Fedora print magazine proposal from Linux Pro Magazine

[Max Spevack]

[Trimming the recipient list down a little bit.]

*** AMBASSADORS: PLEASE READ THIS EMAIL ***

> Linux Pro Magazine (LPM) has proposed to make a special Fedora print 
> issue for F12 - thousands of magazines out on newsstands 
> internationally with an F12 DVD tucked inside. This would be very, 
> very cool. We're trying to figure out whether this is possible, 
> whether we should do it, and (if both of those are "yes"), how the 
> balance of work would be distributed between the Fedora community 
> (perhaps with help from the Red Hat Brand team) and LPM.
>
> We'd love your thoughts and feedback. This is moving quite rapidly (it 
> first came up on Wednesday afternoon; we need to give a yes or no for 
> F12 next week), so I've summarized the current state of things on a 
> project page at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_print_magazine.

There are a few points that I'd like to add to this discussion.

(1) Nothing has been decided yet -- as a collective, we need to think 
about the ideas presented by LPM, as well as the timeline that we would 
have to operate under, the content that we would need to produce, etc.

(2) There is a price tag associated with this project, that (if we say 
yes to it) will require us to get a bit clever with the way we plan for 
Fedora 12 media, especially in North America and Europe (where the 
magazine is published).

If we say yes to this overall deal, it will get us three things:

+ Magazines (including the 32-bit DVD) on sale at news-stands and 
bookstores in North America and Europe

+ 1,000 magazines (including DVD) shipped directly to the Fedora 
Project, that we can do with as we choose.

+ 8,000 DVDs shipped directly to the Fedora Project, that we can do with 
as we choose.

That means 9,000 DVDS (and 1,000 magazines) that we would probably use 
as the VAST MAJORITY of our media during the Fedora 12 cycle.

We would probably *not* produce a large quantity of separate LiveCDs, 
which has been the habit for the past several releases.

Furthermore, the DVDs would come in plain white sleeves (not 
Fedora-designed sleeves), and the artwork on the face of the DVD would 
be Fedora-related, but would also have the Linux Pro Magazine logo on 
it.

I would like to know how Ambassadors feel about this.

--Max