Clubsnap magazine


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Keep it OT please guy's. Personal jabs are taking this nowhere except the trash bin.
 

Singapore always touts itself as a regional hub and strives to be a global one where east meets west, shouldn't the online communities be as ambitious too? How about some quality formal equipments review to establish some authority? Our review tab on the front page is still empty. Since this is where east meets west, I'd suggest some collaboration with chinese or japanese forums and translate their quality equipments reviews into english, a form of outsourcing for lack of resources. Just some of my wild thoughts.

exactly, we should have more "can-do" attitude.

This has generally been a forum/ community platform, migrating to a magazine format will be hard since there's no standard for section (yet) eg like reviews/ new products, featured photog(s) and their works, there'll be a need to have the creation of such standards. A yearly "best of Clubsnap" list wont hurt either. It lets shops/ brands display them proudly too that hey, i am Clubsnap overall best in say year 2009 in for shop, service excellence, or Best Tripods/ Camera Body/ Bags etc etc.
 

anyways... back to the ball game. the notion is all about what else can we do to expand CS and what does it takes to make CS to the mainstream... inside and outside Singapore.

if $$$$ is the problem why the idea is not feasible then we don't need to it have printed like the classy ones. there are tons of good quality but inexpensive mags that are out right now..

well again of course the printing and paper quality of these mags cannot compete with classy ones like vogue or fhm magazines.

lots of members in CS are willing to contribute.. we can see them in this thread considering this topic was posted not so long ago.

the only problem now is the publishing fee. so i think it would be nice to put a good classified add on the mag that can contribute to spending. :lovegrin:
 

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suggestion for you bro.. try to ask the mod in cs see how they think of it maybe they have different option for you :thumbsup:
 

suggestion for you bro.. try to ask the mod in cs see how they think of it maybe they have different option for you :thumbsup:

thanks will do tat. i already asked a senior friend to pm the mods.. thanks again. lets see how it turns out. so many peeps wants to help. :)
 

Hi Laposto,
Hope these will help you to plan:

What is the selling price of the magazine?


What will be print run and printing charges?
Example: Say 4pp for cover and 32pp for content and print run for 2000 copies will cost about SGD2.50 each. Please note that most printers do not give any credit terms for printing low volume of magazines. Therefore, do cater a large sum of capital to dump into printing. Printers normally start giving credit terms after issue 6. (60 to 90 days credit term)


Who will distribute the mag to the bookstore and how much do they charge?
They are some local company distribute magazine to bookstores, mama stores and newspaper kiosks for a fee of 55% of the magazine selling price. Distributor will expect a credit term of 90 days as they need to spend your money first

Who are the potential advertiser?
Big brands normally have a media company to handle their marketing needs. Media company normally will ask for credit terms up to 120-150 days. These company also normally do not wish to support magazines with low run printing and if they do, do not expect big dollars into the advertising page.

If you sit down and do a calculation, cash flow might be a problem. Therefore, you might need a bigger capital to start off this trade to counter the cash flow problem.

Another problem is most camera shops do not advertise. Hope you can cater this into your planning.

Lastly, I respect your guts and I do hope to see the magazine soon.:)
 

When the idea of setting up PPAS, everyone was most enthusiastic and recruitment was a breeze, and organising the first exhibition of members' works was rec'd with astounding support, so are the labs, cameras n equipment suppliers. It was amazing then.
and there exist one , quite good ( from my point of view, base on local standard ) photo mag ( can't recall the name, maybe some forumers here can ), after few years of running, had to fold up.
Even SPH, they have some mags which they find not viable after some financing years, scrap them.
And runnning a mag cannot rely on volunteers or just plain passion, even our ministers are not working for free.
The PPAs bulletin was flashing in the beginning but slowly dwindle to bi-monthly, quarterly and almost disappear.
This is not pouring icy water or what, one can always try, but i would suggest, get/find a very solid financial backing which at anytime is willling to pump in the financial resources.
Just like in every charity donating show, there exist an anonymous donor ( a megabucks org. or guy) which promise to top up the donation sum to the expected figure in the last minute, all these are prearranged.
Good Luck to all those who are prepared to jump.
 

I fully support the idea of a publication, be it hard or soft (no double entendres intended!) I know the guys behind GPWeek.com; small workforce - I understand it was 3 people the first year, now 6), it's started by one of the premier F1 photography agencies (www.sutton-images.com) and it's been built 100% on advertising; weekly delivery during the F1 season (March - November) with URL link send to your email by 5PM Monday every week... they are not going for printed copy as their goal is a well-written publication sent to fans the day after an F1 GP race. I love the fact that it's a e-mag with a viewership of exceeding 100,000 a week that is built via word-of-mouth. However, this is not the main reason for my post.

Related to doing a CS magazine, I first have to ask who is CS? On the home page, when you click "about us" you get a brief history of CS, but no real understanding of who owns it; it states there are 14 founding members, which suggests those 14 own CS, but as there's no registration on the logo (if you can call that a logo...) I question how CS can be a viable publisher. It is great in that it has a well trafficked website and with a reasonable amount of advertising, is probably self-sufficient, but as it seems to be a benevolent entity that exists to provide a platform for it's members (all non-paying), a commercially driven publication in paper on e-ink would seem to be out of sync with what CS is.

So suggesting an alternative - who here is interested in doing a digital / physical magazine that is a free-standing publication?

I suggest a regular e-publication to gauge initial response, and letting everyone know there's a physical end-of-year / Xmas hard copy featuring reader images that will be sold directly to readers, and it'd stay like that through the years: an e-mag supported by advertising with a must-have collectors Xmas issue?

It'd need an angle / USP that would differentiate itself from the rest of the crowd - being Singapore-based is one part of that, but I think it would need to have more style / direction to really form a solid brand for such a magazine. I find the current asian photography magazines to suffer from either being too beholden to their advertisers, writing irrelevant reviews (how many Canon 7D reviews can you dig up and read for free online?) or plain lacking in great 'WOW' images in their pages.

I am willing to put in money and time to see this take off, who here is genuinely serious about making a go of it? When I was studying, I used to listen to a radio station whose tag line was "Less Talk, More Rock" - this thread has hit 3 pages in a day, quicker than 99% of the posts here, so who wants to rock instead of just talking about this?
 

Hi Laposto,
Hope these will help you to plan:

What is the selling price of the magazine?


What will be print run and printing charges?
Example: Say 4pp for cover and 32pp for content and print run for 2000 copies will cost about SGD2.50 each. Please note that most printers do not give any credit terms for printing low volume of magazines. Therefore, do cater a large sum of capital to dump into printing. Printers normally start giving credit terms after issue 6. (60 to 90 days credit term)


Who will distribute the mag to the bookstore and how much do they charge?
They are some local company distribute magazine to bookstores, mama stores and newspaper kiosks for a fee of 55% of the magazine selling price. Distributor will expect a credit term of 90 days as they need to spend your money first

Who are the potential advertiser?
Big brands normally have a media company to handle their marketing needs. Media company normally will ask for credit terms up to 120-150 days. These company also normally do not wish to support magazines with low run printing and if they do, do not expect big dollars into the advertising page.

If you sit down and do a calculation, cash flow might be a problem. Therefore, you might need a bigger capital to start off this trade to counter the cash flow problem.

Another problem is most camera shops do not advertise. Hope you can cater this into your planning.

Lastly, I respect your guts and I do hope to see the magazine soon.:)


nice.. this sounds a good plan.. let us research more :thumbsup:
 

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actually... the plan is not focused in singapore printing only.. or maybe a little only. i am looking for a good outsource to be brought in singapore :think: like the other magz we have that have been imported in singapore. in the end. this will make it simple. its like you are just selling a imported book but topics inside is more on singapore photographers :)
 

I do believe the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesian photography forums have their own local versions of a photography magazine already up and running in their countries..... for example Indonesia has an online mag that can be found here Exposure Magazine .... i believe they are onto the 18th edition already

Most of the content is localized information , filling up a niche..... and in their way, allowing themselves to stand on their own side by side international publications

continue discussion :) ....... and pro/con, please keep it open and friendly
 

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i'll like to contribute too, in terms of writing/editing. English degree holder here.
 

Personally, I think it would make more sense financially and practical viability wise to develop CS into something we see at DPReview or Lumiunous Landscape. Its not just a forum, its also publication style online magazine. The forum forming the backbone, the articles, features forming the content. The adverts from the traffic generated forming the income.

It can always like suggested showcase local talents, events, merchants, even fringe activities. Its not just photography we're talking here . In fact the myriad variety would include video, DSLR video, pro video, strobists. Feature articles, small scale contests which local merchants can sponsor. Even coverage for specific events which as a 'media' website, CS article contributors can apply for 'media' status! Things of the sort .

Its more viable due to the lower costs, also the less than draconian timeline requirements compared to print, makes it possible for people to contribute on a more leisurely pace and time. Much greater likelihood of getting people to join on a 'minimal financial returns' basis ...
 

Personally, I think it would make more sense financially and practical viability wise to develop CS into something we see at DPReview or Lumiunous Landscape. Its not just a forum, its also publication style online magazine. The forum forming the backbone, the articles, features forming the content. The adverts from the traffic generated forming the income.

It can always like suggested showcase local talents, events, merchants, even fringe activities. Its not just photography we're talking here . In fact the myriad variety would include video, DSLR video, pro video, strobists. Feature articles, small scale contests which local merchants can sponsor. Even coverage for specific events which as a 'media' website, CS article contributors can apply for 'media' status! Things of the sort .

Its more viable due to the lower costs, also the less than draconian timeline requirements compared to print, makes it possible for people to contribute on a more leisurely pace and time. Much greater likelihood of getting people to join on a 'minimal financial returns' basis ...

agree....:thumbsup:
 

i think the next step is to form a committee and to meet up. pm each other your mobile. you can continue to generate ideas from this thread.

anyways, from the thread i have identified:
1. laposto - main contributor
2. shutterooz - design and adv
3. whizzard - ?
4. aidil omar - marketing and business mgmt
5. pokiemon - strategic marketing and finance
6. auralasia - ?
7. siandy - contributor
8.
 

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btw clubsnap wasn't born in a day. it took hard work to build it up to where it is today.
 

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