Publishing 101

by Steve Ciarcia

t's not exactly Publishing 101, but the economic logic behind printing a magazine is pretty easy to grasp. The expenses are paper, printing, production, editorial staff, and reader fulfillment (getting and keeping readers). Revenue comes from subscriptions and advertising; if B is greater than A, you stay in business.

Unless you're talking about one of those oil-prospecting newsletters ($2k a year), subscription fees don't come close to paying for it. Typically, if the subscription income is enough to pay for the paper, postage, and printing of the magazine, you're doing well. And, unless you have other income to offset it, increasing paper and postage costs are usually the reason you'd raise subscription rates (Circuit Cellar's subscription price has been the same for seven years, BTW). Advertising pays for the rest of the magazine, including the staff.

If a magazine is to grow and prosper in today's economy, it either has to deal with the realities of the print publishing model and do it better than anyone else, or change its business model to capitalize on the part that it does best.

So, how is the competition fairing? Disaster is probably a sympathetic description of what is happening elsewhere. With the possible exception of EDN, trade magazine advertising is down significantly. Some magazines, like Computer Design, have vanished while others have significantly reduced their size. I predict that we haven't seen the end of this trend, and a few more trades will bite the dust in the next year.

At the other end of the spectrum, there has been that great sucking sound of consolidation. Two technical magazines from the same publisher suddenly became one journal in January, while another publisher with a quadruple spread of quarterly presentations combined them into a single quarterly periodical. You don't do that if you are making money.

It's easy to blame the Internet for the demise of print advertising revenue. Ten years ago, where else would an engineer go besides the trade press and technical magazines to read about the latest and greatest from Dallas or Analog Devices. Today, however, big advertisers put more money into their own web activities and less into print advertising. What is a print publisher supposed to do?

In my opinion, the decline of borderline print publications is a direct result of the one thing I learned at Circuit Cellar, content is king! Make the editorial content of any publication (print or web) worthwhile and there will be loyal readers. With an established readership, advertising revenues will prosper. In the past year, our circulation has increased, our website activity has doubled, and we've had the highest advertising year in the history of Circuit Cellar.

Are we better at publishing a magazine than Cahners or Penton? Absolutely not. But, like any small business, we have the advantage of quick action and rapid change. The thing that Circuit Cellar does best is its editorial. If there is a practicable business model to grow our print publication, it is simply to take what we do best and find more places to publish it. Content is still king.

In the past year, Circuit Cellar editorial expanded considerably. Most notably, readers can find more articles and projects each month in Circuit Cellar Online. Hosted by ChipCenter (www.chipcenter.com), Circuit Cellar Online is not a rehash of the print magazine, but entirely new and unique editorial. Tom Cantrell, Ingo Cyliax, and George Martin provide lots of technical wit and wisdom each month, along with a bunch of feature articles and projects on the subjects that you enjoy here in the print magazine. Also, there are eight more EQ questions for you to solve. Read everything online or print a PDF to read later.

Having Circuit Cellar Online also allows us to have some unique web-resident features. Every issue includes tidbits we call Resource Links. Covering such varied subjects as flash memory, TFTP, low-voltage differential signaling, and power measurement, these Resource Links provide an in-depth review of the different web-resident resources available on the subject.

Recently Circuit Cellar Online expanded even further with a new service called ASK US. ASK US is a free technical question-and-answer forum that's run by Circuit Cellar, and it isn't some BBS where everyone asks and no one answers. There is a team of engineers and programmers who get paid to help you. The detailed answers in the archive are definitely worth a visit.

So, I think I've figured out the prescription for making at least one print magazine grow, and it isn't to add more paper. It's to add more editorial (grin). In truth, the realities of doing business don't change. A larger magazine with many extra articles needs a lot more advertising to pay for them. I won't kid you, right now that advertiser is ChipCenter. The best way to keep Circuit Cellar the best magazine that hits your mailbox each month is to read and support Circuit Cellar Online, as well. A business school graduate might criticize the interdependence of my publishing activities, but he's only looking at how many dollars fall out as profit. I'm looking at online editorial expansion as an excellent way for us to keep doing what we do best.