[FM Discuss] FM newspapers

[Tomi Toivio]

Hello,

Have you been thinking about producing only manuals as a tabloid or also a
zine about FLOSS Manuals?

We have been asking for quotes from tabloid presses here since we are
planning to print a tabloid with generic information about FM as well as FM
manuals.

Best regards
Tomi

2009/9/17 adam hyde <adam at flossmanuals.net>

> hi,
>
> As some will know already (since Douglas announced it on the list),
> Objavi - the FM PDF generator - can now produce multi-column large scale
> PDF. This is so that we can create newspapers...
>
> What I have been hoping to do since this idea popped up at the FM summit
> at Wintercamp in Feb of this year, is to produce newspapers from the
> same sources that we use to print books. The cool thing about newspaper
> is that it is much cheaper to produce than books, and it can be produced
> locally in many places (anywhere that has a small local newspaper
> usually has a newsprint press somewhere close by). This makes the
> production very cheap as it also reduces shipping costs.
>
> For example - looking at the production costs, 1 book purchased from
> lulu costs about 10 euro and about 4 euro (these costs vary a lot)
> delivery costs. Thats a basic unit cost of about 14 euro.
>
> The FSF did a print run of several hundred Command Line Books, and they
> got the cost down to well under $10 (US) per book I believe. I will find
> out the exact unit cost and post to the list later.
>
> By comparison for a trial we are looking into in New Zealand the costs
> break down to something like this :
> 1500 copies of 16 page tabloid folded (broadsheet size 382mm wide x
> 540mm high, tabloid 265mm wide x 380mm high)
> Black & White
> 760 euro (approx conversion from NZ dollars).
>
> Thats about 50 euro cents per copy....or 5% the raw cost of a book from
> lulu (forgetting delivery costs for now).
>
> What we don't yet know is how much content we can squeeze into this with
> the fancy new multi-column PDF generator Douglas has built, but we are
> going to find out :)
>
> With manuals in newsprint form we could distribute the manuals for free
> in cafes, schools, conferences, events, universities, book stores -
> where ever we want.
>
> This is the first idea, and we are collaborating with Martin Kean in NZ
> to do exactly this. There will be an announcement on this in the next
> weeks I hope...
>
> So, this idea could really go in a lot of directions - one interesting
> model (stepping into conjecture mode for a minute) would be to enable
> the inclusion of a full page advertisement on the back page. Imagine if
> you could use Objavi, include an image to be used as a full page
> advertisement for some local business, and that pays all the costs for
> the production of the paper...that really comes close to is free (gratis
> and libre) manuals for free software...
>
> Anyways...there is a long way to go on this. However, if anyone has any
> thoughts on this, or wants to trial the production of a newspaper, then
> here is the place to have that discussion...
>
> :)
>
> adam
>
>
>
>
> --
> Adam Hyde
> Founder FLOSS Manuals
> German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
> Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
> irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
>
> "Free manuals for free software"
> http://www.flossmanuals.net/about
>
>
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>



-- 
Best Regards
Tomi Toivio
Open Source Coordinator
http://fi.flossmanuals.net/
tomi at flossmanuals.net
+358445488856
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