Cameras and Lenses

Alula birding magazine publishing has ended



This was mentioned by Kimmo down a thread I started but it seems like it should get "top billing"

Alula birding magazine publishing has ended
http://alula.fi/gb/

quote:
Alula birding magazine publishing has ended

Alula board has decided in the meeting held beginning of December 2008 to stop to publish Alula birding magazine. The last published number is 3/2008. The main reason is that the current amount of subscribers does not cover all the costs to publish four issues of Alula birding magazine.

The efforts made to improve the magazine quality and content did not increase the amount of subscribers. There are several reasons behind. One part of the old subscribers, mainly abroad, has built subscriber groups which are then sharing one magazine among the group members. Much bigger impact has internet where people can find free of charge good numbers of high quality photos with photo captions. The impact of internet will dramatically increase in the coming years.

Alula board had already in the summer 2008 made a decision to raise our subscription rates for the year 2009. However, we realized that most probably it does not help in the current financial situation. Alula has received substantial support from our advertisers which we warmly want thank for. With the help of advertisers we have managed to keep our prices in a very reasonable level. The amount of advertisements could not be increased comparing to the size of the magazine. Thus the only income increase would have been to raise substantially subscription fee.

Alula birding magazine has published in the past years a good number of high quality articles but to keep such quality level requires lots of effort. We want to thank all writers who have helped us to keep Alula birding magazine high standards.

Alula staff and supporters have other full time jobs. With current publishing fee level it has been hard to keep all motivated. The need to increase publishing fees has been evident but Alula has not been able to pay more. We want to thank all Alula staff members and supporters who have made possible to publish the high quality Alula birding magazine until now.

We have received in the past years lots of good feedback for the magazine high quality articles. The decision made two years ago to focus on Alula’s content has been towards correct direction. Alula birding magazine has been important channel for Finnish birdwatchers to publish articles in an international forum.

We are very sorry for Alula subscribers for the decision to stop Alula publishing unexpectedly. We want to thank you for your interest towards Alula birding magazine in the past years.

Thanking for your cooperation,
Alula owners


I thought this bit perhaps the most interesting:

quote:
The efforts made to improve the magazine quality and content did not increase the amount of subscribers. There are several reasons behind. One part of the old subscribers, mainly abroad, has built subscriber groups which are then sharing one magazine among the group members. Much bigger impact has internet where people can find free of charge good numbers of high quality photos with photo captions. The impact of internet will dramatically increase in the coming years.


Those sharing foreigners

Most of the content is locked up in paper. There is relatively little on the web site though what is there (especially the reviews) is very, very good. But the web is where most of the optical nutcases are (you're reading this here right ). Isn't that the eyeballs that advertisers want? But they have no advertising on the web site?

Being a specialized paper magazine for the past decade or so is a very odd decision to avoid making a "free" website pay. They should have moved completely to the web (where do most subscribers live?) and perhaps tried another business model. There are plenty of people publishing the bin reviews but few doing as good a job of it as Alula.

I see this a lot in birding magazines hiding their reviews in print and not even giving people the option to subscribe for website access. I just find it odd compared to other magazines and journals I read. Sharing the wealth brings you reputation. And reputation should be convertible into revenue with a decent advertising model.

I guess I'm a product (though I'm 47) of the Internet era even though I started early thinking in 1987 when walking down a corridor that I could sort out a billing problem with an electricity company a lot more easily if I could send them email with all the details.

Still it can be difficult to balance the free and the revenue generating copy but pretty much all the magazines I know (outside academic ones) make the majority of their money from advertising and not from subscriptions or sales.

Perhaps there's a chance for them to release the copyright on their back copies and put scanned versions on the web? It all a sunk cost.

They're selling off back copies for half a Euro each plus shipping.

RIP, Alula. You will be missed.

PS Download the reviews from the site now. One wonders how much longer it will be there.


Thanks Kevin, IŽll miss Alula. IŽd only started subscribing last year and loved the old-world prospect of getting a quarterly print magazine in the post. Even if IŽd no idea what most of the birding articles were about. Beautiful photos and artwork. And great fun trying to read the optics ads in Finnish!



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