We have a lot of opinions about the business of magazines (in print and online, both). Perhaps you’ve noticed?
When we were imagining Digits & Threads, and deciding how we would create a sustainable business to ensure it would exist for a good long time, supporting us and the many contributors we work with, we decided to do two unusual things for a Canadian magazine: we decided not to rely on advertising, and we decided not to apply for funding or loans. In the parlance of start-ups, we launched super lean, and we’ve been learning and adjusting as we go.
Now that we’re approaching our first anniversary (next month!), we know a few things we didn’t know when we were just two nerdy craft editors making things up from 3,000 kilometres away from each other.
One of the things we’ve learned is that we can absolutely run this business on memberships alone.
But we’ve also learned something else: that by refusing all advertising or sponsorship, we are unable to use our magazine to help other Canadian fibre- and textile-focused businesses spread the word about the amazing things they create and do. And that means we’re denying our readers and members a way to discover new businesses they might want to enjoy and support.
So we are starting to explore how we might introduce some avenues for Canadian businesses to be a part of what makes Digits & Threads tick. While we remain 100% committed to never, ever having ads interrupt our readers’ experience, we do believe there are ways that ads or sponsorship could complement our editorial (while never, ever influencing our editorial decisions or content).
And the best way to start exploring is to start listening. We have a project coming up (not an editorial one) that we think would be a great opportunity for us to start forming some business-to-business relationships, and before we do anything about it, we’d like to know what Canadian fibre and textile businesses want from us (if anything). So.
If you own a Canadian fibre- and/or textile-related business, or if you do business as an individual in this field, please complete the brief survey below. We would very much appreciate learning from you. And if you’d like to chat about this directly, please email Kim anytime: kim@ninetenpublications.ca.
Thank you, in advance, for sharing with us! And please do pass this link around; we’d like to hear from as many Canadian fibre/textile businesses as possible!
