craft beer magazine assignment...advice and ideas thread

[kixbooty]

Hey Guys!

As i mentioned before in a post where I was looking for numbers of home brewers in Australia, my final publishing assignment for uni is a mock-up of a magazine where I perceive there is a gap in the market.

Since I pretty much had free reign on a magazine topic, I decided to make my magazine about the topic I love most and am most passionate about: CRAFT BEER!!!!

The assignment has to include a legitimate and executable business plan as well as a thoroughly researched editorial vision, target audience, competitive strategy, etc.

So, as my primary target audience, I wanted to ask you guys some advice!!!

I found this thread http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/75430-how-many-folks-still-read-brewing-mags/ but what I really want to know is, what would you guys like included in a magazine that was solely about craft beer.

This magazine is kind of like the alternative to Beer & Brewer. It's concerned only with craft beer(imported and local) and will include profiles of Australian and international breweries. No commercial beer.

It's going to be a lot smaller than B&B as well, I'm thinking about 1/5 will be dedicated to home brewing.

I'm also wondering how often I should publish it. To be competitive with B&B it needs to be at least quarterly, but for a smaller magazine with more targeted content that's less all over the place and more "visually stunning"...would you buy 6 issues a year?

So hit me up with any ideas you can think of! If you could literally design your own contents page for a craft beer magazine what would it look like?

Thanks legends!

Sara xx

 

[Mardoo]

Only a few suggestions at the moment:

A local scene section for all the major cities in Australia - shops, brewpubs, breweries. You could offer featured places an ad discount or preferred placement.
Unusual beers - what crazy stuff are craft brewers doing. You could do something like a one-page of four unusual beers with reviews. Or maybe just set up shop at Moondog
A beer geek section educating on details about brewing, measurement (IBU's et. al.), ingredients (malt, yeast, hops etc.)
Recipes in the homebrew section
Homebrewer breweries and bling
Coverage of state and national competition brewing - let's make brewing a spectator sport :lol:

Good luck with your project.

 

[keifer33]

My first impressions is with things changing so often and the internet and all, having a magazine like B&B which is a bit far between releases doesn't really work and I honestly forget to buy it. I would much prefer a bi-monthly smaller magazine at say $5-7 rather than waiting longer for more content in one hit.

 

[Crofty]

Articles on :
Processes
Equipment- spotlight on a specific item per issue
Ingredients, you could potentially cover both 1 hop and 1 grain and 1 yeast strain
Feature HB store
Feature Craft/micro brewery including a clone recipe
Interviews with prominent industry people... Paul mercurio. Prof pilsener, Matt Kierkegaard, Kirrily Waldhorn etc..
Beer recipes
Beer matched food recipes
Q&A
That'll probably cover you

 

[Crofty]

On a separate note.... Break out of the traditional medium and make it an online publication. Save trees and all that jazz.

 

[bum]

Remember that advertisers are probably the audience you need to win over before us. Think about what is attractive to them. Who are they and what sort of product would they want to associated with?

Lean on the growing "premium"/craft market for your business case rather than whatever numbers you're making up for the homebrew market.

 

[Pickaxe]

My advice is to not rely solely on print, but to look at a diversified model of online, free and paid premium delivery which has a print based value addition. Getting a small market to support a print based venture is doomed to fail.

Online with impression based adverts, and a premium collectible hard copy with bonuses ie, master pod cast content for example.

Get a good designer and printer and make desirable, collectible objects of desire. Not a cheap looking mag. Include more recipes for buying hard copy, include an incentive, otherwise, there's no impetus to buy.

You need a model which utilises online readership, generating low cost revenue from advertising, then look to print, otherwise you will be sunk by cost of supporting a small print run and. MMassive distribution costs. Ask Rupert, he will tell you the sane thing.

There as plenty of resources discussing new media age publishing. Ive been researching and working in this area for years as a bookbinder.and book artist. Traditional publishing is in crisis,it will take new vision to get it to work. Look to new media and old together.

Podcasts, video, text, print, all working seamlessly.

 

[Pickaxe]

You're content will also have to come regularly, ie constantly, and the tri annual magazine that compiles. Expands and enriches online content.
Work with advertisers on promotions that are print based exclusive. Give print readers extra online content.
Its a new world in publishing with new tools, export what you can.

 

[DU99]

the information that is publish is accurate and done by someone who know's the field they are talking about,not someone that has done 5 min research on the subject.

 

[TimT]

Historical brewing

 

[kixbooty]

My advice is to not rely solely on print, but to look at a diversified model of online, free and paid premium delivery which has a print based value addition. Getting a small market to support a print based venture is doomed to fail.

Online with impression based adverts, and a premium collectible hard copy with bonuses ie, master pod cast content for example.

Get a good designer and printer and make desirable, collectible objects of desire. Not a cheap looking mag. Include more recipes for buying hard copy, include an incentive, otherwise, there's no impetus to buy.

You need a model which utilises online readership, generating low cost revenue from advertising, then look to print, otherwise you will be sunk by cost of supporting a small print run and. MMassive distribution costs. Ask Rupert, he will tell you the sane thing.

There as plenty of resources discussing new media age publishing. Ive been researching and working in this area for years as a bookbinder.and book artist. Traditional publishing is in crisis,it will take new vision to get it to work. Look to new media and old together.

Podcasts, video, text, print, all working seamlessly.

all great advice, but this is a publishing unit. my business plan includes future online possibilities but for now all I am focusing on is the actual magazine and potential readership.

 

[kixbooty]

Articles on :
Processes
Equipment- spotlight on a specific item per issue
Ingredients, you could potentially cover both 1 hop and 1 grain and 1 yeast strain
Feature HB store
Feature Craft/micro brewery including a clone recipe
Interviews with prominent industry people... Paul mercurio. Prof pilsener, Matt Kierkegaard, Kirrily Waldhorn etc..
Beer recipes
Beer matched food recipes
Q&A
That'll probably cover you

My first impressions is with things changing so often and the internet and all, having a magazine like B&B which is a bit far between releases doesn't really work and I honestly forget to buy it. I would much prefer a bi-monthly smaller magazine at say $5-7 rather than waiting longer for more content in one hit.

Only a few suggestions at the moment:

A local scene section for all the major cities in Australia - shops, brewpubs, breweries. You could offer featured places an ad discount or preferred placement.
Unusual beers - what crazy stuff are craft brewers doing. You could do something like a one-page of four unusual beers with reviews. Or maybe just set up shop at Moondog
A beer geek section educating on details about brewing, measurement (IBU's et. al.), ingredients (malt, yeast, hops etc.)
Recipes in the homebrew section
Homebrewer breweries and bling
Coverage of state and national competition brewing - let's make brewing a spectator sport :lol:

Good luck with your project.

Thanks heaps guys!!!! This is all great!

I am looking for potential advertisers as well, that's why it's important that I have a unique position that differentiates me from B&B.

 

[punkin]

Are you going to actually produce and keep producing the magazine, or is this a one off project for assingnment?

I may be interested in advertising if the costs were low enough as beer is not my actual market retailing distillation equipment.

 

[Pickaxe]

all great advice, but this is a publishing unit. my business plan includes future online possibilities but for now all I am focusing on is the actual magazine and potential readership.

Jesus Christ, what are they teaching? Sorry to say, but there is ZERO real world application for the unit you are studying. It is backward to go from print to online when you startup these days. All print publisher's have been reporting declining readership for years now, and steadily declining. I'm at a loss for words.

 

[mr_wibble]

Historical brewing

fn(A) on that, this byo.com article on Tudor Beer is fantastic.

 

[brewbienewbie]

One of my favourite threads on here is the ghetto gear thread, maybe you could include something along those lines?

 

[bum]

Jesus Christ, what are they teaching? Sorry to say, but there is ZERO real world application for the unit you are studying. It is backward to go from print to online when you startup these days. All print publisher's have been reporting declining readership for years now, and steadily declining. I'm at a loss for words.

It's called "fundamentals", mate. Uni ain't TAFE. You don't walk out knowing how to do a job. You walk out maybe ready to start learning how some industry works. Then, if you're lucky, you learn how to do a job instead of learning how to just push blame onto someone else.

My tuppence and ha'penny.

 

[kixbooty]

Jesus Christ, what are they teaching? Sorry to say, but there is ZERO real world application for the unit you are studying. It is backward to go from print to online when you startup these days. All print publisher's have been reporting declining readership for years now, and steadily declining. I'm at a loss for words.

:mellow: Was this really necessary? I was just asking for what you would want to see in a craft beer magazine, not a critique on my degree.

If you must know, my degree is in advertising and marketing, this unit is an elective and focuses mainly on different methods of printing(ie. digital, offset).

In other units, I have studied the decline of print media at length. Why would you assume that I don't know about this?

This assignment is more about how to reach a specific audience and implement strategic target marketing in print media, which is still relevant and if the recent EMMA(Enhanced Media Metrics) figures are anything to go by, still has significant value.

But cheers for your two cents it was really appreciated :icon_cheers:

 

[kixbooty]

fn(A) on that, this byo.com article on Tudor Beer is fantastic.

That was a fascinating read and gave me a few ideas, thanks heaps

 

[Camo6]

Best of luck with this, sounds like a great project. And I'll always choose printed media over online given the choice. You can still read a magazine with no internet connection but you can't wipe yer ass with a phone when the TP's gone. (Not that I'd choose to do that with your project, unless it was an emergency )

Along the lines of the ghetto theme, a DIY section would be great. Brew Ware has a lot of DIY projects and there's a heap of build info on here too.