Gallery: iPad Photo Mag Shares Revenue With Photographers
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There’s no denying it, photos look great on the iPad. So it makes sense that quite a few iPad-only photo magazines are cropping up to take advantage of its lush display and low digital overhead. In particular, we’ve been watching *Once Magazine*. Over the last few months of its development, we've seen beta versions filled with thoughtful and provocative photo stories. On Oct. 6, the magazine is launching its first paid edition on iTunes for $3. One thing that makes *Once* stand out from some of the other iPad photo mags is its revenue sharing model for its contributors. The founders, including San Francisco freelance photographer and CEO of *Once*, Jackson Solway, hope it will pave the way for photographers to start benefiting financially from the digital revolution instead of being crushed by it. It was a decision that the magazine's executive editor, John Knight, describes as a "no-brainer." "When we realized we could know exactly how many subscribers we had on a given issue," says Knight, "it made it possible to calculate exactly how much each issue was making. The whole idea started as a way to pay photographers what they deserve for their work, and so splitting that revenue seemed obvious. Right now we only share that revenue with the photographers and we pay a fee to our writers. In the future we’d like to expand that model to include writers as well." The mag launched a free pilot issue last month that featured three long-form photo essays accompanied by audio clips, written stories, maps and infographics. Readers can expect a similar format in the paid edition. In addition to friends, family and colleagues, the Bay Area crowdfunding site [ProFounder](https://www.profounder.com/) helped get *Once* up and running. The magazine's goal is to eventually be sustained by subscriptions, but is currently looking for sponsorships and angel investments. Of the subscriptions, Apple takes 30% and the remaining 70% is split between *Once*'s operating costs and the photographers. At the moment, each photographer gets roughly 11.6% of the profit. *Once* has amassed a team of narrative-minded employees from other publishing heavyweights, including *Mother Jones*, our own *Wired*, *McSweeney’s*, *Getty*, *Aperture*, *San Francisco Magazine* and the *San Francisco Chronicle*. (*Disclosure: Raw File was originally pitched about* Once *by Timothy Kim, who at the time was a research intern at* Wired *magazine and has now left. We believe we've evaluated* Once *on its own merits.*) While its treatment of photography is why we were attracted to *Once*, Knight says the staff is determined to exploit all the narrative tools available to create the most compelling storytelling possible. "It’s tempting to just lump all digital publications together," says Knight, "but iPad publishing is, I think, different for both subscription models and content presentation. We spend a lot of time trying to think through the best way to visually tell a story on the iPad. That includes touch, it includes layered pages. There are some great online magazines, like *Fraction* and *Burn*, and they were clearly created for the internet, as they of course have to be. We take a different approach from the beginning." Knight wants readers glued to the iPad the way he knows listeners are glued to good radio storytelling like This American Life. If he can achieve this goal, there are 30 million iPad owners out there as potential readers. If you have an iPad, check out *Once* and let us know what you think. __Above:__ Seal hunter Rasmus Avike travels from Qeqertat village to Qaanaaq, Greenland, one of the northernmost towns in the world — a nine-hour trip. Rasmus dreamed of studying at a university, but his father pressured him to become a hunter. Now he is unable to support his family with hunting alone. __John Knight:__ "When we found Andrea’s photos it was impossible not to want to publish them. These are the kinds of photos you see and can’t help showing them to other people. The first two were among many in Andrea’s work that were like that. It was immediately like, 'Hey look at this!' That’s what publishing is all about." *Photo: Andrea Gjestvang*
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“I used to work hard as a fisherman, but now it's impossible for me to survive off of fishing and hunting, so I became a teacher,” says 32-year-old Nikolai. “I miss the hard work. I exercise to keep my muscles and to not get depressed.” __John Knight:__ "While seal hunting looks pretty other-worldly to someone living in San Francisco, it’s also everyday life for these communities and is sort of tearing them apart at their seams. When you understand the tension there, photos like the one of Nikolai become really profound." *Photo: Andrea Gjestvang*
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Hansigne Thomassen is a typical modern fisherman’s wife. During the day she works as a teacher, and in the afternoon she prepares skins and meat from the seals her husband catches each day. __John Knight:__ "That is the interesting moment — when a small bit of additional information and text change the way you look at a photo. Photos can tell a lot, but I also like to think of them as an invitation to more information. They grab you and bring you in. Andrea’s story has both magnetic photos that stand alone and those that make you want to read more." *Photo: Andrea Gjestvang*
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The Sun City Poms Marching Unit rehearses for an upcoming parade. The group performs both locally and nationally, including performances for several years in the Fiesta Bowl Parade in Phoenix, Arizona. __John Knight:__ "Sun City is unique because it is a place where retirees can almost live a second life, one filled with activities and entertainment. That’s what pulls people in — 70-year-old cheerleaders in bright colors. " *Photo: Kendrick Brinson, LUCEO Images*
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Velta Larson and Gene Limbacher pose during a square dance night in Sun City, Arizona on Dec. 8, 2009. The dancing pair are not married but have been dancing together for 16 years. __John Knight:__ "Life in Sun City means more than just activities, it is about the people, the new kind of life these retirees create for themselves. That couple is unmarried but have been dancing partners for 16 years. Sixteen years! That doesn’t happen everywhere. So now you have a sense of place and its dynamism — fun but real." *Photo: Kendrick Brinson, LUCEO Images*
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An aerial view of Sun City, Arizona, seen Dec. 15, 2009. __John Knight:__ "Then zoom out, take a step back, give the bigger picture. The third photo expands that idea of place and provides the context to consider why a retirement community like this is worth reading about. It launches you into the bigger picture of the rest of the story, where the themes that were introduced in these first pictures are carried through and expanded on." *Photo: Kendrick Brinson, LUCEO Images*
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85-year-old Ivan Djologua and his neighbor, Sveda, drink vodka after lunch in Tagiloni. Some members of Ivan’s family left Gali for Georgia during the Abkhazia-Georgia war in the early 1990s. __John Knight:__ "At first we weren’t sure if we could run this because the square format of the photos kept them from being full-screen on the iPad. But we thought the story was important and the photos are phenomenal so eventually we just said, 'Whatever, we’ll figure out a way to make it work.'" *Photo: Ivor Prickett*
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A woman walks though the dilapidated streets of Gali, Abkhazia. After the Abkhazia-Georgia war in the early 1990s, Abkhazia declared independence; it was subsequently cut off from international trade and collapsed into poverty. Most of the international community still considers the region part of Georgia. __John Knight:__ "From the beginning, Ivor was excited about *Once* and willing to trust and help us out. When we started it was amazing that we could approach photographers with no website, no app, no money, and ask if we could use their photographs — for free — to prove the idea for an app, and people would say yes. Ivor was on board almost immediately. So was Kendrick Brinson and the rest of LUCEO, who have all been extremely supportive for almost a year now. We never would have made it anywhere without those kinds of responses." *Photo: Ivor Prickett*
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Hazelnuts are stored under a bed in a small shack in the village of Pirveli, where three brothers in the Djologua family spend a week every summer harvesting their crop. Their produce grows in Gali district, within Abkhazia, Georgia’s breakaway state. The Djologuas are Mingrelian, a regional Georgian subgroup that lives mostly in Gali. __John Knight:__ "As we’ve been kicking around the idea of *Once*, we’ve found this whole demographic of extremely talented, young photographers from all over the world who are excited about trying new things and willing to take the risk. I think it speaks a lot to a new kind of attitude among photographers and journalists in general. People are both recognizing the need for a different approach to their work and excited about the ways to do so. It’s great to be working with people like that." *Photo: Ivor Prickett*
