Magazines on CD-ROM?
42 messages in this thread
We are considering offers from several major magazines to publish (weekly,
bi-weekly, and monthly) their copy, images, and added audio-visual
programming on CD-ROM.
We are currently brainstorming on which ones to start? Which magazines
would you pay for to receive on CD-ROM on a weekly or monthly basis? How
much ($4-$10 per month) would you be willing to pay?
Thanks.
Paul Zane Pilzer, ZCI
Paul, I would prefer to receive a CD-ROM with a compendium of back-issues
of a magazine rather than a single issue. Perhaps they could be published
quarterly, not as a replacement for the magazine, but as a reference source
that would include program listings, a complete index to the articles with
cross references, advertiser's complete catalogs, etc. A $60 annual
subscription sounds reasonable if it includes the normal subscription. A
CD-ROM that covers several magazines by the same publisher or different
magazines on the same subject would of course command higher prices.
Bruce
Thanks for your prompt reply. We are moving VERY fast on this and plan to
put all back (related) articles for each story.
Nice to see you here on the CD-ROM Forum.
Paul,
Give me some real Multiemedia, ie, tell me about Sadam, and show me a video
clip about the bombing of such and such, and that would be great! Which
magazines?
Entertainment Time Newsweek Life Popular Science Compact Disc Review
Please put me on the beta test list!
Regards, David
<Give me some real Multiemedia, ie, tell me about Sadam, and show me a
video clip about the bombing of such and such, and that would be great!
Which magazines? Entertainment Time Newsweek Life Popular Science Compact
Disc Review>
Great–excellent suggestions. We're planning various formats for different
magazines. We've got a real platform now that will let us produce weekly
magazine–24 hour production time.
I'll save this message and be in touch.
Paul…You might also want to consider a "computer" version of your
mag-on-a-disk. Back issues of BYTE, PC Mag, PC Computing would be very
helpful if only for the hints and tips they contain. BTW, I'd be
interested in being a beta tester if you need any. Be seeing you.
-Larry
Thanks for your excellent suggestion. We are considering exactly what you
mentioned–but I can't say more than that here.
I to would like to get all the PC magazines on a CD. Say, one years worth
of PC World, PC Mag, PC Week, Byte, etc, etc. Then I could throw away the
magazines. And yes, a very good cross reference tool would be a must,
across all the mags.
D.
I really doubt that would be much good… unless it was a new disk every
month with last 12 month included. An annual disk would mean the data is
12-24 (probably more, with publishing/distribution delays) old.. not much
value in the rapidly changing world of computers!
ZiffNet is probably as cost effective way as any to distribute this info in
a timely manner.. unless you're a consultant, or fortune 500 IS department
and have constant need.
Paul,
I guess I was not as clear as I could have been. My suggestion did not mean
that I would discontinue my magazine subscriptions, just that when I could
get the disk that covered a years worth of magazines, I could throw away
the one I now had on disk.
D.
Thanks very much for your reply. I believe we'll be meeting your needs by
Summer '93.
Paul…Say no more. nudge nudge..wink wink
-Larry
>>> You might also want to consider a "computer" version of your
mag-on-a-disk. Back issues of BYTE, PC Mag, PC Computing would be very
helpful if only for the hints and tips they contain. <<<
Ziff has had that for several years. Now called Computer Select. Issued
monthly with 12 months of back issues. Subscription is $995. Basically
extracts from Computer Database Plus and Computer Library here at ZiffNet.
Bo…CS sounds great but I'm not prepared to pay that kind of price for
what would be a convenience item. I can see where it would be a boon to
computer writers. Be seeing you.
-Larry
I have a sub to CS and I like it. But the service leaves much to be
desired. I recently downgraded from a LAN version to a STANDALONE version.
But it's been two months since I got a disk. They kept calling me up,
telling me "the standalone version won't work on a LAN." I kept saying,
fine, I'm not running it on a LAN anymore. This cycle happened about three
times. Now it's been two months since my last disk. Sigh. And they
telephone-solicit you for the other thing they sell, something about
"technical support," though with their obnoxious marketing methods, I've
not been motivated to check it out.
Paul,
I would be interested in CD's with back issues of magazines that have
articles with information that is likely to have continued relevancy and
therefore have a higher intellectual content. For example, New Yorker,
Atlantic, Economist, National Review, Nation and New Republic, etc.
I have the Time Magazine Almanac and find their coverage so superficial
that it is rarely useful as a serious source for what was occuring at the
time. More interesting is reading Time magazine to analyze the mindset of a
certain section of the country at certain times. For example their article on
the Pill and the Sexual Revolution written in the Sixties make interesting
reading with hindsight.
You should probably ask some librarians which magazines get the mostuse in
the reference sections.
Regards,
Tim
<I would be interested in CD's with back issues of magazines that have
articles with information that is likely to have continued relevancy and
therefore have a higher intellectual content. For example, New Yorker,
Atlantic, Economist, National Review, Nation and New Republic, etc.>
Thanks for your excellent suggestions. I agree with your choice of
magazines (especially since they regularly review my work as a writer–see
PC Magazine ad, 2/23 issue, First Looks).
We're currently planning to publishing "current" issues in multimedia form
with back issues in plain text/image form and, where appropriate,
dynamically linked to the current issue.
My favorite all-time disc, Magazine Rack, was cancelled by Ziff-Davis
because is cannabalized their existing on-line service revenue. It had
Economist, National Review, etc. and is still worthwhile (even though it
only has 1990 data) if you don't have one.
Thanks again for replying.
Paul,
I'd be interested in seeing medically oriented magazines and journals. It
would be nice to be able to have something akin to Medline at a lower cost.
Steve
I think you should consider carefully the worth of just dumping ASCII and
pictures from a magazine onto CD-ROM. You mention 'added audio-visual
programming', and I think this is the key to your success, you've *got* to
take advantage of the medium. Besides the multi-media aspect, the other
advantage a 'computer magazine' could offer would be a good hypertext
search engine.
Obviously, since all your buyers would own computers, computer based mags
would seem to be the best target. I guess Z-D is a closed market, but a
quarterly, twice-yearly, or yearly issue of PC-World, or the like, with a
good index and search engine so I could find every instance of "Windows"
plus "QEMM" plus "conflict" would get my attention, and probably my order.
On the other hand, a CD-ROM issue of Time, with all the text and pictures,
would seem to have no advantage over the printed form.
For the above mentioned yearly PC-World, I would probably pay between the
price of a subscrption to the mag and twice the price. Then again, this
stuff gets *old* so fast.
On another front, I think National Geo would be a winner, lots of
graphics, and some audio mixed in would be great.
Who are you targeting as your audience? Are you looking to sell to
schools and libraries, or the individual?
-Bill
Thank you VERY much for your detailed comments.
We are producing discs primarily for individuals–but expect to sell quite
a lot to schools and libraries. Current titles being produced include a
JFK Assassination Disc featuring a 80 minute continuous multimedia
presentation dynamically linked to the entire text and pictures of the
Warren Commission report, a multimedia Bar Review course, numerous SAT-type
courses, and other self-paced learning programs for professionals.
Now that we have our tools in place, we're about to sign some magazine
deals for weekly and monthly publication—some as principal.
Paul,
When can I get a copy of that JFK disc? Sign me up!
Regards, David
<Paul, When can I get a copy of that JFK disc? Sign me up!>
Not yet, but soon. I passed your comment to the JFK development team–it
made their day. Thanks.
Paul:
Sorry to come in late but what is the JFK disc???
Mel
<Sorry to come in late but what is the JFK disc???>
"ZCI Current titles being produced include a JFK Assassination Disc
featuring a 80 minute continuous multimedia presentation dynamically linked
to the entire text and pictures of the Warren Commission report, a
multimedia Bar Review course, numerous SAT-type courses, and other
self-paced learning programs for professionals."
If you want more information on ZCI, see page 41 of the Feb. 23 PC Magazine
(First Looks section).
Thanks for asking.
I don't have a PC but can run most PC CD-ROMS on my Mac under Soft PC.
Think it will work, and how much is it??
Thanks again
Mel
MULTIMEDIA POWERTALK! is a DOS product. It does require a VGA (better
with a SVGA) monitor and uses "redbook" audio, and at least 550K of DOS
free RAM.
If other DOS discs run with Soft PC that use "redbook" (audio off of the CD
rather than from a sound card), then POWERTALK! should do fine. Either
way, it's is fully 100% refundable if bought directly for 30 days.
The product is $79 (until 3/31/93) with free shipping and handling plus a
multimedia bonus disc (currently LaserTAX–see p. 244 of Feb 23 PC MAG).
You can order POWERTALK! directly (with the above bonus) from the ad on
page 41 (First Look section) of the new (Feb. 23) PC MAG. You can also
order it from TigerSoft (January catalog) and it should be on most retailer
shelves by April.
Please let me know what you think. We're very confident in offering a 30
days no-questions-asked refund policy with free shipping for a CD-ROM—but
we're more interested in long-term satisfied customers than just pushing a
single product.
In most businesses (video rental, software) 5% of the new titles do 95% of
the sales. At ZCI, we're only interested in making the "5%" titles that
make the customer feel they got a bargain and develop respect for the name
ZCI as a symbol of quality and customer value. I hope you feel we're
succeeding and will let me know (personally) when we stumble.
Thanks.
Paul (Founder of ZCI)
Wow, that sounds great Paul Whatever you do, people are hungry to take
advantage of the new technology they own. The JFK disc sounds like a real
winner between multimedia and the marketing savvy to go to a hot topic,
(thanks to Ollie Stone).
I don't envy your task, though- CD prices are dropping rapidly as more and
more producers enter the market. I remember speaking to Dave DeLorme when
his company's Street Atlas was still in aeta, and he was being advised to
sell the disc for around 2,000 dollars as a commercial app. He wanted to
sell it for a hundred bucks as a personal product. I'm not privy to
DeLorme's financial stats, but it sure looks like a growing healthy company
to me, seems like Dave chose right.
Guess what I'm trying to say is, try for a thin margin and a lot of
volume, it seems to be the only way to make money in any field these days.
I'm kind of in the business, (computers, not CD's), deal with quite a few
consumers and public agencies, and if my experience can be of any small
help to you, I'd be glad to give you plenty of free advice, probably worth
what you pay for it. <g>
-Bill
Your lengthy thread was excellent. I'll repeat a lot of it as I
comment
<Whatever you do, people are hungry to take advantage of the new technology
they own.>
I agree, but this window should disappear by Summer as more discs
come
out.
<The JFK disc sounds like a real winner between multimedia and the
marketing savvy to go to a hot topic, (thanks to Ollie Stone).>
We hope so. My main objective, though, in approving it, was
wanting and excellent educational title that would clearly
demonstrate the excitement of doing "original research" and
coming
up with your own conclusions.
< I don't envy your task, though- CD prices are dropping rapidly as more
and more producers enter the market.>
I'm not worried. Our first discs look like major best-sellers. I
look
forward to dropping prices and hope to have many discs out at $29.95
and lower by Summer '93. I didn't start out to make money–just to
demonstrate what interactive education could do for our country. But,
like almost anything else done well, producing a quality item will
make
money.
<Guess what I'm trying to say is, try for a thin margin and a lot of
volume, it seems to be the only way to make money in any field these days.>
I agree. It's really exciting to know that succeeding with this
strategy will benefit the greatest number of people. Makes you kind
of believe in economics, doesn't it.
Bill, take a look at page 41 in the latest (February 23) PC MAGAZINE
and let me know what you think of our disc. Thanks.
>>> Bill, take a look at page 41 in the latest (February 23) PC MAGAZINE
and let me know what you think of our disc. Thanks<<<<
I think you've got either a crystal ball or, more likely, an advance
page, because the February 9 issue just hit my mailbox two days ago. <g>
I can tell by your comments, responses to others' comments, and
general attitude that you are surely on the right track, (not that there is
only one right track) in taking an innovative tilt at this. The medium is
worth more than the ASCII with a few .Wav files that many makers are
dumping onto disc, and you are obviously way beyond this. As far as
economics, you sure as hell deserve to make a decent dollar for putting
your venture capital on the line and coming up with a good, saleable
product. If you can attain the $29 price point, that will be outstanding.
May the good guys win!
And I get a distinct feeling that you had people with little knowledge
of the current state of CD's and PC's coming up with your concepts. If you
didn't, I'm going to sell the idea to somebody else.
I'll be sure and look for your disc in my next PC Mag, (I'll be a
ruthlessly honest critic <g>), and wish you all the best- you certainly
seem to be well focused at this time. Again, if I can be of any help,
please E-Mail me. And if it's not in the PC-Mag coverage -(let me guess-
page in the 40's = First Looks), let us know where we can tell interested
customers where they can buy your offerings…
-Bill
<I think you've got either a crystal ball or, more likely, an advance page,
because the February 9 issue just hit my mailbox two days ago. <g> >
Thanks, Bill. If you remember, I'd appreciate knowing the date that you
receive your Feb 23 issue (it was mailed last week and should hit U.S.
households by this weekend). I have an advance copy. The ad is on page
41, First Looks, and the major reviews will be hitting in March.
I would greatly appreciate an honest critique and an honest posting on this
Forum of your opinion on any of our products.
The disc being released this week is $79 because it is really four major
products in one–the four books are all current $20-$25 best-sellers and
thus the royalties are high. In the future, most ZCI titles will be
single-issue and about $29.95 retail (or less).
Unfortunately, there is so much JUNK out there already in the CD-ROM market
that it is becoming difficult to rise above the noise. Hopefully, the PC
magazines will step in and start doing honest reviews of all products
(instead of just re-printing press releases).
It's amazing to me that people expect CD-ROMs that are just text of popular
books to sell. A book is a great way to read text–it works in dim light,
there are no batteries to replace, and no consumer learning curve. Why
anyone would want a text version of a book on disc is beyond me.
We believe that every application should have a continuous one hour or more
audio-visual presentation that stimulates your desire to use the disc. The
AV presentation is by far the most important component of the disc–just as
the lecture from the Professor is more important than the books assigned
for the course (I teach college every Monday).
CD-ROMs will soon become like books and movies. Five percent of the
consumer titles will soon account for 95 percent of retail sales. At ZCI,
we're determined to produce only "five percent" titles but I'm sure will
[>> Continued in next msg]
[>> Continued from previous msg]
stumble on a few.
Thanks for your excellent comments.
Paul Zane Pilzer Chairman and Director of New Products ZCI, Inc.
Re: "Hopefully, the PC magazines will step in and start doing honest
reviews of all products (instead of just re-printing press releases)."
Those of us who do such reviews for PC publications heartily agree. Part of
the problem I run into with publishers is still the installed-base
statistics. It puts a definite crimp on the amount of space they are
willing to devote to CD-ROM products/publications/programs. Most have
had/are having CD-ROM/multimedia specials. Most don't seem to want to give
much space to CD-ROM on a regular basis yet. The problem is a plethora of
CD-ROM products at the moment, but not a lot of readers who actually have
them. That will change, but it will take another year or two. In addition
to the several magazines already here (mostly expert-level) there are
others planned that will devote adequate space to projects such as yours.
And work such as mine. PS: How 'bout putting me on your company's press
release list? Cheers!
>>Unfortunately, there is so much JUNK out there already in the CD-ROM
market that it is becoming difficult to rise above the noise.<<
No kidding! In two months of CD-ROM ownership, I have 6 CD's, four of which
came with the player, on of which I got free at the 92 win/os2 conference,
and one a Christmas present. I haven't seen one I wanted bad enough to pay
the asking price (in other words, I haven't seen any that achieve my
personal price/performance level). Best of luck making a dent in the junk
market. I'll be interested to see your offerings.
D.
Dennis, you mean you DON'T have that CD-ROM Classic-of-all-Classics, All
About Cows?
You should have been around in 1990/1991 when pretty well all you could get
— at any price — was the bundled discs and anything at all that wasn't
copyrighted such as the Bible, Shakespeare, shareware and All About Cows.
It is filled with just about every government pamphlet ever written on
Bossy and her breed.
I never did get it either. I'm waiting until I see it for about $5, just to
have an example of "the good old days" for my collection. Cheers!
If you have a guy in charge of marketing or distribution, could you have
him get in touch with me privately? Not sure I can really do anything, but
I can put him in touch with some people who might be able to, on the retail
side.
>> It's amazing to me that people expect CD-ROMs that are just text of
popular books to sell. A book is a great way to read text–it works in dim
light, there are no batteries to replace, and no consumer learning curve.
Why anyone would want a text version of a book on disc is beyond me.<<<
I agree, and wonder how in hell Sony hopes to ever sell their Data
Discman. Reading a book on an 8 line screen? This is *not* progress. <g>
I hope you hit the market with a bang. I'll be sure and tell you what I
think of the PC-Mag 'first look', and I'm looking forward to buying, and
liking, your products.
-Bill
Re: Text versions of books on disc
1) The text on a video screen is much more legible than the small type of
most paperback books.
2) I can read a book on my backlit laptop in poor lighting without
disturbing anyone. I.e. automobile, bed, the patio in the evening.
3) I must take my laptop when I travel. Now I can also travel with two or
three books loaded on the hard disk without taking up more pack space.
4) I'm a college student, and doing reports and research is much easier
when the text of multiple publications can be analyzed with hypertext.
5) Periodicals are much easier to search in disk text file format. Have
you ever tried to find a back issue of PC Magazine that had one small
obscure article that was not indexed?
6) If you are handicapped, it may be the only way you can read.
>>>> The text on a video screen is much more legible than the small type of
most paperback books<<<<
Maybe to you…Not to me. And I read *a lot*. Vanilla and chocolate,
I guess..
>>>>I can read a book on my backlit laptop in poor lighting without
disturbing anyone. I.e. automobile, bed, the patio in the evening.<<<
My wife has something called, believe it or not, 'The Itty Bitty Book
Light' that is battery powered and will clip to any book and discreetly
light the pages
>>I must take my laptop when I travel. Now I can also travel with two or
three books loaded on the hard disk without taking up more pack space<<<
A couple of paperbacks sure don't weigh much…
>>> I'm a college student, and doing reports and research is much easier
when the text of multiple publications can be analyzed with hypertext.<<<
Well yes, here you have the true advantage of "books on computer". And
there are many advantages. Perhaps I didn't make my initial point well, I
think that "reading" on a Sony Data Discman, as in reading for pleasure, is
just not a good use of the technology, and less effective than reading a
real book. Having a reference book on your CD-ROM or hard drive is quite
another matter….
-Bill
Well this is probably not what you had in mind..but anyway..I am a Doctor
and I would love to see some of the medical Journals come out on CD-ROM. Or
perhaps some books with full color pics etc of a medical nature. And at
the prices you menutioned..ie 4-10 dollars although I suspect they might be
a bit more for like books though. Currently there are a few such items
available such as Scientific American Medicine, but the cost is a bit high
for me. I think it would be a cool thing for popular magz too, but only if
the quality were up to par with reading them from the paper versions. I
have the "150 greatest books" disk and it is just plain text…It's great
for looking up what Noah said to God on day 10 of the storm when his
underware got got wet, but the reading is pretty dull even on a 16 inch
monitor.
<I have the "150 greatest books" disk and it is just plain text…It's
great for looking up what Noah said to God on day 10 of the storm when his
underware got got wet, but the reading is pretty dull even on a 16 inch
monitor.>
Thanks for your excellent suggestions. Take a look at PC MAGAZINE (First
Looks Section, Feb 23 issue). Order MULTIMEDIA POWERTALK (30 day money
back guarantee). If you don't think it's EXCITING, I'll see that ZCI not
only refunds your money, but sends you lots of free stuff for your time.
We're currently producing a whole label of medical multimedia discs on the
same format but even more user friendly and faster.
Just to throw in one more comment. If you could do something with Life
Magazine as a place to start it might be really incredible. Or p perhaps
National Geographic as they always seem to have such incredible photography
in them and the stories would seem to lend themselves to Multimedia
Thanks for your excellent suggestions. We hadn't thought of Life–but
you're right, and you could do some excellent audio-visual presentations on
their work.
Paul, Time Warner publishers of Life Magazine publishes their own CD-ROMs, but
they do use independent contractors for some of their titles. I have
reviewed most of their titles. You can contact them at (800) 593-MEDIA.
Warner New Media
3500 West Olive Ave., Suite 1050
Burbank, CA 91505-9808