The Magazine Rack: Print-on-Demand & Magazine Collection Development
By Steve Black, Coll. of Saint Rose, Albany, NY Feb 3, 2011In last month's Magazine Rack two of the magazines I reviewed used print-on-demand (POD) services that eliminate upfront printing costs while still delivering high-quality printed issues. POD services are an excellent choice for small publishers and start-ups, but why should libraries care? POD matters for three reasons:
- POD can maintain libraries' option to get high-quality print issues in an increasingly online-only world
- It's an affordable and convenient way for publishers to make back issues available
- It will help keep online magazines from becoming blogs
Many POD-produced periodicals must be purchased as individual issues rather than by subscription. But there's no lack of options for a publisher interested in adding POD availability to their online magazine; book marketing consultant John Kremer has compiled a list of over 100 POD companies. Libraries and subscription agencies will need to adjust a bit, but there's no fundamental reason we can't do business with the third-party POD companies working for publishers.
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The print-on-demand services that seem to be catching on now have been around for several years. MagCloud.com has been in business since 2008. They use HP Indigo printers to create high-quality full-color publications on standard 8.5" x 11" paper. There is no minimum number of copies. The cost to a publisher is 20 cents a page. Issues are available for sale at magcloud.com, and publishers have the option of including a markup so they profit from each sale. There's no upfront printing expense, and no risk of losing money on unsold inventory. It's also easy and risk-free to make back issues available. Simple and affordable access to back issues could be a boon to libraries.
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A title recently added to the periodicals for sale at MagCloud is the International Journal of Childbirth Education, which is targeted to professionals and members of the general public interested in childbirth. It's held at 400-plus libraries and enjoys strong demand for articles from back issues. David Feild, Executive Director of the International Childbirth Education Association, explained that the association was becoming hard-pressed to balance their finances in the face of rising printing and shipping costs. (They had a long-standing membership pricing model that made the journal a money loser.) Going online-only in 2009 eliminated those costs, and the open access model they adopted for PDF online expanded their audience, which makes their journal more attractive to advertisers, a small but important source of income for them. When I asked him about the role of libraries in handling a free online-only journal, he replied that libraries should simply deal with linking to it. He doesn't see any compelling reason for the association to offer print subscriptions and would strongly prefer to go exclusively online.
The main reason they added a POD option, Field said, was to address members' unhappiness with the association's decision to stop mailing print issues of the quarterly journal. All the publisher has to do is set up a PayPal account at MagCloud, decide on a sale price, and upload the quarterly PDF file. In choosing MagCloud, he explained, "Quality is what got us." The print issues were beautifully done, superior to traditional print runs. In fact, it allows them to use color more liberally than before, because the MagCloud rate of 20 cents per page holds whether the pages are black and white or filled with color graphics. MagCloud manages the transactions, so the association has no staff costs for managing subscriptions. Feild told me it's too early to tell if the members will buy many print copies because the association just began its relationship with MagCloud.
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The International Childbirth Education Association's reasons for using a third-party POD company are not unique. Convenience, quality, and lack of financial risk are attractive to any publisher. I recently looked at I, Hero, an online magazine of "superhero fiction." The "ihero Universe" is the sort of thing that is particularly well served by the web, since a globally distributed niche audience can be prohibitively expensive to reach in print. They're charging $15 for a six-issue download, and $29.94 plus shipping and handling for printed copies. I, Hero uses the comixpress.com POD service, which has been in business since 2004.
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Feild believes that POD will help preserve the familiar format of a printed magazine even for periodicals created to be read online. So long as there's at least some demand for print copies, it behooves the publisher to create PDF files that look good in print and have page numbers, mastheads, and tables of contents. Creating one version for the web and another for print is unnecessary duplication of work. One well-crafted PDF serves both purposes. This is good for libraries and our patrons since it means managing access to identical works in two formats rather than having to deal with two entirely separate versions.
Print-on-demand by a third-party provider is a compelling model for magazine publishers, especially start-ups and small circulation titles. There's no warehousing cost or losses from unsold inventory. Once the PDF file for an issue is created, no staff time is spent on fulfillment, since that's handled by the POD company. The publisher can focus on creating their online magazine and treat any income from the POD as a minimum-hassle bonus. For all those reasons, expect to see many magazines and journals go to a PDF+POD model. This is good for libraries because it preserves our option to buy high-quality print current and back issues and maintains the familiar magazine format.
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