Re: Review: The PBM Report Preview

From: kmgraphiks@aol.com (KMGraphiks)

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000

Scott Turner writes:

>I also like the short article format.  Fanatic devotees of one game or
>another probably enjoy lengthy articles about their favorite games,
>but as for me, I can get most of what I want to know about a game out
>of the first 4-5 paragraphs.  I'm more interested in hearing that
>level of detail about 30 games than I am three lengthy articles about
>three games.  So PBM Report works well for me in that respect.
>However, it would be nice to have 1 long article to "anchor" each
>issue.  I imagine a magazine which had one long article on, say, "The
>Challenge of Fantasy Wargame PBMs" which discussed fantasy wargames >in
>general, followed by 20 short reports on actual games in that genre.
>That would be quite interesting, and maybe we'll see PBM Report move
>that way eventually.

Right now in it's beginning stages I think I better stick to a good mix of
shorter articles. But your idea of "themed" issues may indeed work well
later on down the line.

Thanks for your kind words,
Ken Mitchell
The PBM Report

PS,
If I could change the subject I'd like to clear up a little confusion I
inadvertently caused with the sample issue. The subject...inserts. I've
gotten quite a few inquiries on what it would cost to do an insert like
one of those in the sample issue (there were 3; L.Llama, F.Buffalo,
Midnight). I clearly state the ad rates and specs for a 1/6 and 1/4 page
ad in the issue but say nothing about inserts, of which I included 3
(Note: some have less than 3 since I had fewer quantities of a couple).

My policy right now is to only offer 1/6 and 1/4 pg ads in normal 8 page
issues (no future inserts).  The sample issue was only 4 pages so I had
lot's of unused weight left in my first class postage. I contacted 3
companies which were early supporters of my newsletter idea and offered to
carry an insert of each for free.
In a 10 page issue (depending on articles and ads) I may start offering
larger 1/2 page ads. I feel that since the newsletter is much smaller than
a magazine I need to stay focused on quality content instead of expanding
ad revenue.

I've now mailed out over 1200 sample issues and the subscriptions are
starting to come in (I thank you and my printer thanks you). I've
exhausted my supply of inserts and will finish the mailing (300 to 700
more) without any.

References

Review: The PBM Report Preview
srt@aero.org (Scott Turner)
Thu, 19 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000