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cydwhitI love seeing those photos and words in print but I am excited to see what NS can do
PoikenzI didn't care so much for seeing the articles in print as most news is consumed online (for me anyway), but there is definitely an extra element to printed photos. If anything I'd rather the yearbook just turn into more of a photo book of the best of the best over multiple years- maybe a decade book to be optimistic.
Mr.BishopThe question would become what you would pay for that book.
OxburgerHave you guys considered a Kickstarter campaign? Seems like less of a money gamble with that route. You have supporters who are actually locked in to buying the thing instead of a bunch of people who "say" they're buying it. I'm sure there's folks who would pay more/donate more just for the sake of keeping this thing alive too.
OxburgerHave you guys considered a Kickstarter campaign? Seems like less of a money gamble with that route. You have supporters who are actually locked in to buying the thing instead of a bunch of people who "say" they're buying it. I'm sure there's folks who would pay more/donate more just for the sake of keeping this thing alive too.
Bum.LifeIts a bummer, but I'm really stoked that I have the yearbooks from the past 3 years. Like everyone has been saying on this thread, they're pieces of history. Maybe one day I'll get to show future generations of freeskiers a New Schoolers yearbook.
Is there any way we can buy old NS yearbooks if there are any lying around?
Mr.BishopThe question would become what you would pay for that book.
Print mags are cheap because advertisers pay huge sums of money to put their ads in them. Subscriptions basically only cover the costs of shipping, and newsstands barely support themselves these days.
Now of course if you sell less, it isn't as much for printing - but you'd pay a lot more per issue if you wanted the same quality and there wasn't advertisers to support it.
cydwhitImpressive! Didn't realize there was more than last year's yearbook...
division.bellFirst of all, define book.
Secondly, fuck ad's.
If we're talking a large high quality coffee table type book with possibly some throwback love to some fallen pioneers and legends of our sport, plus the showcasing of the new and up-and-coming talent...then we might be on to something.
"Newschoolers: The Novel (with pictures, cause they're worth more, right?) - The Conception, The Birth, The Life, The Death, The Robots, The Rebirth; Fuck FIS.
It's nice to have something tangible in this ever increasing, yet disappointing digital world.
cydwhitImpressive! Didn't realize there was more than last year's yearbook...
GANDALFPrint is dead. And it really bums me out.
Bum.LifeIts a bummer, but I'm really stoked that I have the yearbooks from the past 3 years. Like everyone has been saying on this thread, they're pieces of history. Maybe one day I'll get to show future generations of freeskiers a New Schoolers yearbook.
Is there any way we can buy old NS yearbooks if there are any lying around?
zbphotoIt's not entirely dead, its just changing. How to monetize that change, now that is a damn good question!
Mr.BishopHow to monetize that change when the old way was based on extreme over-estimation of true readership - THAT is the question.
Hell, how to survive when you're accountable for not only how may people saw the ad, but how many interacted - and how many bought product because of it...
There's a couple of big ones right there. Not impossible, and you're right that print isn't dead - but there's a major re-birth of media that is going on right now.
zbphotoYeah I can see where a lot of those numbers would get made up along the way!
I'm kind of curious about some of 'details' with the business aspect of the yearbook; how many copies did you actually print and what % were sold? I totally understand if you don't want to share those publicly.
integralmgmtI'd like to see what the margins of last year's Yearbook was too. Did you loose money on it? Although you don't owe the transparency to myself or the consumers of content, you do owe it to those who worked their asses off to make it into the Yearbook.
Another question that this brings up is that if the Yearbook was a nostalgic throwback to old content that isn't worth pursuing and preserving, is the inportance of content based solely on age? If that assumption is true, then the intended future of consumption is superficial and encourages merely glancing at content opposed to truly appreciating it.
Thanks
integralmgmtDamn I was defnitely stoked to get this years Yearbook, it was so sick last year. I feel like when you guys announced this year's Yearbook you said that reading a magazine online doesn't compare to reading a hard copy - and I agree, so I'm not sure why it isn't being produced. Wouldn't the potential profit from selling copies be a lot higher this year because of the direct fulfillment you worked out (meaning you could charge the same or even $5 or $10 more than last year and bring in more revenue due to lower shipping costs)? Also, how many copies were sold last year?
I'm sure that you're just as bummed as we are about it but their defnitely are ways that the Yearbook could be financially sustainable in the future.
integralmgmtI'd like to see what the margins of last year's Yearbook was too. Did you loose money on it?
integralmgmtIs new content inherently better that the media of yesterday?
-MK-Now that it's not happening can we finally update the store? Like we were supposed to a long while ago
Mr.BishopI love the idea. Big project to knock off... but maybe with a few years of planning.
I do agree that some of the digital world has been disappointing, but I don't think its printed paper that will save us. Printed paper has gone through extremely difficult and horrible times too. Read about the Yellow Papers from the era before subscriptions in Newspapers...
If you want to get deep, pick up Trust Me I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday. Then if you want to go deeper suck down Who Owns the Future by Jaron Lanier. Between those you'll understand the problem with media, and a potential solution for the future of digital media.
Digital media needs to be re-invented toward higher quality, but taking on a balance of the reality of monetization of the current digital world. People really need to start paying for stuff. That was the main secret to printed things... people would buy them AND look at 50% ads.
I think we're getting closer to a future where people will start buying the really collectible things, but I still think its too early. There's too much free out there.
At least if we take a step back, and focus on supporting the people who are coming up the ranks - together we can work on a new future for media. Its out there, we just need to figure it out.
Mr.BishopWe could do pre-orders as well through our store and ship directly. That was our plan actually.... but the thing is you need huge amounts of capital to make these things happen. The kickstarter could work if we were only doing like 500 copies, but the amount of work that goes into producing that is enormous still. The design, copyediting, marketing, shipping, etc.... its all a lot.
Those resources could go towards digital content online every single day. Yes if additional money came in from Kickstarter that would support all this it could be offset, but I'm not really sure I believe it would be enough. Not compared to what we could do if we really put resources into digital content delivery.
Sure mags are great for photos - and I feel the worst for the photographers - but Words and Video is delivered fantastically in digital format.
If we were to ever consider something like this again in the future it would be more like a history book, and it would follow that pre-order $35-$50 per unit type cost where the people who want it actually pay for it.
Again though - I really think our time will be much better spent focusing in on inventing a new future of digital media.
JasperGphotoSo i take it that the yearbook is completely dead then. No chance of survival?
Mr.Bishopdown the road we can start looking at new and cool projects... ways to accomplish what we wanted within whatever world comes out of the media businesses' re-invention of itself.
Lé.SkiingIs it possible for a digital NS Yearbook(in the future)? I mean it would probably depend on the devices of the NS users(one downside is making it compatible on android and iPhones), but I feel this could be a decent alternative.
The style I have in my head is roughly the same as how comic books do their thing. If you have ever read a comic book that's been legitimately downloaded you should check it out(check out the marvel and DC apps I believe they have a ton of free comic books for download on the app. That is if you're interested in this idea). The way the images pan from picture to picture is awesome and kind of changes your experience of viewing comic books. Being able to zoom in on pictures is something that print can never match and is something that's a huge plus of digital content. However, the downside to digital content is not being able to buy something you can physically hold in your hands though.
Maybe this is really just a horrible idea and I'm trying to hold on too tightly to the yearbook idea and the ways we can make it work.
