Dear Club President, Committee representatives and Members, 

The Flat Green’Un, the bowls hmagazine for the expat bowling community here in Spain, has enjoyed excellent readership and we have received many interesting and positive reactions since its inception in February 2009.

At Publishack, we have been extremely pleased and proud of the response the magazine has had, as a dedicated bowls community publication bringing news, views and local interest articles to the game in Spain.

Our heartfelt thanks go to the editor Ken Tebbenham for his huge effort in writing, compiling and collating the entire contents of the magazine as well as always being on hand to help the designers, printers and distributors at all times.  

Sadly, the advertising which many of you will be aware is vital to keep the magazine alive, has not nearly covered the production costs and we are no longer able to make up the shortfall between production costs and advertising revenues. 

Our decision to not print the January edition we felt was necessary and our sad intention was to let the Flat Green’Un fade away. But to our surprise, January brought a flood of calls, emails and letters from readers demanding to see the next issue and indeed some club presidents have been in touch to find out when they will be receiving the next issue of the magazine, only to be disappointed to hear that it has folded. 

Due to this overwhelming demand, at Publishack we would be delighted to be able to carry on producing the magazine which seems to have quickly found its place in the heart of the Spanish bowling community. But in order to do this we would need to raise funds to cover the shortfall in advertising revenues. 

What we propose as the only viable solution is to sell the magazine for a token fee to clubs who are interested, and here is where we need to gauge everyone’s interest before going ahead.

The price of the magazine to the club would need to be set at 0.75€ cents per copy, although we would be happy and would encourage the clubs to sell it on to members at 1€ per copy in order to not only cover their outlay but to make a little for club funds. 

Note to presidents

A point to note is that in order to sell the Flat Green’Un, distribution complications and licensing laws would mean that clubs would need to buy a certain amount of magazines each month with no sale or return option. For this reason we would be grateful if this goes to a committee vote, if you could indicate an estimated quantity your club would be likely to need each month. With this system the advantage is that each club can order as many or as few as are needed (we are aware some clubs haven’t been receiving as many as they would like), but we must stress there can be no sale or return policy. The clubs must each pay for their ordered amount and then sell on themselves to members. 

Can I please ask for your swift attention to this matter as we have a number of advertisers who are currently interested but who are being left in limbo by the current hiatus in activity. Please forward this on to the relevant presidents, club members and committee members who I may have missed off the distribution list. 

We look forward to all your replies and we hope we may be able to carry on producing the Flat Green’Un which has been such a popular magazine. 

Best regards, 

Steve Durbin 

info@publishack.com