First off, thank you. Getting this project started took a lot of willpower and convincing myself that it was worth trying. I was honestly surprised at all of the support received from so many people I’ve looked up to in the community for so long, but as soon as the project was in motion it became apparent that the community has been wanting something like this for a while
I’d say this magazine was a success. It was my first attempt at anything like this, and it wasn’t perfect but I’m happy with it. I cringe a little bit thinking about how I executed certain things, but I say it was worth doing and I plan to do it again.
Here’s some things I learned:
- High Shopper interest: All of the distribution points where the magazine was displayed proudly they went quick! The most effective placements were directly next to cashiers or in view of line queues. Out-of-sight spots didn’t move much. Coffee shops were the most effective distribution points compared to retail, restaurants, hotels, visitors centers, and galleries, unless there was a community event.
- Print marketing is hard to track: The only metric available is how many were dropped off vs. picked up; but that only shows initial interest. The only way to know if the magazine directly resulted in sales is through custom QR-UTM codes or if Sellers and Shoppers talk about it. It’s a bit frustrating, especially compared to the robust data that are available with modern technology, but print marketing is still worth investing in. People are tired of the screens, and we’re more disconnected than ever.
- The community wants a magazine: whether it’s an Open Market magazine or not, the community wants these as an option to help strengthen our neighborhood. From start to finish, none of this was easy, by any means – but compared to onboarding for festivals and the website this magazine sold itself. Before I started onboarding, I thought for sure I had to go way out of my way to make it happen, but was pleasantly surprised by how quickly Sellers and Sponsors wanted to get in the zine.
- It’s never too early to start: In retrospect, everything went pretty smooth from the idea to distribution, but next time I owe it to myself NOT to do outreach in one week, and NOT to design the entire magazine in the course of 3 days with only a few days before Black Friday to distribute. Next time everything will start sooner.
- Huge thanks to Atomic Print! Time and time again, these guys keep proving to me that they’re the absolute best print shop in the Grand Valley!
- I understand better when I should say No: Between October and December, I worked closely with 140+ businesses, artists, promotors, city officials, non-profits, and bands for this magazine, the auction, and the Small Business Saturday festival and 99% of it all went INCREDIBLY smooth. Very few hiccups. But, without fail, the very few people that didn’t want to put the effort in to design their own advertisements, follow the simple distro/design guidelines, or help to do their fair share of marketing (this is a community effort, and the Open Market is just one guy who’s volunteering to do all of this) were the same few people who flaked on multiple meetings, took up the most time, and they’re the same people who complained the loudest about the most minor things after the zine was printed. I love doing this, and I have every intention to keep doing this, but for my own self respect, and the integrity of the entire Open Market community – I will be saying No when these red flags pop up in the future.
Here’s the tentative plans for the next edition:
- Begin distribution in mid-November (instead of distributing the week of Thanksgiving.)
- Call it a winter Shopping Guide, instead of a holiday guide. Then, ideally we’d publish a summer edition, as well.
- Use perfect edge binding instead of saddle staples, with a regular magazine size instead of a half-size.
- Placement prices would go up by 20-50%, and we’ll explore selling individual units and offer a subscription model.
We want to hear from you.
I’ve been working on the Open Market ecosystem since 2020, but it’s still my first time doing something like this and I’ve got a lot to learn. And, to be completely honest, I’ve been making it all up as I go along, literally since day one. Community feedback has been the most valuable resource while building this project.
Tell me what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d want to see next time. If something didn’t work, I want to know. If you loved it, I want to know that too. This only gets better if you’re honest.
- The survey is completely anonymous, we have no idea who you are.
- All fields are optional.
- Takes 2 to 15 minutes, depending on how involved you’d like to get.