £?  When I last looked it was our currency.......!

 

And having just been involved in sorting out reproduction licenses for a large number of photographs from Getty and Alamy for a book I am designing they are not cheap!

[yorks5stringer]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

And having just been involved in sorting out reproduction licenses for a large number of photographs from Getty and Alamy for a book I am designing they are not cheap!

Must be cheaper than paying a scribe to write more editorial,  unless of course they paid for them years ago and can re-use the picture subsequently?

[toneknob]

2 hours ago, yorks5stringer said:

Just a point on photos, I made the observation in my earlier post that there are loads of Getty/licensed images in the current issue of hardcopy Bass Player, yet many  have no relevance to the article other than it is a picture of a famous Bass Player i.e. Lee Sklar and seem to be used in place of editorial.....

 

Yep agreed that grated somewhat. eg Theory article on melodic minor; picture of bass player who might be a bit melodic, or playing a something minor. Or just a bass player.

 

[toneknob]

The long and short of it is that I'm running out of things to read in the bath 

 

[yorks5stringer]

2 hours ago, toneknob said:

The long and short of it is that I'm running out of things to read in the bath 

 

Here you go then: https://thebathmagazine.co.uk/

[Geek99]

Am I being thick ? They’ve stopped printing ? I’m three mags into a five mag subscription 

[naxos10]

I believe so, no hard copies in the local WH Smith and no update to my " your subscription is ending soon" letter which did not mention the month/final issue number.

 

Went online to find a digital subscription but only found individual copies available.

[yorks5stringer]

10 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Am I being thick ? They’ve stopped printing ? I’m three mags into a five mag subscription 

There will be a final edition for UK subscribers only  but Issue 426 is the last UK/USA edition and  carries the announcement of going fully digital. I got my subscription edition 426 earlier this week so suspect if its not in the shops it maybe slightly delayed with the distributors?

 

I never realised they were a joint UK/USA edition but that may explain the $ pricing of some items which I still find bizarre, as all the reviewed items were in £ Sterling and the overall feel was UK too.

Edited August 18, 2022 by yorks5stringer

[BigRedX]

48 minutes ago, yorks5stringer said:

I never realised they were a joint UK/USA edition but that may explain the $ pricing of some items which I still find bizarre, as all the reviewed items were in £ Sterling and the overall feel was UK too.

 

From a production PoV that makes no sense, because they won't be doing a single print run for both the UK and US and then shipping some of the copies to another country. 

 

The UK copies will be printed in the UK and US edition in the US. It's a trivial matter to create an overlay on the final artwork for each set of prices, and then produce a separate PDF for each print run. Besides I would assume that some ads would need to be changed for each version.

 

[yorks5stringer]

41 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

From a production PoV that makes no sense, because they won't be doing a single print run for both the UK and US and then shipping some of the copies to another country. 

 

The UK copies will be printed in the UK and US edition in the US. It's a trivial matter to create an overlay on the final artwork for each set of prices, and then produce a separate PDF for each print run. Besides I would assume that some ads would need to be changed for each version.

 

Yes, don't think Promenade Music and Bass Direct (who are the only big box advertisers from the UK) would sell much to the USA, wot with the £ being worth diddly......

[Skinny]

I like to buy the mag from the excellent shop Magazine Heaven at Rushden lakes shopping centre. Their cafe upstairs is good too. This way I don't mind paying full wak. 

[yorks5stringer]

2 hours ago, Skinny said:

I like to buy the mag from the excellent shop Magazine Heaven at Rushden lakes shopping centre. Their cafe upstairs is good too. This way I don't mind paying full wak. 

Not for much longer....

[Geek99]

So what is going to happen with print subscriptions? How will my remaining two issues be delivered ?

[Bix]

1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

So what is going to happen with print subscriptions? How will my remaining two issues be delivered ?

I have a print subscription which it seems they automatically cancelled. Next payment was due in a few days so I'll need to check that they haven't taken that.

 

Was thinking about cancelling my subscription since the content wasn't great, but that was weighed against having a physical magazine rather than a screen for once.

[toneknob]

I had a mysterious £6.83 credit appear in my bank account earlier this week from "Magazinesdi". I don't know anyone called Diana Magazines so I suspect that's part refund for my unused subscription.

 

[pete.young]

On 04/05/2022 at 05:07, ubit said:

 

 

I used to like tractors but now...........oh forget it.

 

... but now you're an ex-tractor fan?

That must come in very handy in this hot weather.

[Geek99]

1 hour ago, pete.young said:

 

... but now you're an ex-tractor fan?

That must come in very handy in this hot weather.

As blackadder said “thank goodness I wore my corset because I think my sides Have split from laughing” 😛

Edited August 19, 2022 by Geek99