Jurgen Lossau Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Berlin-based Fachverlag Schiele & Schön has decided to cease printing our magazine at the end of 2008, after three years of publication. smallformat ? the international journal for fans of Super 8, Single-8 and 16mm film ? was founded by editor-in-chief Jürgen Lossau in 2005. Unfortunately, the number of subscribers and advertisers in this difficult and shrinking market did not reach our expectations. Therefore, economic survival is not possible. The lack of financial support from the only remaining film manufacturer was also a deciding factor behind the publisher?s decision. smallformat has endeavored to present small gauge film topics in a high quality publication with modern design. From the arrival of the first issue in 2005, we won over many subscribers from around the world who embraced smallformat enthusiastically. The publishers and the editor-in-chief would like to warmly thank our readers for their trust and often enthusiastic reactions. We also owe a great deal to the advertisers who made this magazine possible through their continuous ad placements. We would especially like to acknowledge MWA Nova, MovieStuff, Wittner Cintec, Andec Filmtechnik, Spectra, Laboratoires Cine Dia, Nano Lab, Retro Enterprises, single8film.com, Pro8mm, Clive Tobin, onsuper8.org and filmshooting.com. smallformat will bid farewell to our readers with issue 6/2008. Editor-in-chief Jürgen Lossau would be remiss not to take this opportunity to acknowledge translator and proofreader James Grahame for his great work. The German publication schmalfilm ? which celebrated its 60th anniversary this year ? will not be impacted by the cancellation of the international edition. smallformat readers interested in schmalfilm are asked to contact our editorial staff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Leal Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Sorry to hear it. Will be missed. Thank you for your great publication and interest in Super 8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Vilhelm Posted November 4, 2008 Share Posted November 4, 2008 Sad to hear this, one more setback for small format enthusiasts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Buick Posted November 4, 2008 Share Posted November 4, 2008 What a sad loss, and I was just about to subscribe. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael LaVoie Posted November 4, 2008 Share Posted November 4, 2008 The international version is online right? As long as the magazine is also webbased, you don't necessarily need it printed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgen Lossau Posted November 4, 2008 Author Share Posted November 4, 2008 (edited) Hi Michael, this magazine is a printed magazine. On our website we do only offer first pages of the articles. Without the printed version there is an absence of valid subject matter. The internet is not (yet) the right place to offer content which is not free of charge. Even the advertisers are not interested to invest that much money in an internet based magazine. For smallformat this won't work. Another reason is that 35% of our readers do not use the internet. Edited November 4, 2008 by Jürgen Lossau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Grahame Posted November 4, 2008 Share Posted November 4, 2008 35% of our readers do not use the internet. This is the saddest thing about discontinuing the magazine - 35% of readers don't have an alternate source for up-to-date S8/16mm news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Burke Posted November 4, 2008 Share Posted November 4, 2008 This is the saddest thing about discontinuing the magazine - 35% of readers don't have an alternate source for up-to-date S8/16mm news. what about Super8Today? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Guillot Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 I feel sad to read this... I discovered Super8 and 16mm a few years ago, I searched around the web and libraries to find some information about my new hobby ... Yes there are various sources of information but when I baught my first Smallformat issue LAST MONTH (!!) I was happy to find some interesting magazine with technical, practicle and genral subjects... this was the magazine of a community, a sort of printed link between all small format cinematographers, amateurs AND pros. I don't know Super8Today, but isn't it possible for both magazines to merge and form one stong super8-16mm media ? What about the Smallformat crew ? Will the writers continue to share their knowledge on some blog/website/fanzine over the web ? Isn't it possible to cut printing costs (black and white on cheaper paper) to keep this mag alive ? Thanks for the job you did... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Guillot Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 What's the difference between Schmalfilm and Smallformat (other than the language) ? Is the editorial completely different ?What not making an English version of Schmalfilm ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgen Lossau Posted November 5, 2008 Author Share Posted November 5, 2008 (edited) schmalfilm has more topics concerning the German Super 8 and 16mm scene. Less than 50% of the contents of schmalfilm and smallformat are identically. The printing costs are not the problem. The total costs are our problem. If we could fix our status quo for the next year (same amount of subscribers and advertisers), we would need another 20,000 Euro in 2009 to survive. This means 300 more subscribers or some major advertisers. Unfortunately, we could not find this support. I have to thank my publishers that they gave me the chance to try this project and that they have been willing to support the magazine with the power of their staff free of charge. Layout, marketing, shipping - this was all done free of charge with the hope that this project might get strong enough to finance itself one day and will have a balanced budget. We worked hard to achieve this aim but after 3 years I cannot promise any improvement. I am in personal contact with the editor of Super 8 Today. The situation for Chris Cottrill and his magazine isn't easier as well. He changed from six issues per year to four issues a year (which is an increase in the price of the magazine of 50%) and has to cope a lot of other problems, too (but he is the one to inform about that). We already discussed a merger before but did not get any solution. Edited November 5, 2008 by Jürgen Lossau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KStarr Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 I am so sad to hear this. Your latest issue just arrived on Friday to our office and I always make a point of sitting down and thumbing through it the moment it comes in. (and then later when I have more time reading the different articles). Your magazine is beautifully crafted, the photography, the layout and the content is top notch. There is nothing else out there that comes close to what you do and it is evident with every page how much you love live and breathe small format cameras and the images they produce. I would absolutely subscribe to an online version if it were available as long as it still had great images. In fact, I was just looking at your Projector book and thinking what a great christmas gift it would make for a friend of mine. Will you still be selling your books? *Btw - first time poster* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgen Lossau Posted November 10, 2008 Author Share Posted November 10, 2008 Hi, thanks for the nice words. Wish I had better news... Concerning my books "Movie Projectors" and "Movie Cameras": Of course you may buy some more copies at any time on www.atollmedien.de - to have it for a Christmas present you have to hurry up because the shipping time to USA is always very long (2-5 weeks). Juergen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norbert Shieh Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 juergen: smallformat is/was a terrific publication. thanks for your work on it. maybe you can bring it back with a working subscription model online? best of luck on your future endeavors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Buick Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 (edited) Juergen, would it be possible once you've stopped production on your mag, to upload the back issues online in PDF form please? Edited November 10, 2008 by Matthew Buick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgen Lossau Posted November 10, 2008 Author Share Posted November 10, 2008 Norbert, the question is not printed versus online - even an online version is expensive (editor, authors, layout, traffic) but nobody will pay for it - please see my other statement here. Matthew, I am not the one to decide that. the publisher's are the owners of the rights. i don't think they will do that. even this will cost money and manpower. sorry. there are also some articles and photos inside the mag where we haven't the rights for online publishing - this was always a matter of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Buick Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 Matthew,I am not the one to decide that. the publisher's are the owners of the rights. i don't think they will do that. even this will cost money and manpower. sorry. there are also some articles and photos inside the mag where we haven't the rights for online publishing - this was always a matter of money. OK. Do you have any back issues left that I could pay for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgen Lossau Posted November 10, 2008 Author Share Posted November 10, 2008 yes, I have copies of all issues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Buick Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 Would it be possible for you to knock up a quote for one copy of every issue, from first to last? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member andy oliver Posted November 10, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted November 10, 2008 :( very sad news, i'm so sorry to hear this Jürgen, especially after the hard work done by you to lauch the product. I've been there from the first issue, i guess the end of k40 etc has helped shrink the market, i know a few people who gave up super 8 filmaking once k40 ended. I also know a couple of people who sadly and foolishly don't subscribe to smallformat, they merely borrow a copy from a third party ( not me ), which of course takes vital revenue away.. Assume you'll still post on here from time to time??????????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgen Lossau Posted November 11, 2008 Author Share Posted November 11, 2008 Hi Matthew, I will send you a PM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgen Lossau Posted November 11, 2008 Author Share Posted November 11, 2008 Matthew, your message box is full. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Buick Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 I've made some room in my inbox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgen Lossau Posted November 18, 2008 Author Share Posted November 18, 2008 Giles Perkins of www.onsuper8.org and Doug Thomas of Spectra Film & Video started a campaign to save smallformat. They are looking for new subscribers for the magazine. Here is the link: http://onsuper8.blogspot.com/2008/11/save-smallformat.html onsuper8 ://http://onsuper8.blogspot.com/2008/1....html onsuper8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andries Molenaar Posted November 19, 2008 Share Posted November 19, 2008 Giles Perkins of www.onsuper8.org and Doug Thomas of Spectra Film & Video started a campaign to save smallformat. They are looking for new subscribers for the magazine. Here is the link: http://onsuper8.blogspot.com/2008/11/save-smallformat.html onsuper8 ://http://onsuper8.blogspot.com/2008/1....html onsuper8 ://http://onsuper8.blogspot.com/2008/1....html onsuper8 This link runs dead :( This is what I find after some refering links: http://onsuper8.blogspot.com/2008/11/save-smallformat.html Seems the same but it should work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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