Comments on: If you’re curious about the future of magazines, HP Lab’s MagCloud may offer a clue

By: Jay Villa

Jay Villa — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:30:58 +0000

Magcloud is almost perfect but the .20 cents a page makes a standard magazine extremely expensive to sell. Most magazines that can be bought at stores retail around the $5 range give or take. If I wanted to print a 40 page magazine, my cost would be $8 per book plus shipping. Even if I decided to mark the book up by only a quarter and pass along the shipping cost, that would make the book cost $9.65 when I sell it. I just don’t think I could move that many books at that price. Does anyone know if these are just test prices or is this the permanent price structure? If so, MagCloud would be better suited for book publishers or specialty books and not for somebody who plans on putting out 6 or more unique issues a year.

By: Publish your own magazine by andydickinson.net

Publish your own magazine by andydickinson.net — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:14:55 +0000

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By: Rex Hammock

Rex Hammock — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:27:50 +0000

@MarkSmith Let’s start with existing POD. As you probably know, most of the “industry” of POD has been focused on books. While there are end-to-end business solutions for those who want to publish a book using POD services — including marketing and distribution services — the end-to-end solution focused solely on POD magazines has not yet emerged. So, yes, the “customer/printer” interface of MagCloud means there is something like Lulu.com with a primary focus on the nuances of magazines — as MagCloud.com says, “printing, mailing, subscription management and more.” I assume that in the future (when a very longtail of short-run magazines is established), the “more” could include aggregating category-specific magazine titles into advertising networks. So, it’s not about the technology, it’s about the bundling of services and the price-point.

By: Mark Smith

Mark Smith — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:09:06 +0000

How is this different technology from existing print-on-demand? Is it the cutomer/printer interface that is innovative?

By: BoSacks

BoSacks — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:40:19 +0000

I know of another version of this that is still in the works, so it is not new to me, but I can’t disclose any details at this time. I think that this and other variations of this process is indeed a piece of the future. It is niche publishing in its finest and most concentrated format. Yes, it is like vanity publishing but without all the baggage. And there are several instances of vanity publishing working out extremely will for the vain publisher. This system works and to my knowledge is not unafordable.
Bo
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By: Rex Hammock

Rex Hammock — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:39:58 +0000

Aaron, I didn’t mean to imply that the service would just appeal to schools. Yes, you are indeed correct. I see it for all of the types of uses you indicate. The insta-magazine, especially.

I do not know about the pricing yet. However, I’m hoping that as its an HP project, they will view this as a means to create a new market and industry and will price it in a way that allows them to scale up to profitability — rather than attempt to start out at such a high price point that results in no market forming.

By: Aaron Pressman

Aaron Pressman — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:34:27 +0000

Rex, not much specific info at the site yet about the economic model and the publishing side is in a closed beta. Any info about what these magazines will cost to publish, what the markup will be and so on?

Also, it looks like this becomes a platform for more than the old school magazine. I see some one-off brochures already on the site and can imagine using it to publish super-rapid, in-depth coverage of timely topics or other stuff that is less than a book (maybe how-to’s for software that changes frequently too). But I think a lot depends on how the business side is set up.

By: Mark Dykeman

Mark Dykeman — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:44:04 +0000

That didn’t come out right. I like the idea of being able to create magazines on demand. I was trying to equate that to printing books on demand, which can be legit.

By: Rex Hammock

Rex Hammock — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:45:53 +0000

As I understand it, “vanity press” refers to scams that charge would-be writers a large fee to publish a book. The author would be required to pay for a print run of at least several hundred books.

Print on Demand — book and, now, magazines — makes that scam a bit more difficult to pull off (although I’m sure there are still those who do it).

I’m sure some will attempt to label this “vanity” magazine publishing, but there will be churches, non-profits, schools and many, many others who will be able to publish magazines who could have never touched the budget of a putting a magazine on a traditional press.

By: Mark Dykeman

Mark Dykeman — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:32:29 +0000

For some reason this sounds cooler to me than the vanity presses that will print books for you.