FIRST MAGAZINE help an alumni!

[grego]

Greetings all!
I’m writing today looking for your help and to possibly create a new opportunity for the first community. Some back story first:
After I graduated high school 4 years ago I lost touch with the FIRST community as I slowly discovered I hated engineering and transferred into graphic design at my college. I still like the idea of the FIRST program, though. This term I am taking a magazine publication class where we have to make up a magazine and create work for it (a masterhead, cover, spine, contents page, 2 spreads, etc). I want to convince my teacher to let me do a FIRST magazine for several reasons. First I think it would be easy for me to gather materials for (pictures, etc). Moreover I see this as a chance to lobby FIRST HQ to produce such a magazine, even if only as a quarterly. A magazine with actual reporting of team activities, college reviews, technical info, etc. would be a great asset to teams. Having a polished product to present this idea would make the argument for it more persuasive. I also personally would like this because it has the potential to open FIRST up to other creative individuals (artists) who don’t get to see their showcased officially by FIRST or may not see how to channel that into a good career. I want to do this but first I need to know:
Is this currently being done?
Are hi res FIRST related pictures available for me to use somewhere?
Who would the magazine be for? What’s the real demographic going to be?
What sections would you expect?
All of this of course is pending my teacher’s approval so I also need good persuasive arguments to show I’m not catering to an over specialized audience and my idea can have broader appeal. Any advice or info is greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Greg

[Rohith Surampudi]

This is a brilliant idea, i would definitely subscribe

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

1. Hi Res pics

There are likely a few on the FIRST website, or at least in CD-Media. Ask around. If you really want hi-res, perhaps give a specific standard you need for your spread so people with pictures have something to work off of

2. Sections

As a student, I would enjoy seeing some college reviews, team spotlights, editorials, technical "tricks" (i.e., ideas that most people don't know that can help situations), testimonies from award winners, things like that. It would be great to have some regional news, to hear from many of the regions around. Highlight rising leaders. Stories about off-season events would be great. So much goes on that I can't imagine you having problems.

3. Subscription

It varies on price and how much you publish, and also if FIRST HQ helps you with that. Try a test market first - release an initial magazine to your region, and get reviews on it. Then go from that criticism.

[Tomasz Bania]

Originally Posted by Eugenia Gabrielov

1. Hi Res pics

There are likely a few on the FIRST website, or at least in CD-Media. Ask around. If you really want hi-res, perhaps give a specific standard you need for your spread so people with pictures have something to work off of

2. Sections

As a student, I would enjoy seeing some college reviews, team spotlights, editorials, technical "tricks" (i.e., ideas that most people don't know that can help situations), testimonies from award winners, things like that. It would be great to have some regional news, to hear from many of the regions around. Highlight rising leaders. Stories about off-season events would be great. So much goes on that I can't imagine you having problems.

3. Subscription

It varies on price and how much you publish, and also if FIRST HQ helps you with that. Try a test market first - release an initial magazine to your region, and get reviews on it. Then go from that criticism.

Doesn't this sound a bit like "Pit News"?

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by grego

All of this of course is pending my teacher’s approval so I also need good persuasive arguments to show I’m not catering to an over specialized audience and my idea can have broader appeal.

I think this could be a show stopper for your idea. There are approximately 1000 teams? most members are HS students. How many HS students buy magazines related to HS activities (sports, clubs....).

FIRST is a very specialized community, and to make it even more difficult for you all the "news" comes primarilly from one source: FIRST itself.

I think FIRST could publish a quartly newsletter - that might fly.

But a supermarket rack magizine for FIRST? Thats going to be a tough sell (primarilly due to the demographics).

To get a broader appeal you would have to hit hobby and educational robotics in a wider scope - take in the smash em up competitions, stuff like the DARPA challenge last year. FIRST would be a part of that scope, instead of being the whole pie.

[coastertux]

That sounds like a great idea! I will do anything I can to help. I know many teams would be willing to provide hi-res copies of the photos they have on their websites.

[DonRotolo]

Greg,
Congratulations on learning your preferences with engineering before it's too late.

I can't answer your questions directly, but I can offer my 2 cents:

Demographic: Mentors and educators. Students just don't read magazines, but educators do. Part of the focus would be to show existing team adults how to improve their programs - bringing FIRST into the curriculum, the changes in a district, convincing the Board & administrators, resources (both educational and for the robot parts), and so on. Brainstorm this. Many of the continuing articles would be team stories. Educators love to write about what they are doing in schools, because they like to share what they have learned, and it's a feather in the cap of the teacher. (A mild version of publish or perish)

Images: There should be plenty of images at 300 DPI or above widely available. Remember to respect copyright, even for a school assignment, credit photographers, and get written permission....just like a real magazine.

Sections: Resources for educational things and for robot parts & materials (e.g., who really has the lowest price for sheet aluminum in the USA??), a team's 'how we did it' story as described above, a calendar of events (great for the off season), an interview with a coach, mentor or exceptional team member (maybe the Woody Flowers winner?), college and scholarship info, an educational article (robot tech - how things really work) which will bring the students, teachers and mentor to a common level of understanding (e.g., let the metal shop teacher get a clue about programming), certainly a letters to the editor column, an editorial, maybe 'highlights of Chief Delphi", and an 'expanding' or 'stretch' column, where teams read about how to stretch their limits a bit, and 'fundraiser of the month' which spotlights an innovative fundraising activity. That should get you started...

Advertising: Yes, a magazine doesn't support itself with subscription fees, and a magazine as specialized as this is less likely to see a large subscription base. Advertising will support a free publication, though. Advertisers would include FIRST sponsors, suppliers of interest to teams, college recruiting departments, some foundations wanting to offer support, surely the car companies.... For your project, solicit some of the biggies (like McMaster, Motorola, Terminal Supply, Radio Shack, etc) for ad copy - free to them - to make the magazine more realistic. Look in Nuts & Volts and SERVO for other potential advertisers. Gee, even SERVO & N&V should be considered...

As far as broad appeal goes, you'll have to stretch it a bit. With a market of maybe 5,000 (1000 teams x 4 per team, max, plus 25% 'pre-rookies') and more likely 2,500, FIRST today really is a niche of a niche. But, there are magazines that succeed at this, albeit most are done on a shoestring. Broader appeal would have to come from the parents and public at large, kind of like Popular Science (popular robotics?).

Good luck

Don

[jagman2882]

Originally Posted by grego

Are hi res FIRST related pictures available for me to use somewhere?

robotphotos.org they have good pics there!

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Originally Posted by Tomasz Bania

Doesn't this sound a bit like "Pit News"?

It sounds like it, but Pit News isn't exactly doing anything that I know of. I just kind of went off of general things I see in other magazines.

[grego]

thanks for the quick replies! don, you brought up a lot of great points and ideas! ken, that is the real trick, since i would have to make it a magazine rather than a newsletter. what if, instead of being purely about first and its competitions, its was a magazine, published by FIRST, targeted at science/math/etc. educators across the country? ASME publishes its own magazine that targets engineers, why not one for teachers, and why not by FIRST? that way FIRST can provide educators with a resource as long as they have x dollars and a mailbox! keep the feedback coming!