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Wargames Journal
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Hello John (I hope this is your e-mail address),
I'd just like to say thanks very much for your very kind words on the Forum. As a frequent visitor to your site myself it was very pleasant indeed to see your comments about people signing up to WJ.
As to our logic for going free I thought I'd forward something I wrote on a bulletin
board few days ago.
All the best
Neil Fawcett
"Hello to those of you who have been commenting upon the decision to take Wargames Journal free.
If I could bore you with a couple of points I'll try to explain things. Firstly, a paper-based distribution model is far more expensive than an electronic one. I should know – 20 years as a journalist and publisher has left me counting the costs of both types of venture.
As John [one of my graphics chaps] tried to explain the initial business plan for the Journal was to charge for an annual subscription and this we duly did. We had a 12-15 month breakeven plan and we were very happy when this actually happened in month two/three.
Since then it has snowballed and our database of worldwide readers [and this is the key to success – worldwide] is very healthy indeed. But standing still as a publisher is never a good thing. You always need to plan and re-plan and keep coming up with new ideas.
I’m very fortunate that the core people who make the Journal a reality keep coming up with great ideas [and costing Rebel Publishing a fortune]. Several months ago we concluded that a generic magazine can only go so far to delivering the information that a wargamer wants.
So the concept of bi-monthly and quarterly special interest titles came up [WWII, Ancients, Sci-Fi and so on] and these will be charged for. We are also developing DVDs, both historical gaming resources and modelling, which will come to market towards the end of this year. Plus half a dozen other projects…
Revenue comes from a number of sources and to be blunt the wargaming community has been generous enough to fund the Journal beyond its needs and it is now time to generate revenue not from the Journal but from other sources.
Don’t get me wrong here we are not a registered charity and we do carry costs associated with creating the magazine. But Rebel Publishing is a publisher in its own rights and the Journal simply a part of that. This allows costs to be balanced and allows us to carry on creating what we – and our readers – believe to be a very good magazine.
But I’d keep looking for what else we are doing. We have some exciting plans ahead of us and the Journal was just the beginning. So I’d heartily recommend that you all go and sign up, have a read and take a look at my Editor’s Column to give you an idea of what’s in store with the our new E-Binder and other projects."
All the best
Neil Fawcett
Editor – Wargames Journal
www.wargamesjournal.com
