Friday, March 2, 2007
The Zine?
Okay, so I really like the idea of a Zine. Its relatively easy to market, and could possibly be a simple way of generating momentum and revenue. But in our internet world having it be something that people actually would visit and care to read anything on it must have some 'hook.' You can have great content but who cares? There must be something about it that gets into peoples heads, causes them to come back. Or else we'll have a really cool, incredibly intelligent, and articulate website that nobody freaking cares about. But having it be something people care about and not comprimise our principles is also another thing to ponder. But here's some ideas about what it could be like, and what I would hate for it to become. It could be something that is a place for people to get info about what's going on in the kingdom here in our area and what also is going on around the globe. It could be somewhere where (a la Justin) reviews, commentaries, thoughts, miscellanies, editorials are published. But it could also be a place where people check out the culture scene (music, art, philosophy, nature, etc...) It could be a place where bands could get their names out, dates when they play, etc... I don't know these are just some ideas. I don't want it to turn into some myspace thing, I don't want it to feel like c28, (Shaun here's where you'd come in because you have a great crap detector). It literally could be something like The Reader or something but our own online version. Also check out Books and Culture the Christianity Today publication, it has some good stuff. Mostly I guess I just don't want it to be lame. But I don't know what the hook would be. All these might work but why would people want to come? Here's some stuff to ponder, and maybe we can start making some steps toward Jed's proposition of converting knowledge into output.
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6 comments:
The hook...the essentail ingredient to any great story, movie, sales-pitch, website, or in this case a Zine that promotes the Kingdom of God via secular outlets.
When I stand back and look at what has made Quiksilver so successful in their marketing there are four essential elements:
1. A name - Kelly Slater
2. Quality Product
3. Consistency - a 20-year plus heritage
4. Their means of distribution
Let's try and apply this to our great escapades in Zine-ing. First we get a couple solid people who wold be willing to be represented in it. Some names off the cuff...Tim Lambeisis (As I Lay Dying), John Piper, Donald Miller, Harry Daily (artist), etc. I'm sure we could get some killer representation if we all pulled our contact lists of talent together. From there we find a inexpensive but good way of producing this thing. Make sure we have color art, quality stories/interviews/reviews/letters/commentaries, etc. Have the content be driven to the same place so the zine leads the reader to the same place in the end. We don't want to be too scattered in our content.
Obviously, since this is a brand new project we wouldn't have any type of heritage but consistency in what we do would clearly be a main goal. Lastly, is where we decide to put this thing. Ideas...Underground record/coffee/surf shops. Taverns like Churchills. We don;t want to just scatter these things everywhere than it becomes way too accessible. But if hopefully it would become something accessible through the right channels.
Jed, Nate, Lando...I'm sure you guys all have thoughts on this stuff. The idea behind bringing an elite group together to join hands in The Jubilee Project is that we can all share in utilizing the gifts God has given us for His kingdom. Aaron Pete, where are you? Are you out there somewhere reading this in cyberland? That guy knows a thing or two about producing a quality product, he deals with it all day long.
Let's get some dialogue going here gents.
In the spirit of what Justin said, I think we need to think critically what the essential content of the Zine would be.
Justin, I think your approach is more than valid, I think it is workable. I am just having a hard time connecting the dots. Could you elaborate so that I can understand how you'd envision it? Likewise Sam, Nate, Lando, Shaun, I am interested in your takes as well.
I do not think we need to spend inordinate amounts of time figuring it out. Maybe just some broad strokes. Lets give it a few weeks and when Justin and Dbro get back from Oz then lets jump to it. Since Sam will be uber busy lets try to use Skype or something of the sort.
the zine
it is already being used. but i like the idea. can we be critics of culture and politics too? is this going to be merely a physical document or an online one, or both. what is the essence of what were doing(besides what sam wrote, its just that i read what sam is writing and then what leads the vision is outputting) and i just hope were not trying to set ourselves apart because pride has no place in any of this and that love is the pervading ideal.
Basically, I invision the Zine to have quality content on variouse topics that somehow tie back to the Kingdom. Whether it be posts straight from The Jubilee Project, or interviews with dynamic leaders that will challenge the reader as much as it will entertain.
At the same time making it visually appealling with art/music/etc. We can connect our own dots with all of this stuff. I'm not just talking 'dumb dumb' reviews here, but rather the types of reviews on culture, arts and politics that I constatnly hope to stumble upon in mainstream media but never quite seem to.
Does that shed some more light? I don't think I'm being that ambiguous.
I will post some more specific ideas later, but for now I just want to say that the idea is fantastic, and I want in.
Jason
I like it gentlemen. I like it a lot.
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