Have you had discussions with the University newspaper? There might be a way
to piggyback on their arrangement, which could be one way for both entities
to access increased funds.
I worked on the Imperial College London science magazine 'I, Science' and
during my editorship we had to source funds entirely from advertising after
the paper dissociated themselves. However, by the next year the University
newspaper (under a new Editor) took the publication under its banner again.
That seems to have worked quite well over the last 5 years, though perhaps
someone on the current staff could provide an update?
--
Mun-Keat Looi
Science Writer
Publishing Group
The Wellcome Trust
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7611 7382
Fax: +44 (0)20 7611 8242
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The Wellcome Trust is a charity registered in England, no. 210183. Its sole
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2711000, whose registered office is 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK.
> From: Jonathan Manning <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: "psci-com: on public engagement with science"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:37:13 +0100
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: [PSCI-COM] Funding advice sought for a student/postdoc science
> magazine
>
> Dear Psci-com,
>
> My name's Jon Manning, I'm a postdoc at the University of Edinburgh, and core
> member of EUSci, Edinburgh University's science media association. I've been a
> 'lurker' for a while, but this is my first post.
>
> We (EUSci) started two years ago as a magazine only, an off-shoot of
> Cambridge's 'BlueSci', and have quickly formed an identity of our own and
> expanded into podcasting, seminars and other activities. We're currently
> experiencing some difficulties, and I'm hoping someone here can offer advice.
>
> Many of the things we do (podcasting, seminars, website (www.eusci.org)) cost
> us very little, and we can happily accomplish them without much in the way of
> funding (beyond initial equipment costs etc). The magazine, however, is a
> costly thing to produce, requiring £2k every 4 months for our minimum print
> run of around 3-4,000. We do not receive any centralised university funds, so
> the magazine has been supported from:
>
> - Advertising revenue from biotech etc.
> - Internal advertising from university agencies
> - Roberts training funds (in the process of producing the magazine we provide
> training on editing, production etc)
> - Ad-hoc contributions from various sci-comm pots around the university
> - Fund-raising events- for example ceilidhs
> - Contributions from a BHF centre award's outreach funding, covering 10% per
> issue
>
> Unfortunately the most signficant of these streams are drying up. We're
> finding that advertisers do not come back, since they're not seeing a
> measurable effect from their ads as far as they are concerned- i.e. people
> actually saying 'we bought this kit because we saw it in EUSci'. Brand
> exposure etc doesn't seem to cut it. We've been very lucky in receiving funds
> from the University's 'Roberts' pot that has supported part of our printing
> for the past year, and for the current one. However we've been told that may
> not be do-able again due to the dominance of our printing 'overhead' in the
> funds we ask for. We are a student society, but have been told we are not
> eligable for society funding since pretty much our only cost is printing, and
> they won't fund that. Internal advertising and ad-hoc funds are unreliable,
> and generally not enough, making the Editor's job somewhat stressful.
>
> We're chasing up as many leads as we can, but as it is EUSci magazine's
> existence beyond the next year or so is looking shaky- at least in print form.
> A web-only format is a consideration, but we'd like to stay in print. I would
> sincerely appreciate any pointers people may have in terms of potential
> funding avenues.
>
> Many thanks for your time,
>
> Jon Manning
>
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