3/15/2005
Launching of New Magazine 'Pinball Today'
Pinball Today is the brainchild of Pinballers Anonymous owner Nick Bennett and followed discussion of the idea on the UKpinball group.
It will be launched at the Pinball Extravaganza show at the end of April but Nick - the new magazine's Editor - told Pinball News all about the venture, how it differs from existing publications and gave us a look at the first issue's front page.
From a discussion on one of the UK pinball forums about a pinball publication, I suggested I could possibly do something and before it had sunk in what I had let myself in for, I'd had so much support and encouragement, that I set to work on producing the magazine. A few months later and ‘Pinball Today' is just about ready to head off to the printers for it's first ever issue.
Rather than try and rival the already huge supply of information available from the web (like Pinball News or the IPDB) and in print (like the POA magazine or PGJ), the magazine is styled very much to be a ‘lifestyle' magazine rather than a resource. Hopefully you won't be embarrassed to leave it on your coffee table when you have guests. Pinball is cool – and there seemed to be no printed product for the cool customer.
Some people think a transformer is a robot that can morph into a tea-pot and a transistor is a cross dresser! Not everyone knows what a TIP102 is, and not everyone needs to know, and some people really aren't interested in what colour under-pants Brian Eddy was wearing when he designed Attack from Mars (they were red by the way).
These people are no less enthusiastic about their hobby and of course we'll have some tech stuff, but also some more light-hearted features. It's a bit of a ‘lads-mag' take on all things pinball, but ladies are welcome to read it too.
The content is largely supplied by pin-heads but we'll also be running some regular features. We have a Pinball Champions League, the ‘Pindaq' monitoring pinball prices and ‘market' trends, ‘best of the web' features, reviews, picture specials, a pinball surgery for all your problems and more. We have also kindly been given permission to print the Pinball news diary – and it only cost me a few pints!
Pinball Today will sell for £5 an issue (P&P free in the UK ) and will initially be a quarterly publication. It is full colour throughout and also carries advertisements to help cover some of the cost. The first issue will be 24 pages. We also will try and have a freebie in each issue, with a limited edition enamel pinball badge being given away with issue 1.
Although I have written columns for magazines before, and shadow wrote a book on behavioural finance (yawn), I have no experience of producing a magazine and it has been very hard but enjoyable work. I am really happy with the way the first issue is shaping up and I have sent drafts to a few people to let them cast their critique.
Thanks to Pinball News for their help and advice and many thanks to all the subscribers and advertisers who have made it possible.
Issue One of Pinball Today is officially out on the 30 th April and will be available at the Pinball extravaganza in Margate, UK that same weekend. Subscribers should receive their copy before this date. European and international subscriptions are also available.
If anybody would like to subscribe to Pinball Today, please visit our website www.pinballtoday.co.uk
It will be launched at the Pinball Extravaganza show at the end of April but Nick - the new magazine's Editor - told Pinball News all about the venture, how it differs from existing publications and gave us a look at the first issue's front page.
From a discussion on one of the UK pinball forums about a pinball publication, I suggested I could possibly do something and before it had sunk in what I had let myself in for, I'd had so much support and encouragement, that I set to work on producing the magazine. A few months later and ‘Pinball Today' is just about ready to head off to the printers for it's first ever issue.
Rather than try and rival the already huge supply of information available from the web (like Pinball News or the IPDB) and in print (like the POA magazine or PGJ), the magazine is styled very much to be a ‘lifestyle' magazine rather than a resource. Hopefully you won't be embarrassed to leave it on your coffee table when you have guests. Pinball is cool – and there seemed to be no printed product for the cool customer.
Some people think a transformer is a robot that can morph into a tea-pot and a transistor is a cross dresser! Not everyone knows what a TIP102 is, and not everyone needs to know, and some people really aren't interested in what colour under-pants Brian Eddy was wearing when he designed Attack from Mars (they were red by the way).
These people are no less enthusiastic about their hobby and of course we'll have some tech stuff, but also some more light-hearted features. It's a bit of a ‘lads-mag' take on all things pinball, but ladies are welcome to read it too.
The content is largely supplied by pin-heads but we'll also be running some regular features. We have a Pinball Champions League, the ‘Pindaq' monitoring pinball prices and ‘market' trends, ‘best of the web' features, reviews, picture specials, a pinball surgery for all your problems and more. We have also kindly been given permission to print the Pinball news diary – and it only cost me a few pints!
Pinball Today will sell for £5 an issue (P&P free in the UK ) and will initially be a quarterly publication. It is full colour throughout and also carries advertisements to help cover some of the cost. The first issue will be 24 pages. We also will try and have a freebie in each issue, with a limited edition enamel pinball badge being given away with issue 1.
Although I have written columns for magazines before, and shadow wrote a book on behavioural finance (yawn), I have no experience of producing a magazine and it has been very hard but enjoyable work. I am really happy with the way the first issue is shaping up and I have sent drafts to a few people to let them cast their critique.
Thanks to Pinball News for their help and advice and many thanks to all the subscribers and advertisers who have made it possible.
Issue One of Pinball Today is officially out on the 30 th April and will be available at the Pinball extravaganza in Margate, UK that same weekend. Subscribers should receive their copy before this date. European and international subscriptions are also available.
If anybody would like to subscribe to Pinball Today, please visit our website www.pinballtoday.co.uk
