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Python Magazine exists!

Mark mark at pyzine.com
Fri Jun 25 16:25:41 EDT 2004 
Hello Tyler,

On Jun 25, 2004, at 3:22 PM, Tyler Eaves wrote:

> Here's the thing, 49 euros is, at current rates, $59.57.

Sorry, we are not willing to accept any responsibility for the weakness 
of the US Dollar or the price of Oil for that matter :-)

Considering that not too long ago 49 Euros was far less than 49 USD's 
that's just the way
the pendulum swings. All though we think its a shame -- good for our 
authors though -- who
get paid in Euro.

> Sorry, but $15 an issue is just too much for a magazine, especially 
> since you don't actually
> mail honest-to-goodness dead tree versions. Now, it the cost was more 
> like
> $20 a year, I might seriously consider it.

Well give it a few years. Maybe the Euro will drop to that level :-) 
But I doubt it.

>  It's a simple demand curve. If
> hypothetically, you got 4 times as many subscriptions by cutting your
> rates to 1/3rd of their present value (and I wouldn't say that isn't
> possible, and it may even be conservative), you'd be better off doing 
> so,
> as your costs are basically fixed independent of the # of subscribers.

"Basically" fixed is basically incorrect. Beyond simple things like 
increased hosting
fees we definitely notice an increase in the amount of email we receive 
from our readers.
We certainly aren't complaining about feedback from our subscribers (we 
love it) but it is a matter of fact that the more customers you serve 
the more time you will spend supporting them.

Our goal is not to publish on the cheap. We'd rather expand our 
offerings. Py used to be in the price range you discussed and it was 
unsustainable. The "new" Py already features more articles than the 
"old" Py. As the subscriber base increases we hope to be able to make 
issues longer, publish more frequently, continue to release several 
articles for free on emerging Python technology (to help the adoption 
of new Python technology), and roll out some other surprises
we are working on.

Fact is we are in this for the long haul. And since subscribers get 
access to all back issues, in the case of ZopeMag this is the 
equivalent now of a Zope book, the price per page or what ever other 
vodoo metric one wants to use -- Py will become less expensive by the 
day (not including other factors like inflation) :-) As for a paper 
edition Bryan (the former publisher of Py) repeatedly warned us from 
publishing a print edition (and backed this up with hard numbers).

The good news is that our subscriber growth is inline with our 
projections and as we reach
certain milestones each Py will get bigger not smaller (or dissapear 
altogether) and tied to this growth the amount of money (and people) 
paid to write about Python technologies.

That was the original reason for writing to this mailinglist to debunk 
the myth that

""Nobody gets paid to write articles about Python"

and to make people aware that a 100% Python Magazine exists today!

We may not be able to convince you and a few others to subscriber to Py 
today but with the help of a growing subscriber base and a growing 
library of more worthwhile Python articles than ever before -- we hope 
to win you over eventually :-)

Cheers,

Mark
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