First, I’m changing the name from The Bit to Break Bits. Makes more sense with the pun. My next plan is to change my structure. I know that I got feedback today about my audience, reach, and issues with school journalism censorship, but I still want my publication to be run out of the school and have UNH as the audience. This is because it would be easier to manage and organize from just the school. If I expanded to maybe West Haven or even the world, it would be hard to gather a team and narrow down an audience. It would also be hard to stand out as a zine when the majority also stress freedom as a key principle. I think I will go thr route that Mac is going, to emphasize creative freedom in the context of what we’re limited to. Opinions can be expressed as long as they aren’t hate speech, they can’t be anonymous, etc. Another part of selling this publication would be the lack of perfectionism, which all other UNH publications have to abide by. This means changing my editing structure to be more lax. Maybe my editors would work mostly to accept and deny pieces. This would be a big part of the process as mini zines only have six pages minus the front and back cover.
I will research how zine publications make money and how advertisements work in general. Same thing for sponsorships and paid content but I think those will be a little easier to figure out. I am also thinking of trying to partner with a small company to keep a steady source of income in to help financially compensate the team working for Break Bits. I would also like to see methods to incentivize (probably not spelled right) a team without currency. I’m thinking some kind of point system could work, but at the same time I’m kind of stuck with that because I wouldn’t want that creating some sort of rivalry or hirearchy between the team. That would be a disaster. I also like the idea of going to fairs and events like the Red Hen Press to get ourselves out there. I’m thinking of club fairs and Inkwell.
Something that I didn’t get the chance to mention was that for the website releases, I would like to combine the audio recording idea from my last potential project. Contributors would be able to read/talk about their work while also providing accessibility to those who are visually impaired. Audio descriptions would not only make Breaking Bits more accessible but increase the appeal to contributors. People love talking about themselves and what they create, so I see that as an incentive to get published in Break Bits. Additionally, I’m happy about my idea to have alternating issues between themes and personal pieces. I’ve had writers for Horseshoe want more direction and some wanting to get their own work in. This would allow opportunity for them both.
