Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

[cstaples]

:cry_smile
Is There anything we as a group can do??

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

Hallo!

Not a business man, but...

Everybody in the CW Community buy a subscription or three, and then each buy thousands of dollars worth of kit from CWH advertisers telling them you saw their products advertised there.

Seriously, IMHO, such things are ultimately about finances and the revenues generated (or not) by the business community.

Others' mileage will vary...

Curt

[garyjd]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

:cry_smile
Is There anything we as a group can do??

Like a bailout? No thanks. ~G

[LHV1861]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

I just subscribed back in August and never got an issue. Now I'm out 20 bucks. Sucks too, I was really looking forward to the magazine.

[Marc]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

I enjoyed the magazine from Day 1, but I can understand with a limited subscriber base and the cost of publishing how it did not survive.

[Marc29thGA]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

It was a great magazine while it lasted and it was a valiant attempt to keep her going,. I too had re-subscribed this past summer for another year, but you win some & loose some.

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

Just a thought... why not make it a web-based publication only...?

All the best- Johnny Lloyd:wink_smil

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

Nobody has figured out how to make money from a web based publication yet, to my knowledge. We went down that road a couple years back with The Watchdog...we looked at a variety of options, when (like Civil War Historian) we determined we could no longer afford to self publish. Even a non-profit--The Watchdog is a 501[c]3--has to have sufficient income to offset publishing expenses. At least CWH could sell ads as an additional revenue stream, which The Watchdog could not do.

The Watchdog attempted to carry on first as a monthly column in Camp Chase Gazette to honor our existing subscriptions, a move for which we were roundly excoreated at the time and then since late 2008 as a feature in Civil War News. The current economy is a very tough environment for single subject hobby magazines right now, especially any publication with a narrow scope like "authentic Civil War (re)enacting." One philosopher/friend of mine compared it to buying a radio station...if you do that, you can't just play the songs you and your friends like and hope to stay in business very long. The remaining publications on Civil War (re)enacting are not doing all that well either and we may well see some continued cutting back, such as when CWH went to their quarterly publishing schedule. The publishers certainly could have been more forthcoming about their situation as that move to a quarterly along with every late issue that resulted in questions about their future was immediately greeted with assurances that all was well, when clearly that was not the case. The recent announcement about shutting down was made and then that thread immediately closed with no opportunity for discussion. And I was always quick to jump to their defense when the excuses came about changing printers causing publishing delays and the like. CWH was my favorite magazine. I was a subscriber from Vol 1 # 1 and had re-subscribed about six months ago for two more years. Nothing ever came. My recent inquiries into when I could expect to receive another issue went unanswered. I was very disappointed to see this happen to CWH, not surprised but disappointed. The small amount of lost money is the least of it, what I will miss most is the magazine...

[BenjaminLDavis]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

A sad day for a great publication ~ I have every issue.
Just have to reread them.
But it is not the same.
Happy trails, CWH.

[csuniforms]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

I too am very sorry to hear of the demise of the magazine. I hope someone else will pick it up and continue it some form or another. The editors and staff did a fantastic job of presentation and subject matter for the "folks". I know the economy is in a fluster right now, but someone out there has to have the time and abiblity to put something like the Civil War Historian out for us all. The Watchdog was a great help to me, and sadly, never will show up again in my mailbox.

This Website is just about all we have left that caters to the Civil War Living Historian and researchers exclusively. It was $20? for a magazine subscription. I would have paid $40 or more if I could have my Civil War Historian back!!!!- I pay $65 to the NSSA, and another $50 or $60 to the Company of Military Historians. The Civil War Historian was worth the bucks.

Maybe someone would pick it up for $45-$55 a year-- 4 issues even-- and once in a while a special issue-- only on "Confederate Stuff"--no Yankee junk!! With the 150th coming up there is going to be room for a magazine like this one for the next 5 years at least.

CSuniforms
Tom Arliskas

[garyjd]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

Though I was only shorted 1-2 issues on my subscription I feel for those that saw zip from theirs. The magazine did not fall on hard times overnight and I can't understand why they would even take someone's money knowing they are not making it. If something should ever replace it I'll buy an issue at a time. It might cost more but sure beats losing an entire or partial subscription. ~Gary

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

Gary

Because you need income from new subscriptions to publish the current issue and mail it out. It kind of works like Social Security that way. You knew this was going on from all the discounted subscription extensions you were getting in the mail over the past year...even when your subscription was not about to expire. They needed those funds to get the next issue out the door, and so on. It only works if you can get enough new subscribers to keep a revenue stream going.


Hey Arliskas...

My article on the Birmingham gun-maker W. Greener is finally running in the Winter Journal of CMH, save me a copy if you will. It will be the first firearms related article printed there in many moons. I guess they ran out of research pieces on the Chilean Picklehaube helmets.

[Gary of CA]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

Hi Craig,

Congratulations on your article being accepted for publication by the CMH. I look forward to reading it.

Gary

[David Fox]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

As do I, Craig.

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Civil War Historian Mag. DEATH

To continue an earlier thought from above on the hobby magazine business model...Traditionally, publishers would just about give the magazine away with low cost subscriptions and make it up on advertising income. Gradually (I think) the worm turned and publications (in fact all print media), has to be able to make it on their subscriber based revenue. I was recently discussing this with Kay Jorgensen of Civil War News and was surprised to learn that advertising revenue was not covering enough of the costs to offset any loss to subscriptions. Being as The Watchdog had no advertising, I never knew the business model had made that particular paradigm shift, having always heard the "subscription loss leader/make it up on advertising" approach as conventional wisdom.

The point being, when subscription revenues start falling below the cost of publishing, you can do one of two things...publish less often or get more subscribers. However, publishing less often is a defensive strategy. As Robert E Lee said of "defensive strategy'...the logical conclusion to that is surrender. That is not really the best plan for long term survival then is it? So, how do you get more subsribers? Well you have to raise the awareness level in areas where your publication is not as well known. At the Nashville Gun Show last December, I discussed an ad swap between CWH and Civil War News with Adams and Runyon, and we all agreed it would be a good idea. Civil War News has been around 30+ years but does not have a wide readership among "authentic" reenactors. The Watchdog columns have been enthusiastically received by Civil War News readers. On the other side of the coin, CWH had readers that had were probably not hobby based newspaper subscribers. I had approached Civil War News with the idea before the 2008 Gun Show, and they were amenable but needed to discuss ad size, artwork, etc with the editors of CWH. CWH either never followed up on it, or at least it never happened to my knowledge. Instead CWH went to the quarterly publishing model and then ironically as history suggests it would happen...finis...endgame.

By the way, ad swaps are pretty common in print media. The Watchdog tent was next to the Camp Chase Gazette tent at Mill Springs in 2007. Nicky Hughes was then editor of Civil War Historian and approached the Gazette about an ad swap (believe it or not). Civil War Historian was like the old National Geographics we got when we were kids. They were too good to throw away so you saved your old copies for future reference. If I were the CWH guys, I would offer complete sets or publish the whole eourve in book form. It would be well worth having.