After launching 12 months ago the XU magazine, which was previously a paid-for subscription, has announced today that it will be offered free of charge for both the online and print versions.
AccountingWEB had the opportunity to speak with XU’s David Hassall about his decision to allow anyone to sign up to get a free print or digital copy of the magazine.
“From my point of view, I wanted to do this from the start,” Hassall says with the gusto of someone ambitious enough to kick-start a magazine like this. But it has taken Hassall this long to be able to ensure that from a monetary standpoint the magazine was secure enough to make this dive.
Making a subscription magazine free may sound like a brazen move, but then again the magazine was built on bold moves. XU magazine was the brainchild of Hassall and his brother, and like all good ideas it was concocted in a pub. Hassall runs an accountancy practice, which is how he originally got into Xero and its community, while his brother has used Xero through the various businesses in which he’s been involved. “We were just talking about what the community was missing to bring it together. That’s where the idea of the XU magazine came from.”
This ambitious streak has always been something that has been a part of Hassall’s psyche. “We always got the approach of go hard or go home. So if you’re going to do it, do it properly. Rather than creating a flimsy magazine, we opted for better quality. So from the offset we thought let’s do this properly.”
Making the magazine free seems like the natural progression for a community-focused magazine like XU. Since the magazine’s conception, XU has always fostered a special relationship with its community, launching the magazine after a successful crowdsourcing campaign which saw them raise $30,000 (US). This gave them the knowledge that the community was on board and the financial backing to release the first issue.
“We’ve seen the community strengthen more and more, providing us with great content and information. We try to make a better product through our community’s feedback and help. Xero are taking notice as they can see what the community are saying.”
Hassall infers that the magazine’s confidence to take the plunge into the free subscription model is a testament to Xero’s popularity. “Xero is growing at a phenomenal rate, which is very encouraging for us as it means there are more people we can bring on board and have as part of the XU community.”
A comparison between the growth of Xero and XU magazine is not lost on Hassall, who says, “They’re doing a lot of things that others wouldn’t normally expect. I suppose we’ve got that same ethos from being around the Xero community.”
People can start subscribing straight away, and will receive the next issue, issue 5, when it is released in both print and as a digital download in November. While the magazine is still remaining as a quarterly publication, Hassall has other ideas to continue to engage the XU community in the months in between issues. “What we want to do in the months in between, to fill the gap, is to release monthly digests. It’s going to be news and hot topics within the Xero community for that month,” Hassall explains.
Having informed their subscribers yesterday of their decision to make the magazine free, XU have given them the option of either a refund or to contribute the remaining funds to the magazine. The question remains how the magazine will recoup the loss of subscription, which was worth $47 (£31) for a year.
Hassall is hoping that the magazine has captured the zeitgeist of Xero, and will grow at a similar rate. “We want the numbers to go through the roof in terms of the number of people downloading and reading the magazine, which is great for the advertisers.”
Now that XU is to be rolled out as a free subscription, next on Hassall’s agenda is to look at the growing market of Xero add-ons and enhance their content. “We’ve gone to the Xero community and found some key figures who can help us pull in the type of content we need more of.”
Those interested can subscribe to the magazine here.