What if an Aussie windsurf mag existed

I'd buy it. However the circulation would probably be too low generate advertising and sale revenue to make much of a profit. With the omnipresent www around us its doubtful anyone would put money and time into an Aussie windsurfing mag.

There is an Aussie windsurf eZine, Oz Windsurf.

I'd buy it, I always love to read Boards, Windsurf and WIndsurfing, but would much rather something closer to home, with less useless Brit and US references. Thats why OzWindSurf is mad.

Hard copies are great too, love to grab one and sit down. Re-read it a thousand times.

yeah id buy it...its much easier to balance a magazine on your knees than a pc when on the crapper.........

i'd buy it

i'd buy it. sick of taking laptop to toilet

There used to be quite a few back in the "day".
AB Sailboards, Freesail, Sail Wind Quarterly, Sailboarder (newspaper form) etc.

Have to agree here, dont think the reader population would sustain a properly put together and printed mag. Maybe soon when windsurfing has taken its rightful place as the number one water sport in OZ then it will happen

I agree with emjack. Of course I'd end up buying it anyway, but I would appreciate it if it was LOADED with useful articles on technique, gear, locations etc, and not just a lot of fancy pin-ups.

I gave up on the US Windsurfing mag coz the articles are just too short and shallow; you read them in 5 minutes and look at the pics and it's all over. The Brit Windsurf is awesome; those articles go on for pages and pages, full of useful nuggets...

Looking at my huge collection of exactly two 1980s Aussie mags, I notice the sheer hugeness of the local market back then. Lots of shops, manufacturers etc and oceans full of windsurfers. These mags obviously shut down for a reason. Could they survive nowadays? I don't know...

it's funny how this topic seems to creep up once a year.

Firstly, how much are people prepared to pay for an Australian windsurfing mag?

$6, $10, $30, $50?

The big problem with a nice glossy mag is that quality reports and photos will cost money... as a rule of thumb the money earned from sales will basically cover printing costs assuming you sell enough magazines.

Any money earned from advertising sales goes towards paying people submitting reports and photos as well as wages for staff.

Personally I can't see how anyone could run a glossy Australian windsurf mag as a sustainable business.

I think the only way you could do this and possibly break even would be by having a monthly "mag" printed in cheap newspaper form. The publication is given away for free in surf/ windsurf/ local shops. This way the paper could be more tailored towards local stories and businesses. There used to be a newspaper style mag like that in the Gorge area. Not sure if it still exists but it had a good circulation back in the day... and from what I have heard the guys that ran it actually made a bit of coin from it.

Probably. Although I wouldn't print it off. PDF format would be best IMO.

I'd definitely subscribe to an aussie mag. I tend to buy any windsurfing mag I see in the newsagents. Boards, or Windsurf UK or Windsurfing (US) or Wind n Kite (NZ)

I've only recently been in the process to become a born again windsurfer, when I find the right priced used gear that is.

I come from the heady early '80s windsurfing era and experienced first hand the sport blossoming in good ways and bad. It was a fantastic time, lots of new inventions (equipment and tricks) to try out. There was lots to read about and plenty of people of like mind to share those experiences with. Car parks at beaches, lakes and large enough waterways were always full of people on any windy day. It was a fantastic, if not crowded, sight I now can recall.

The mentioned publications by ka43 covered many areas of the sport and in different formats reflecting cover prices and targeted audiences. However, it became too much for the industry to support even in its hey-day and the publishers were forced to shut their doors as they could not survive on just magazine sales. It was a pity the large publishers decided a windsurfing mag was a good title to make money on and put one out. The result was the independent hard-core publishers with their heart in it and no money suffered the most as advertisers were drawn to the large and impressive corporate ones. But that's business, the strong survive.

The 'net nowadays can put news on screens much faster and cheaper than putting them into print however the downside of the net is you have to know where to look for info or have to spend hours scouring websites to keep updated. A magazine is so much more convenient to read.

It would be a huge task to put something like this together not to mention various resources required if you went to print. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see something too but who has the finances to support such a thing, now is definately not the economic time. But I've been proven wrong many times so what do I know. I've been told that when the economy is down that is the time to start something new with the idea that when the economy returns you will already be up and running. Waiting and staying afloat financially in the meantime is the difficult part.

If a magazine will exist in Oz it should be treated as a vehicle to point people to websites for more information but not use it as an excuse for little content which is what previous Oz publications ended up doing. Magazines are highly portable and can carry lots of pics which most people like without having to wait for download time. They can carry new product reviews to save the reader trolling the 'net and point the reader at the manufacturers website for specific information. However, serendipity is always a good thing when you troll.

Websites can update easily, quickly and cheaply and there is no reason the two media should compete, they should be able to compliment each other. It can be done, unfortunately print is more expensive and that's what can kill the concept.

I predict windsurfing in Oz will make a comeback but not to the numbers of the '80s. Why am I so confident? Look around and there is evidence. Surfing has found a resurgence particulalry with longboards. The "poor-man's transport" of motorcycles has made a huge comeback too. Even the mobile house blocks have made a resurgence. If they can so can windsurfing, afterall those 'interests' peaked within a decade or lessfrom each other. If my prediction is correct I reckon windsurfing will rise from the ashes within 5-10 years in this country.

Then again, what do I know, I've been out of the sport for 17 years and contributed nothing to it in that time so I'm as much to blame as the next person. I hope I can change that one day soon.

Divaldo's on the mark, I work in the newspaper industry as well, (probably sister companies)
the economics of printing a small run mag like this are just tooo enormous. You might last two editions but money would run out very quickly.

As a starting point, ask Laurie and the guys from Ozwindsurf how many people supply unsolicited articles or copy (my bet would be that the numbers would fit on one hand)

We all love to read them, but not many are willing to put in the effort to produce it.

Even if you make it a digital only mag, don't underestimate the amount of time required to put something together that doesn't just look like a Word document with random articles and photos.

As far as my experience goes you won't be able to get any quality photos or stories unless you pay cold hard cash... in the case of the European Mags a multipage article can cost several thousand dollars.

... I would be inclined to say that the guys behind ozwindsurf.com.au looked at the subscription model as well but decided to do a web site instead.

I was offered the rights and name to Sail Wind Quarterly quite a long time ago.
I was interested until we went through the costs associated and the actual basics needed to get something on the newstands physically
I worked for a major newspaper for over 11 years and it seemed harder than printing thousands of SMH.
Id love to do it but Im afraid its just financially impossible.

We do alright in Adelaide......