About California Sunday Magazine (screenshot via CaliforniaSunday.com)

About California Sunday Magazine (screenshot via CaliforniaSunday.com)

As a producer and consumer of print and online media – and one who subscribes to far too many print magazines, as the pile in my home testifies – I’m always interested when a new magazine perceives a market and emerges. In a world increasingly reigned by “online” and “free,” what goes into the decision to create something new with a paywall that also has a print component (which raises costs considerably)?

I learned about The California Sunday Magazine months ago through some writers’ networks I’m involved with – their goal was to make a beautiful magazine that focused squarely on California (a big state with lots of different areas of industry, so no lack of stories there). And what was interesting to the members of the writers’ network was, unlike most startup magazines, there was no call to submit for free, which usually looks like “you guys, we’re starting a great new magazine – no pay right now, but great exposure when we launch with potential to be assigned paying pieces when we get funded in the next three years…” Writers were promised competitive rates for their work (and the masthead of professional writers and editors speaks to that). What a concept. 🙂

The California Sunday Magazine premiered today, written in a congenial tone, with (not so many – 3 features, five shorts and one “miniseries,” punctuated by “commissioned content” from brands and companies) articles running the gamut from farming to this piece about Anne Rice, author of Interview with the Vampire and so many more novels (who now lives in Palm Desert). It’s currently monthly, although they aim to go twice-monthly, and then eventually weekly. You get 3 articles for free, then they ask for your support. The lowest level of support is $39.99 a year, but print copies will be in “select Sunday copies of the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Sacramento Bee.” The management promises, “one-hundred percent of your Fan contribution goes directly to writers and artists.” (That’s something.)

One interesting option I hadn’t seen with other publications – the opportunity to harness crowd-sourcing on article ideas – not just through a “tips” email address, but with a “contribution to our Story Fund” starting at 99 cents/month.

The Story Fund details:

Kick in a contribution to our Story Fund” – 99 cents to 9.99/month – “and help us produce public-interest reporting and storytelling on an issue that’s important to you. When we draw on your share of the Story Fund for a project, we’ll send you an email so you can watch for it. We’ll also include behind-the-scenes notes from writers and editors.

Tipsters select categories from a drop-down menu: Education, Environment, Health, Inequality & Opportunity, and Investigation. Contribution to the Story Fund isn’t a guarantee that your tip/idea will become a story, but it’s a lower-level of support and involvement for those who won’t commit to the $39.99/month support level, or as an add-on to folks who can afford the “Fan” status but want to do more to fund public-interest storytelling.

If you want to pay your writers (which I am FOR, looking at you HuffPo) you either have to have money already (assuming that’s what some of those “commissioned content” blocks are about) or ask your readers for money. But will the internet’s “culture of free” (and readers’ own budget) permit this California-centered magazine to flourish? What will this new magazine’s “perceived value” be among internet consumers? Will I eventually warm to a $39.99 rate once I feel like the content is worth that? (I just got an offer for print subscription to the New Yorker for $25, and subscriptions to Wired can cost me as little as $20 for two years, if I get the right offer.)

What are your thoughts? What’s great about California Sunday – and what would they have to add to gain your (financial) support and reading loyalty?