Our Ozarks Magazine
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A reset is needed to get Our Ozarks Magazine back on track. After financial losses as a result of the flooding in 2017 and then personal tragedies this past year, I am basically treading water just to keep the digital format moving. The goal is to get the print issues back out there!
It takes several thousand dollars each issue to print and mail and I am pleased that in the short time the magazine has been in production that it has grown to over 3500 subscribers. But subscriber fees fall short of production costs. Much of the shortfall was helped by the sales at the retail level...but the flooding in 2017 cut off the production to the stores and payment does not come back from such sales until two more issues have hit the rack. So after missing two issues on the rack, it became a hard trek uphill to recover.
I have several small goals within this overall Gofundme goal. The first is stablization of the overall company by completing the website and implementing the monthly digital magazine (coming out this week). The next is the launch of the Archives: a digital library of images and information of historical places, people and areas of interest of the Ozarks. This will be an ongoing effort and we will be looking to followers to help submit information. Approximately $500 is needed to complete the full launch of all aspects of the website. Thereafter, the funding is being sought to get the next issue out on the press and re-establish the income from the rack sales to stablize the print production while advertisers are renewed and new advertisers added.
The dream of the Ozarks began in 1829 as my ancestors headed westward to the new frontier of the state of Missouri. Springfield, Missouri had just been settled and the new lands beckoned. Skip forward nearly two centuries and the dream of the Ozarks is reincarnated within me.
The start of Our Ozarks began as a post on February 19, 2011 with no real idea that a magazine would ever come to fruition. You must understand that I have had no corporate backing, nor any large advertisers, etc. When I had let the dream fester long enough and realized that I was not getting any younger, and the costs of living were not going to get me any closer to fruition…I simply leaped, both literally and figuratively.
With $82, I set about trying to get out the first issue. I probably had no business starting a magazine as that was what funds I had and no financial backing. So I did what any modern entrepreneur did at the time. I went to social media and pre-sold the first issue to gage interest and to fund the printing of that first issue. Within 30 days of that launch in October of 2015, I realized that it might just work. As the first issue was sent off to the presses in January 2016, I began offering subscriptions…and never looked back.
Well, that is not entirely true. When I look at where we are now, I am thankful. However, with 3500 subscribers and thousands being spent for each issue, I do not know whether to be excited or scared...it depends on the day LOL. I am hardly a champion, but I do desire to do all that I can to preserve this great area we call home.
It may be a good time to remind everyone that we is really me, myself and I. That is the sum toll of the pre-press production crew. Well, I drag Carolyn and the kids (wow, they are no longer kids!) along as much as possible in my endless journeys through the Ozarks.
With two years under our belt, we were poised to hopefully expand the magazine. The hope had been to do so in 2017, but the major flooding put a halt to that and even set me back as advertising revenue was lost down the river as issues had been prepared that would highlight the waterways of the Ozarks. With most of the articles and photos focused on the hardest hit areas, a half year of effort was washed away. Recovery was hard, but our readers remained patient.
The goal of Our Ozarks is not just the magazine. The magazine is the means to an end of creating a living, breathing virtual Ozarks. Our Ozarks is dedicated to preserving the beauty, history and culture of the Ozarks’ regions of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kansas and Oklahoma. We “service”, or perhaps better phrased, is “care” for the entire geographic Ozarks.
Most would characterize the Ozarks as the people, not the place. Ask any man, woman or child on the street and would are apt to get different answers as to who feels they are an “Ozarker” or “Ozarkian” and the answer very well may depend on where you are asking. Thus, I have deferred to the geographic definition (some point to the Illinois portion as the “false Ozarks”, but again, it depends who and where you ask.
That means I cover over 50,000 square miles and nearly 100 counties.
Why?
Again, the goal is to gain a compilation of the Ozarks…not only to preserve it in print, but also to provide a secure resource for history and information on places to visit in an easily accessible format. There is a world of great historians, writers, bloggers, photographers, artists, etc. in the Ozarks. Bringing them together, and bringing their information together is the goal.
I understand not all read magazines. But I believe if you are reading this, you are interested in knowing the Ozarks and desire a way to have access to information about the beauty, history and culture.
Join us on that journey?
Jeffrey Haskins, founder and publisher
It takes several thousand dollars each issue to print and mail and I am pleased that in the short time the magazine has been in production that it has grown to over 3500 subscribers. But subscriber fees fall short of production costs. Much of the shortfall was helped by the sales at the retail level...but the flooding in 2017 cut off the production to the stores and payment does not come back from such sales until two more issues have hit the rack. So after missing two issues on the rack, it became a hard trek uphill to recover.
I have several small goals within this overall Gofundme goal. The first is stablization of the overall company by completing the website and implementing the monthly digital magazine (coming out this week). The next is the launch of the Archives: a digital library of images and information of historical places, people and areas of interest of the Ozarks. This will be an ongoing effort and we will be looking to followers to help submit information. Approximately $500 is needed to complete the full launch of all aspects of the website. Thereafter, the funding is being sought to get the next issue out on the press and re-establish the income from the rack sales to stablize the print production while advertisers are renewed and new advertisers added.
The dream of the Ozarks began in 1829 as my ancestors headed westward to the new frontier of the state of Missouri. Springfield, Missouri had just been settled and the new lands beckoned. Skip forward nearly two centuries and the dream of the Ozarks is reincarnated within me.
The start of Our Ozarks began as a post on February 19, 2011 with no real idea that a magazine would ever come to fruition. You must understand that I have had no corporate backing, nor any large advertisers, etc. When I had let the dream fester long enough and realized that I was not getting any younger, and the costs of living were not going to get me any closer to fruition…I simply leaped, both literally and figuratively.
With $82, I set about trying to get out the first issue. I probably had no business starting a magazine as that was what funds I had and no financial backing. So I did what any modern entrepreneur did at the time. I went to social media and pre-sold the first issue to gage interest and to fund the printing of that first issue. Within 30 days of that launch in October of 2015, I realized that it might just work. As the first issue was sent off to the presses in January 2016, I began offering subscriptions…and never looked back.
Well, that is not entirely true. When I look at where we are now, I am thankful. However, with 3500 subscribers and thousands being spent for each issue, I do not know whether to be excited or scared...it depends on the day LOL. I am hardly a champion, but I do desire to do all that I can to preserve this great area we call home.
It may be a good time to remind everyone that we is really me, myself and I. That is the sum toll of the pre-press production crew. Well, I drag Carolyn and the kids (wow, they are no longer kids!) along as much as possible in my endless journeys through the Ozarks.
With two years under our belt, we were poised to hopefully expand the magazine. The hope had been to do so in 2017, but the major flooding put a halt to that and even set me back as advertising revenue was lost down the river as issues had been prepared that would highlight the waterways of the Ozarks. With most of the articles and photos focused on the hardest hit areas, a half year of effort was washed away. Recovery was hard, but our readers remained patient.
The goal of Our Ozarks is not just the magazine. The magazine is the means to an end of creating a living, breathing virtual Ozarks. Our Ozarks is dedicated to preserving the beauty, history and culture of the Ozarks’ regions of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kansas and Oklahoma. We “service”, or perhaps better phrased, is “care” for the entire geographic Ozarks.
Most would characterize the Ozarks as the people, not the place. Ask any man, woman or child on the street and would are apt to get different answers as to who feels they are an “Ozarker” or “Ozarkian” and the answer very well may depend on where you are asking. Thus, I have deferred to the geographic definition (some point to the Illinois portion as the “false Ozarks”, but again, it depends who and where you ask.
That means I cover over 50,000 square miles and nearly 100 counties.
Why?
Again, the goal is to gain a compilation of the Ozarks…not only to preserve it in print, but also to provide a secure resource for history and information on places to visit in an easily accessible format. There is a world of great historians, writers, bloggers, photographers, artists, etc. in the Ozarks. Bringing them together, and bringing their information together is the goal.
I understand not all read magazines. But I believe if you are reading this, you are interested in knowing the Ozarks and desire a way to have access to information about the beauty, history and culture.
Join us on that journey?
Jeffrey Haskins, founder and publisher
Organizer
Jeff Haskins
Organizer
Ozark, MO
