[Dixielandjazz] Thinking Outside the box.

[Stephen G Barbone]

Caveat:  NOT OKOM. But it is a fine example of thinking outside the  
box in the music publishing business. As some wise outside the box  
thinker once said;  "There many ways to skin a cat."

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

May 26, 2008 - NY TIMES - By Richard Perez-Pena
Learn to Play the Guitar at Your Local Newsstand

Sometimes success means seeing in advance, with absolute clarity,  
where you should go. And sometimes it’s more like, “Whoa, dude, check  
it out.”

The instructional DVD-and-booklet packages published by Guitar World  
magazine fall into the latter group. The publisher, Anthony J. Danzi,  
describes them as a low-expectations play — put the material on  
magazine racks along with the magazine, and see what happens.

What happened was that the DVD packages sold better at the newsstand  
than issues of the magazine itself, turning into an important income  
source for Guitar World and its owner, Future PLC of Britain. “It’s  
still kind of astounding to us,” he said.

A few weeks ago, Guitar World started selling the packages through its  
Web site, making available the old ones that have disappeared from  
newsstands.

Since the first one appeared in late 2005, Guitar World has a new DVD  
and booklet about once every three months, each with a specific theme  
— how to play acoustic rock, how to play Christmas songs, how to play  
Jimi Hendrix songs, how to play shred (speed metal, if you must ask).  
Despite a $9.99 price, they have sold 80,000 to 90,000 for each  
edition, Mr. Danzi said, while the monthly magazine, which goes for  
$7.99, averages newsstand sales around 80,000.

He credits Brad Tolinski, the editor in chief, with the idea. Guitar  
World already had a distribution network, video recording studios and  
relationships with professional guitarists, and each issue of the  
magazine contains a video CD focusing on a particular artist.

The profit margin on each additional copy sold of the instructional  
package is significantly higher than for each additional copy of the  
magazine, he said. “The DVD costs more than the video CD to produce,  
but it doesn’t have the high production costs of the magazine,” he  
added.

What makes the idea’s success all the more surprising is that on a  
newsstand, it looks like just a magazine. The DVD is not noticeable at  
first glance, and the letters “DVD” appear in fairly small type.

“The limitations of the newsstand kind of dictate to us what physical  
form it has to take, and we thought the packaging might hold us back,”  
Mr. Danzi said. “You can go out in the marketplace and there’s a  
gazillion guitar instructional products, in music stores and book  
stores. You don’t really think about the newsstand as a place people  
would go for this.”




Steve Barbone

www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband