DIY hobby electronics magazine Diyode launches
A new DIY hobby and electronics magazine is set to hit the market, with plans to educate and showcase the work of Australian ‘makers’.
Speaking with Mumbrella ahead of the launch, Rob Bell, founder of Diyode Magazine said he decided to create the magazine after realising he did not have a reliable resource which served his passion.
The print and digital publication will focus on DIY hobby electronics and gadget building, acting as an ‘authority figure’ for its audience, the ‘makers.’
“It doesn’t exist. It seems funny but there’s a real lack of single point resources in this industry and there’s a lot of miscommunication and mistrust around some of the online content in the open source communities,” Bell said.
“There is another publication in this space that’s Australian based but they don’t really cover the new generation of electronics we are focusing on,” he explained.
The magazine, which will target an audience ranging between 12 and 70, has received large interest from advertisers, including Jaycar Electronics and Altronics, as well as interest from Australian retailers to support the launch. Bell said.
It will include stories from community contributors who have developed projects themselves as well as others news from the DIY electronics industry.
“We have got significant support from Australian retailers in this space to help us launch the magazine initially as well,” Bell said.
“Gordan and Gotch, are carrying about 8000 copies through their distributions channels, so that’s 3,500 odd newsagents you will be able to find the magazine in.
“We’ve also got backing from Jaycar Electronics who’s Australia’s biggest retailer in this space. They have about 120 stores and they are stocking the magazine in their retail locations as well.”
Bell added smaller electronics retailers had jumped on board as advertisers, noting it as a “good show of faith”.
While Diyode will be print first, it also has a digital component, to “fill the gaps” between the monthly editions.
“We are conscious things move quite fast and as much as we have a digital component to the magazine, it’s still around a relatively monthly cycle for those editions.
“We are trying to fill the gaps and keep in touch with new product releases and developments and we do have a very high community component to our magazine.”
“We are not oblivious to the fact we are working in a digital world, and we have had a few head tilts as we explain it’s in print but we are still pushing towards a digital engagement and even if they walk into a newsagent and buy a print edition, they can still get online and download the resources,” he said.
“It is designed to work together. It’s still easier to sit down and flick through the pages and follow along and then maybe jump online and look at the additional resources.”
For Bell, there is still “legitimacy” to print publications.
“There’s still a purpose for the print publication and there’s still the perception of legitimacy and authoritarian figure that comes from the print publication that you can’t necessarily get from a digital-only publication,” he explained.
Commenting on his goals, Bell said his focus was audience engagement.
“We really just wanted to engage with the audience as a whole and bridge that knowledge gap that goes from having a little bit of an interest in computers or electronics into someone that can develop their own living and breathing solution.
“The pitfall of something like this [DIY electronics] being so accessible in terms of internet forums and everything is anyone can get in on the game relatively easily which is great but it almost means very little authority over the resource and the quality of the content that people are trying to learn with.
“We are trying to educate because there’s a lot of people that sit on the fence. Maybe they have a very rudimentary understanding of electronics or maybe they’re just curious, but there’s sort of this barrier to entry – how do I get started and how do I get going?”
The magazine will launch on 1 July.
Best wishes with the new venture, Rob! We’re finding print+PDF subscriptions to ‘ReNew: technology for a sustainable future’ are the highest they’ve ever been, so I’m confident there’s a market for you here.
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