It’s a magazine’s worst nightmare: the backers suddenly pull out, leaving you with big overheads, no cash and imminent disappearance. Couple that with being a weekly publication, and the vultures aren’t so much circling as asking for the wine list.
This is what happened about a month ago to Amsterdam Weekly, a decent, free English-language magazine printed on newsprint, and distributed in cafés and bars around the city. What they did about it, however, was rather fantastic.
Rather than put the whole thing on hold (and lose momentum, readership, advertisers, staff), or go for a paid distribution (huge risk, new problems) they decided to ask for help from their readers in a rather novel fashion.
Inspired, I suppose, by the million dollar homepage filled with pixels, every page of the magazine except the ads was divided into 204 blocks, and then for two issues only, sold online for €5 each. If you picked up the magazine for the club listings, you’d have to pay to reveal them. If you were featured in an article, you’d have to put the money in the slot so everyone could see you. If you took the front page photo… you get the idea. People were offered special gifts if they bought a certain amount, from free entry to a “thank you” party, to books and tshirts, and the whole thing was powered by a natty web system that made it pretty easy to take part.
Announced on 27th March with the front-page headline “Unf*ck us!”, it was a brave solution. Did it work? Kind of. There were lots and lots and lots of holes in the magazine (PDF download of the second issue, 10th April) – but that also reminded its readers how much trouble the mag was in (and they could download the unholed version online, if they wanted). It could have been implemented a little better - it wasn’t very clear on the website which features would be revealed in the following issue, for example.
Overall, however, the idea was rather clever indeed. Its readers certainly won’t forget it in a hurry. Did AW make enough money to survive? Right now, they’re still going. And long may they continue to stay unf*cked.
