A suggestion for Richard Kaufman

[Charles Spector]

Hi Richard,

I don't know if this has been suggested. Would it be possible to put a year of Genii on a CD or DVD at year's end for subscribers? I know that for a little extra money I would be willing to pay for it. I am in the process of moving and I have realized the house I bought is getting smaller and smaller as I box my 10 years of Genii.

[Richard Kaufman]

I'm not under the impression that most of our readers would be interested in that. I'm also not particularly interested in providing digital copies of our issues for people to pirate.

[Charles Spector]

Good point on the pirating.

[Ted M]

An online index to Genii's Kaufman era would be really helpful.

I frequently want to look up book reviews, and that would help a lot.

It would also help for looking up half-remembered items from Magicana.

[Chris Aguilar]

An online index to Genii's Kaufman era would be really helpful.

I frequently want to look up book reviews, and that would help a lot.

It would also help for looking up half-remembered items from Magicana.

I'll second that.

[Joe Pecore]

Quite a lot of the Genii magazines have been indexed on MagicPedia

http://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Genii

http://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php ... Genii_2009

[Joe Pecore]

By using advance Google searching, you can try searching these MagicPedia Genii Magazines indexes by including "category:genii" and "site:geniimagazine.com/wiki/"

Here is a search for "Harry Lorayne": http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=& ... f&oq=&aqi=

[Bill Duncan]

There's no question that Genii is available as a PDF. The only question is who controls distribution and quality.

[Jim Maloney]

I'm also not particularly interested in providing digital copies of our issues for people to pirate.

Or you could, you know, make money off those who clearly want digital copies (see Bill's post).

This article provides some interesting info:

Supply and demand are inextricably linked, and if there's no supply for the demand (David) Pogue freely acknowledges, it's easy to see how someone could feel relatively little guilt in downloading or sharing an illicitly acquired copy. I'm not justifying such behavior, but the harder you make it for someone to buy an easily replicated digital commodity, the more likely they are to share that commodity as a way of making things easier for others. Look at the parallels in the music industry. Apple made legitimate purchases of music both easy and inexpensive via the iTunes Store, and anyone who was on the fence about whether it was acceptable to share music suddenly had a viable alternative. Providing a legitimate purchase path for electronic versions not only generates revenue, but also reduces illicit copying.

For what it's worth, I'd be interested in this.

-Jim

[Richard Kaufman]

You start a magazine, and you try it first.

[the Larry]

You might ask the folks at Magicseen. I think they offer a printed as well as PDF version. Seems to work for them. Even the stuffy and dusty IBM and SAM came around to offer digital versions of their magazines the Linking Ring and MUM respectively. And the SAM is even offering digital only subscription at a lower price. This could be attractive for those that like bits rather than atoms.

For me Magic Magazine and Genii were always the leading magazines both when it came to content as well as content presentation and delivery. But you guys are loosing ground fast. The other big magazines have caught up big time in terms of contents. They might still be a bit behind Genii and Magic but the gap has become much much smaller. And in terms of content delivery Linking Ring, MUM and Magicseen have clearly overtaken Magic and Genii. Not offering a digital alternative today will mean the inevitable erosion of your subscriber base as well as advertisers. I can imagine that advertisers like the hyperlinks in the PDF and online versions so that potential customers can quickly go to their websites.

[Steve Hook]

Richard:

I prefer the hardcopy of the magazine but I also vote for an index, preferably a searchable (.pdf) index. Maybe you could offer the index to subscribers only.

Then again........this old lover of newspapers now does 90% of newsgathering via the Web. But that's done as quickly as possible and doesn't involve slowly and pleasurably perusing the latest Genii articles over a cup or two of coffee on a Saturday afternoon.

I also understand your trepidation regarding the preservation of the value of the historic product.

- Steve H

[Joe Pecore]

I created a Google custom search engine to search just the Genii indexes that have been added to MagicPedia: http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=00127 ... ukyryfqrng

(We are slowly putting them all online. Any help with updating MagicPedia is appreciated!)

[DrDanny]

Hey, thanks Joe, that's handy and can be dropped into my google homepage nicely.

[Joe Pecore]

Glad you like it. Here's another one I created to search these Genii Forums http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=00127 ... j5065bnzxc

If there is anything you'd like changed, let me know.

[erdnasephile]

Joe:

Wonderful! Many thanks!