Raising £6000 For A Non-Profit Magazine By Selling Sweets… I’m NOT Joking

Well, sometimes donuts too 🍩

For some context I’m going to start with this: If Magazines Are So Old-Fashioned, Why Don’t Statistics Show It?

Okay, I know it’s a sweeping statement but recent headlines do back me up.

“Despite the COVID-19 disruption … magazine publishers are reporting triple-digit surges in new print and digital subscriptions.”

“Magazine Publishing Market to grow by Nearly $ 3.5 Billion during 2021-2025”

But from experience they seem to be slowly disappearing from super-market shelves. Is it merely a late transition onto the web or are they being starved of the readers that blogs entice?

This brings me to my next thought: are blogs really magazines? Well surely they are just individual articles that are posted sporadically whereas in a magazine they are collated and published in one batch. Is this a positive or negative for both sides and what does it mean for us as readers?

I’ve been creating 4 magazines per year for the past 3 years (NFP) with a team of volunteers. We’ve since moved online in pdf format to lessen the effects of printing & distributing but still print one “overview” magazine each year. Each run of the magazine print costs upwards of £6000 and is distributed to a couple of thousands of readers. This makes it increasingly hard to raise funds and believe it or not… we sell sweets to raise funds… no I’m not joking.

From google trends it’s clear that blogging platforms have boomed since 2006 and we’ve witnessed competitors grow and fall. The likes of Wordpress & Ghost are making the hobby all the more accessible yet I see a lack of “magazine” specific publishing platforms.

For me, the defining line between blogs and magazines is the quality of their content - another huge generalisation and wrong in many cases. But a physical magazine holds a timeless quality- the silence as you scan through the pages is punctuated by the crisp turn of the page and void of the distractions that are coupled with your online experience.

Am I right or wrong? Does “magazine” == “blog” evaluate to True or not?
Do you think it is possible to recreate the experience of a physical magazine online? How can I do it without raising £6000 through selling sweets?

Let me know your thoughts 💭

Context: I’m a student, I sell the sweets to other students.

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