Happy Birthday Us!
Posted by Paul Cloutier on 23 June 2007 (8020 Publishing)
It's 8020 Publishing's 1 year birthday! When we started in June of 2006, we knew we had a lot ahead of us, but lot of stuff has happened in just one year:
We have seen the successful launch of JPG, which in just 7 months has reached a paid circulation of 15,000, 75,000 registered members, an average newsstand sell-through of 70% (which is twice the industry average) and 5 million page-views a month. But we are most proud of the incredible work that has come from the community: work we never expected, truly amazing work that is redefining what photography means, and may otherwise never have been published.
We have won the Circulation Innovation of the Year award and a gold award for audience development. This was a great coup for us, since it is recognition from within the industry that we really are revolutionizing publishing.
We are about to launch our second magazine, Everywhere, a travel title aimed at approachable, authentic experiences. We think this is going to be huge, building on the success of JPG and breaking down the barriers to entry in another publishing market.
We've grown: there are now 9 of us, enough for a baseball team and just the right size to make pint nights memorable.
And we have finally, officially launched the 8020 Publishing site. For the last year we have had our heads down working on JPG and Everywhere, but the time came for us to work on a more permanent home. Now we can show off the team, the magazines and talk about what we're up to and where we think the publishing industry is going.
So have a look around, meet the team, and check back soon to see where we go next.
We Don't Blow
Posted by Paul Cloutier on 23 June 2007 (Essays)
One of the most common complaints about magazines is the blow-in card. Well, the truth is we hate them too. In fact, in JPG magazine we run a little house ad titled “We Don't Blow” that explains why we don't have blow-in cards. Here's what it says:
You know 'em – they fall out of every magazine on the rack. They’re called "blow-in cards" and they suck. They litter the aisles and annoy magazine readers worldwide. So we don’t use them. Instead, we just say this: If you like this magazine - and we hope you do - please subscribe. It’s just $24.99 for 6 issues a year (US) and you can subscribe on our website without wasting any paper.
There are lots of things the magazine industry needs to change, and this was one little peeve that was personally gratifying to fix. Blow-in cards are like the printed version of pop-up ads on the web. Getting rid of them just makes reading the magazine a better experience, which is the philosophy behind everything we do.
Subscribing through the website also introduces you to the community. It allows you to become aquatinted with the concept, become a member and hopefully a participant; blow-in cards encourage passivity.
We think that this is just one more way the web can be used to improve magazines: highlight experience and inspiration in the printed magazine, and utilize the web for depth and action.
Circulation Innovation of the Year Award
Posted by Paul Cloutier on 7 June 2007 (8020 Publishing)
As web people, we know that when people are passionate about communities, their collective voice brings huge amounts of attention and traffic to those sites. Some people look at this as a tactic, often under the umbrella term called viral marketing, but this is actually just a core part of what happens naturally in a healthy and engaged community.
So it was great to hear that we had won the Best Use of Viral Marketing award from the Circulation Innovation Awards this week. But we were especially pleased to hear that we had also won the overall Circulation Innovation of the Year Award, which recognizes innovation in audience development for magazines. It was a pretty nice surprise for us since we were the small guys up against some of the most established publishing companies in the business.
We think a modern publishing and media company has to embrace its audience and the web as central parts of how magazines get made, and this is a great recognition from within the industry that we really are revolutionizing the publishing industry.
So, thanks again to all of the community, these awards really reflect the work that they have all done in helping make JPG and 8020 Publishing great.