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Wow, this thread is growing fast.
As stated earlier, I'd be happy to help with layout/editing. Edit/proofing is among my professional duties (grant from a journo perspective, me from an ad-copy one, but it's more or less the same ball of wax).
The thread summary says "talk about logistics," so here are a few questions that can be batted around, probably at this CAG level:
1. Who's your audience?
2. What about this publication will attract them vs. other similar publications?
3. For that matter, vs. all other attention competitors (free material on the Internet, video games, walks in the park, etc.)?
4. Is there an existing model -- an exemplary publication -- whose form or content you want to draw inspiration from?
There are essentially two approaches to new publications: if you build it they will come (apologies to Kinsella) and this is who we want to reach and this is how we reach them. The former can be a lot more creatively satisfying, but is a lot riskier than the latter.
I know this is probably dead obvious, but I've been involved in a number of projects where we've amassed quantities of great material and had absolutely no luck getting it in front of people's eyeballs because we didn't have a cohesive who-it's-for-and-why from the get-go.
Part of the reason I'm writing this is that this begins as a positive reaction to a negative situation (and a million kudos to XK for drawing good water from a crap well), but what it is and who it's for will be a long-term determining factor more than what it's not and who it's by.
If the audience is (as said on page 2) "hypothetical interested laypeople", how does that affect structure? What are these people reading now? Should there be a "levelling up" effect where "heavier" articles are at the back and lighter ones at the front to ease them in? Should there be must-have article assignments that volunteers can tackle or trustworthies can be "assigned"? Should there be themed issues so you can go after specific audiences?
I hope I'm not sounding like a wet blanket or a condescending arse... as said above, I've tanked spectacularly in the past on projects that were sort of like this one (in terms of being creative publications with lots of enthusiasm and interest) and I desperately want to share what nuggets of wisdom I've eked from the ashes of disaster. |
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