Ask HN: Need Advice for a Literary Magazine

3 points by num1 ↗ HN
A few friends and I plan on writing a literary magazine which focuses on philosophy. We don't want to put adds into it but at the same time need to find a way to cover the publishing costs. Do any of you have suggestions?

Any kind of advice on the magazine itself would also be greatly appreciated. We've been trying to learn as much as possible from links on design and writing posted to HN.

2 comments

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Hmm, on first thought, checkout this hot thread going on right now:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1261499 It's about dead tree version of Hacker News. I am sure these guys are going through the same questions as you are.

Well, without Ads, it's going to be a tough sell (unless you will charge your members?) In any case, you should start off maybe online first? That way you can gauge your market's interest first and then perhaps go on from there.

Basically, a magazine can make money either by selling Content to its readers (what newspapers do, see also http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Why-conte...) or by selling access to its readers to other people with content (often known as advertising).

The more readers you have, the more revenue you can generate from either, or both, methods.

I don't have actual other suggestions, but figure that's your framework. How else can you charge for access to your content? or access to your readers?