Jason Rose

Sent to you via Google Reader

On Speed #30dc

Don’t Worry, I’m talking speed of business, not the drug.

As I was stirring the porridge this morning and using google reader on my iPhone (don’t try that at home kids, I’m a professional!) I read an item from John Gruber about a magazine created full of photo’s about last weeks crazy dust storms here in Australia.

It went from concept to sale in two days.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

Here is the story on how it was done

Wow.

Many of you know I have a horrible view of magazine publishing ( I love magazines but a couple of decades ago I was almost made bankrupt in a good intentioned but horribly naive attempt at creating a magazine – turns out I was just 20 years to early!)

How do you create a SMALL fortune?
Start with A LARGE fortune and start a magazine. It will become a small fortune in short order!
BOOM BOOM (Basil Brush reference for the Commonwealth readers!)

Here’s the problem.

I LOVE MAGAZINES!

Seriously, If magazines didn’t exist I’d probably be working at EB games selling the latest Mario Ware on the Wii.

I grew up in Beechworth, Victoria. It’s a small town (population sub 3000). I had the extraordinary luck to live in a town that had an incredible newsagent (think Magazine stand for my American friends) – when I look back it was an incredible fluke – the shop was my lifeline to the world. The Internet was still and academic oddity and would be for another 12 years at that point.

I was able to read about a world of the Sinclair zx80, Tandy TRS 80’s, The Unobtainable and only for super rich kids Atari 400 and be still my beating heart – the Commodore Vic 20.

Now I’m reading this I realised another extraordinary fluke. I had the one part time job in town – delivering medicine after school, which gave me the cash for the magazines (I was living in a trailer park), the other piece of luck was,
Gwyn Morris – the local chemist and my boss – inexpl…

Sent from my iPhone