So, we were recently back in print again, and we were absolutely buzzing to be so. Issue 70 was a massive rush for us, and so issue 72 was always going to be in print if possible. It’s always a gamble when you put something up for sale, and you’ll all know by now the reason(s) why we are ultra-cautious in bringing print issues out. To not sell virtually every copy would see us in the mire, and we can’t and won’t ever do that again. So, to our subscribers, pre-order purchasers, advertisers and matchday buyers - a massive thank you! We have around 30 print copies left for sale - and we always have the fall-back of digital copies if they run out.

We've been delighted with the feedback to issue 72 so far, especially the two interviews that we had in. We also had a raft of great contributions, too - we love you sending your stuff in, and please continue to do so.

So, what plans do we have for 2022?

Hopefully more of the same, but we had an unexpected spanner thrown into the works just before we went to print when we were informed that print costs had gone up by over 50%. We know that the price of everything has gone up since shitty Covid arrived, and we have been delighted to see our print costs remain the same. We knew that costs would go up one day, but not one day before we went to print! I'll be honest, we thought of even ditching the issue and giving folk their money back, but we were glad we went through with it. The only problem being that we made a very small amount from an issue that took many hours of work, blood, sweat and tears to get out.

Luckily, we made a little bit that we can reinvest into the next printed issue, which will be out at the start of March, but we once again have to re-evaluate how we are to move forward. An issue takes an absolute ton of hard work, and despite love doing it, we have to look at the economics of DUCK. It looks like there are two or three ways forward:

1. Ditch nearly all digital issues and just do a print issue every 2-3 months for around the price of what we do now and on the same basis
2. Just do digital-only to minimise costs
3. Subscriptions are something we are looking at closely, especially digital subs and the possibility of printed subs (although that will be hard due to the pandemic). Keep your eyes peeled on here and Twitter.

We love print, and as we said above, absolutely buzzed off issues 70 and 72, and I know that our readers did, too. The problem is that we need more of them, lots more. We know that £4 might seem steep for what is essentially a fanzine, but we hope that DUCK is value for money and that you'll read stuff in there that you won't ever really elsewhere. We have always wanted to produce a good looking mag that features longer articles and lots of interesting interviews - and we think over the last 8.5 years we've done okay on that score. But we need more people reading the magazine. That's the problem with digital issues - we know that it can easily be emailed out to mates etc....and we are okay with that as we want as many reading it as possible. But DUCK isn't something that we can do without making a little profit.

We will probably bring out a digital issue near the end of January just to keep things ticking over, but all our sights are on March and our next print issue. That will give us an idea of what the rest of the year will bring. It goes without saying, that due to the pandemic things can change at the drop of a hat or at the whim of a liar. We just have to deal with that as a magazine and unfortunately you our readers do, too.

If you ever think of a Stokie or anyone that would possibly like to read the mag, then send them our way. Every sale matters to us, it really does get that tight. Once again - thanks massively for your support.

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