Illustration by Thomas Mackenzie — 1920
It's a new year, a new era for me. Things are starting to fall into place.
The Pictorial Arts Journal is preparing to rise again.
But it needs your support. For it to blossom fully, I need to know that there is enough of a viewership out there in the cyber universe to make it worthwhile. And, I'm thinking that it might well end up being monetized — subscription based (affordably priced), quality advertising, or some such effort. The art would be beautifully designed to its pages (in full resolution), with articles written by entertaining and knowledgable enthusiasts of the very best of illustration, then and now—showcasing classic masters and the brightest talent of today.
Are you interested? Would you pay a little something to subscribe? Would you talk it up to get other enthusiasts involved? Would you be willing to contribute your time or talents to make the editorial content even better, whether paid or pro bono?
I want this to be the most beautiful online e-zine that exists, but in order to do so, I need to dedicate most of my time to make it so, and therefore I need to make it financially worthwhile enough to drop some of my on-going project work that uses up all my time.
I'm open to suggestions, brain-storming, collaboration, criticism, kicks-in-the-pants, any and all commentary.
Please respond. I need to hear from a LOT of you enthusiasts of the pictorial arts!
19 comments:
“in order to do so, I need to dedicate most of my time to make it so”
I got to these words, and just cringed. Thom, I love your 'blog here, and I've enjoyed what has been done so far with The Pictorial Arts Journal, and if it is upon one or both of these that you feel that you want to spend most of your time, then so be it. But I'd rather see them both vanish without warning than to see you produce less original illustrative work of your own.
A successful monetization of The Pictorial Arts Journal would involve some significant challenges. It's very hard to prevent unauthorized redistribution of digitized content, and even people who won't willingly deal with pirates are reluctant to pay much for digitized content. If you can find what advertisers will pay for “eyeballs”, and if you have a measure of traffic to your various sites, then you might be able to ball-park what initial advertising revenues would be. (In those calculations, you need to discount for the effects of ad-blocking in browsers.)
As for my willingness to support the project: I suspect that your content and my circumstances would be such that I'd be interested in subscribing. I'd plug your site, but I don't know that many people give a d_mn what I say. (Normally, I don't worry whether they do.) If I had time then I'd be willing to help with its production; I don't know (one way or another) whether I'd have time.
I'm always here, I appreciate your work very, very much, and I'd consider a reasonably priced subscription.
One thing I do is make copies of the work you post -- I wrote a script to download a page of images and keep them in a folder. I've accumulated a huge personal library of illustrations from your and other blog posts that way. If there is some way I can download and keep copies for myself of the stuff you produce (including if the product is a downloadable PDF e-zine) I will be very grateful.
Daniel, thanks for your initial thoughts, I hope to hear more as this evolves.
Here's more to consider: I am thinking that this zine will be a 'creative review' journal that isn't just posting pretty pictures as this blog does, but approaches its subject matter from various angles, to fit the work into a context of its times, for instance, or applies public domain material to new uses, illustrating creative writing that comes from donated sources. Much of what you write as background commentary could be utilized up front as journalistic writing.
And here's a kicker for me. It would actually allow me to apply my illustrations throughout, as a creative outlet that my current projects don't even allow me to do. Currently, much of my time is spent illustrating 'visions' of clients that will never be seen by the public at large.
I have several dozen themes outlined now, that would allow all sorts of creative usage of existing art, and also utilize my art, photography and writing. Plus, if all went well, the zine could be used likewise for current artists, writers, photographers, cartoonists, and other creatives to showcase their work, under editorial guidance of the zine.
My personal creativity would be unleashed, like it never was before, unhampered by clients' hobbles and fences.
Daniel, talk to me more along those lines.
My life seems to be settling down and coming together also. Love the idea of a something like an online version of The Studio or Vadeboncoeur Images, but with your amazing touch and eye.
What sort of price were you thinking of for a subscription model? I Imagine it would not pay for the amount of work put into it, but maybe for expenses and allow you to do what you love.
Hi Ed. Yes, the subscription would offer a downloadable pdf, in high resolution, that would be a journalistic product (putting the visual material into a context of the world—life and times sort of thing).
The library of material that we all collect could be put to use to have meaning on a deeper creative level.
Daniel, another thing, this would be an actual downloadable zine, and the ads would be integrated into the pages, just as a hard copy magazine does, but would be relevant to the subject matter and be designed with an eye to fit the editorial guidelines. Hence, there are no ugly 'pop-up' ads to be blocked.
I come here almost every day. I enjoy your breadth of presentation and insightful comments. I have even copied some of the images for personal use (my personal screen saver).
I am joining today in order to be able to respond. I have recently seen two other blogs I often visited just disappear. I would not be unwilling to see you go to an add supported site with the ability to turn off ads by paying a modest annual subscription.
For advertising-supported publication, a key problem is advertiser trust.
Advertisers prefer to deliver ads from their own servers, as this gives them the ability to do the counting of “eyeballs”.*
(Essentially, the way that an ad-blocker works is by identifying a distinct source for the ads, and blocking that source.)
There just isn't any way to do this with a .PDF unless the advertiser takes responsibility for its delivery.
To get significant advertising revenue from advertisements integrated into a .PDF delivered by your server, you'd have to get the advertisers to invest significant trust in you.
______
*There may be several layers between the content provider and the party on whose behalf the advertising is being bone, but the essential issue remains one of trust.
Well, Daniel, it appears to be a moot point as only a couple of you showed any interest at all. Ah well, back to the salt mines.
Sorry, I am sick this week; didn't see the post until just now. I would both pay for new issues of Pictorial Arts Journal and be happy to provide scans of material when I had such that was available & relevant.
I'm amongst those economists who have relatively little confidence in surveys as a means of determining what people will and will not buy.
Silence, “yea”, “nay”, or “eh” — none of it means all that much. People really show you what they want by what they purchase when it's available.
I think that if this is something that you want then you should look for a way to build towards it gradually, so that your financial neck is never stuck out very far.
Hi Paul, I didn't mean to overlook your comment. Yes, an online version of The Studio kind of thing, 21st century style. Price? I dunno, the going rate for something like this. Perhaps free, if advertising could kick in enough, though, as Daniel points out, that's a difficult obstacle.
Right now, I just want to know if there might be enough people who would take the content of a zine to heart. This blog only has a little over 1100 followers, but I started that little spinning globe thing over there on the right only a week ago and we've had over 10,000 visits since then. The question now is how many eyeballs on material does it take for an advertiser take interest? And I'm talking about relevant and appropriate advertisers, such as art book publishers, artist material sellers, galleries, illustration auction houses, etc etc.
Eric, thank you—words I love to hear (not about you being sick, duh).
Daniel, oh yes, I agree with you on all that. At this point I'm not worried about who will pay as much as who will read. Let's say the zine is free, with great images and great writing. Is the writing wasted because people will just clip the pretty pictures and ignore the brilliant writing from brilliant contributors?
And gradual, yes. That's what these past number of years has been already, getting to this point. Believe me, I'm not dumping my clients yet, by any means. I just need the carrot in front of me to keep me motivated to keep trying toward true publication.
When I was a teen, I wanted to be a journalist more than I wanted to be an artist. I just found that artists don't need a college degree to make money, they just gotta be good. I've been making a living as an artist for 42 straight years. Journalism, well, if I could just fold that into the mix, I'd be as content as a dog rolling in his own poop.
Well, how many of what sorts of people have to read it for you to think it worthwhile, and how would these numbers evolve over time?
Hi Thom,
I just saw this. I would love to see your publication succeed, in a way that gives you economic security, but, that will be a difficult road, and Daniel has been great at outlining the considerations. I'd be happy to contribute "pro bono" in exchange for free access to the content; but like Daniel, I can't always guarantee my time. I always read articles along with the art, and I love it when the reader is enlightened about the art and the artist, either objectively, or through the perspective of the writer. Your work is always beautiful, the illustration, the layout and your writing... I also like your idea of including creative writing. That would expand the readership; and with perhaps even a token payment to the writer, or the promise of a few free writer copies, you would get both content and free promotion.
Hi Thom, I've just seen this or I would've responded before. I dunno, but I just have reservations for paying for anything on the net. As someone with a blog myself, I'd be reluctant to even think about charging people for reading what I write. Apart from that, my finances are severely limited due to poor health and I just couldn't afford to pay to look at things on my computer. There's no doubt that in your case you'd be justified in charging if you're going to put loads of work into it, but it's not something I'd be able to support financially, unfortunately. No reflection on the quality of your blog, but I always see things like that as luxuries, not necessities. (And in my case, I'm not even sure that my blog qualifies in the luxuries department.) However, if I ever win the lottery, I'd be the first to put my name down.
Been following your blog for a long time, and would support an expanded version going forward. As far as a subscription cost or donation, versus say advertising support, that's a tough call. I do currently pay for a couple of blog-like newsletters, but suspect they have thousands of subscribers. Most difficult I think will be building a large enough following to generate a revenue stream that offsets cost in terms of your time and materials. Perhaps could include tutorials by yourself and guest artists, illustrators, writers, photographers, etc. Make it something folks will look forward to and will miss if it disappears, and that's when you've got your chance to ask for a subscription to keep it coming. Maybe you could work with something like Illustration magazine and arrange for a discount if they order through your site, and perhaps the same with art materials suppliers, etc. Just blue skying, but who knows. Whatever, I know I look forward to whatever you come up with. I may even have some work that could find a place there.
Operator_99, thank you for the blue skying, I will keep all that in mind. I've enjoyed your blog over the years, and it would be great to have you contribute some content.
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