It is the start of February and I would like to give you an update of where I am in the magazine process.
THE FIRST WRITE THRU PROCESS IS DONE! The Sunday after Thanksgiving some teams seasons are complete and I began the first write thru process. This will be the blog later in the week but if you would like to read more on the first write thru process click HERE. I write all 136 teams in the magazine myself. In the first write thru process I read thru every article that was written about the team which takes anywhere from 3-8 hours. I then spend another hour doing the first write thru and update my power ratings. On the average that would be about 5 hours per team or 680 hours. During this time, I am also analyzing and watching all the bowl games. It is an exhaustive process but I just finished the write thru for all 136 teams!
THANK GOD, THEY ARE GOING TO ONE PORTAL!!! You think the coaches are happy about this? I would say almost every one of them is ecstatic. No one is happier than ME. The second portal the last couple of years was after the second write thru process and I could not even start the third write thru process until the portal was closed. The 3rd write thru involves talking to all the head coaches and this year I had to try and squeeze all the calls into the month of May and about 15 spilled over into June which is the final week we put out the magazine. We had some major typos in last year’s magazine, and it even forced an all nighter where myself, Todd, Chris and Jim worked 36 hours non-stop to get the magazine to the press on time. This year with one portal window most rosters are 90% complete and I will not have to worry about thousands of players hitting the portal in April and trying to figure out not only who will replace them but where they are going. I had to adjust my power ratings every day in the month of May and Coaches were scrambling as well to sign players and did not know their the players they had not seen yet well. Some teams had 20-30 players join the squad post spring and coaches on those teams (like Okla St, West Virginia) did not know what to expect of the newcomers. I am so THANKFUL that we are back to one portal and promise that there will be very few typos and none on the big articles that I write in the last week. This will make the process so much smoother this year!!
BEAT THE PRICE INCREASE – In 2020 I was prepared to stop selling the magazine in stores and limit it to just my website. I was honestly thinking of perhaps giving up on printing the magazine all together as it was not profitable to do so. Krifka Steffy who oversaw magazines at Barnes and Noble saved the magazine in numerous ways and in 2020 took a big chance that there would be football and bought the magazines up front. If there was no season, Barnes and Noble would take the loss, not me. I can’t thank her enough for that. We also entered a deal with the good folks at Learfield that help us put out the magazine. I got away from a poor deal with my magazine distributors in the next couple of years and now deal Exclusively with Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million. I am pleased to say that the magazine is a labor of love, and I will continue to put out the magazine for years and years to come. I spend over 6 months working 80+ hours a week to produce a magazine of this detail. My staff spends the entire 6+ months working on the magazine as well. The cost of printing the magazine over the last 10-15 years has doubled plus getting it on trucks to the stores is a large expense. The cost to mail the magazine also rises yearly. Labor costs have probably risen the fastest. I have held the line at $19.99 per magazine for the last 6 years not wanting to break that threshold but the magazine is 360 plus pages, and we will be bumping up the price this year. The new cost is $24.95 but the good news is you can still get it at all Barnes and Nobles for that price. Naturally if you buy online we must charge you for shipping.
You can beat the price increase as during the month of February you can still get the magazine at last year’s price.
Option #1 – Buy the digital magazine for $19.99. The price of the digital magazine will not increase this year as there have been no additional costs to producing the digital version. The best thing about the digital magazine is that it is updated all the way thru the month of September. If a coach gets fired (that has happened the last couple of years) we update it. If a player is injured and out for the year we CIRCLE him in the magazine. If a player is added late (very rare) we put him in. Any changes to the team from the start of June thru the month of September is updated in the digital version. When you go to the store you will not see a picture there, you need to click on Digital Editions and order it there. It will not be activated until the middle of June and once again the price for the digital will not be going up and it will remain $19.99 the entire year. ORDER HERE
Option #2 – Buy the Hard copy of the magazine for $19.99 PLUS SHIPPING. This price will be going up to $24.95 on March 1. You get to choose the method of shipping so the total cost depends on where you live and which of the Five types of shipping you choose. It will cost you in the ballpark of $10 for shipping and tax. When you buy the Hard copy you GET the DIGITAL version of the magazine ($19.99) for FREE and it is updated thru September. Your access begins in the middle of June. You also get your choice of covers (National, SEC, Midwest, Southwest, West or East Coast) as these mail out about 10 days after the magazine goes to print. ORDER HERE
Option #3 – Order the VIP Bundle – The price of the VIP bundle is $39.95 and will be going to $44.95 on March 1. February orders save that $5. With the VIP bundle you get the National Cover of the magazine but unlike the regular magazine orders we mail these as they roll off the press which last year was just 6 days after we sent the magazine to the press. You will be the first person in the country to have a copy in your hands and the magazine will not be in Barnes and Noble until July 4th and the regular magazine orders do not get mailed out til the next week. You also get EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the digital version of the magazine which is usually two days after we send it to the press and before the magazine is even printed! You get one week of EXLUSIVE ACCESS. You also receive FOUR Free issues of my Inside the Pressbox Newsletter ($20 per issue – $80 value) which gives you my Forecast and my computers forecast on EVERY FBS game each week. You also receive access to Phil Steele Plus ($25 per month) for the months of June, July, August and September! The VIP Bundle also includes SHIPPING so it is basically just $10 more than ordering the magazine by itself! ORDER HERE
Option #4 – Order the Super VIP Bundle – The price of the SUPER VIP bundle is $69.95 and it will be going to $74.95 on March 1. With the Super VIP Bundle you receive TWO magazines INCLUDING SHIPPING, mailed out as they roll off the press, EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the digital version one week before anyone else, Four Issues of Inside the PressBox ($80 value) the same bonuses that the VIP’s get. You also receive…
FCS Digital Magazine ($25) FREE – Two full pages on Every FCS team laid out the same way the pages are for the FBS magazine. There are 128 FCS teams so over 250 pages!
NFL Digital Magazine ($15) FREE – Four full pages on Every NFL team and a Fantasy Football section!
Phil Steele Plus ($25 month) ENTIRE SEASON FREE – This is a tremendous addition and is currently on the Super VIP Bundle but we may eventually take it off in the upcoming months. If you purchase the full year access it is $99 but you get it included in the Super VIP Bundle right now for just $69.95 but only until the end of February. Purchase the Super VIP Bundle now and get the entire year of Phil Steele Plus FREE!! Beat the price increase and order your magazines in FEBRUARY! ORDER SUPER VIP HERE
