It wasn’t that long ago that I mentioned the launch of Domainers’ Magazine.
Now it looks like there maybe a new kid on the block – Modern Domainer, which describes itself as:
Modern Domainer speaks for the thousands of business professionals who have found ways to monetize domain names. Our magazine publishes six times a year and offers fresh perspectives, in-depth analyses and emerging trends. Whether you are breaking-in, keeping-up or getting ahead, Modern Domainer works for you.
The first issue is due for publication in the middle of June. While details on the editorial content are a bit scant at present there is a list of upcoming topics, which include issues such as technologies, legal issues and “breaking into domaining”.
Does this mean that the domaining industry is going mainstream, or merely that entrepeneurs are cashing in on the side?
Only time will tell.
Nobody’s contacted me for an interview yet, so how serious can they be? 🙂
(I keed, I keed)
Christopher
I’m sure they’ve got you on their list
*cough*
Michele
I wonder if they’ll write anything about Eurid/.eu and the collapsing .eu aftermarket. 🙂 Seriously though, there is no description of their editorial expertise or names of their journos/editors. This would make me wonder if it is just another me-too magazine. I think that John Berryhill did an interview with Domainer’s Magzine – it was even mentioned on threads on namepros.com.
The problem with domaining is that it does not really lend itself to being editorialised well in a bi-monthly magazine because it changes so rapidly. Perhaps it may be another bubble in the offing that will be popped when the searchengines begin to integrate all that typo/direct navigation traffic into their own networks via the desktop tools.
John
That’s a very valid point. They’re currently trying to sell me advertising space, so I think it’s a perfectly good opportunity to raise some of your questions.
On a sidenote I did notice that they intend to cover “domaining for beginners”, or something of that ilk, but the information is quite scant
Michele
It looks a bit iffy Michele,
They are trying to sell advertising in a magazine that has not actually been published yet with an undefined circulation. The thing with magazines is that unless you’ve got a good team, the magazine will fold relatively quickly – just look at what happened to WebIreland, DotIE etc.
The whole “domaining for beginners” angle is something that would worry me, especially coming this late in the market. Most of the good domains are gone and people are applying mature market rules to early market extensions. I’ve been looking at some of the 250K+ .eu domains deleted in April and most of them seem to be greater than reg-fee chances for .com but complete losses for .eu – many of them are not even reregistered weeks after having dropped.
If these guys haven’t tapped ICANN, Godaddy, Enom, Snapnames etc for advertising then they really haven’t a clue. 🙂
John
I was thinking along the same lines. They’re obviously going to all the industry gigs at the moment, as someone spotted them at TRAFFIC, but they’re an unknown quantity.
I guess we’ll have to see how things pan out, but if the hosting industry can barely keep two magazines going it’lll be interesting to see how this lot handle it
Michele
We have a clue, fellows! 🙂
And I’m glad we’re being discussed on this forum.
The first issue of Modern Domainer Magazine will be released in late July. We have pushed our publication date back a month as we are attending the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conference in New York next week and wish to include a review of the conference in our introductory issue. We will also be attending the Domain Roundtable Conference in August in Seattle and will launch our publication at that conference. We also have plans to attend the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conference in October in Miami, where we will promote our just-released second issue.
More information about our publication can be found on our website at http://www.moderndomainer.com.
I will be happy to answer any advertising, content, or circulation-related questions you might have about our publication.
Seth Coman
Director of Advertising Sales
Modern Domainer Magazine
http://www.moderndomainer.com
512-769-3586 (office)
512-532-0562 (fax)
Nice to see that there is someone behind the website Seth,
As regards content, what kind of news/features/OpEds/Interviews mix will the magazine have?
Will the website be the primary news outlet with a summary appearing in the magazine?
Will the people writing for the magazine be domainers or have industry knowledge or will they just be technology journalists (people with no specialist knowledge of technology who just recycle press releases)?
It looks like a very US-centric publication. Perhaps some European and Asian angles might give it an edge.
They still haven’t contacted me for an interview. 🙂
Chris
Maybe you haven’t asked them nicely enough? 🙂
Michele
John to answer your questions…
1) Modern Domainer Magazine will be entertaining and informative. No one wants to read a stale perodical chocked full of boring data and industry details. Our content will revolve around the interests of the domaining business, from reviews of related technology, to profiles of successful domainers, to legal analysis of current issues. We’ll keep you abreast of current issues, but in a fun and interesting way that will having you always anticipating our next issue.
2) The magazine will be our primary news outlet. We will include relevant articles on our site that do not fit into the magazine, but the print version will remain the primary source.
3) Our writers are experienced journalists with an appreciation for being fair, getting their story correct, and learning their subject matter. Several, including out editor Ezra James, have experience in journalism and technology, including the domaining industry.
4) The magazine is not US-centric. In the first issue, we will include articles on IDN’s in the Asian/Pacific market and on the impact of .ASIA on the success of .CN. More stories with a European flair to follow.
5) ATTN: Christopher Ambler- We have one of our writers currently working on our feature story for Issue #2 that I think might be of interest. Would it be possible to have her contact you via phone or email to answer some brief, light, opinion-oriented questions? If so, let me know- seth@moderndomainer.com.
Will there be guest writers?
Do you intend to have a European section like the WHIR does?
Michele…..
1) There will be guest writers. We welcome submissions, but it is best to check with our editor, Ezra James, regaring any writing inquiries. He can be reached at ezra@moderndomainer.
2) We currently do not intend to have a European section like Web Host Industry Review. It is something we might consider down the road, especially if we get a lot of positive feedback about it.
Seth,
The one thing that this industry lives on is boring stuff like sales and industry data. With a two month publication cycle, the news coverage is going to have at least a one month gap and the publishing process will add at least a week or so of staleness. I don’t think that it would be able to compete effectively with online news sites.
As for the features – a lot of that kind of stuff is already being done by the online news sites so the barrier to entry is fairly high on this market. Legal analysis is also a very tricky area and would have to be done by good IP lawyers – that’s always expensively rare copy.
I’m not sure about wasting an asset like the website when it comes to news. The domaining industry changes rapidly and having the website as the primary news source is more effective, especially with the two month publication cycle of the magazine. This is why people rely less on printed magazines and more on news sites like http://www.news.com for technology news.
When it comes to the journalists, I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of Ezra James (no Google refs other than an early 19th Century American artist and some character on Lost) but then I don’t know many of the US journos covering this area. The generic, sales-pitch like description of the other journalists doesn’t exactly fill one with confidence as to their abilities in covering the domain names industry. One thing that would worry me is when a journo claims to be willing to learn. What that really means is that the journo in question hasn’t a clue. If a publication is going to be the best in its field, it has to employ the best writers and journos.
The non-US angle is interesting. Especially as .ASIA hasn’t officially launched. Therefore any impact that .asia would have on .cn is largely theoretical. Even with all the historical statistics (of .cn usage and Chinese com/net/org/biz/info usage) at hand, it would be difficult to predict the impact and it always takes at least 1.5 times the first registration period to see how a new TLD, ccTLD or rTLD balances out. As for the .eu situation, I don’t think that any of your journalists would have enough knowledge to write about what happened with that ccTLD as it is still quite a mystery to almost everyone. 🙂
It would be interesting to see the first issue. Publishing a magazine is a lot tougher than talking about it so good luck with it.