We’re Making a Zine!
We’re in the process of designing our first zine. You might wonder what a zine is. A quick internet search defines a zine, pronounced ZEEN, as a small circulation, independently published do-it-yourself magazine, or fanzine, covering any topic of interest.
You could argue zines have been around almost as long as the printing press, invented by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany in the 1440s. Early magazines were often monthly discussions about philosophy, religion, and scholarly articles, and they were printed more like newspapers than the glossy colorful magazines made today.
The difference between a magazine and a newspaper is that newspapers usually cover a variety of topics, while magazines focus on a particular issue or subject. Newspapers are published more frequently, daily or twice daily, depending on where you live and when, to cover the ever-changing world we live in.
Creating a zine will be an affordable opportunity to advertise our brand. The ability to advertise effectively is as important as making a good product, but putting together a good advertising campaign can be expensive. We’ll be able to publish a monthly zine for less money than running advertisements on Google and social media websites like TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest. While running ads might generate more of an immediate return than a zine will, it takes time and a considerable investment to craft a brand’s identity advertising on Google and social media. Making a zine, on the other hand, will enable us to engage our targeted demographic in a more meaningful way than traditional advertising opportunities, though we plan to put together campaigns on those as well when we can afford to add them to our budget.
We plan to publish our first monthly zine in September. We’re naming it The Doo Dah Daily. Patricia Connor and her developers at Crown Design will work on the initial template, essentially creating a thematic collage of the products, blogs, and narratives found on our website.
Our goal for The Daily will be to establish a design that appeals to a demographic of younger adults concerned about the detrimental social and environmental effects of fast fashion and the societal ills of social injustice. In a nutshell, we need to make it cool and accessible for younger generations to get engaged in making the world a healthier place to live while introducing them to our business along the way. We’ll enlist college and high school journalism students to contribute articles and opinion pieces, and their evolving viewpoints will eventually help to craft the zine’s narrative.
The Doo Dah Daily is a digital publication that sells for $2 per issue, or $10 for an annual subscription. Our September issue will be viewable on our website for free. A small batch of each issue will be printed to distribute at no cost on college and high school campuses. We plan to market advertising space to circular brands, causes, journalism departments, and businesses. We will build a website for the zine at www.doodahdaily.news as soon as we establish a readership.
We hope you’re having a wonderful week!
Brett Bridgman
Doo Dah Apparel
