Hello Typebar Magazine subscribers, fans, and well-wishers. Typebar founder & editor Matt Wolfbridge here with something decidedly different from literary analysis and cultural commentary: financial data.
Three months ago we published our "back-of-the-napkin" financials (or what happens when an MFA tries to do the work of an MBA).
Typebar_Admin
I think every 90 days (4x a year) is a great cadence to update the audience on how the enterprise is functioning. Here's the most recent info...
Expenses:
I designed Typebar to have fixed costs. That's why we publish full issues and interstitial one-offs at a specific cadence. Said cadence allows us to make accurate financial projections for what we're going to spend. As far as expenses go, nothing has changed from the March recap (aside from renaming "housekeeping" to "infrastructure") so I'll quote the post from March directly:
We pay $75 per essay or short story. Each issue contains 10 essays and one short story, so 11 published pieces in all.
$75*11 = $825
We also have to pay for the cover art! On average, it costs us around $400 to commission cover art from a real-live human artist (and we will always pay for the expertise of a human artist for our covers–forever).
$825+400 = $1,225
That brings the cost-per-issue of the magazine to $1,225. We do four issues per year.
$1,225*4 = $4,900
Typebar Magazine, in addition to quarterly issues, posts "Interstitial" essays every two weeks. That's roughly 26 per year at a $75 pay rate.
$75*26 = $1,950
But there's also [digital infrastructure] costs to consider. Typebar utilizes both the Ghost content management system as well as the suite of website enhancements offered by Outpost, a Ghost plugin used by several other independent media organizations like 404 Media and Hell Gate.
Ghost costs $35 per month and Outpost costs $45 per month.
$35*12 = $420 (ugh lol)
$45*12 = $540
$540+$420 = $960.
Thus, our total annual expenses for running the site come to $7,810.
$4,900 + $ 1,950 + $960 = $7,810.
Income:
Happy to report positive changes in this department!
We increased our paid subscriber number from 33 to 49, a 48% increase. This brings our MRR (monthly recurring revenue) to $156. Times that by 12 and you get $1,872. For verification and transparency, here's a screenshot of the Typebar Magazine Ghost dashboard:
Now, you don't need a PhD in applied mathematics to realize our expenses far exceed our income.
We spend $7,810 per year and make $1,872 per year. That means we lose $5,938 per year. Right now I'm able to absorb the cost of the magazine out of pocket thanks to a part time job I work in addition to my full-time job. But if I lost either job, the fate of the magazine would be called into question. I want Typebar Magazine to live until my last breath or my last dollar. The only way to make it the former rather than the latter is to establish a robust subscribership
Our 49 subscribers pay an average of $38.20 per year ($156 MRR/49 subs = $3.18 a month. Times that number by 12 to get $38.20). Note, while the price of an annual subscription is $50, a percentage of users have joined from various promotions which is why the average pay rate isn't exactly $50. That said...
Typebar Magazine needs ~155 subscribers at the current average pay rate to reach a break-even point ($5,938/$38.20 = 155.45)
Now, obviously I don't expect 155 of our free-tier members to instantly sign up...
Typebar Magazine offers a unique approach not found elsewhere. We encourage the study of older literature. We don't shy away from holding the literary establishment to task. When we discuss new releases our coverage is heavily curated to discuss what's interesting instead of what's hyped, prioritizing academic study, fresh literature, or legitimate genre innovation. We expand the lens of literary criticism to under-analyzed fields like YouTube and tabletop gaming. We do this with a radical transparency compared to other major literary enterprises. And we do it all with a staff of one and charge just $50 a year.
If anything happens to my income streams, there is a possibility Typebar goes away. Every subscription we get gives the magazine a fighting chance at survival, and proves that a publication offering cultured, human-written sentiments instead of AI slop can thrive. An annual subscription only costs $50/year which breaks down to just $4.16 a month. In my mind, a small price to pay to keep a magazine running that, in addition to its offering of sharp essays, publishes incisive fiction like Blanquitos, Foreign Objects, and Tiddies.
And remember, a subscription comes with the following benefits:
- All subscriber-only content. This means MOST of what we publish (past, present, and future)!
- 4 issues per year of 10 essays each (sometimes 1-2 more), plus a short story.
- Approximately 26 "interstitial" pieces that publish in between issues, every two weeks.
- Access to our extensive archive stretching back to March 2024.
- eBook versions of every issue.
- Commenting privileges.
Please consider subscribing if it's within your means.
Goals and Future Plans:
The site's immediate goal will always be sulf-sustainability. I want it to survive on its own. To that end, I have plans to expand the "top of funnel" for the site in ways that will add value the audience. I don't want to make official proclamations yet because I'm not sure about the timeframe but we'll have something cool on offer and it'll be f-r-e-e free! Yes, free! Aiming to have it out by the end of summer.
We also have a tip jar. I don't post it on new essays because it only converted one person and they were a friend of the site already (my eternal thanks and you know who you are). I've been meditating about how to make more of it and I have some theories. The TLDR is that I think we didn't have a lot of tips in the jar because it the way we presented it made it feel like an afterthought rather than an action that would have a huge, demonstrable impact. More on this probably in the back half of the year if I'm being realistic.
As far as longer-term goals: I want to pay writers $100 pay essay/story. Defector just raised their freelance rates citing the dramatic cost of living increase. I am increasingly embarrassed by how little we pay compared to how expensive the world is. But right now Typebar is losing too much money for higher rates to be feasible. I should note there is a level of acceptable losses for the enterprise (it's a labor of love after all) but we're not quite there yet.
Anyway, as far as other updates for the more proximal future go...
🥳Typebar Magazine Issue 10 debuts on 7/27!🥳 Here's the cover art:
We have some wonderful essays in store and I'll be announcing the full slate hopefully by the end of June but possibly early into July.
Thank you all for helping me accomplish the mission of running a clean, unobtrusive site offering cultural commentary not beholden to advertisers, PR campaigns, or establishment whims.
I'll be posting another finance update in September. The email cadence will return to normal this upcoming Monday, 6/8, when I post my conversation with Jason Whittaker, author of the new book You Want What We've Got: Big Tech vs. Big Journalism. See you then!
