On Thu, 31 Oct 2002 23:40, you wrote: > i David > > > Thanks for your reply. > > > I think we probably would go for a PDF edition, as well as or instead of a > print edition. There are two problems, though, with electronic publishing. > People don't expect to pay very much, which is a real problem in a niche > market. We'd expect to pay contributors about $40-50,000 a year in total - > how many potential subscribers are there willing to pay anything at all?
You have to get most of the revenue from advertisers, but I guess you know that. A problem for you is that many people (myself included) find there's enough free info around. Besides that, if I want to tell my mate up the road about some particular document on a pay-for website, I can't. Well, to be more precise, he can't see it. I think the local free papers have a circulation of about 40-50,000 and they seem happy with that. And they have to pay printing costs on 32 or so pages of tabloid-size colour newsprint. > And electronic publications are very easy to pass along to others (unless > we inflict an intrusive security mechanism on our subscribers, which would > not be very popular!). If it's paid for by advertisers, free replication helps you. Sure you can't audit, but if your advertisers have ads specific to your publication then they can measure results themselves. Remember Adam Osborne, author of fine books? I asked why a small organisation such as his used addresses such as "Dept 947-xyz?" "So we can tell which ad you're responding to." I suggest offering a printed copy when and if the demand seems to warrant it. -- Cheers John Summerfield Microsoft's most solid OS: http://www.geocities.com/rcwoolley/ Join the "Linux Support by Small Businesses" list at http://mail.computerdatasafe.com.au/mailman/listinfo/lssb
