A few weeks back I made the decision to support (i.e. pledged $25 to) Longshot Magazine, which is “a raucous experiment in using new tools to erase media’s old limits.” Next weekend will be their 3rd go-‘round/issue. They’ve already raised over $12.5k on Kickstarter for the project. For me, the decision to join the party wasn’t necessarily an easy one.
This wasn’t my first rodeo with Longshot. Like many others, I’d been keeping tabs on their progress since the project’s inception. I eagerly followed the frenetic tweets from the first weekend as Mat, Alexis and Sarah coalesced their legions of internet hanger-ons to create something that was, well, a little magical - a momentary connection of loose ties that gave a glimpse into what new media could mean.
As soon as the internet trumpets began to sound about the second issue, I knew I wanted to be involved. How it works - Longshot reveals the theme of the issue on Friday afternoon, giving writers and creatives only 24 hours to produce, then they spend the next 24 hours editing and creating the finished product. I spent the week leading up to the second issue’s theme revelation absorbing all the clues and hints they dropped. By the time the theme was announced, I had a pretty good idea what it was: Comeback. I happened to have the day off that Friday so I was able to spend the afternoon crafting my piece (an idea that has since turned into my thoughts on Aesthetic Technology). I finished my piece that Friday, and although it was in rough shape, I was excited to submit on Saturday. The feeling was great - that I was participating in the creation of something special. Unfortunately, that feeling didn’t last.
I spent Sunday following along with the posts and tweets about how the magazine was coming together. They had my full attention. I couldn’t wait to find out whether or not my piece would be included, and that’s when things took a turn for the unfortunate. I finally learned that my piece didn’t make the cut when they posted a list of the selected contributions late on Sunday. A winner’s list? Seriously? It was an awful feeling, like a high school kid who spent the whole summer preparing - attending every meeting and practice, doing extra workouts, studying game tape - only to get cut from the varsity team by checking the list in the locker room. It wasn’t that my piece didn’t make the cut (frankly, it wasn’t that good) but how they broke the news. They couldn’t have mustered up a blast thank you letter to everyone who submitted? I thought it was a weak show of effort. A few days later I (and the rest of the 1,000 submitters) received an email with a PDF copy of the magazine and the team’s encouragement to buy the magazine. As excited as I was about the project, I didn’t end up purchasing the hard copy. I thought the PDF was a nice gesture, but it was too little too late. They’d lost my trust (and attention.) More than that, I was disappointed that such a fun, participatory media project had just blown it’s lead. It didn’t surprise me that the second issue lost money. They couldn’t possibly expect to leave a sour taste in the mouths of their 950 most-likely customers (~1,000 submissions - 50 contributors) and expect a huge payday.
From an attention investment perspective, I didn’t think they’d win me back. In fact, the only reason I watched their Kickstarter pitch for the upcoming issue was because I wanted to see if they could manage to further alienate my interest. However, after watching the video, I changed my mind. They acknowledged that the second issue didn’t make any money and reaffirmed their mission of testing the frontiers of new media. I wanted to believe again.
As of now, they’ve raised over $12,500 from over 400 backers on Kickstarter. The more I think about it, the happier I am for them. Whether they’re doing it consciously or not, they’re doing a much better job with this issue from a customer perspective. I decided to support them because they invited me to support their process, not buy their product. I’ve spent a majority of the past 12 months working on and consulting with different crowdfunding efforts, and the most misunderstood secret of success is exactly that: the process is the product.
I’m happy that the Longshot team has figured that out. I’m happy they got the magic back.
