When 8020 Media, the publisher of JPG Magazine, announced its shutdown on January 1, CEO Mitchell Fox told friends via email that they just couldn’t turn the corner on revenue in the down economy, despite being close to profitable before the downturn.
In a blog post, the company said they unsuccessfully sought out buyers and investors to keep the company alive. But the attention the site received after the announced shutdown changed things, it seems, and a number of buyers have now approached the company to buy it and keep it alive (SmugMug is one of them, it seems).
JPG Magazine was an attempt to create a photography magazine that relied on its readers for its content and included them in the editing process. Nearly 200,000 photographers have submitted photographs for consideration to JPG, many of them via Flickr. The site itself was able to attract about 300,000 unique U.S. viewers a month (Quantcast), but its business model relied on selling print ads.
According to two sources we’ve talked to, the company is in the process of taking bids from interested buyers now, and there are already firm offers on the table which are attractive to the company’s current stockholders, including founding investor Minor Ventures. A deadline for offers has been set for early next week, with a very quick close immediately afterward to preserve as much brand value as possible (not to mention the fact that employees have now been laid off, so any rehires need to be done quickly).
Can new management make JPG a success? The dead tree publishing business is a bit suicidal in my opinion, but JPG Magazine may still be an exception. As I wrote in 2006, JPG Magazine had very low content costs, a vibrant online community of photographers, and a beautiful product that deserves a place on people’s coffee tables. When print media eventually moves completely to the Internet, hopefully a few publications like JPG Magazine will still be around.
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I knew JPGMag won’t just die. It’s a great site being run by the works of exceptional photographers.
I am sure things must have gone this rosy only after the TC post.
JPG Magazine still has some kick left. They recently sponsored one of our art competitions.
JPGMag is a valuable learning environment and a piece of inspiration. I’d gladly contribute to a fundraising (Wikipedia-style?)
not a bad idea. so would I actually. I actually went to buy a subscription this evening, but the link is down.
https://www.jpgmag.com/subscribe/
If it goes back up, I’m buying.
Exactly, same problem here
Hey mike,
I did not see any place to comment about the new look of TechCrunch. It is really nice, keep it up!
I have never heard of this magazine, but I have been using their filename extensions for years.
Having recently started a magazine product, this was interesting to me on a couple levels.
1. “Content costs were low”. How low? If, after multiple years, they were still not profitable, what were they doing?
2. “Dead tree publishing is suicidal”. This is primarily why my magazine is PDF-based right now. It’s aimed at a niche technical crowd, but many of them still *want* a paper-based magazine, which I’m investigating. It’s still the best balance between portability and usability for many people.
re: profitability - I’m working on a much smaller scale than jpgmag was, but am already ‘profitable’ in the sense that I pay design and contributors, and yet still have money left at the end of that, based on sales. It’s not a huge amount so far, but it’s profitable. And I’m 100% reliant on reader purchases and subscriptions, not advertising. Advertising may be a bit of icing on the cake in the future, but the main cake is reader purchases. I suspect this micropayment model may be the way more projects turn in the coming years (is $4.99 a micropayment?).
Internal controversy with Director of Operations Seth Familian attempting a coup by working behind the backs of senior management has put a bad taste in the mouths of investors and employees a source has said.
“dead tree publishing CAN be suicidal,” is what i think you mean to say.
i think you have to make something compelling to actually make a print magazine work. plus being a new magazine, relatively speaking, jpg mag had a difficult time finding a mainstream audience to make a print ad based model successful.
i’m in agreement that the old print medium is dead but it’ll never completely go away; i think there will always be a niche for it. there will always be print, t.v., radio, movie theaters but the companies whose stock and trade are these outdated mediums need to think of new ways to use them.
for jpg, they need to focus on the online community and make the print side secondary. perhaps that’s an on-demand, quarterly journal that gets printed out. however they decide to move forward they should by all means keep both online and print formats. and hopefully this time around they’ll actually be able to survive to profitability.
I think it is confirmed: JPG won’t die! I have no idea who will become the new caretaker of JPG, but I am sure JPG will be saved. In any event, here is a post about our offer:
http://www.texasstartupblog.co.....ont-close/
Here is a couple of “radical” business ideas for the dead-tree industry die-hards: someone in the previous thread mentioned how he prefers a magazine over a laptop, as reading material, when he is in the toilet. So, why not include in every issue of magazine a nice little hygienic pack that includes lemon-scented hand towels and a deodorant spray. Also, regarding funding sources, seek out the powerful associations of doctors and dentists, who need a steady supply of magazines in their waiting rooms.
Sarcasm aside, the artists and the business people in this field need to rethink how to present their professional endeavors, because the reality of running a sustainable business trumps the romantic notion of holding a curvy paper book or magazine in your hands.
Let me offend somebody by bringing up the “e” words: ecology and elitism, as in: do remember, trees will have to be cut in order to print these books and magazines, just to give the authors and the artists the sensation of being the “elite few” out of the boisterous crowd of “amateurs” like us.
sounds like a nice idea in theory, hope they can keep it going
Good to hear. Any news on if they are keeping the same management? Part of me really hopes that the original creators would be able to come back and kick that douche bag out.
Mike,
ya boy bout to upload this video to youtube talking about TechCrunch, but it’s nuffin bad. Just wanted to let you know. And oh yeah, I did shout you out and show ya some love…:-)
Shawn
http://www.myspace.com/sophisticated,determined
oops typo in the myspace…lol
http://www.myspace.com/sophisticatedndetermined
Thanks for the coverage Michael.
On the surface it seems hard to believe they weren’t able to find additional capital, after all if they are close to profitable then investors shouldn’t be hard to find. That said I’ve looked at their growth projections and they are expecting both print and online ad revenue to more than double in the next twelve months. Granted, I am not intimately familiar with their business plan it does seem a bit unrealistic given they finished 2008 about $3.6mill in the red.
Yah!
I dont have MBA or PHD nor do I have a Buss Management degree, I am in the land development, was a project design and management till I got laid off. One thing I know and its pure common sense is that if the subscription and sales are high sponsors and investors will come in, I dont know, bad marketing staff? no one knows, but if all online users will be subscribers and online membership based, it will be a diff. story for JPG management will have something to show for. Just a thought…
I love JPG magazine. This magazine alone had taught me a lot about photography. I pray to JPG that it remains open and alive.
I am no expert in business or marketing, but whatever the cause for them to advertise to start of their closing perhaps was due to bad supervision and or marketing or other stuff…
The problem with this company was not the model (well not completely)… although yes, print it becoming a thing of the past, user generated content is not. There is a big opportunity for user submitted content put into print form. The key is identifying and focusing on the verticals that will generate the most advertising revenue.
If anybody has been following this company, the internal anarchy has hindered the company’s ability to grow. The original founders were booted and since then its been downhill.
With all of the financial woes that companies in
America face right now, many companies are
in jeopardy. Too many are folding and acquistions are many. So where JPG finds itself is not suprising. However, the economy is going to rebound and smart investors can easily see that JPG with it 220,000 members is a smart acquisition. Many keep referring to the end of the print media era but this seems to be a misnomer when referring to JPG. Photos are not print media when you think about it. They are art! You cannot convey that with words. JPG members are loyal participants in creating the heart and soul of the magazine. Without them……there is no magazine or website! Viva JPG!
I believe the day of this being a “magazine” are over. But JPG as a community and art movement will live on.
What I would propose as a future business model, would be to do away with the magazine all together and move it to a high quality Art Book and targetable community web site instead.
This wouldn’t be a one time book either. Have it be a yearly “volume” based book. With the best of the best each year.
Focus the web site on the artist and the community (Which is more a more targetable market for the advertiser) and focus the book on the art. (which people are willing to pay for).
Gotta ditch that print publication idea.
JPG is an excellent mag with a quality look and feel. I’m glad they’re sticking around.
This is one of them companies where you really hope it works out. Great source of inspiration
I have been a subscriber for the last 2 years or so. I just renewed my subscription a few days before the announcement.
Typically, I have no issue seeing magazines go the way of the dodo in most cases. I subscribe to Maximum PC and JPG. That is it. I only subscribe to MPC because the subscription service messed up my accounting and they gave me a few years free.
I happily pay for JPG and would be willing to pay more. When I get my JPG in the mail, it feels like a quality piece of literature. The magazine is beautifully put together. I have the most recent copy sitting on my coffee table and my friends love to peruse through it. That simply can’t be done with an online only publication nor satisfactorily with a PDF. I would hate to see this magazine go away. I think it should be one of those niche magazines that needs to stay around in print form, even if it costs me a couple more dollars.
If there is toxic management, it needs to go. The new investors simply need to get them out. If the publication lasts, it needs to last with good, honest people.
With digital cameras on the rise, prices on the way down, and internet connectivity on the rise with cameras (WiFi, cell phone uploads, etc), I can only see this segment continuing to grow.
Long live JPG.
The most difficult part to let go in event of complete shutdown is one of the hardest things to develop–an avid community, even with lots of paying subscribers.
Is it too far fetched to make the print part of JPG Magazine just optionally print-on-demand? Focus investment money on developing the areas of the business with the most energy and potential: the community and the quality work to come out of it.
What is needed is a hybrid model…. online website (more robust and with user generated blogs, contributor pieces to support pictures) + print mag
Just thought of maybe a different tiers of the magazine. Maybe a higher quality/higher cost version like the current one and a lower quality/lower cost one with lighter stock and maybe on demand/choose which one you want and when.
I agree, the whole “build a standard news-stand quality magazine” idea was a mistake. Here is our plan for JPG (assuming they accept our offer):
http://www.texasstartupblog.co.....-magazine/
hope they make it! I LOVE this magazine
looks like techcrunch saved jpgmag with a ton of exposure
It’s not just about photography i have made a lot of friends in the U S and around the world through jpg.
Does anyone know if subscriptions will still be honored when the magazine gets back and running? i believe i am supposed to get 3 more copies.