| From: | David Stroud |
| Date: | 1 Aug 2000 at 21:48:15 |
| Subject: | Re: Amiga Active 11 |
At 12:07 01/08/00 +0000, Mike wrote:
>Not enough news. Sure not your fault not a lot is happening as yet. What
>little news there is I read online before it appears in print.
A lot of the time we struggle to fit everything in :-).
As for your second point, Amiga Active isn't aimed at only those Amiga
users on the 'net, and of those who are, I very much doubt they'll all
already know everything that we put in the news pages. If you do, you're in
the minority :-)
If everyone left in the Amiga market was a die-hard Amigan with all the
latest kit and a 'net connection, Amiga Active would be a totally different
magazine. But they're not. Being a commercial magazine in a niche
marketplace is, um, "tough". You don't have to be an Einstein to figure
that out, but you do have to take a moment to think about the implications
- namely, that we can't be all things to all people.
I'd go so far as to suggest that even if you get just 10 percent of value
from Amiga Active (7 pages), you're doing well - and that's comparing our
magazine to mainstream PC magazines that sell in the figures that we can
only dream of at the moment.
Take, for example, the latest PC magazine I have here. 362 pages, of which
100 are "fresh" editorial content (i.e. not contents pages or extensive
'product directories'). Of those 100 pages, about a dozen were of interest
to me. Hell, let's be generous and say I was interested in 20. Out of 362,
that's a pitiful return for anyone's money. Five and a half percent. I
spent no longer than half an hour reading it, and it cost me three quid. In
contrast, I spend several hours reading each issue of Amiga Active in its
finished form each month, on top of the hours of reading I do during
production.
Such magazines [big-selling, generic computer titles] are viable because
they're in an enormous marketplace with hundreds of advertisers and
hundreds of thousands (millions, even) of potential readers, enough of whom
will read the magazine each month to turn a healthy profit. They don't have
to be "all things to all people" - it's enough for them to be "something to
a small percentage." If we took the same approach with Amiga Active, there
wouldn't *be* an Amiga Active.
>I find Clubbed much the same, but find it more acceptable because Clubbed is
>a fan production, and I only have one issue left of my current sub.
Clubbed is a good magazine, but it's not commercial material (I trust the
guys at SEAL won't take offence to me saying that - there's certainly none
intended :-) but that's exactly what Amiga Active *has* to be.
>Unlike those I have talked to who no longer buy AA, I tried to give some
>feedback re issue 10. I think it's important to have a mag on the shelves in
>news agents so people know there are still plenty of people to turn to for
>help (or something...).
Your (and everyone else's) feedback is welcome, always. However, bear in
mind what we're trying to do here - produce a commercial magazine of wide
appeal to a niche market. Sure, there may not be a lot to interest you if
you're a die-hard Amiga owner who's on the 'net and has all the latest kit,
but those people are a small percentage of the market we're aiming Amiga
Active at.
Needless to say we'll continue to strive to be all things to all people,
because that's the ultimate aim of every magazine :-)
Regards,
David.
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