To discuss anything which relates to the FLYER Airportal or the magazine
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By Rob P
#1799466
I've noticed the toilet roll aisle shelves are emptying again too. :lol:

Rob P

That's not a value judgement Ian
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By G-BLEW
Boss Man  Boss Man
#1799467
Morten wrote:Some great articles recently, Ian.

Just not as enjoyable on a screen.

And rather more ephemeral.

Any hopes of getting the dead wood copies back?


Not currently or for the foreseeable I'm afraid, the economics just don't stack up. The newsstand is broken, and although making a slight recovery is nowhere near where it was. Frankly that was not a very good place for specialist magazines anyway.

Although I am sad that we have lost a. small number of paper only readers, I am hugely grateful that we have gained a large number of digital readers, and are now the most read GA magazine in the UK by a large margin.

It's not that we don't like paper, we do, it's just that we were unable to make it work as hundreds of other magazines have sadly discovered.

Ian
PS We are working on a better digital experience, it involves a lot of time, work and money but we are making progress.
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By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799477
Takes a bit of getting used to, the trigger of the drop through the door requires a different response to the email trigger :-)

However I am getting the hang of reading it on the iPad so that's OK.
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799489
Pete L wrote:I haven't read the last two but accepted the subscription as a price for the virtual company of the forum.


Exactly my take:

I just don't 'get' reading stuff from screens.....My Kindle , bought in a flurry of enthusiasm eons ago lasted less than a month.

But my sub hopefully will help maintain the forum which I enjoy immensely despite the occasional vitriol.

Peter :wink:
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By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799497
Out of curiosity, are there any usable online services that let you upload a PDF (of, say, Flyer) and get a one off printed version?
Something like https://www.blurb.co.uk/magazine but without the £21 delivery fee ?

No idea if there would be copyright issues or how the available flyer PDF would come out.

I've successfully used various sites for photo books so doesn't sound impossible? It would make a free magazine suddenly cost (perhaps) £8 but for some that may be small change.
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By Morten
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799503
G-BLEW wrote: the economics just don't stack up. The newsstand is broken, and although making a slight recovery is nowhere near where it was. Frankly that was not a very good place for specialist magazines anyway.

I get that. My head is fully behind the digital world and I am all for saving the Norwegian forests. But my heart still misses leafing through glossy pages.

I'm sure the economics don't help if you skip the newsstands altogether but if you were to just send the magazine to subscribers, how much (roughly!) would each copy come to?

G-BLEW wrote: PS We are working on a better digital experience, it involves a lot of time, work and money but we are making progress.

I appreciate that :thumleft:
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By G-BLEW
Boss Man  Boss Man
#1799517
I'm sure the economics don't help if you skip the newsstands altogether but if you were to just send the magazine to subscribers, how much (roughly!) would each copy come to?


Hard to say exactly as there are many variables, and obviously the cost of print is related to numbers. Right now we are producing effectively in print format, once we swap to a better digital format, we would then have to 'make' the magazine twice.

If we offered a print subscription that was bought by say 5,000 people the price would probably be between £35 - £45 a year. If we launched and only 500 people were prepared to pay for a printed issue, we would have to charge significantly more.

HTH

Ian
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By Pete L
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799518
I should qualify my words a little - didn't mean to accidentally dis Ian, Ed and the contributors by saying I'd never read the accumulating virtual pile.

I just find the physical magazine acts as more of a reminder. Viv also used to read it first - careful censoring of any shiny new toys.
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799525
I don't envy the economics.
But I do miss printed magazines. I can think of several titles I used to read monthly, and haven't read at all this year since they went digital only.
I try to keep a few hours each evening digital free, and that used to be magazine time. Casual reading just picking up from the pile under the coffee table .... but I'm rapidly running out of titles to read. I'll confess I've not read any of the digital editions.

Having finally made the leap to Spotify for music in recent weeks, I'm thinking I need a Spotify equivalent for magazines that surfaces articles that i'm interested in, in an effortless manner, on a device that feels like a magazine.
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By Morten
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799528
G-BLEW wrote:If we offered a print subscription that was bought by say 5,000 people the price would probably be between £35 - £45 a year. If we launched and only 500 people were prepared to pay for a printed issue, we would have to charge significantly more.

Thanks for openness and answering so well :)
So... (you'll be sorry you responded to this...)
If you were to sign people up to a 'variable' cost, between 35 and 100/year as a function of the number you managed to attract (and I have not a clue what the 'old' subscriber numbers were), charged us all 100/year (or 10/mth) initially and then (assuming things went well) charged us less the year (month) thereafter etc... you could shift the risk of not getting enough subscribers over to those subscribers who *do* want a paper copy?
Since we would all gain from increased circulation numbers you'd also get a brigade of salesmen working on your behalf. We wouldn't expect you to run it at zero profit, but as we are taking part of your business risk, we'd expect you to reflect that in the final cost to us.
In the interest of transparency you should then share some broad numbers with us so we feel that you are not ripping us off.
And damn those Norwegian forests...

Of course, I have no idea whether this would get traction. But if you wanted to try it for a month or so... I'll buy you some avgas ;)
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