Publisher Spotlight: LIFE.com

MagCloud

With 9 million photographs and 3,000 more added daily, LIFE.com features the largest collection of professional and archival photography available online. The website provides visitors with a visual cascade of news, celebrity, travel and classic photography just as its print predecessor, LIFE magazine, did for 70 years before going Web only in 2009.

“We like to think of our Web site as the destination to explore your world in pictures,” LIFE.com’s Jeff Burak says. “Photography lovers, LIFE fans and anyone who wants to see their world are drawn to LIFE.com.”

As the site’s business development director, Burak is constantly on the look out for new and different ways to create revenue streams using the famous LIFE photos. He learned about HP’s MagCloud print-on-demand magazine service during a business meeting over a year ago with HP staff members. The idea of creating special print issues certainly wasn’t new to LIFE.com staffers, but the ability to do it quickly, easily and with no upfront costs was.

“Not having to forecast and buy paper, not having to schedule press time, not having to facilitate fulfillment — those are three big benefits that caught our attention right away,” Burak says. “Now we can simply upload our artwork and MagCloud will print and mail the issues to readers as they order them.

“We love the idea of a print magazine — it’s how we started and it remains a great medium by which to bring attention to unique content or to emphasize a topic,” Burak adds. “It’s also a great way to provide our readers with a more intimate experience because they can have something to tangibly view and reflect upon.”

For their first issue, Burak and LIFE.com editors reproduced one of LIFE’s most popular issues, the definitive special edition documenting the legendary Woodstock concert. Originally released 40 years ago, the issue contains more than 100 photos of the performances and festival revelers. The magazine is now available again for $9.60 on both MagCloud’s and LIFE.com’s Web sites.

“Our editors love the simplicity and capabilities of using a MagCloud template and filling in with captions,” Burak says. “It’s like having a production department in a box. It allows us to create special issues and get them to our readers and fans in just days.”

That’s exactly what happened when LIFE.com was granted exclusive access to Avatar director James Cameron and actors Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldana and Sigourney Weaver during a European premiere building up to the film’s Hollywood premiere. It, too, is available for purchase on MagCloud’s and LIFE.com’s sites, $4.95.

“Our photographer was invited to follow the cast on a Tuesday and Wednesday, gathering special intimate moments that fans rarely see,” Burak says. “Our editor went through all the images on Thursday, we laid out the magazine on Friday and uploaded it to MagCloud on Saturday. It was in everyone’s hands at the premiere three days later.”

Burak is so pleased with MagCloud that he’s launched 75 more special issues. Subjects in the works include Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, Pablo Picasso and Jackie Kennedy — with each issue featuring rare and never-before-seen photographs.

“We’re picking topics from our photo galleries that attract the most traffic on our website,” Burak says. “People have passion points that guide their navigation on the Web and in print. We know from our traffic that people continue to have a passion for Marilyn Monroe. By publishing special issues like the one on Monroe, we’re giving people the opportunity to express those passions. They want to collect anything with Marilyn Monroe on it.”

As special issues become available, the staff promotes them by positioning links and promotions adjacent to the LIFE.com photo galleries from which the issues are created. The issues are also promoted via LIFE.com’s Facebook Fan page and other social media outlets. LIFE.com’s various promotional efforts all lead visitors directly to MagCloud’s website where they can order their favorite issue and have it mailed directly to them. MagCloud handles all the order processing, printing and shipping, freeing LIFE.com to focus on editorial and content rather than production and distribution.

“We’re thrilled to be able to provide consumers with special print issues on their favorite topics,” Burak says. “MagCloud allows us to deliver unique and relevant content for those with niche interests.”

And that, Burak believes, will eventually attract advertisers who will want to be included in the special issues. “Thanks to MagCloud, we have an additional platform, offering our advertisers and our readers print and Web content. What we have is unique, and that makes us a destination for people with an interest that we’re covering.”

Check out the latest issues!

Profile Pictures

MagCloud

Give your MagCloud profile some personality by uploading a profile picture. Simply click on “Account” at the top of the page (you must be logged in) and edit your profile to upload or change your profile picture.

You can also upload your picture directly from your profile page. Just hover over the placeholder image and you will be able to upload, change, or remove your profile picture.

Adding a profile picture helps your fellow members see that there’s a real person behind the magazines. Your profile picture will appear in MagCloud messages, on any issues and magazines you create, and of course on your profile page, too.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Publishers In Their Own Words: Óperencia

MagCloud

Óperencia Magazine
by Gizella Nyquist, Editor-in-Chief and owner of Óperencia magazine

The Hungarian language Óperencia is a magazine designed to expose children ages 3-14 to the vibrant culture and language of Hungary. It makes learning fun and engaging, and includes content by top authors and poets from Hungary who share a passion for enriching the lives of children through culture and language. Many of the publication’s artworks are created by two Hungarian illustrators and mothers, who live in the USA.

Each edition has a few central themes or topics, and explores them through games, music, poetry and interesting stories. Designed and published by a native Hungarian teacher and mother of a bilingual child, Óperencia was born from the idea that children of Hungarian families needed a fun and enriching resource to learn about the traditions of their family’s distant homeland.

The quarterly magazine is entering its 4th year of publication. Six printed issues are available currently. Some of the main topics include: the Hungarian alphabet, the Hungarian runic writing, Hungarian winter and spring traditions and celebrations, and the latest issue explores wild animals and the long journey of how wheat becomes bread.

Check out the latest issue!

Talk Amongst Yourselves with MagCloud Messages

MagCloud

We’ve often heard that you want more ways to interact with your fellow MagClouders. Today we’re thrilled to announce a new feature to help you do just that: MagCloud Messages.

Now all MagCloud members to send each other messages. So if you have a question about a magazine, or just want to give a publisher props, click the “Contact” link under the publisher’s name on any issue, magazine or profile page and send them a message. (Note that this feature is for members, so it only appears when you’re signed in.)

If you like a magazine, you can also Follow it. Just click the “Follow” link on any issue or magazine page. Following a magazine is a way to give a publisher a little bit of encouragement. If you follow a magazine, the publisher will be able to send you messages about submissions, new issues, and other magazine news.

Publishers of public magazines will see a “Message Your Followers” link in the Messages Inbox. This lets you send a MagCloud Message to all of your magazine’s followers at once.

When you receive a message you’ll notice a number next to the Messages icon at the top of every page, to let you know how many new messages are in your inbox. We’ll also send you an email every day with a digest of new messages. You can set those emails to come immediately, daily, weekly, or not at all in your account settings.

At MagCloud, we always want you to be in control. In addition to the email settings, you can also set who can send you MagCloud Messages (admins, followed magazines, or any member). If an individual member becomes a little over-communicative, you can block them from sending any more messages. All these settings and more can be found in your account.

We’re really excited about this new feature and hope it’s a fun way for you to stay in touch with your magazine’s community, and each other.

So give the new MagCloud Messages feature a try! And, as always, please let us knowwhat you think!

Publisher Spotlight: Plant Society Magazine

MagCloud

From 20/30-something hipsters with first-time plots in big city community gardens to lifelong rare plant collectors and members of the most esoteric of gardening societies, anyone with a desire to dig around in dirt will find Matt Mattus’ newest venture, Plant Society Magazine, not just educational, but inspirational.

Mattus, an author, designer, brand creative, adventurer, naturalist and plant expert, is well known among green thumb types. His popular gardening blog,growingwithplants.com, attracts plant enthusiasts from around the world who are fans of his near-daily diary entries and enjoy the stunning photographs from his many gardens.

When Mattus learned about MagCloud’s print on demand service last year, he began thinking a print magazine would be a perfect extension of his blog — a way to provide yet more in-depth knowledge and greater detail about connoisseur and collectable plants, with a bit of food, travel, design and home and garden décor mixed in for good measure.

“These days, mainstream gardening magazines are too commercial and ordinary,” Mattus says. “Plant collectors and rare plant enthusiasts want something unique and original. They’re curious about discovering new things.”

And Mattus is just the one to uncover anything exciting and unusual. As a creative director at Hasbro, it’s Mattus’ job to discover new trends in the making — and to keep the company a few steps ahead. He has even written a book on the subject: Beyond Trend – How to Innovate in an Over Designed World.

It’s a mission that has become his personal passion, especially when it comes to gardening. A self-described “hortigeek,” Mattus lives on his family’s 100-year-old farm in Worcester, Mass., where for the past 40 years he has collected and grown rare plants and actively participated in obscure plant societies — Androsace Society, anyone? He planted his first seeds on the farm at the age of 5 and remembers when the zinnias were taller than he was.

His own experiences are a sharp contrast to the modern science efficiencies so common in the gardening world today.

“With the rise of mass-produced micro-propagated plants that are all the same at every home center around the world, I can see dumbing-down happening everywhere,” Mattus says. “They’re selling ‘supertunias’ and sheep-sized Chrysanthemums. Gardening has morphed into a pastime that feels more like disposable decorating. But I know there’s still a huge population of gardeners out there who still honor the art and science of it all.”

It’s this population that Mattus reaches with his blog and now with Plant Society Magazine. He writes all the content, focusing only on plants that he, himself, has grown. And he pulls images from his vast collection of more than 10,000 photographs he has taken of plants from his greenhouses and gardens. He organizes his photographs by species and time of year.

“I have so much content, it’s a little overwhelming,” Mattus says. “I’m obsessive when it comes to plants. I photograph every step of the growing process, from planting the seeds to tending to them — even how I display them in pots and vases. With MagCloud, I don’t have to design something six months in advance. I can shoot my cover the same day that I upload my files to the MagCloud website.”

Mattus published his first issue, High Summer, in 2009, featuring 75 pages of in-depth information about, and photographs of, exhibition chrysanthemums, dahlias, pelargonium, nerines and crocosmia.

His Autumn issue focuses on cultivating miniature species Narcissus for cold greenhouses and alpine beds, odd and rare winter blooming bulbs, Cyclamen species in pots and winter shrubs for color.

Mattus promotes the magazine, which also will include Spring, featuring the genus Primula, seed growing, Corydalis and rare Japanese orchids, and mid-Winter editions, on his blog and through his Twitter account.

“I love being my own editor and art director,” he says. “I also appreciate being in charge of my own advertising. You’ll never see me writing about organic gardening and then running an ad for fertilizer on the next page.”

Mattus still recalls the day his first issue arrived in his mailbox. “It came in a plastic bag, and it looked like a real magazine,” he says. “I work with printers all the time. The quality I get from MagCloud is as good as anything out there. I would recommend MagCloud to even the pickiest of designers.” Mattus also appreciates the ease with which MagCloud handles all the order processing and distribution. “Anyone in the US, Canada or UK can order issues direct from the MagCloud website, and can even pay directly with a credit card or Paypal,” he notes. “MagCloud prints to order, and in five days or fewer, the magazine is printed, bound and mailed directly to the reader.”

Without MagCloud’s self-publishing service, Mattus says a magazine like his, with its relatively smaller run and niche market and lack of a traditional distribution channel, wouldn’t be possible.

“I understand the need for big publishers to remain profitable,” Mattus says. “But the publishing business is changing so fast. Self-publishing is now much more accepted in our new digital world of blogs, Twitter and Facebook. For me and for the readers I want to reach, MagCloud is the perfect solution.

“Frankly, I had no idea how the magazine would be received,” he adds. “I expected both positive and critical comments, just as I get on my blog. And that’s terrific. My favorite comments are from readers who tell me that Plant Society Magazine is better than the fancy British gardening magazines. One reader said, ‘Finally, a well-designed and informative magazine that not only shows me step-by-step tasks, but that actually teaches me how to grow something out of the ordinary.’

“That’s exactly what I’m striving for.”

Check out the latest issue!

Create a Magazine with Adobe Photoshop

MagCloud

If Photoshop is your design tool of choice you can create a magazine in Photoshop by following a few simple steps.

1. Create each page as a separate JPEG (quality 10 setting) file in the sRGB color space.  To create your JPEG files, start by creating a 8.5″ x 11″, 300 DPI Photoshop document. Since there are no bleed settings in Photoshop, it is best to create Guides to show where the trim will be (0.125″ from the top and bottom, 0.25″ from the outside edge). Keep in mind that the side with the outside edge bleed will switch as you design a righthand versus a lefthand page. Once you have finished your first page, save it as a JPEG file in the sRGB colorspace with a quality setting of 10. Do not use “Save As Photoshop PDF” as the resulting file size will be too large to upload to MagCloud in a multipage document. Repeat these steps until all your pages have been created. Note: naming your files by page number will simplify the process going forward, with the cover as “Page 1.”

2. Combine these JPEG files using Adobe Acrobat® or another PDF merging software into a multipage PDF.  To merge your pages in Adobe Acrobat, go to File > Create PDF > Merge Files Into Single PDF… In the Combine Files window that opens, click the “Add Files” button, navigate to the folder where you saved your MagCloud JPEGs, and select them all.  Tip:  Name your files consecutively this way when you select order by file name it will put them in the correct page order. 

3.  Once you are ready to create the PDF, chose “Larger File Size” for better quality (this is the largest paper icon next to File Size) and click the “Combine Files” button. Acrobat will automatically assemble your PDF for you.

4. Upload your PDF file to MagCloud and publish away.

Happy Publishing!

Publishers In Their Own Words: Rallycross World

MagCloud

Rallycross World Magazine
by Tim Whittington, Publisher

Rallycross World has been published for ten years, initially as a quarterly print title but moving to a monthly ‘e-zine’ style distributed as a pdf in 2005.

It’s the only magazine specializing in Rallycross, an explosive form of motor sport featuring short races between up to eight cars on track with both asphalt and gravel surfaces in the same lap. We aim to provide a mix of coverage that is attractive to both fans as well as the drivers, engineers and companies working within the sport. Each issue combines news, analysis of the main issues affecting Rallycross, insightful opinion columns, feature material aimed at competitors and fans as well as award winning photography of this most exciting brand of motor sport. The readership is diverse and widespread, covering competitors and fans across Europe and Scandinavia.

The first Rallycross events will take place in America later this year and I’m beginning to get some interest from US readers already.

I’ve been working as a journalist and photographer specializing in Rallycross since 1984 and Rallycross World has become an important part of what I do over the last decade.

MagCloud has allowed me to offer a printed version of the magazine again. As a traditional, old school, journalist there is something very satisfying about having the tactile magazine in the hand, even if I am happy to accept that the majority of the circulation remains with the pdf version.

Check out the latest issue!

Publishers In Their Own Words

MagCloud

The International Lifestyle Magazine
by Julian Nicholson, Co-Founder of The International Lifestyle Magazine

The International Lifestyle Magazine is owned and operated by cbl media based deep in rural Spain. Starting as a regional bi-monthly magazine, we soon recognized, aided by detailed analytics that its content was appealing to people all over the world. International Lifestyle Magazine was born.

Magcloud.com was an obvious choice for a hard copy distribution solution. The print on demand option allowed us to drastically cut our advertising rates, which was critical in our strategy to ride out an extremely difficult financial climate. The print on demand feature also fits in perfectly with our ideals in helping to protect the environment.

The ILM, as it is affectionately known, promotes positivity and seeks out the people, places and products that stand testimony to that ethos. What we end up with every month is a magazine that seriously picks you up and inspires.

Working with such established names as the National Geographic, Natural Habitat Adventures, Blue Ventures, Yellowstone Park, Dame Stephanie Shirley, Orange County Choppers, Jamie Oliver and Steenbergs to name a few, the reputation of this publication is growing in stature with every new issue.

Check out the latest issue!

Check Out the New MagCloud Wikia Merchandising Widget

MagCloud

As some of you may remember MagCloud and Wikia teamed up back in October to make it easy for Wikia users to create magazines of some of their favorite content.

Well our friends at Wikia have made that process even easier with their new MagCloud Merchandising Widget where you can publish a full-color magazine simply by selecting the articles you like, choosing a cover, and placing your order on MagCloud. In minutes you’ll have your magazine published and ready to share with the world.

Oh and while you are on the Wikia website check out the new MagCloud Wiki where you can browse some of the great wiki magazines that have already been created.

Flickr Photo Magazine Tips and First Week Faves

MagCloud

Hey MagClouders, we are so glad you are enjoying the new “Upload to Flickr” feature. To help you get a little more out of this new feature we thought we would share a few of our favorite “Flickr Hacks” with you:

Bigger Images on Each Page: If you want to make sure your photo takes up as much of the page as possible be sure to size it at 1875 by 2625 pixels at a minimum of 300 dots per inch resolution. This will allow your photo to fill up most of the page.

Multiple Image on a Page: Create a single image file (jpg, gif, png or tiff) that contains multiple photos and upload it as part of your Flickr set. Make sure the single image file is 1875 by 2625 pixels at a minimum of 300 dots per inch resolution. When your MagCloud magazine is created, this file will be placed on a single page just like your other photos, creating the impression of multiple images on a single page.

If you have other questions on how to use the “Upload to Flickr” feature check out our FAQ.

We’ve been very impressed with some of the magazines we’ve seen created from Flickr sets in just the first week. Below are just a few of our personal favorites. We can’t wait to see what else you do with this cool new feature