CompuServe Messages

Ed, Interesting questions, and some that I'm researching myself at this time. The basic question to ask is if publishing a "magazine" digitally will add value to the magazine. The successful titles will not be a replication of the magazine in CD-ROM form, but something new. Personnel will depend on whether your client wants to handle the production in-house or work with a developer. If s/he chooses to work with a developer or software house, then there will be no additional personnel required other than someone to manage the project from the client end. If in-house, be ready to put on (full-time or free-lance) programmers, audio-video people, animators — if that's what you want. I'm assuming from your post that you are re-using text and photographs from the magazine, and that both are in digital form already. (If not, the photos will need to be scanned.) There are text search/hypertext engines already available, I believe, although I'm not qualified to give you any suggestions here. Some of the authoring packages contain these, I think. Production time will depend on how complex the magazine is. My guess is that you should allow a good six months or more to develop the first one, since all subsequent issues will build on this first one's foundation. The later issues will take less time. Newsweek Interactive has decided to publish quarterly, but that is due to the nature of their product. You might publish more frequently, but be prepared for lots of people working full-time on this. NI hired Software Toolworks to do the "producing." If I'm not mistaken, sales figures can number in the tens of thousands for popular titles. The installed base, I think, is in hundreds of thousands. Advice for publishers thinking of being ready in two years is "Start Now." There is a rather steep learning curve, especially if this will be done in-house, for digital publishing as your client envisions. Even if they only do prototyping now, it will help in the development in the future. How long did it take them to start a magazine from scratch to the first issue? jay