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Causing A Ruckus
(UK) RUCKUS is a new youth magazine from those lovely people at the National Youth Agency. To find out more about it and download the inaugural copy click here.
I have over 4 years experience of project managing a very successful local youth magazine so was very interested in their attempt. Unfortunately I felt they missed the mark. It's fantastic to see an organisation like the NYA produce specific content for young people so I contacted them to see if I could help.
Unfortunately they didn't have a budget for external consultants so this is my freebie to them and anyone else considering an online or print youth magazine:
Here's what's already out there and is setting the standard:
Exposure - sure you know of this fantastic London mag but they are also available as downloadable pdfs;
YouthLivin - another great online mag with fantastically rich and diverse content:
Frank - Australian emag which focusses on young women: http://www.younglivin.org.uk/magazine.htm
…that's just from memory and I'm sure there are a whole sway of other examples.
Content—you're competing with iPods, computer games, MTV, Instant Messaging, MySpace.com etc …two articles from young people is not going to hold nor is producing three/four issues a year (unless it's print which is fair enough—virtual is so much easier and hasn't the same pressures and logistics involved).
Distribution/promotional channels—utilise existing partnerships/networks to raise the profile of your emag;
Contributors—tap into these networks for distribution but more importantly contributions from young people. When I ran the youth magaine we always had too many articles for publication without even trying because young people and schools and other organisations knew about it and wanted to be involved;
Incentives—they come in many guises: site visits, name in print, product/film/book/concert reviews, etc etc …give incentives for contributions through commercial partnerships.
Announcements—create a sign-up list so young people can receive updates on the next magazine when it is available for download (should be very easy for your IT team to set up and give the option of email and text).
Capacity—without sounding glib, if you haven't the capacity then maybe it isn't something you should pursue.
If you know of any online emags/pdf's which are youth-specific then let me know and I will forward their details onto the NYA team.
Filed by DK on January 5 2006
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