Click Magazine

Helix

if games, movies or technology are things you think you could write a bit about drop me a line to peter at clickmagazine dot ie

issue 2 was just released and we'll definitely accept well written submissions

flogen

Helix wrote: »

if games, movies or technology are things you think you could write a bit about drop me a line to peter at clickmagazine dot ie

issue 2 was just released and we'll definitely accept well written submissions

Do you pay?

Helix

as it is we're a startup providing 152 pages printed on empire quality paper for €3.50... perhaps somewhere down the line

flogen

Helix wrote: »

as it is we're a startup providing 152 pages printed on empire quality paper for €3.50... perhaps somewhere down the line

This isn't intended to be confrontational but a 'yes' or 'no' is all that's required. All freelancers need to know from the outset is whether they'll get paid for their work, not the reasons why or why not.

I have to say if the magazine's investment is going into print quality alone I think it's extremely short-sighted but that's a debate for another day.

Pen1987

Again, non-confrontational, but just out of interest Helix... How many paid journalists do you have on staff? What percentage of the content do they produce?

mneylon

Helix wrote: »

as it is we're a startup providing 152 pages printed on empire quality paper for €3.50... perhaps somewhere down the line

So you spend money on paper instead of your writers?

Helix

flogen wrote: »

This isn't intended to be confrontational but a 'yes' or 'no' is all that's required. All freelancers need to know from the outset is whether they'll get paid for their work, not the reasons why or why not.

I have to say if the magazine's investment is going into print quality alone I think it's extremely short-sighted but that's a debate for another day.

it doesnt go into print quality alone, far from it

Pen1987 wrote: »

Again, non-confrontational, but just out of interest Helix... How many paid journalists do you have on staff? What percentage of the content do they produce?

pretty much everyone on the writing staff has other responsibilities too, so its not a case of anyone being just a journalist. and the percentage of content is 100%

blacknight wrote: »

So you spend money on paper instead of your writers?

as i said no far from it, we have far far far more content than most magazines out there

flogen

Helix wrote: »

it doesnt go into print quality alone, far from it

I'm sure there's plenty more involved but you specifically cited the high-quality paper you use as a reason for not paying journalists at the moment.

Anyway, none of that matters really to the journalist who needs to earn a living or, more importantly for Click Magazine, the audience that wants to read something good. All that needs to be taken from this is that a freelance journalist cannot earn money for writing for Click Magazine, unlike most (or all?) other mainstream publications out there.

You get what you pay for and if you're not willing to pay for content then the content you get won't be good enough to get a very savvy and discerning audience interested.

[Mod Note: I've split this into a new thread as I feel it's a discussion worth continuing but is off topic from the original post]

Helix

flogen wrote: »

I
You get what you pay for and if you're not willing to pay for content then the content you get won't be good enough to get a very savvy and discerning audience interested.

perhaps you should read the magazine before saying that?

i just said we dont pay for external content submissions because we have our internal team already in place

flogen

Helix wrote: »

perhaps you should read the magazine before saying that?

I did and I felt it was well-produced but lacking in worthwhile content.

i just said we dont pay for external content submissions because we have our internal team already in place

That's fine but you came here to state the magazine was open to submissions, I asked if you pay and you said no.

I'm suggesting that if you think a piece is well-written and interesting enough to be put in your magazine you should be willing to reward the journalist for their work.

If you're not then I don't think you should solicit for content.

Helix

he said in the original post that while paying was preferable that it wasnt essential, hence my reply

re the content issue, what else would you like to see in it? where do you think it fell down on the content side and how do you think it can be improved? thatd be some really helpful info for us. feedback is always important

flogen

Helix wrote: »

he said in the original post that while paying was preferable that it wasnt essential, hence my reply

And as a poster said quickly after that, you should never work for free - if he's a good enough writer to get published he can get paid in any number of places even if it isn't a lot.

re the content issue, what else would you like to see in it? where do you think it fell down on the content side and how do you think it can be improved? thatd be some really helpful info for us. feedback is always important

It was the first issue I read so I can't remember half of the problems I had with it however I did feel the content was very stale overall. It was either dated before it had hit the shelves or was something I could and had already found in a number of other magazines or websites.

I also felt the magazine had no focus. It seemed to sell itself as a gadget magazine but spent a lot of time talking about films and other media etc. - at times I even felt like it was trying to be a lad's magazine more than a technology magazine.

I think you'd be far better off cutting the page numbers down significantly and seeking out a couple of strong, lead features for each issue that your rivals (namely the mountain of UK magazines on the shelves) won't have. In other words, Ireland-specific content.

Whether there's enough of that to last you very long I can't say. I'd bet that there is but it will take work to do regularly and will take time to build a reputation amongst readers.

You should also get yourselves some kind of proper website. Look at the community Movies.ie has built up in a very short amount of time by utilising breaking news, video interviews, competitions, etc.

Now, that's about all the feedback I'm willing to give before I start charging a consultancy fee.

Helix

definitely doesnt pitch itself as a gadget magazine anyway. first issue was games focuessed, movies next and technology at the end

second issue is more movie focussed coz we had jdiff and the oscars as well as more localised content incuding an interview with microsoft game studios' declan machugh and phil bourke from the games fleadh. i only work on the games content so im not sure what localised stuff was in the movies or tech tbh

the first issue also had a some localised stuff from the games point of view too. we covered havok and the changing face of gaming in ireland so i think its unfair to say that it didnt have anything that want on offer elsewhere

there has definitely been a gradual increase in the localised stuff tho. issue 3 will have at least 30% of the games section about irish interest, which is a hefty chunk of it considering that pretty much everything that happens in video games isnt in any way localised to anywhere

again i can only comment for the games side of things, but we already have a website for that stuff, www.game.ie

cheers for the feedback, itll all be passed on

Cabaal

Helix wrote: »

i just said we dont pay for external content submissions because we have our internal team already in place

Then why ask for people to submit work that your not going to pay anything for...surely the well paid staff you already have are well capable of coming up with suitable content.

In saying that however, I understand you want to get people to write content and thats great I'm all for an Irish tech magazine especially if its anything better then the tat that is PC Live magazine that for years was affectively a compustore advertisement in the form of a magazine.

Might have not been the best idea as to reply to the "do you pay?" post with saying the paper quality is good :rolleyes:, might be an idea to give something to the perhaps that submits work that is accepted.

Free copy of the magazine for a start atleast..sure its small but its better then nothing...obviously people like to get something back for their work no matter how small. and I'm well aware people like seeing their name in lights as it were when its at the bottom of what they've written

Overall perhaps food for thought?

flogen

Helix wrote: »

definitely doesnt pitch itself as a gadget magazine anyway. first issue was games focuessed, movies next and technology at the end

That's the perception I had approaching it anyway - perhaps because of the CoD graphic and N96 on the cover. I'll plead ignorance on that front but I do still think it's trying to be a bit of everything for everyone with that approach.

second issue is more movie focussed coz we had jdiff and the oscars as well as more localised content incuding an interview with microsoft game studios' declan machugh and phil bourke from the games fleadh. i only work on the games content so im not sure what localised stuff was in the movies or tech tbh

the first issue also had a some localised stuff from the games point of view too. we covered havok and the changing face of gaming in ireland so i think its unfair to say that it didnt have anything that want on offer elsewhere

there has definitely been a gradual increase in the localised stuff tho. issue 3 will have at least 30% of the games section about irish interest, which is a hefty chunk of it considering that pretty much everything that happens in video games isnt in any way localised to anywhere

Glad to hear that Irish-focused content is being ramped up and naturally you can't ignore the international scene in a tech/games/film magazine. I can't really recall the specifics of the Havok piece so I'll have to hold my judgement on that but in fairness they have been the focus of plenty of features over the years, I'm not sure what your angle was to ensure it was fresh.

The content has to be strong, too. You're in a tight spot because you can't talk generally about tech etc., plenty of UK titles do that far better than any start-up could. At the same time you can't just cover Irish topics and leave it at that, they have to be compelling.

again i can only comment for the games side of things, but we already have a website for that stuff, www.game.ie

cheers for the feedback, itll all be passed on

Frankly I hadn't heard of that site until very recently and I'd be in its target market. I think there's a lot wrong with it and more should be done to create a community there, which will naturally flow through to Click if there's enough of a reason.

You also need to ensure it's regularly updated - the last bit of news you have on that site at the moment is five days old.

Click itself should have a proper site too. Something people visit every day for their fix. Then when you tell them the latest print edition is out, they'll go looking for it.

Helix

Cabaal wrote: »

Then why ask for people to submit work that your not going to pay anything for...surely the well paid staff you already have are well capable of coming up with suitable content.

In saying that however, I understand you want to get people to write content and thats great I'm all for an Irish tech magazine especially if its anything better then the tat that is PC Live magazine that for years was affectively a compustore advertisement in the form of a magazine.

Might have not been the best idea as to reply to the "do you pay?" post with saying the paper quality is good :rolleyes:, might be an idea to give something to the perhaps that submits work that is accepted.

Free copy of the magazine for a start atleast..sure its small but its better then nothing...obviously people like to get something back for their work no matter how small. and I'm well aware people like seeing their name in lights as it were when its at the bottom of what they've written

Overall perhaps food for thought?

ah thered be a free copy of the magazine for any external contributors alright. anyone featured in the magazine gets a few copies as it is so im sure that would be extended

ill again just say tho that the original thread was a guy asking what publications accepted sumbissions and either paid or did, i saw it and told him that click did. that was all there was to it. we dont have anything in place to the best of my knowledge for external submissions from non team members coz there have yet to be any that we included. i was just offering a suggestion to the poster of the original thread, not openly canvassing for everyone to send us articles or anything

Helix

flogen wrote: »

You also need to ensure it's regularly updated - the last bit of news you have on that site at the moment is five days old.

the back end is down at the minute, which isnt helping matters tbh

but i definitely agree with the bulk of your post. its proving quite tricky to get people over to game, purely because you cant mention it anywhere or else its deleted lol

flogen

Helix wrote: »

ah thered be a free copy of the magazine for any external contributors alright. anyone featured in the magazine gets a few copies as it is so im sure that would be extended

ill again just say tho that the original thread was a guy asking what publications accepted sumbissions and either paid or did, i saw it and told him that click did. that was all there was to it. we dont have anything in place to the best of my knowledge for external submissions from non team members coz there have yet to be any that we included. i was just offering a suggestion to the poster of the original thread, not openly canvassing for everyone to send us articles or anything

That doesn't change the fact that you're willing to publish external submissions but not pay for them.

Helix wrote: »

the back end is down at the minute, which isnt helping matters tbh

but i definitely agree with the bulk of your post. its proving quite tricky to get people over to game, purely because you cant mention it anywhere or else its deleted lol

I sorely want to see a decent Irish games website so I say this constructively - you can spend all the time and money in the world plugging the website but if the content isn't there to back it up the hits you get will be shallow; in other words the person who visits on the back of them won't return for a second look.

Get your content right and the audience will find you.

Helix

we've really been going at it from a content aspect for the last few weeks, then the back end went down and put us back to square one. the forum needs a complete rejig which will be done when things get back up and running

for the last few weeks we've been adding at least 5 articles a day. its not a phenomenal amount but it ensured that there was a regular supply of new material on there

its been a constant case of bad timing for us with the site, theres always been something that completely destroyed any momentum we had built up unfortunately. i would hope that the outage of the last few days will be the end of the problems to allow us to keep pushing on at it again

i dont think its 100% tho that if you have the content people will come. if people dont know about the site in the first place its quite tricky to get them to come the first time so that they might stay

speedboatchase

Sent PM Helix