A friend's son is a partner launching a new soccer rag called "Howler". Consider backing them (Jeff Agoos does!): http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/quraishi/howler-a-magazine-about-soccer-0
Looks intresting, I'll definitely give it a shot. Is George the son of fomer Tampa Bay Mutiny GM Farukh Quirashi? Not too many people with soccer connections with that name...
Yes, George is Farukhs son. I am remember sitting in the stands of an old Boston Bulldogs game talking with FQ. Good guy
Are they really launching a print publication in 2012? And they're excited about it? Sorry, that just seems to be an expensive and wrong long term strategy these days for a viable publication.
If you read the description, doing print is risky, but it makes sense. It strikes me as more an arts and culture magazine centered around soccer than a typical sports magazine. The web isn't meant for quarterly publications.
Yup - he was my college teammate. He was an absolutely incredible player and just a really great person.
rkupp, I just wanted to thank you for mentioning Howler here on Big Soccer. We're doing our best to reach out to the people in our networks and we're so grateful when someone else likes our idea enough to tell the people in theirs. Thanks too for the kind words about my dad—have to say I agree completely! There are a lot of interesting points being made here, so I thought I would address them one by one: RevsLiverpool, you're right that it seems counterintuitive to start a print magazine these days. Putting a new idea out into the world is always a risk; but so far, people seem to be responding well. More than 500 people have pre-ordered the first issue or a subscription in the first five days of our campaign. We're incredibly excited to create this magazine. It's been a lot of work but also A LOT of fun. Argyle, we wholeheartedly agree with you, re: quarterly mags. I get most of my soccer news from the web, but when I want to read something longer than a thousand words, or look at awesome art, I prefer print. We'll make a digital edition available, and it will be free for all subscribers, but we don't think it's an adequate substitute for the print product. Kraft Out, sounds like you've had a bad experience with Kickstarter—that's too bad. We think it's an amazing platform for allowing people to fund creative projects and help project creators make new things. Without a platform like Kickstarter, we would need outside investors or the deep pockets of a major soccer brand in order to launch something like Howler; doing it this way allows us to work directly with the people who matter most to us—our readers—and keep our magazine free from corporate interference. —George
Thank you for the thoughtful response George. It's very possible the magazine could flourish long term, you know your market; I just questioned the staying power for the medium based on personal editorial experience. Kickstarter is definitely the way to go, that makes a lot of sense with this type of initiative; if there's a free digital edition I'll definitely check it out and tell folks about it. It sounds like you're off to a great start; wishing you and your colleagues nothing but success.