Kyle Tress

It’s time we had our own magazine. Curling has one. Arabian Horse breeders have one. Why shouldn’t the sliding sports?

There is need of an outlet in our community, one that isn’t regulated by governing bodies or fueled by anything but a pure love of sliding and a 4-pack of Red Bull.

I wrote that two years ago, and I’ve been thinking about it every since. Each time I’ve come to the conclusion that a sliding magazine is a great idea, but impractical. Fortunately the technology and motivation to make it happen have arrived. It’s with great pride that I announce the first issue of Sliding Magazine will be available for sale on Nov. 1st, 2010 in print and digital editions.

Putting together the first issue has been the most challenging creative project I’ve ever done. Thankfully I’ve received a great deal of help from some amazing people. The first issue covers topics ranging from Season Previews to building a high-tech simulator. There is a lot of excitement surrounding the launch and expectations are high. I’m confident it will live up to the hype.

Problems & Concerns

Launching a niche magazine without concrete circulation numbers is difficult. How many active sliding athletes are there in the world? How many non-sliding members (friends, family, volunteers)? Without this kind of information, determining the number of copies to print is really just a guess. Since printing costs make up the bulk of the expense in publishing, I have to be creative with the first issue. Luckily a number of services have sprung up which help intrepid publishers put their ideas into print. MagCloud (owned by HP) is a Print on-demand company that will print any number of issues, from single copies to several thousand. The service isn’t exactly cheap at .20 cents USD per page. The 40-page first issue of Sliding Magazine would cost a whopping $8.00 without any markup. If I wanted to upgrade the binding to perfect-bound instead of the usual stapled, the cost rises to $9. That’s not a sustainable business model for a magazine I want to run for the next several years.

Alternatively I could have the magazine printed in bulk through a company like Print Pelican. The upfront printing costs depend on several boring factors, save for one. It’s actually not much more expensive to print 2500 copies of the magazine than it is to print 1000. As the quantity rises the per-issue cost decreases significantly ($3.97/issue versus $1.88/issue). It’s just the initial payment that hurts. Achieving the same level of professionalism offered by MagCloud costs $5000 through Print Pelican. For a brand new magazine with no guarantees, selling 2500 copies to recoup an initial $5000 investment is a frightening prospect.

If the magazine is to be a success, it will ultimately have to be printed in bulk.  Not only will the per issue cost decrease significantly, but the printer will be able to handle important details like mailing and postage, costs that are often overlooked by first time publishers. In an international publication, those costs quickly add up. It will also be especially nice to not have to worry about them while traveling, since I won’t be able to resolve any problems that might arise. Until I have solid numbers we’ll be stuck with a high print cost and a relatively cheap digital version.