AusBonsai

I have received permission to forward AABC's latest Summer Edition of the Wired magazine. It is usually forwarded to registered Clubs of the Association of Australian Bonsai Clubs Ltd. or AABC and is then distributed to club members. This happens 4 times a year. Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring.
For any that don't know Illawarra Bonsai Society Inc in partnership with AABC will be hosting the 23rd National Bonsai Convention and you can find out about that
here
http://www.illawarrabonsaisociety.org/
So anyone that has never seen a copy of the AABC's Wired magazine PM me your email and I will forward a copy to you.
This is a one off situation for my friends at Ausbonsai and that is the conditions that I have agreed to as this is permission that is not usually given.
Brett

I have had the occasional return to sender so if you have asked for a copy and it Hasn't arrived let me know.
Also some have mentioned that although their club is a member of the AABC they have never received an issue. I would appreciate if you could discuss that in the thread and also what you thought of the issue.
Thanks
Brett

A Pm I got

would like to check out a copy of the 'Wired' mag as i only get a newsletter from the *****************atm.

Name withheld cause it doesn't matter but why are clubs not forwarding this magazine onto thier members. I guess *******************is a member of the AABC
Sorry Edited out the name of the club

I really believe that the enormous wealth of bonsai web info would make it very difficult to produce a quality magazine in this country.
Even before the web became the brave new frontier of communication, printed publications failed.
Advertisers would be needed to support such a publication.
It is difficult to inexperienced members of our community to comprehend that the great majority of successful bonsai nurseries draw their customers from places that are distinct from bonsai forums and organisations.
In reality the greatest supporters of bonsai in Australia would have no interest in a bonsai magazine or forums.
I support Wired magazine by taking the back page. I do this to support the organization. Returns from the ad's are small.
I wouldn't waste money on advertising in a magazine with a commercial enterprise.
I consider that this would be very difficult to realise.
Good Luck if you have a go.
Cheers
Lindsay

lindsay farr wrote:I really believe that the enormous wealth of bonsai web info would make it very difficult to produce a quality magazine in this country.
Even before the web became the brave new frontier of communication, printed publications failed.
Advertisers would be needed to support such a publication.
It is difficult to inexperienced members of our community to comprehend that the great majority of successful bonsai nurseries draw their customers from places that are distinct from bonsai forums and organisations.
In reality the greatest supporters of bonsai in Australia would have no interest in a bonsai magazine or forums.
I support Wired magazine by taking the back page. I do this to support the organization. Returns from the ad's are small.
I wouldn't waste money on advertising in a magazine with a commercial enterprise.
I consider that this would be very difficult to realise.
Good Luck if you have a go.
Cheers
Lindsay

Your comments saden me Lindsay, yet are reality. However I choose to dis-agree on the fact, that written media is not a viable market place. The significance of written media far outways the conveniance of digital info. I do feel however that the "monthly issue" has been done to dead. If someone could corrolate an interesting spread issued quarterly, then I believe some interest can be spurred. I do not however think that is enough to run a profitable business from it.

I have recently taken part in a publication regarding home DIY projects. The website perpetuating such things does moderatley well, yet the written media was a sensational hit amoung viewers and the general public. Why? Because nothing replaces the feeling of turning physical pages, I repeat, nothing.
I believe the key would be to engage the viewer in a reality, that can not be achieved by clicking buttons. How this is done would be the key.

No dis-respect intended, as your knowledge in such areas out-weighs mine a million fold. Just food for thought.

Pause for a moment and consider the difference between the DIY and Bonsai communities???????
Cheers
Lindsay

I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea I have no influence in the AABC on this so just speaking my mind. From what feedback I have had so far they are not keen on any change
What about if the Wired magazine was expanded on and as well as being made available to the associated clubs for free(one hard copy per club as is now) you could also subscribe to receiving just the magazine for your self. The proceeds would then go into the AABC . Since the AABC Ltd. aims to promote bonsai and support its member Clubs I can only see this as a win win situation.
Would you still advertise in that Lindsay?
OK now there would be lots of work to do. Whould it be viable to Pay an editor to accomplish all the work. Maybe even pay some some of the writers or artists for major content?
Maybe they could start with a one off trail or just do a yearly one that could be bought?

Here in Brazil we had several publications focused on the art of bonsai.
For various reasons, since cost, people without proper preparation, the obstacle of language, and lack of teaching.
They finished the publications.
Unlike the Argentine, who made its publication in a professional manner.
Having in its favor: the people through art + the Spanish language+ didatic format + focused on trees native to Argentina.
Not have been easy, but already the number 12.

http://bonsaipuntoar.blogspot.com/
Shalom Luciano.

lindsay farr wrote:Pause for a moment and consider the difference between the DIY and Bonsai communities???????
Cheers
Lindsay

I have and did prior to posting. To be a bit more specific, it was not home DIY, it was a book with projects to do yourself around your home, anything from craft, to plants / hydroponics, to sewing and electronics.
Perhaps we should pause for a moment and consider what is akin in the two communities. Neither particularly wants to return to written media, they are both developing well via electronic media, the media available to both communities on the web is mis-leading, true, false, so overly conglomerated into exclusive sub-communities it is sometimes simply to hard to track down and sparse all at the same time.

What I was trying to illustrate, is that it does not matter what type of community you are, there is always a need for written media.
The internet is great for forums and sharing your knowledge, even videos ( ) it is not so great at corrolating correct info in the one dependable place.

People today forget why books are so important, especially when your on the move, out the back bench, garage, lawn etc. Books can be covered / laminated, they smell good, they make a sound when you turn the pages, they are great for chockin' up wobbly tables, you know when / where / by whom they were published, you can leave coffee cup stains on the pages to find at a later date, they age gracefully, you can always depend on finding the info on the page you last left it, their servers don't crash and they get you off the net for atleast the amount of time it takes, to realise you could find all the books info on the net.

Perhaps in essence the only real difference between the two communities is that someone was inspired enough, to corrolate user submitted projects into a hard cover package. Running a publication on purely general Bonsai info, is just asking to die. If you thought it through, banded with several bonsai communites to gather a large amount of user submitted media and got a publisher on board then perhaps you may have a few volumes to print. I guess that is more-so what I am thinking, hard cover book, published quarterly or half yearly. I don't think a monthly magazine would fly at this point in time.

Below the link to the publication made here in Brazil.
The last layer is a Piracanta of my own.
http://loja.casadois.com.br/c2/vitrines ... uto209.asp
Shalom Luciano.

Hi Luciano,
I guess your population is so much larger than ours. I think thats the main problem here. I have always found bonsai today to be a great reference library for me. I still subscribe to bonsai focus but I don't think its nearly so good as bonsai today. May be an australian one could work, I think Australians are still good readers we haven't all taken to the E option yet. Certainly some information in print on topics more relevant to us would be good. There is only so many articles on styling yamadori conifers i can read.
Craig

the other thing about having an australian bonsai magazine is that it would be relevent to our climate and availability of supplies etc.

i would definately subscribe to something like that and as much as i would like to get bonsai focus i dont know if it is worth it now after being so far down the issues i would want to get the whole collection and it would cost a mint i think!

jamie

Your right Jamie. I only get it out of habit now and because Frank Hocking an old friend of mine brings it up to me and we can chew the fat for a while. otherwise I wouldn't bother. The early issues of bonsai today are so much better.
Craig

I've spoken with the AABC and they are definitely not interested in any change to their current format.

Sounds like there's some people for and some think it will fail. I think everyone agrees a seasonal publication (at best) is the go as there just will not be the content for a monthly run.

The easy option is to just leave it and keep getting bonsai mags from overseas. While I think this has a place and you can never stop learning, I strongly believe that there is enough talent (and potential talent) in Australia that we can produce our own magazine.

If you take away the 'losing money' scenario, would an Australian Bonsai Magazine be viable? Would we be able to generate enough content/images/sketches every 3 months to make the magazine interesting and in demand?

As I said, it's easy to say it's too hard, but we all know that some things just take time.

So, where to from here?

In another post I asked how many people in Australia are doing Bonsai seriously!!. 2000/3000 if that, but let us go with that, $15-00 per copy every 4 months, as has been suggested.

Working on a permanent subscription. That is 30000/ 45000 what is the cost to print edit and distribute.
Remember you must have the permanent base to raise that kind of money.

As I said at the beginning of this thread Bonsai Today was a good magazine in the beginning. It failed in my opinion from lack of subscribers, which was coursed by lack of good content. As has been said here Bonsai focus is not what it was. I still get it, my attitude is if I learn one thing be it a mistake it has taught me, which is why I subscribe.
I am in the minority I think. I would dearly love to see another Australian Magazine, but these are some of the logistic we have to look at realistically.
Advertising in Magazines is expensive for little return.

For example to freight from any where in Australia. I am trying to get a tree to Sydney, for it to get there in 2 days is $500+ by Road 5 days which is questionable in the summer is around the $100+
I know that we who live in the West are very Isolated. There is still are lot of enthusiasts but not enough for a magazine.
One of the biggest drains on a Bonsai club is the newsletter, posting it collating it getting articles written. That is just in most cases two /three pages, albeit it is monthly.
I have written articles for Magazines both locally and Internationally. You have deadlines to be aware of so when you consider all this. It is quite consuming of time and Money.
The original post was who is interested in a Australian Magazine there seems to be Quite a bit. We have a person willing to print it now all we have to get an editorial team!! together and try again.
As I have said before just one mans opinion.Cheers Pup