New Go magazine in the works

[nagano]

I'm planning to start a new English monthly Go magazine. Currently each issue is planned to be roughly 40 pages, containing game reviews, problems, interviews and feature commentary. A recurring focus will be the development of Go worldwide, with the goal of facilitating communication between players of all countries.

It may be a while before the magazine is available, but I would like to take the time now to ask you what kind of coverage and features you would like to see, and also what price you would consider reasonable for the offered content.

[moyoaji]

Game reviews, problems, and interviews sound excellent. Having the focus be on the development of go across the world sounds great. For example, it's been a while since I've heard news about the American and European pro systems.

Other nice things to include might be a summary of recent pro tournaments, go equipment/book reviews, and short pieces that feature go clubs or amateur tournaments. For your interviews, obviously professional players are a great choice, but there are many people who could provide great material for an article. Players who attend the World Amateur Go Championship, AGA/EGF organizers, authors/editors/translators of go books, prominent YouTube content providers, and go club leaders from successful clubs are all good candidates.

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I currently pay around $1 an issue for a subscription to a monthly magazine. While it has almost 100 pages, that magazine is funded mostly by ads, so as far as content is concerned, it probably only has 50 pages worth of articles. The cover price is about $5, but most magazines of this length have subscription rates around $1-2 per issue.

That being said, I love go and, while I can get a lot of news online with ease, go news is harder to come by.

For a monthly go magazine with 40 pages of content, I'd be willing to pay up to $5 an issue. More than $5 for a 40 page magazine would be difficult for me to justify because I could spend that money on go books of game commentaries or problems. If the magazine costs $100 a year (about $8 an issue) I could instead buy a $20 go book every other month.

I think $2-3 a month would be good for a subscription to a go magazine of that size. You will need to get advertisers to offset the cost. When you do, try to get ads that are relevant to go players. Obviously you can't be too picky but, if you seek out companies, try to go to ones that sell go sets, books, etc. before ones that sell unrelated products. Some irrelevant ads are to be expected, but I would love to find out about go websites and suppliers through ads in a magazine like that. Yes, when it comes to go, I want to be shown ads!

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Please keep us updated about this. I look forward to the first issue.

[logan]

An import book review/announcement section could be cool. Supporting publications from around the world instead of just the West.

[smokjo]

Column about how to attract new players, this month's example "success story" of a new club, a special playing location, ... More generally: something to inspire (and motivate) all of us: what can we do (locally) to make go known?

[gowan]

The now defunct Go World magazine, initially published by Ishi Press and continued by Kiseido, offered most of what moyoaji suggested. Production values were high. It was a class act. I'm not sure why it failed but I suspect that it wasn't financially viable. Probably the internet had a hand in killing it. Everything moyoaji and others have asked for in the line of news reports, club activities, instructional material, and problems, is available online for free and not much effort is needed to find it. About the only thing that isn't freely available on line is good pro game commentary in English. Part of the problem is that the demand for on-paper materials is shrinking. Note that John Fairbairn, whose recent Slate and Shell books are probably the best writing on go published in the last several years, has gone to publishing in electronic format and not on paper because, he says, on-paper publishing of go books is not economically viable. A number of really good go books have been published and not sold well, presumably because people don't want to spend money on go books. So one has to wonder what would make an on-paper magazine attractive enough for the Western go masses to buy it when they don't buy excellent books.

More on content of go magazines ... I was a subscriber to Go World from the beginning until it ceased publication. Every issue devoted several pages to news of the go community. Looking back, this loses interest after a very short time, and I don't ever look at that part of old issues. As far as interest is concerned, what does last for me is commented pro games, some instructional material, stories about the lives and character of various pros, and photographs, especially artistic ones of pros, famous people playing in important matches, etc. Leave out the news, local go club information, tournament announcements, etc. You can't publish frequently enough for that to be current.

Well, good luck with your project!

[Bantari]

The now defunct Go World magazine, initially published by Ishi Press and continued by Kiseido, offered most of what moyoaji suggested. Production values were high. It was a class act. I'm not sure why it failed but I suspect that it wasn't financially viable. Probably the internet had a hand in killing it. Everything moyoaji and others have asked for in the line of news reports, club activities, instructional material, and problems, is available online for free and not much effort is needed to find it. About the only thing that isn't freely available on line is good pro game commentary in English. Part of the problem is that the demand for on-paper materials is shrinking. Note that John Fairbairn, whose recent Slate and Shell books are probably the best writing on go published in the last several years, has gone to publishing in electronic format and not on paper because, he says, on-paper publishing of go books is not economically viable. A number of really good go books have been published and not sold well, presumably because people don't want to spend money on go books. So one has to wonder what would make an on-paper magazine attractive enough for the Western go masses to buy it when they don't buy excellent books.

More on content of go magazines ... I was a subscriber to Go World from the beginning until it ceased publication. Every issue devoted several pages to news of the go community. Looking back, this loses interest after a very short time, and I don't ever look at that part of old issues. As far as interest is concerned, what does last for me is commented pro games, some instructional material, stories about the lives and character of various pros, and photographs, especially artistic ones of pros, famous people playing in important matches, etc. Leave out the news, local go club information, tournament announcements, etc. You can't publish frequently enough for that to be current.

Well, good luck with your project!

I agree with all of the above.
My suggestion - make it an on-line magazine rather than a physical one. You can still sell subscriptions, but the model is more viable with much less overhead.

As for content, good game commentaries as well as good interviews would be great.

[Javaness2]

I would like to see commentary top games taken from North and South American tournaments, and from European tournaments. Interviews and tuition material ought to present as well.

Have you considered a pay what you want model? I think that would give the magazine a really hip vibe.

[Rowen]

I agree with having it in a digital format, so long as I can make a backup and never loose the issues I paid for. That being said I would be very interested in commented games from all over the world (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, US and EU), there would be a lot of games to pull from there. Also, a good beginner section to entice those just getting into the game would be great but tackling some of the harder to grasp concepts like making eyes or scoring.

Give us this and at a reasonable price and Ill subscribe.

[nagano]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. The magazine will be offered in DRM-free EPUB and MOBI (Kindle) formats, and hopefully print on demand will be possible for those who still want a physical copy. I can guarantee that the price will not be above $5 per issue, at least for the digital version. Thanks @moyoaji for confirming my thoughts on this.

The now defunct Go World magazine, initially published by Ishi Press and continued by Kiseido, offered most of what moyoaji suggested. Production values were high. It was a class act. I'm not sure why it failed but I suspect that it wasn't financially viable.

I think that Go World failed due to the high price (even now, $8-10/issue) and a lack of publicity. However, we do not merely aim to copy Go World. Go World was indeed excellent, but rather narrowly focused on Japan. The unfortunate decline of Japanese Go may also have had something to do with its failure, as Korean and Chinese pros began to steal the spotlight. As stated previously, we aim to focus on the wider community, and while there will certainly be plenty of commentaries there will also be a stronger emphasis on the people and cultures involved.

More on content of go magazines ... I was a subscriber to Go World from the beginning until it ceased publication. Every issue devoted several pages to news of the go community. Looking back, this loses interest after a very short time, and I don't ever look at that part of old issues.

The feature articles on the international go community will not be in the nature of news updates or small local tournament coverage. Rather, they will focus on the rate of growth and development of strong players in different countries, with an emphasis on the individuals involved and the methods they have used. So it should not be repetitive like that.

Have you considered a pay what you want model? I think that would give the magazine a really hip vibe.

Like Humble Bundle? Hmm... that is indeed an intriguing idea. I will give it some thought. Perhaps I should also add here that a portion of the proceeds from the magazine will be used to develop a new type of Go study system, though I can't really give the details of that at this time.

Thank you all for your suggestions and support, I will be sure to update you when the project is closer to launch.

[Boidhre]

May I ask why MOBI and EPUB? I found diagrams in .mobi to be unpleasant to use due to limitations in the device's ability to render sharp curved lines on the Kindle and the diagrams not being scaled properly by the software (due to the format not allowing for vector images I believe, but could be wrong) on larger formats like the iPad and other tablets. The formats work well for text but little else really, chess books on Kindle suffer from similar issues with diagrams being a bit fuzzy and lacking contrast.

"Pay what you want" seems to work well for the niche software industry. The feedback I've seen from developers has been that it doesn't seem to canibalise your full price sales much but gains you a lot of customers who would never pay full price for your games, opening up another revenue stream for fairly minimal loss.

[John Fairbairn]

I think that Go World failed due to the high price (even now, $8-10/issue) and a lack of publicity. However, we do not merely aim to copy Go World. Go World was indeed excellent, but rather narrowly focused on Japan. The unfortunate decline of Japanese Go may also have had something to do with its failure, as Korean and Chinese pros began to steal the spotlight. As stated previously, we aim to focus on the wider community, and while there will certainly be plenty of commentaries there will also be a stronger emphasis on the people and cultures involved.

I broadly welcome the plan to launch a new magazine. Even without the sorry interlude of kaya.go I would have my doubts, though. Fine words butter no parsnips. Starting with the view that it would be valuable to try to start off on the right foot, I offer, along with my hopes of being proven wrong, some words of caution.

First, journalistic accuracy would be a good value to aim at for a new journal. Go World did not fail. It was set up from Day 1 mainly as a vehicle to publicise Ishi Press/Kiseido go books. Even then the problem of advertising for the go publishing industry was a major headache. The idea was that the books would subsidise the magazine. The magazine obviously was not meant to be too much of a drain on resources, and the plan was for it to be printed on art quality paper with attractive covers so as to make it collectible, and so attract a reliable, if small, core of people who would buy with steadfast regularity for that reason alone.

Very high production values were also targeted partly as a way of ensuring support of the Nihon Ki-in - aiding the international spread of go as a class act. This involved not so much financial aid as permission to use translations of Japanese material free of charge, or at reduced rates (books as well as the magazine).

Even at the end the magazine was achieving its aims. The biggest single factor in Go World closing down (at least in paper form) may have been the fall in subsidy from the book side of the business, and this was due largely to piracy of the books. It was therefore not the magazine that failed but (to some degree) the books.

The other comments about the content may be applicable, subject to taste, but "people and cultures" is a notorious minefield in games publishing. Long experience shows that only a tiny handful of people value such content. Nearly everyone else just wants the latest opening tricks or tips on how to get stronger.

I wonder also about the lack of comment in the model for the new magazine about who provides the content and how it will be ensured that they keep going smoothly month after month, year after year. Go World paid its contributors, even if it was a paltry amount. National magazines with devoted but unpaid members find it excruciatingly hard to solicit contributions, and even when they do get them it all ends up as a piebald effect, lurching from material for 1-dans one issue to 16-kyus the next issue, as the contributors come and go.

[Archivist]

This is a great undertaking. I wish you luck with it and would subscribe should you bring it to bear.

[quietimes]

I may be on an island on this comment. Please have some meat for the 25k-10k player. Smaller articles on study, concepts. Small pieces. Maybe commentary on a similarly ranked game. One of my biggest turn off's on literature is that it seems to focus on power reports, tournaments that I will never see and players I do not know or can relate to. Because of this ("never start a sentence with because")I end up enjoying the ad's, calendar of events and "go spotting" more than anything.

The publication I refer to is a great work that I look forward to with every release however I have trouble connecting and relating to most of the articles as a DDK.

Looking forward to your creation.

[TheBigH]

I second that, quietimes.

[Charlie]

Please include a column on culture or history, too.

I think many people are intrigued by the rich lore surrounding the simple game - anecdotes about culture, legends and myths, history, even haiku and poems about thieves being caught by the game...