A brief history of FREE ACCESS
Jul 3rd, 2005 | By Staff Writers | Category: Special featuresOn turning 40: A brief history of
FREE ACCESS
By John Pospisil
July 2005
As FREE ACCESS celebrates its 40th issue and seven years of publishing, I thought it would appropriate to write a short history of FREE ACCESS to document some of the more interesting aspects of the magazine’s story.
The magazine was started by Tom Crawley and myself in 1998.
I met Tom Crawley in the mid 1990s while working at the Australian Consumers Association (ACA) where I had developed and launched Computer CHOICE magazine. Tom was working there as a finance journalist, having come to Australia from the UK with his wife and two sons. Tom was famous (or infamous?) at ACA because of his Jaguar, which he had imported from the UK, his aristocratic background, and his typically British sense of humour.
Although being very different people, Tom and I enjoyed each other’s company and we often had lunch together. We usually spoke about various business ideas we’d had, which mostly centred around publishing. We even started making tentative plans and investigating various ideas more deeply.
Before starting work with the ACA I had published a free computer magazine called Silicon City, which was distributed through computer stores in the Wollongong area. One day I suggested to Tom that perhaps we could do something more ambitious – a high-quality free computer magazine distributed through major retailers.
Tom and I started making plans, but as it often is with such projects, we only had a vague launch date, which only seemed to get further and further away. We did get in touch with some major retailers about our free magazine concept and they liked the idea. One retailer, well known for being a tough negotiator, started the conversation with “let’s dispense with the pleasantries” and then told us that he liked the idea, but that we had to make some changes to the original concept for it to work
We continued making these vague plans until one day while having lunch in a Chinese Restaurant in Marrickville in Sydney’s Inner West, Tom said we should either “put up or shut up”. When we returned to work that afternoon we put in our resignations. In retrospect, it was pretty brave (or foolish, depending on which way you look at it) to just resign from our steady, well paying jobs. By January 1998, we were both working full time on our new venture.
Tom lived in Coogee at the time, and so our first office was in his front room. We originally had ideas that we would have time to go swimming in the mornings. Little did we realise that the pressures of small business would result in long hours slaving behind a computer, and little time for recreational activities. I don’t think we ever went swimming.
We set aside six months to try to get the first issue out. Our main task was to find the necessary advertising support to help pay for the first issue. Neither Tom nor I had ever done any real sales before, so it really was a case of learning as we went. We each compiled a list of 100 computer companies that might potentially advertise, and then proceeded to send a media kit to each one of them, following up with a phone call. It was really difficult trying to find advertisers; most companies simply didn’t want to know about yet another publication, and even those that were vaguely interested wanted to see the first issue before they would commit.
The original title for the magazine was the “Australian Computer Buyers Guide”, which wasn’t very imaginative and didn’t exactly roll off the tongue. As luck would have it, we chanced upon a visiting advertising creative from overseas who was keen to keep in form while she was on extended holidays in Australia. She even put together a presentation to explain why FREE ACCESS would be a great title – basically the idea was that the title was “free access” to the world of computers, fun and a bit word play on a widely known computer term. At first we didn’t like FREE ACCESS as the title, but it gradually grew on us, and thankfully we adopted it. It really helped to differentiate the magazine against all the other computer magazines on the market.
During the first six months we attended as many media events as possible to increase the profile of the magazine. At the time Tom had dyed his hair blonde – perhaps to be a look a little more youthful – and when he introduced me as his “partner” at various media events, I always hastened to add “business partner” just so as not to create any confusion – not that there’s anything wrong with that.
After being rejected on several occasions by a leading IT company, Tom went in to see the marketing director and more or less begged him to place an ad in the magazine. The marketing director relented, and we were fortunate enough to get the support of a major IT company, which then made it easier to find other advertisers.
With a lot of hard work and determination, we were able to find the advertising support we needed. Our first advertisers included Australian Protective Electronics, Epson, G&V, Advance Electronics, Hanimex, Hypertec, Intel, Iomega, Kodak, Marketing Results, QV Software, Ricoh, Software Suppliers, and Webster Publishing.
At the time Tom had a pet mouse called Lucy (which had been found at the ACA offices and which Tom had taken home as a pet for his boys). If you look carefully on the contents pages of the first issue you’ll see we managed to include a picture of Lucy – along with a thank you for her company in the skite box. Pictures of Tom’s kids featured heavily in the first issue, and were also used to illustrate various stories in subsequent issues.
The first issue of the magazine hit the streets in July 1998, and to celebrate Tom and I held a launch party at his place. We invited our former colleagues to the party, who were impressed, though one of them made the backhanded compliment that the magazine “looked quite professional”.
Soon after the launch of the first issue we received a phone call from an executive at a major publishing company who explained that his company was planning a similar magazine, and that it might be a good idea if we came in to see him because he “didn’t like to put people out of business”. We did go to see him and he explained that they wanted to do something similar, but in A5 size. They had also spoken to the major retailers, and according to him, they were set to go. He then basically offered us the job of putting together his magazine in return for us abandoning our plans. Needless to say we didn’t take him up on his offer.
Advertising support was better with our second issue. Due to the number of calls from readers requesting that copies of the magazine be sent to them directly we started a subscription service as way of dealing with these enquiries. To our surprise, many of our readers actually took us up on our offer, and paid to get the magazine delivered to their letter boxes.
At about this time Tom and I met the irrepressible and eternally enthusiastic Alex Zaharov-Reutt at a media function. As soon as Alex found out what we were doing, he wanted to be a part of it, and in the next issue we introduced Ask Alex on the last editorial page of the magazine. It was a section of the magazine where readers could ask questions. At that time I doubt Alex ever imagined that he would several years later become the editor of the magazine.
It took us a long time to develop efficient project management systems. The process of putting together the early issues almost killed us. It was just Tom and I doing all of the work, and there were several occasions when we stayed up several nights in a row to get the magazine finished. Thankfully those days are long gone.
The magazine continued to gain momentum, and in early 1999 we hired Julieanne Formosa to give us a hand with administration and advertising support. Julieanne had trained as an actress, and was looking for a part-time job to fill in time and earn some money while she was looking for acting parts. Julieanne helped make the workload bearable, and also helped to shape the personality of the magazine.
In the second half of 1999 we were approached by a listed company that was interested in buying the magazine. The company had some heavyweight directors and big plans for the future. They made three offers for the magazine – virtually doubling their offer each time. When they made the third offer it was too good to reject. Sadly, about the time we were about to complete the transaction in April 2000, the share market crashed, and the company withdrew its offer. It took us a few months to get over that particular set back.
Interestingly, just after that, we were approached by another publisher who wanted to find out if we would be willing to sell the magazine to them. But after looking at their offer, we found it hard to establish what payment we would receive in exchange for the magazine – as far as we could determine we were being offered jobs in exchange for us handing over the magazine.
In about March 2000 we wanted to change the style of covers we were producing in order to give the magazine more credibility. Tom had an idea of getting a photographer to help us take the images for the cover. By this time Tom was living at Maroubra, and hence that’s where our office was. We used to walk past a small photographic studio called Genic Photography and Design. Needing to get some photos taken we dropped in and explained our situation to Ian Tjhan and Djoko Hartanto at Genic, who insisted on doing the whole cover. Five years on, Ian Tjhan and his team now layout the whole magazine. Over this time Genic has had a profound influence on the look of the magazine.
FREE ACCESS has always enjoyed a strong reader following, and in 2000 we were quite touched to receive a poem written about FREE ACCESS by one of our readers. To this day you can view this poem on the web site.
Needing help with advertising sales, we were fortunate enough to be introduced to Glenys Patten in mid 2000. At the time Glenys had been selling an Olympics-related product, and had left quite an impression on the person who referred her to us.
Also in 2000 we moved to an office in Coogee, a beachside suburb in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. While Coogee isn’t exactly the centre of the publishing universe, we figured that if we were going to rent an office we may as well be somewhere fun. Tom and I had many “meetings” in local cafes, our clients were always very happy to come and meet us by the sea.
The 2001 Christmas issue of FREE ACCESS was the most successful issue ever coming in at 72 pages.
In early 2002, Julieanne resigned so that she could move back to her parents’ place and save money for an overseas trip. Luckily, Julieanne’s uncle, Philip Stephenson, was looking for a job at the time, and so he took over Julieanne’s position. We always fondly referred to Philip as Uncle Phil, and he certainly helped to keep us entertained.
For our fourth birthday in July 2002 we decided to have a bit of fun, and created a fake cover for a phoney issue dated July 1978. Tom dressed up as a hippy, while I dressed up as a disco dancer. We posed for the fake cover with a Kaypro II portable computer from the early 1980s. We were quite amused when we received a couple of requests from readers who wanted to know if we could provide them with copies of the July 1978 issue of FREE ACCESS – we very gently let them know that it was just a practical joke.
To coincide with our fourth birthday we also put together a video that showed how we put together the magazine. It must have been quite a tough issue – there’s one scene where Tom and I are having a break sitting on the steps of the Coogee Beach promenade in the middle of the day looking like we were going to collapse from exhaustion.
At the end of 2002, Tom, his wife and kids decided to move back to the UK to be closer to their family. Uncle Phil also left due to illness (though when my wife and I caught up with Julieanne earlier this year she said that he was feeling well now).
This was also a time I started to think about my future, and I decided to work part time in the business and to do an MBA at the University of Technology Sydney to broaden my horizons. Ian Tjhan at Genic took over the design and layout of the magazine, while Glenys Patten was appointed National Advertising Manager. Journalist David Hague was made editor of the magazine.
2003 was a year of change for the magazine and in fact it was quite a difficult period. In November David was offered an once-in-a-lifetime chance to work for Digital Video Magazine, so sadly left FREE ACCESS. Fortunately long-time contributor Alex Zarahov-Reutt was in-between gigs, and he came and put together PC Projects (FREE ACCESS #33) in less than one week.
In early 2004 I formally made Alex as the new editor, and his appointment heralded a new era for FREE ACCESS. Alex, Glenys, Ian and I developed a new strategic plan for the magazine, which saw the performance of the magazine dramatically improve over the next twelve months.
The first six months of 2005 have also been very good for FREE ACCESS, with Issue 40 being a bumper 48 pages.
I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved in the magazine over the years – including everyone who has worked on the magazine in one way or another, and everyone who has supported the magazine, whether through advertising or by distributing the magazine, or by being a reader.
A special thanks must go to Tom, who gave us that little push in the first place, and who made many personal sacrifices to help make the magazine successful.
Perhaps, in retrospect, there were a few too many late nights and weekends spent working on the magazine, especially during those first five years. At the same time it was a dream that both Tom and I felt we had to follow.
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