Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

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Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby MagicFan72 » Oct 8th, '12, 10:46



I would love to still have a magic mag falling through my letterbox every week.

I feel bad, actually, because I subscribed to Abra from 2004-2008. I stopped solely because my love of magic had become slightly sidelined and I needed to prioritise financially. Shame that (I believe) it finished either that year or the next, after being published for so long.

So do you join me in missing Abra? And do we think that a weekly, *physical* magic magazine would ever be viable again?

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby Allen Tipton » Oct 8th, '12, 15:06

YES Magic Fan. I miss it like mad.
Just enough each week to take in the details..bits of History, tricks, useful articles, Society Reports (so we know what the others are doing) and the adverts.
The big glossies are equally wonderful but it takes a very long time to absorb their contents.

The last 4 articles of my Dear Magician Series 3 (Children's Magic) never got published. One in particular listed about 140 Comedy Magic Wands. Although the lack of info on these has now been rectified this year, by the remarkable & prolific Ian Adair with his 'The Magic Wand book'.
Series 1 --was meant to be 4 series! The Actor's Box Of Tricks (YOU as a performer) Back In The Old Routine (Routining the Trick & the Act) My Ideas On Close UP & Please May I have a Volunteer ( choosing either in a straight forward way or tricking them up, handling 'volunteers', dismissing them etc. But Don Bevan combined all 4 into Series 1.

Series 4-- Games, Competitions, Entertainment Stunts--all tested on several thousand youngsters from11 to 18 (and a lot of adults.) never got to the publishers as the magazine closed down before I could send the 20 odd articles.

Looking back over Abra--I have 3 bound editions from the late 40's-there are some wonderful tricks & advice in them. Also in the first 20 published copies & about 200 + loose copies from the 50's & 60's and a number of the last ones. These will be passed on to one of my 2 adopted sons.

Stuff posted on the Internet--in the Forums etc. is great BUT THERE IS NOTHING LIKE SITTING IN YOUR ARMCHAIR and looking at the REAL thing--the printed copy.

Allen Tipton

Began magic at 9 in 1942. Joined Staffs M.S at 13. Nottm.Guild of M. (8 times President. Prog Director 20years)IBM. Awarded Magician of Month 1980 By Intern. Pres. IBM for reproducing Dante's Sim Sala Bim. Writes Dear Magician column for Abra. Mag.
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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby MagicFan72 » Oct 8th, '12, 15:22

I fully agree, Allen. Funnily enough, I was reading a 2008 Abra on a train last night and read one of your articles.

So at least these magazines live on, in the sense that people will keep returning to them, or even reading them for the first time.

But yes, I'm glad I'm not alone in missing Abra and craving a physical weekly UK magic title.

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby corindaman » Oct 11th, '12, 11:18

Also the size of Abra meant that you could tuck it in your back pocket and read it in an idle moment. You aren't able to do that with the big mags. Sadly the soaring cost of production and the declining number of old fogies like us means that this is all in the past.

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby mark lewis » Oct 11th, '12, 14:21

I used to advertise in Abra and got terrific responses. And I used to also advertise in all the other magic magazines using the same copy and got zilch. Yep. I miss Abra too.
Mind you, I do remember Ken Brooke saying his responses from ads in Abra were weak. I had amusing copy so I think that was what did it.

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby MagicFan72 » Oct 12th, '12, 09:47

Good to hear I'm not alone, guys.

Does anyone know how low Abra's sales went, before it was decided to call it a day? I'd be interested to know.

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby The4thCircle » Oct 12th, '12, 13:01

I can't say for sure but I'd guess that the death of Abra was caused mostly by sites like this one. Much of the printing costs of a magazine are covered by the advertising, the cover cost of a paper-only publication (as opposed to those ones with 'free' CDs or collectable figurines) was often just there to stop people using it as free toilet paper or something similarly frivolous.

Magicians start blogging and chatting on forums, the conventions all have websites, readership falls, advertising returns dwindle, advertisers pull out, magazine can't afford to keep going.

Every time you went to a magic shop online and filled in a form about where you heard about them and said "word of mouth" "Google" or "Internet forum" you were hammering a nail into the coffin of printed media.

I did it too.

I can think of one way we might get a nice affordable printed magazine again... but it'll have to wait until later, because I'm at my dayjob and lunch time is about to end. it's a GOOD idea though.

-Stacy

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby philipsw » Oct 12th, '12, 13:22

I miss real magazines generally :-( But saying that I have started selling off all my old magazines because I was just running out of storage space. Apart from a few odds and sods (which might turn up on ebay soon...) all I have left is a complete collection of Club 71 Mag. Can't quite bring myself to part with it yet.

On the other hand, I am enjoying reading my electronic copy of the Magigram on my ipad. It's not the same as the physical copy, but I actually find I get to read through the old magazines which are just more easily to hand than the box in the back of the cupboard...

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby The4thCircle » Oct 12th, '12, 23:04

I got into Magic just after the end of Abra so I have only ever experienced it in terms of back issues. I have no idea what it was like to receive a regular issue.

The back issues I read however make me really wish I had experienced it and the age of the internet is making such endeavours impractical at best. Whereas once such publications were a great way for advertisers to reach a magic audience, now it is cheaper to publish trailers on you tube and let blogs and magic shops repost them for free. As for driving custom to magic shops, the bigger shops now have advice blogs and regular youtube shows of their own to draw in crowds through social media and word of mouth.

So what place is there for a magazine?

The only magazines I can think of are given mainly as a reward for membership of a large organisation (like IBM's The Linking Ring) or published online for free (Vanish Magazine). Perhaps I'm a little out of touch on this area but the only magazine I can think of which people still pay for directly is Genii and I'm not sure what they do differently...

But I have an idea, an unexploited market, a market which is not mine to exploit but which could make the right people very successful.

A regular magazine which isn't free but you don't have to buy. Think of it as a printed catalog of the newest releases with a few pages of editorial content and a few original ideas sent in by readers, published by a magic shop, which is given free with any order over a certain value. For the sake of argument, lets say any order over £15.
It's a monthly publication. So to collect them, you would have to regularly buy stuff from the shop. It's part subscription, part loyalty scheme, part sales driver.

I think it could work.

Who wants to try it and prove me wrong?

-Stacy

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby Allen Tipton » Oct 14th, '12, 13:11

Like all your replies guys.
Just been HOSPITALISED--for 3 days--let off yesterday for weekend leave. Back tonight at 7pm . 1st. operation tomorrow-Monday.
They think they can possibly clear the jaundice, the blocked Bile duct, the blood clots on the lungs through whatever the Endoscopy--ERCP entails.
No mnetion of the tiny blisters (itchy!!) on both arms or the swollen legs. Never had legs like thi ever

The 'sinister' lump on the Liver they will then investigate to see what is what.

So guys--My moreAbra informed comments as and when

Allen Tipton

Began magic at 9 in 1942. Joined Staffs M.S at 13. Nottm.Guild of M. (8 times President. Prog Director 20years)IBM. Awarded Magician of Month 1980 By Intern. Pres. IBM for reproducing Dante's Sim Sala Bim. Writes Dear Magician column for Abra. Mag.
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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby philipsw » Oct 14th, '12, 15:44

Hope all the ops go well Allen. In our thoughts and prayers.

Phil

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby isb » Oct 15th, '12, 22:53

Allen - goes for me and WMA too. Hoping and praying today's op went well, any and all subsequent ops go well, and the rest is nothing to worry about. Get well soon.

IB

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby MagicFan72 » Oct 16th, '12, 22:57

Allen Tipton wrote:Like all your replies guys.
Just been HOSPITALISED--for 3 days--let off yesterday for weekend leave. Back tonight at 7pm . 1st. operation tomorrow-Monday.
They think they can possibly clear the jaundice, the blocked Bile duct, the blood clots on the lungs through whatever the Endoscopy--ERCP entails.
No mnetion of the tiny blisters (itchy!!) on both arms or the swollen legs. Never had legs like thi ever

The 'sinister' lump on the Liver they will then investigate to see what is what.

So guys--My moreAbra informed comments as and when

Allen Tipton


Only just saw this - very sorry to hear about your ill-health Allen. Hope you're already on the mend, post-op.

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby MagicFan72 » Oct 16th, '12, 22:59

philipsw wrote:I miss real magazines generally :-( But saying that I have started selling off all my old magazines because I was just running out of storage space.



Hi Philip - and aren't I glad you sold your Magigrams to me! I'm currently on Volume 4 and am loving every moment of reading them. :)

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Re: Anyone else miss Abracadabra magazine?

Postby MagicFan72 » Oct 16th, '12, 23:02

The4thCircle wrote:
A regular magazine which isn't free but you don't have to buy. Think of it as a printed catalog of the newest releases with a few pages of editorial content and a few original ideas sent in by readers, published by a magic shop, which is given free with any order over a certain value. For the sake of argument, lets say any order over £15.
It's a monthly publication. So to collect them, you would have to regularly buy stuff from the shop. It's part subscription, part loyalty scheme, part sales driver.

I think it could work.

Who wants to try it and prove me wrong?

-Stacy


Hi Stacy! Who knows, this could be viable.

In a world where there now seem to be a whole load of magic dealers, it certainly strikes me that if one started its own magazine, it might make magicians more loyal to that dealer. Perhaps...

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