What Next? Reader Survey of Sorts
At sort of a cross roads with the mag, and would like some reader feedback for direction. Not that I'll be wise enough or foolish enough (depending on your point of view) to take any advice, but asking nonetheless.
How would you like to see XXC Magazine develop in the future? Here are some options. In the future I may do none to all of these...
1. Look into more options in attempts to get the print magazine's cover price down? Please note due to the small audience that reads XXC the mag will most likely never be under $10 per copy. Also note that in the end XXC takes in about the same or less per print copy as we do for digital. And of course $0 for online viewing via Issuu.com.
The only real option to try to get the costs down is increased advertising or decreased quality. Not crazy about loosing quality so scratch that. I also want to avoid the trap of the magazines that I don't want to ever be. Ads, blurbs, ads, a pic or two, ads, done. XXC will always be about the story, the pics, and the design first (as best as I can). Another option would be to attempt to pre-sale with bike and outdoor shops to commit to a quantity of mags and help drive the cover price down.
2. Ditch the basic website that I use and invest in a swankier web site with all the bells, whistles and Flash(y) type goodies of modern day cycling sites? 2b. More web site content and stories, less focus on print or eMag. The fear here is to be just another cycling web site. The web site has never been that important to me. But I do hope to improve it in time.
3. Focus less on developing print and more on developing eMag. Maybe ditch the PDF format, move to hosting on Zinio.com or other eMag hosting site and work more on iPad friendly features like video, audio, and more. Please note given the costs of hosting on sites such as Zinio the cost would increase from $2.25 per eMag to closer to $5.00 or more per mag. To me, I'm not sure that is worth it.
4. Stay as is but, work on more t-shirts and merchandise?
5. Ride off into the sunset and let cycling's major media mags duke it out for sub par coverage of endurance racing and riding? Not really an option for me, but some of you may think otherwise ;)
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