ON line magazine price

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Permalink Reply by William Tan on August 5, 2009 at 4:44am

I am also exploring to sell an online version of my magazine, AUGUST MAN. Currently, the plan is to price it at about $5, with the print version selling at $8.

This is the facebook page of my mag.
www.facebook.com/augustman

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Permalink Reply by Michael Zingalis on August 5, 2009 at 8:26am

Are the profit margins for publishing large? I don't think that they are. I believe that advertising rates and other things are based on circulation cost and personnel cost as a whole, with a small margin of profit...so the formula seems to be:

(Software Cost + Hosting Cost + Personnel Cost) / Circulation Base Number = Cost for digital issue+ Markup=Final Cost Per Digital Issue

I only work with publishers, and am not one. I just want to state that my naivety may be shown in that sweet 8th grade Algebra equation.

The idea of the digitial issue reminds me of a client a few years back that wanted their web site setup like a doom video game with people walking into doors, and accessing folders....like Johnny Mnemonic or the Lawnmower Man. Why not just go the full route, find a dolphin, and strap a laser to it's head?

There's nothing futuristic about digitial issues. It's a regirgutation of the base product. It's like digital cud.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Hunter on August 5, 2009 at 5:20pm

Experience shows that consumers expect to pay less for digital issues. As far as they're concerned there's no print cost, no distribution charges and no retail margins to cover so it should be cheaper. We all know the work that goes into creation and production and the costs involved, but buyers perceive this to be less than the costs of distribution.

As a general rule the larger the circulation a publication has, the cheaper the online version needs to be. Consumers will pay a higher price for a niche publication as they appreciate the value of its content, but they still expect a discount on the cover price. Generally, if you try to set online charges at more than 2/3rds of the printed version it will be poorly received

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Convertito on August 5, 2009 at 8:28pm

I agree with Matt H regarding quantity vs niche quality...we just recently launched digital editions, and are toying with a few pricing structures, as our mags have different demographics...here's what we just started out with:

Thrasher skateboard magazine
print sub (12 issues) = 17.95
digi sub = 9.99
single copy print = 3.99
single copy digi = 2.99
back issue digi = 0.99
back issue print = 4.99


Juxtapoz Art & Culture magazine
print sub (12) = 34.99
digi sub = 24.99
single copy print 5.99
single copy digital 5.99
back issue digi 5.99
back issue print $10

also looking at tweaking digi vs print onsale dates...right now they're the same but we've already had content get reposted online before subscribers actually get the print editions...grrrr....

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Permalink Reply by DiAnne Walsh on August 13, 2009 at 10:28pm

When I was paying to read the op ed stars on NYT I paid $7.95 a month. I think you should offer the print and the digital free. At Law Bulletin for a daily newspaper we charged for the print because we needed the print subs but gave the online free. It worked well. Look at the WSJ. They have always got it right when it came to online.
DiAnne

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