Glory Days seeks crowd funding

Glory Days seeks crowd funding

Glory Days is a quarterly online vintage lifestyle magazine that was founded in 2012 by three vintage-obsessed women, with the third issue being released today. To view the publication please visit www.glorydaysmagazine.com

After offering the online magazine for free for the first two issues, the editors have decided to reach out to the community to help crowd fund the third installment of the popular online publication. The editors believe they're the first magazine in the country to experiment with crowd funding. The goal, say the editors, is to pay their contributors and ultimately fund printed magazine editions.

Glory Days' fifties-flavoured third edition includes a drag racing fashion spread photographed in the Bay of Plenty, a focus on mid century design with both Te Papa and the Auckland Art Gallery contributing articles on the topic, as well as articles on bodgies and widgies, bikini chairs, diet pills and many other aspects of post-war 1950s New Zealand culture and style.

Editor Rose Jackson says she's been blown away by the way people have embraced the magazine since its January launch. “We enjoy the sense of community and sharing that a magazine like this promotes so we've decided to ask the community to help fund its future.”

“Since the magazine launched, we've thrown a sold out launch party, opened a pop up office in the Auckland Art Gallery, secured sponsorship for major vintage events including the Very Vintage Day Out and the New Zealand Burlesque Festival, and been featured in The Herald on Sunday.”

As the publishing world struggles to work out how to “make” people pay for online magazines, at the same time there's a parallel alternative movement which is more interested in the idea of “letting” people pay, she says. This “Pay What You Want” model was pioneered by Radiohead in 2007 and subsequently taken up by various online businesses.

Editor Claire Gormly says, “As Glory Days continues to secure more and more readers, and a larger following on Facebook and other social media outlets, we have decided to take the publication to the next level. To help us in our quest, we're adopting the “Pay What You Want” model made famous by Radiohead. It's a unique type of crowdfunding which has the old fashioned values of trust and giving at its heart.”

“We would love to be able to be part of the “pay what you want” future; a future where the community decides the value of what they consume.”

The editors plan on closely tracking the results of their experiment and have promised to share their findings “in the hope that other publishers and businesses can benefit.” Says Gormly, “We believe we're the first magazine in New Zealand to trial this method of funding and we're excited to see where this takes us.”

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