Jack,
I think on post, it sounds like a great idea, but the economics of it is probably prohibitive. As a professional working with media on a daily basis and even creating publications in the past, I can tell you its easeir said than done. With the way the internet has come about, most people are getting used to free content and being able to have their information on demand. Most newspapers are struggling and many well-read publications are fighting to stay alive in this shifting market.
Laying out a magazine has its own problems, the economy of scale in printing is the cost goes down as more units are printed. Example, a short run of say 200 80-page magazines would run $8 apiece where a run of 2000 may cost $3. Now you have to worry about artwork and content writers and editors. It takes a lot to take a full color picture and adjust it to the 4-color printing process, now you are dealing with having to have adequate photographers and graphic artists to retouch the photos. Also with writing to a confined space, laying it out, editing the copy and all that it entails takes a lot of time.
Another consideration is advertising to supplement the cost. With the mass variety of reef sites and forums and the other major magazines in the market, you have to compete for advertising dollars. How do you get ads? You have to show who's reading it and convince the vendor to pay for the service and its worth their money.
Finally, once you have this all ready, printed and ready to ship, conservatively i think you would have to charge $10-12 an issue jsut to stay afloat. While many people in the hobby will fork out for the latest Tunze equipmenent or deal with the $300 electric bills, a magazine at this price range would probably have a hard time gaining readership and committed subscribers. I think that is why you don't see many of these magazines last in the market.
As an alternative, i could see an electonic newsletter that is subscriber only with information and articles written by folks from the site that is not online as an option.
Don't mean to dampen your spirits but just trying to shed some light on the scenes behind the scenes in the media biz.
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