Who's interested in starting our own community and proudly SA Reefkeeping Magazine?

HELP CHOOSE TO CHOOSE THE MOST POPULAR POLL - I like Aquatic Fanatics... ;)

  • Aquatic Fanatic

    Votes: 16 38.1%
  • Ultimate Aquaria

    Votes: 12 28.6%
  • Extreme marine and fresh water aquaria

    Votes: 24 57.1%
  • The Aquaria Journal

    Votes: 10 23.8%
  • Underwater Creations

    Votes: 8 19.0%
  • Aquarium Chronicles

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • Living Aquaria Art

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Nemo's World

    Votes: 1 2.4%

  • Total voters
    42
  • Poll closed .

jacquesb

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Hi ya all - OK - it's like this - the thread about where to get reefkeeping magazines have reminded me of this mad idea I had about a year and a bit ago.

I discussed this idea with some fellow reefkeepers, and they were keen. I also ran it past some LFS's here in Cape Town - and they were keen.
So - I contacted a Publisher - and discussed this with them.

The idea was: TO START OUR VERY OWN SOUTH AFRICAN REEFKEEPING MAGAZINE...
My idea at the time, was to have a glossy magazine.
This turned out to be a very expensive exercise for me and the other reefer. There were also a huge amount of questions to be answered:
1) name of the magazine
2) what about sponsorships/getting people/companies to place adverts
3) what size and type of paper (for a printed version)
4) who the staff will be working on the magazine
5) do we have access to royalty/license free very high resolution photographs to use

I ran this idea past some other people now - and another fellow reefer came up with the idea of creating an EBook first - perhaps in PDF format.

Now - please give your idea's, support for this, commitments to help, offers to volunteer, negative comments, etc to me in this thread.

The "staff" in the form of volunteers, would be people who can fit the following roles:
(not limited to):
- Editor
- Photographer (perhaps multiple)
- Copy writer
- Columnists (multiple)
- Artist (perhaps multiple)

I want to know whether the MASA community, and overall South African reef-keeping community, would like to see something like this happen? And how serious you would be about this?

At this stage, I am thinking of seeing IF we can get sponsorship/advertisements placed. We will start off with this idea as a free service, then perhaps later on, paid for - if the quality is good enough and there is enough demand for it - and then even later on, to have a printed copy published..... at first - I am looking into supplying a monthly/bi-monthly (every 2 months) EBook format....

OK - there you go - shoot! :thumbup:
online/marketing
admin
advertising liason
 
count me in!!!!!!
 
sounds damn awesome
dude i would glady help sponser aswell as could offer a mauritian editorial eg, specimens,coral, dive /snorkel spots etc etc......
if you want i'll work on it while im there this year and if you decide to go ahead, we'll have all the info.......let me know
 
positions:
online/marketing
advertising liason
Art/design
 
sounds damn awesome
dude i would glady help sponser aswell as could offer a mauritian editorial eg, specimens,coral, dive /snorkel spots etc etc......
if you want i'll work on it while im there this year and if you decide to go ahead, we'll have all the info.......let me know

Many thanks Marco - the article sounds awesome - thanks man. I am sure, now that I have put this out in the open, and more people to motivate me, that I will eventually end up doing it! ;)

We can talk about sponsorship/advertisements closer to the time of the actual starting of this magazine.

I would just like to get TOTAL buy-in, and total commitment before we actually start this "thing".... :)
 
Lovely idea, but sadly not original as this was tried a few years ago and the biggest problem isn't finding sponsors but getting the sponsors to pay once published. For the life of me i cant remember the name of the publication.......will post it when i remember. I remember at the time the guys took a fairly large hiding on it. Unfortunatly the costs of publishing and distributing a mag is very expensive, if your price it too high people dont buy it and rather use the internet.
 
Lovely idea, but sadly not original as this was tried a few years ago and the biggest problem isn't finding sponsors but getting the sponsors to pay once published. For the life of me i cant remember the name of the publication.......will post it when i remember. I remember at the time the guys took a fairly large hiding on it. Unfortunatly the costs of publishing and distributing a mag is very expensive, if your price it too high people dont buy it and rather use the internet.


point taken..... , however a few years ago , there were alot less south african reefers.
also, it seems that jacques initial trial idea is to have an "ebook".
and obviously as with anything.......sponsers should pay upfront......especially in this day in age.

i dont know.....i really hear the concern, but would also love to have a south african mag on my coffee table every few months.........
surely there guys out there with publishing contacts who can guide jacques in a cost effective manner..........
 
Not saying dont do it, all i am saying is do your homework very carefully here.
 
yip i am there 100000%
 
Lovely idea, but sadly not original as this was tried a few years ago and the biggest problem isn't finding sponsors but getting the sponsors to pay once published. For the life of me i cant remember the name of the publication.......will post it when i remember. I remember at the time the guys took a fairly large hiding on it. Unfortunatly the costs of publishing and distributing a mag is very expensive, if your price it too high people dont buy it and rather use the internet.

Hi Alan - I know about that. I did my homework on this too. Therefor wanting to change the concept perhaps to an E-Book format - perhaps in PDF format at first.

BUT - I will continue with this, if I can get commitment from fellow reefers.
Also - that is exactly why I said making it a community magazine at first (electronic format at first)....

If the magazine gains a big enough following, then later on it would be worthwhile having a poll and to see who/how many people would want to see it in printed format...
Then only, would I go on again to try and see if we can get a printed version done.

It's easy - if I don't get commitment - I won't do it.
 
I don't think I fit any of the roles you looking for, but would be happy to assist where I can.
 
AVSpecialist eEdition

Not sure how easy this is to do ?

But this is one of my fav e-book/mags cause it looks exactly like the printed copy :)

Here is what it looks like, for anyone who can't access it.


 
hehe, going to see what designs i can come up with and post them here for a vote
 
now we talking :)
 
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