Any interest in an Australian Bonsai Magazine?

[lindsay farr]

Pup makes good points. I share Pup's enthusiasm that an Aussie bonsai mag would be great. I would welcome the initiative. I think that it would be extremely difficult to profit from such a venture.
When Wayne was publishing Bonsai Today, he responded to the subscribers requests for more American content. Then the internet bun fight began," why won't he publish my article" or " why don't they pay me more for my article" were common conversations. From memory BT had just under 5000 US and international subscribers in its heyday. On ratio that may translate to about 300 Aussie subscribers. If you can produce a mag of that quality these are the realities that you must face.
Good Luck. And I say that sincerely. I hope that you succeed and make a mockery of my views.
Cheers
Lindsay

[Bretts]

What about 1 a year.

[john tapner]

I have been producing and printing a 24 page A5 Bonsai Newsletter for the Bonsai Study Group in Sydney for the last 8 years. This is produced 4 times per year and is distributed to local clubs, to Club members and a few to overseas friends that have allowed me to use featured articles with permission. A few years ago I used to charge a few dollars from the local bonsai nurseries to help defray costs and give them a bit of coverage, but it all became too hard and now I just list all the bonsai and associated product suppliers on one of the back pages. I have given up asking for articles. The intention is there but when the time to start printing is upon us literally nothing has come through. I'm not blaming these people as they have other lives and other priorities. I trawl the internet and pick up many good articles, some relevant to our local conditions, some not. I can download many photos and drawings which can be of use as inspiration. There are many articles that are written with humour, and some quite serious. Where I can, I always ask for permission and generally it is freely given and acknowledged. Many an hour will go into compiling, editing, deleting, tweaking and re-compiling the Newsletter before I am satisfied. I do it because I can, being retired. But commercially? No! You wouldn't pay enough for a small commercial run. Others have tried and failed. The problem lies in being the editor of a journal. It ain't a walk in the park folks. Like Pup, I have seen journals, both here and overseas, that have been printed and, with a small production run, failing. Stick to Club Newsletters and the Internet. If an article comes up on the Internet that is of interest, copy and paste it onto A4 paper and then laminate it. I have a good collection of species specific articles including one from Pup, but don't tell him, that I keep in a divided folder, and scarcely a week goes by that the collection is not added to,

I'm going to bed now, my brain hurts..............

John T

[Pup]

Wake up ya bloody thief.

Thank you for thinking my article is worth keeping. I like most Bonsai enthusiasts, would love to see one. You have just pointed out why we do not.

The great Australian shell be right apathy.
Off topic for a bit when I was a young metal worker I was hounded into becoming a shop steward to my trade union.
Then the complaints of you bloody poms are all the same. Well no other person stood so we needed a representative.

Like John says he does it for love, when he tried to cover costs it got to hard. Also Lindsay pointed out what happened with BT.
I remember when they asked for Editors I used to get a huge laugh from some of the comments made.

Again, I like Lindsay would love to be proven wrong on this one as, one of my favorite pass times is reading.

John please feel free if any thing of mine is useful to use.
Cheers Pup

[rayfam5]

I definitely would love to see an Aussie bonsai MAG. Especially with focus on natives. pages with Australian needs in relation to stock, equipment. and info on relative seasonal requirements.
who the hell would do it. Be a lot of work.


GO FOR IT SOMEBODY.

[john tapner]

Thats what I mean..............it's always somebody else.........

John T

[Mitchell]

Ok, well we are at this point, I think we all realise it would be nice, but it's not going to work.

So what could we do? I have seen weekly newsletters electronically mailed out, several of which I receive and read (not bonsai related).
Could we not start doing a weekly / fortnightly newsletter, summarising what has been significant that week on Ausbonsai.

It would take significantly less work to achieve, than a publication and may get the support of Ausbonsai.
We could take what seems to be the most popular articles, strip the needless stuff out, then post them to the newsletter.
Only a brief paragraph would be needed for each, then a hyperlink to the actually article here on site.

If we could get the approval of AB to use their name and media, then we have enough info here now to perpetuate it for a while whilst collecting relevant of site articles.
AB should be doing this already, e-newsletters are a great way of highlighting significant works in progress.

All of that how-ever would depend on AB releasing our media, as I am fairly sure like most other forums our images / documentation become copyright to them upon posting to this site. That's not having a dig, just stating we may actually need to ask permission to use what we have posted here in a e-newsletter, that's if AB did not want to put their name to it.

[luciano benyakob]

I wish the magazine Australian bonsai will be real.
And besides having the language to them, have the flora of Australia that is present in all tropical parts of the world.
This will ensure a good international traffic, ensuring good sales and maintenance of publication.
Here in Brazil, we certainly subscribers and buyers due to the presence of many trees of Australian origin.
Also there is the factor of you being close to the schools of the East, working with Tropical: Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and etc ...
Everything will be for you ...
Shalom Luciano.

[Pup]

Thats what I mean..............it's always somebody else.........

John T

That face less committee member sum bohdi
will do it

[dayne]

i think the biggest thing would be getting people to advertise and thats where the money is i dought the places in se qld would advertise much as they know every one that does it knows where they are but the advantage of a mag would be that it generates new intrest into the art so therefore more customers so may be more advertising if some one has the cash backing i think it would be great and i would support it.
all great things start with an idea

[mashby]

I would certainly subscribe to a "real" magazine (as opposed to an on-line forum or e-zine) and contribute any articles my limited knowledge may be able to produce. I would also be prepared to assist in its production if required. Also because our growing conditions in Australia are so different (remember, the growing conditions for trees, in general, and bonsai in particular also vary tremendously around the world - with some areas being very dry and hot and others having the "normal" northern 4 seasons - so our "condensed" growing seasons may be very helpful for others across the globe). One idea might be to have a section on each state ie "Feb - what is to do this month in Darwin, Perth, Tas etc, and have examples, photos, general tips.". Then do the same for each month.
I also disagree that the bonsai demographic in Australia is too small to sustain a magazine. Just look at this site, we have members from UK, US, Brazil and others. Don't forget, although we call our Aussie plants "natives", in other places in the world they consider Australiian natives as the "exotics".
I have spoken to Peter at the Bonsai Emporium here in Perth on many occasions and he has told me that people from Europe come to his nursery and pay a lot of money for "semi-finished" native bonsai with the intention of taking or having them shipped to Europe and selling them to enthusiasts for an absolute motza.
The is an enormous amount of interest about our natives as garden tress out there and probably even more interest in natives as bonsai. Just go on the internet and see. If you google, say, banksia as bonsai, you will receive a lot of hits but the majority of the information and examples and "expert knowledge" comes from American hobbyists or nurserymen (so probably 3rd hand info at best) and a lot of the information is wrong.
Why don't we give the world the benefit of our specialist knowledge, advertise in Bonsa Focus and on-line, and let them know that we bonsai enthusiasts in Australia know what we are talking about, have the collective years of experience to be taken seriously and that we should be the one's giving advice about our trees.

[Ash Barns]

I tend to fall in line with Lindsay in the 'doubt area' of the success of such a venture. However if the slant was toward Australian Natives, this might have appeal on a global basis. Many of our Natives are grown extensively in Asia and even the U.S. coupled with contributors such as Dr. Roger, FlyBri and Derek this could be viable. Great points Mashby.

Ash

[Ron]

...Many of our Natives are grown extensively in Asia and even the U.S. ....

Friends in California tell me they just love our Eucalypts (not!) as they're considered the major cause of the big wildfires they have in their state.

[Ash Barns]

As they are here Ron, except when they are grown in pots.

[Pup]

It appears I might be the cheif knocker here. As I have said in my posts in my time in Bonsai. I have seen 3 magazine fail though lack of patronage. and not having to compete with the IT age.

Mashby said why not a regional thing as to what to do when.

In Bonsai Down Under volume 6 number 4 There is not in just this one it just happened to be the one I picked out of my copies.
A section called Australia wide ACT John White Newcastle Normea O'Toole Victoria Ron Andersen Western Australia Karen King South Australia Errol Mizon
Queensland Ray Pearson Wagga Wagga George Stirzaker.

That I think would cover Australia pretty well. DON Burke was even on the writing staff.

At the grand price of $ 12-50 per annum postage paid This was 1982 so it has been there and done that and died

Bonsai Australis lasted 3 issues it had advanced subscriptions of $AU 8-95 per copy. I was one. In the last issue Volume one issue 3 there is a wonderful article in there on Melaleucas by the late Nell Saffin. So you see with all good intentions, it has been tried without the Computer competition. Then failed it is not as simple as people think.
As I have said I would love to see one but as I have said a solid pool of 3000 subscriber will only bring $ 45000 so what would you get for that??
Cheers Pup