Keeping The Walrus's head above water

Reading an interesting editor's note in the May issue of The Walrus magazine, I recalled the conversations in which I was intimately involved during its formative stages about the need for a "third stream" of revenue.

That's what editor and co-publisher John Macfarlane writes about and how this third stream (charitable donations from people who wish the magazine and its works well) remains critical to its future.

The other two streams (circulation -- subscriptions/single copy sales -- and advertising) are sufficient for most mainstream magazines to make a modest margin and to stay in business. But for a magazine like The Walrus, which retails ideas and long-form journalism, something more is needed. That something else is apparently there so far in sufficient amounts to keep The Walrus afloat. 

Macfarlane reports that in 2010, supporters gave more than $1.6 million to The Walrus Foundation to make up the difference between what it costs to produce 10 issues a year (about $3.3 million) and what it can raise through the traditional two streams ($1.625 million).

He recalls his Quixotic quest to keep Saturday Night magazine alive (it died later, but not on his watch) with a similar mission under similar strictures.

"Is such a magazine sustainable? Our contract with the foundation’s patrons is not so different from our contract with the magazine’s readers; both oblige us to deliver the goods. So yes, as long as we can continue to convince patrons and readers alike that its existence is vital, The Walrus will survive. Shelley Ambrose, our co-publisher and executive director of the Walrus Foundation, calls it an “optimistic national project,” which it is. But for me, it is also personal, because in The Walrus the spirit of Saturday Night lives on."

Buy whole issue or individual articles, it's your choice says Found Press Quarterly

We've happened upon a nifty Q&A with an innovative new kind of wholly digital literary magazine. The interview is on The Literary Type, the blog of The New Quarterly and it puts its questions to the publishers of Found Press Quarterly. FP published its first issue in Januaryand its business model is unusual; you can buy the whole issue content or the stories it contains individually.

What sets us apart is that we are not, in fact, on the shelf at all. We are a one-hundred percent digital publishing company, and our quarterly is available exclusively in eBook format available for purchase through Internet stores such as Kindle and Kobo. Another thing that sets us apart is the fact that we make each story in our collection available for individual purchase. We like to think of ourselves as book version of iTunes. You can buy the whole album, or just your favourite song. 

The Found Press “slogan” is “stories everywhere,” and it works to describe what we do on two different levels. One interpretation is that there is an abundance of talented writers with stories to tell—that stories can be found anywhere, and that they are just waiting to be shared. Another way to think of it, though, is that with the Internet, and especially the rapid development of e-book technology, people can purchase our stories no matter where they are, and read them wherever they want. So while the Internet makes it easy for us to connect with fantastic authors, it is also making it easy for use to tell their stories. The production and distribution frustrations that many (perhaps most) new, independent publishers face no longer apply.

The magazine's editors are Jacqueline Lee Olynyk, a graduate of the Humber College Creative Book Publishing program who has worked as a freelance editor and currently resides in Boston, and Bryan Ibeas, also a Humber graduate who is the marketing coordinator for Cormorant Books, an independent Canadian literary publishers. They mostly use Skype to keep in touch.

The first issue is The Moment We Came Alive and features four authors from three countries -- Cynthia Flood, Danny Goodman, Kirsty Logan and Lana Storey and can be purchased for $3.75. Individual stories are 99 cents.

Unmediated Guardian science blogs a new model for publishing

The continuing evolution of the relationship between publication and informed readers is illustrated by a network of blogs on science launched by the Guardian newspaper in Britain. According to a post on Nieman Journalism Lab, the four collaborative blogs blend hosted content and contributions from scientists who are the blogs' target audience.

“This network of blogs is not just for other science bloggers to read; it’s not just for other scientists,” says Alok Jha, a science and environment correspondent who came up with the idea for the network and now — in addition to his reporting and writing duties — is overseeing its implementation. The network is intended to reach — and entertain/enrage/inform — as many people as possible. “We’re a mainstream newspaper,” he notes, “so everything we do has to come about through that prism.”

The venture, which is flagged "hosted by the Guardian"  is an extension of what Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger calls mutualization. And an interesting side benefit is the compensation model, with the Guardian splitting ad revenue 50:50 with the bloggers. 

After an initial trial period during which the postings will be screened by a Guardian production editor, bloggers are expected to be given remote access to the paper's web-publishing tools, something that no outsider has been able to do before. The blogs will be overseen by the bloggers themselves.

The vision — a simple one, but one that’s nicely symbolic, as well — is that the bloggers will soon be able to publish directly to the Guardian site, with no intermediary. “It’s a completely new model for us,” Jha notes — because, at the moment, “nothing here is unedited.”