[DML] Magazines vs zines

["James Espey" <james@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As the editor of the third magazine, I will concur with almost
everything Ron and Ken have said. Magazines are a lot of work, with
little to no compensation at the end of it all. I do question the
validity of the "numbers" of DeLorean owners (and cars) not being
enough to support a larger page count, higher quality magazine. The
Avanti club puts out a larger, more mainstream-style magazine
dedicated to a car that over the last 40 years has produced perhaps
4,000 cars.

http://www.aoai.org/covers.htm

That said, there is just one Avanti magazine - if there was just one
DeLorean magazine again, a merger of the three, perhaps, it would
stand to reason that we would see a higher quality, larger page count
publication, as well.

The 'zine that I produced in the late 90's was a big job, too.

http://dmcnews.com/zine.html

There was no paid advertising, no subscriptions, just me and couple
others (I haven't forgotten your help, Travis!) and whether or not I
went to work for DMC (Texas) in 1999, I'm not sure it would have
continued on any more than a perhaps 1 or 2 a year thing. Too much work.

I keep a set of deloreans magazines on my desk for reference, and also
one at home for when I am working on the next issue. It's fun to look
back at the humble, 16-page first issue and see it now as a 48-page,
full-color edition. Much like I enjoy looking at back issues of DW,
DCS and GW - I flip each of them at least once a week. But I can't
tell you the last time I fired up Acrobat just to look at a back issue
of DMC-News, the 'zine.

I remember being excited by the prospect of PDF when it was first
introduced (that's how the reproduction of the parts manual, owner
handbook and window sticker came to be on the DMC-News site). I worked
in printing at the time, and believed the hype of the "paperless
office" that was predicted. I got into PDF, HTML and WWW to be ready
for that day. But it hasn't come to pass yet, and while I expect to
see it in my lifetime, it's not coming soon.

A couple of weeks ago, in order to get some more exposure for
deloreans magazine, we created a PDF of the most recent issue that
anyone can download. 

http://www.delorean.com/pdf/v4n4_sm.pdf 

If you haven't seen deloreans in a while (or ever) take a look. While
PDF does remove the cost of printing/mailing/distribution, there is
still significant time and skill required for the layout and design.
And that's important - look at the decline of message traffic on the
DML and rise of forums like DMChelp.com and DMCtalk. Format and ease
of use make them arguably more popular now than the DML. Ease of use
is something the printed magazines have that the 'zine and other
electronic formats don't.

James Espey
DMC (Texas)

PS - Been awhile since I've been by here, even longer since I posted.
Hard to believe the DML is a teenager now. I wish I had written down
my predictions for it when I started it. I'm sure I would have been
way off!


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