Print Isn't Dead: How Linux Voice Crowdfunded a New Magazine

M-Saunders (706738) writes The death of print has been predicted for years, and many magazines and publishers have taken a big hit with the rise of eBooks and tablets. But not everyone has given up. Four geeks quit their job at an old Linux magazine to start Linux Voice, an independent GNU/Linux print and digital mag with a different publishing model: giving profits and content back to the community. Six months after a successful crowdfunding campaign, the magazine is going well, so here is the full story.

Comments

Spam

[Anonymous Coward]

This is like the 4th story on "four guys who quit some magazine no one ever heard of start a new magazine no one will read"

https://www.google.com/search?...

They have like 3k subs. Can we agree not to give them a story until they get 50k or 100k subs?

They are using Slashdot as a promotional platform and place to farm refs for Wikipedia.

Linux is great. These 4 guys don't matter.

Re:Spam

[M-Saunders]

Hi! We know that a lot of people dislike PayPal, and we're looking into alternatives. You can subscribe via bank transfer -- email mike AT linuxvoice DOT com for details.

Re:If

[M-Saunders]

Who said that? We are making a profit... And we're going to give 50% of it back to the FOSS community at the end of the year.

Re:Great Magazine, But...

[qbast]

Drop Linux Voice, subscribe to some hardcore porn mags and in month or two you will lose 'dangerous subversive' label.

Seems pricey

[GrangerX]

I love linux periodicals, but the ones from Europe always seem to be extremely pricey, at least to US customers. For print, I intuitively understand that, but the digital-only prices always seem high to me.

1-Year US/Canada Subscription: 95 GBP == 162.13 US Dollar
1-Year Digital Subscription: 38 GBP == 64.86 US Dollar

I keep looking at Linux Format, but that has even higher digital-only prices.

My impulse buy point for digital subscriptions is maybe $50/year.

For comparison, I looked up a subscription I do have:
Linux Journal offers 24 issues for $49.50. I suppose it's more advertising-supported, but still.

Oh well. I'm glad that these periodicals exist, and I hope they do well enough to hang around. :-)

Re:As a subscriber

[CastrTroy]

I find it a little disingenuous that they are saying that print isn't dying and then go on to say that they only have 3,000 subscribers.

And my biggest problem with print magazines is exactly as you stated. If they have a print and online version, by the time you get your copy in the mail, you could have easily just already read the online version. Unless they purposely delay the online version, which is an equally bad idea. But why stop there. Why even delay individual articles until there's a whole magazine's worth. Why not just publish individual articles online as they become available.