8020 Publishing: Changing the Dynamics of the Publishing World

I came across 8020 Publishing when I was researching new magazines and publishing companies for personal purposes. This publishing company puts out two magazines with creative content submitted by visitors to the 8020 Publishing website. Photographers and writers have been able to submit to JPG, a photography magazine, over the last year. 8020 Publishing has just unveiled Everywhere Magazine, a travel magazine with the tag line "Travel is all around you." The key factor in 8020 Publishing's early success has been the use of online communities to bring together creative minds.

My interest in the non-traditional approach to reporting of 8020 Publishing led me to contact co-founder Devin Poolman. I found out that Poolman and his fellow founder Paul Cloutier had a strong grounding in bucking media trends. Poolman and Cloutier worked for BitTorrent prior to creating 8020 Publishing and Mr. Cloutier had a hand in CurrentTV. It seems that the co-founders brought unconventional methods for presenting viewpoints on CurrentTV with the online networking aspects of BitTorrent to this new venture.

Mr. Poolman discussed the characteristics of a good employee at 8020 Publishing. The 12 full-time employees of the company have a vision for change in magazine publishing that is compatible with the original vision of Poolman and Cloutier. I found out that several employees have moved from entry-level positions to management of the company through professional flexibility. While employees are given a prescribed role in putting together magazines and maintaining online communities, each 8020 Publishing employee has to be willing to expand their role. Poolman mentioned an intern who became a community manager and a staff designer who is currently JPG's creative director as examples. His examples fit into a "sink or swim" mentality and he indicated that so far he has had "good swimmers."

One of the major problems with traditional publishing companies comes in generating new interest. Magazines, newspapers and newsletters are focused on keeping current subscribers and shoppers at bookstores rather than soliciting new subscribers. Poolman highlighted the fact that readers can get a free PDF of the last issues of JPG and Everywhere Magazine. While magazine publishers might blanch at giving away their content, Poolman counters that it does wonders in expanding the subscriber base. I think the free PDF idea works great because 8020 Publishing is multi-faceted. The content in the magazine is only one part of the company's approach to breaking barriers between online and print reporting.

This latter opinion is bolstered by Poolman's contention that JPG's circulation tripled in 2007. This rapid growth has led 8020 Publishing to expand JPG and Everywhere Magazine to a greater number of store shelves in 2008. Poolman indicated that the balance of advertising and non-advertising revenue means that 8020 Publishing can continue this growth for the foreseeable future. The co-founder and COO hinted that the company would put out a third title which is yet unnamed toward the end of 2008.

I think that 8020 Publishing is going to soar in the next few years as consumers look for new sources of information. The company selected two subjects (photography and travel) that are popular among a diverse group of readers around the world. Poolman's answers indicated a willingness to be patient with rolling out new products while sticking to the original vision of 8020 Publishing.

The best reason for believing in 8020 Publishing is the simple and sustainable business model. Readers of each magazine are able to contribute, make money and get a one year subscription if their contributions make the cut. The community building inherent in allowing the average person to contribute to a legitimate magazine will pay dividends in the near term.