Transparency

The Transparency Pages

Author: Kathryn Born

Chicago Art Map is a two-fold site: it is of course a visual art magazine,   but it is also a case study, or proof-of-concept, about online publishing in the arts. This page (and all its links) is a full disclosure of the intimate details of our business model and an ongoing record of our day-to-day logistics.

It comprises not only elaborate theories about online publishing and sustainable business models,  but also concrete plans and ideas about how we intend to put theories into a business practice.

I must make one thing clear: failure is an option.

Let me illustrate with this ticker:

My goal is first and foremost to test the theories I’ve held for so long, with the hope that we can be fiscally solvent if we follow the principles I describe in these web pages.  We hope to earn enough to pay people (albeit poorly) who work on/for the site, see the site grow, recoup initial costs and break even. That would be a reasonable metric for success for the first year. If we fail and the site shuts down in October 10 2010, it is the hope that this document and the archive of our process, step-by-step, will be of use to the next person with big ideas, so as to avoid the mistakes we are already in the process of making .

I’ll start with two topics, and fill in the blanks with corresponding links to more detailed and in-depth information (you can also access these through the navigation bar):

• Technicalities: The Site Template, the Map Tool and the Calendar
• Business Model and Philosophy
• The Budget and Business Plan 
• Advertising Model: Current Problems and Proposed Solutions

Plus a Day-to-Day Blog  for behind the scenes.

Copyediting provided by http://www.thefinerpoint.org