Photography Magazine Help

[NAtDF]

Hey everyone! I'm an MA Magazine Journalism student and will be launching a print. photography magazine. I really need some feedback from photographers to make sure my magazine caters to the needs and taste of my readership. No one likes filling out surveys but I'd really appreciate it if you took a couple of minutes to fill mine out. I'm a photographer myself which is why I've decided to try my hand at a photograhy mag.

click here for the survey

Big thanks to anyone who helps me out!
Nathalie

[Donald]

Hello and welcome to CiC. I hope this will be the first of many posts you will make as a member of the forum.

Perhaps it might encourage people to engage in your survey if you told us a bit more about yourself - Your name? Where are you? At which institution are you studying?

I'm sure you'll understand that people may wish to be reassured about the genuine nature of your survey and your objectives. Having some relevant background information will help that.

[NAtDF]

Name is Nathalie, I'm doing a postgrad at the university of Sheffield this is my blog it's got links to my flickr and facebook on it if anyone is interested in my photography as well.

[Donald]

Brilliant. You've got it. Just off to complete the survey.

[Fit]

Done- an open suggestion Nathalie- don't go into print. I work in the media. Within five years most of your competition will fully be moved on to tablets/iPads. As you seem to be aiming at younger users, they are already there. Print is only going to become ever-more expense and hard to come by.

If you can combine high-quality content/writing/journalism with tech like Smugmug, Instagram etc you'll be on to something.

Chris

[NAtDF]

Thanks for the feedback guys! Chris, I'll take that into consideration, the idea would be to have a multi-platform brand, incl. print, online and mobile versions.

[The Blue Boy]

Hi Nathelie,

Welcome to CiC. Just completed the survey. Keep us posted as this sounds interesting.

[dan marchant]

I agree with Chris. You should def focus on digital publishing instead of dead trees. If you go the dead tree route you have to produce and print the magazine, which costs money up front. Then sort/pay for warehousing, distribution and marketing (gotta pay for marketing cos because retail shops won't take your magazine unless you guarantee a big marketing spend). Then you have to handle all the accounts and chase payments. Oh and if they don't sell you may have to take them back and pay to pulp them.

For a vastly reduced initial outlay you can produce a digital version for publication on iPad etc. Not only do you not need to worry about printing, warehousing and distribution you can also spend a lot less on marketing because a) you don't have a big up front investment to recoup and b) there are no retailers forcing you to spend big on marketing.

Even better digital publishing is international at the push of a button. Through iTunes you can launch an Eng language magazine in the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and any other country you feel may be a viable market just by selecting those countries from a menu.

[russellsnr]

Hi, Sorry no offence intended here but your first post on the forum is IMO not what the forum is about, yes it is about helping and advice to all photographers Pro or Novice but I feel maybe a couple or three posts prior to requesting people to fill out a survey would have been a better start.
As for the survey I am always suspicious about the questions asked as for examples, Male/Female, we are all photographers no matter what the sex, Occupation? does not matter as answering a question like that opens up the flood gates for companies offering items to do with your occupation, How much a person spends on any subject is that persons business and why would someone else need to no?, How much would you spend on photographic magazines? Again why would you want to no that? What other interest do you have apart from photography? Again opens up the gates for other magazine publishers to flood your email box.
Sorry but to me surveys are just a round about way of getting information about people that maybe used to another’s company or partners.
Russ

[Donald]

Russell

I note your points and, as you may have surmised from my first response to Nathalie, I too wanted to establish a basis for confidence in the survey. I think Nathalie provided that and, as a result, I was happy for it to remain on the forum as a legitimate part of her study and development.

The survey does not seek any identifying information (in which case I would have pulled the thread) and contains questions that are very normal for this type of research activity. The very obvious good point about such online surveys is that we can decline to take part. But obviously the study carries more weight if there is a large response level. And I'm quite happy to seek to help a young student get as many feet onto the ladder as possible.

[M Aella]

Welcome to CiC, Nathalie! Survey done Good luck!

[jeeperman]

Welcome to CiC. Keep us up to speed on your progress! Survey done.

[rpcrowe]

I did not have time to comment on the specific questions when I completed the questionnaire earlier…

Question number 2: Is there a sex other than male or female?

Additionally: do you think that some sort of geographic breakdown might help you?

[dan marchant]

Question number 2: Is there a sex other than male or female?

Oh you walked right into this one....

Of course there are three sexes. The male sex, the female sex... and insects.

Ahhh the old one are the best.

[NAtDF]

Hey everyone, really appreciate you guys taking the time to fill out this thing. I understand why anyone wouldn't want to, I usually hate filling out surveys. It is a uni project, am doing a Masters degree in Magazine Journalism. The magazine most likely will not be published but I still need to do things like reader research and a business plan. Which is why I asked how much anyone would be willing to pay for a magazine etc, which I know is a bit of an intrusive question but it's very important. At the moment it is meant to be a physical mag, though I understand that the digital world is rapidly expanding. I will be doing a website to go with the magazine. Hypothetically the mag would be published in England but photographers have a strong online prescence and it's a worldwide community so I would feature photographers from aroud the world. I'm still working on that aspect.

also, there's people that don't identify with either sex, just trying to be fair

[Colin Southern]

Hi, Sorry no offence intended here but your first post on the forum is IMO not what the forum is about, yes it is about helping and advice to all photographers Pro or Novice but I feel maybe a couple or three posts prior to requesting people to fill out a survey would have been a better start.
As for the survey I am always suspicious about the questions asked as for examples, Male/Female, we are all photographers no matter what the sex, Occupation? does not matter as answering a question like that opens up the flood gates for companies offering items to do with your occupation, How much a person spends on any subject is that persons business and why would someone else need to no?, How much would you spend on photographic magazines? Again why would you want to no that? What other interest do you have apart from photography? Again opens up the gates for other magazine publishers to flood your email box.
Sorry but to me surveys are just a round about way of getting information about people that maybe used to another’s company or partners.
Russ

Hi Russell,

I'm OK with it too (reading Donald's response to you).

I've had a "previous life" in marketing, and these types of questions are all perfectly normal - necessary in fact - to build up a picture of the target demographic so that (a) the (expensive) magazine content can include the type of content that has the broadest appeal, and (b) so that the (expensive) advertising that's bought to sell the magazine can be spent in the right areas, and (c) so that the advertising within the magazine can be targeted at the right audience.

eg if I'm going to spent $100,000 with a marketing list manager, I'm not going to want to waste that sending the advertising material to women - under 20 - who's only interest is facebook (or anyone of a number of other groups that aren't a good fit).

The "which sex - male - female - other" question made me smile too - I can think of a couple of well known pop stars who's parents were actually hoping for a girl ... or a boy!