Magazine Market

COMBAT is a literary magazine filling a niche market. It is innovating a market share rather than creating one ... not a commodity, but an information mode and communications network.

Each issue will extend and expand the conceptual baseline. No new technology or environment will be created; neither will methods be displaced and modes made obsolete. Instead, COMBAT will focus on a different perspective, a broader scope, a variant style. COMBAT will initially publish in electronic format, with the option of simultaneous dual publication in print at some future time ... using available methods to publish what has been previously unavailable.

Conventional magazines are orthodox in theme and perspective, but COMBAT will be heterodox. Conventional magazines are segmented into departments, features, and advertising; but COMBAT will be wholly artistic. Conventional magazines severely limit the length of most short-stories (300 - 1000 words) and essays (700 - 1200 words); but COMBAT will be fully featured. The conventional magazine package, whether paper or bytes, is only the container for its contents ... the package may attract a reader, but the contents will retain them. And aside from the new contents of every issue, subsidiary scaling can broaden the dimensional appeal.

Most related periodicals, from literary to military, are subsidized; however, the largest circulation magazines in this genre are both independent and sponsored. COMBAT will not compete with magazines existing in this category, but will augment them. Potentially, the total possible audience for COMBAT could range as high as 50,000 - 2,000,000 readers; but the probable subscriber range will be 10,000 - 35,000 readers. Regular newsstand sales (@30%) of general and specialty magazines do not apply to little magazines, unless proffered in appropriate literary settings. The normal out-reach response rate of 2% - 4%, and the typical renewal rate of 55% - 70% for standard periodicals will probably apply to COMBAT, unless somewhat improved by psychographics. The apposite reader profile for COMBAT would emphasize education more than income, religion more than politics, age more than location, with race and sex being immaterial for this general audience. The readership is mature, discriminating, and desirous of learning the stories behind the sound-bites and headlines.