Change is to be embraced – without change, we’d still be living in a world without The Blizzard. But seriously, we’ve be running The Blizzard the same way since day one, which was way back in March 2011, and the website was several years old (which apparently counts as eons in the digital world).
It was time to freshen things up, and so we have.
The big change is to the way we present our work. Previously, you needed to buy an issue and download it to your phone or tablet or PC to read our articles (or, like, order a paper copy). We can remember back in 2011 how ebooks seemed like the future, but then along came a smartphone explosion and everyone offering huge data packages. Now it’s more about watching iPlayer on a large screen phone on your commute rather than specifically downloading books to a separate device.
Now, we’ve made the whole collection (at the time of launch some 550+ articles of more than 1.8m words) available online to everyone, instantly.
Now, anyone can read any article they like at any time, providing they have an internet connection. We’re nice enough to allow newcomers and non-subscribers a couple more articles each month, too, which means that more people than ever before are going to read what we’re writing about.
That’s kind of exciting. We’re also hoping this extended audience will appreciate the work that goes into our particular brand of longform football writing and join our subscriber base.
But three is the magic number – once you hit your limit of 3 freebies in a month, you’re locked out. Subscribers, meanwhile, enjoy unlimited access (without any adverts) through their browsers, as well as still having access to our ebook downloads and other subscriber benefits.
There’s also a shift away from the pay-what-you-like pricing model, with a set price on print editions (£12) and a new £20 per year digital subscription option to cover the online access and ebook versions.
There are a few more subtle, but equally helpful upgrades to the old site, too.
We’re nice enough to allow newcomers and non-subscribers a couple of free articles each month, which means that more people than ever before are going to read what we’re writing about. You're probably one of those. We hope you've enjoyed what you've read so far.
But three is the magic number – once you hit your limit of 3 freebies in a month, you’re locked out. Subscribers, meanwhile, enjoy unlimited access (without any adverts) through their browsers, as well as still having access to our ebook downloads and other subscriber benefits.
If you're a subscriber, you'll need to login to get access to the article. If you're seeing the subscriptions page, then you've used up your three free articles this month. Why not subscribe - online access costs less than £2 a month - and get unlimited access? Otherwise, you'll need to wait a while to see our next article.
Those people who were likely to find us and try us out had already found us – thousands of you in the beginning opted for our pay-what-you-like downloads to try us out, and we have cultivated quite the community of subscribers, both print and digital, as a result. We think that that has run its course, now, and by opening up our back catalogue in this way we’ll get even greater exposure to new readers than was offered by our unique pricing structure.
Now you don’t even need to pay a penny – surely free content is better than 50p for an eBook? Anyone can read anything from our back catalogue. Plus, at less than £2 per month for an online subscription, we’re still a complete bargain.
If you want to buy an individual eBook you can still do so, from the Kindle Store and Google Play Store. These cost an RRP of £3 (or local currency equivalent).
Absolutely nothing. Anyone who was a subscriber before the switch to the new site (eg: an order placed during or before May 2017) will carry on their subscription as it was before.
All subscribers were emailed on launch day (9th June) with instructions for how to activate their subscription on the new site, and have been emailed several times since if they have not activated their accounts.
You will continue to receive print copies/digital access at the same price as before, on the same payment schedule as before, for as long as that arrangement lasts. Only as and when your subscription expires or you cancel it will you need to do anything.
All renewals will be done at the new rates – for some who were paying RRP or more under our pay-what-you-like policy this will mean a price reduction. For others, a slight increase.
Subscribing by direct debit if you are in the UK is the cheapest way to receive The Blizzard. For full details, see the Subscriptions page.
All subscribers will have received a number of emails from us throughout June and July with a unique code that needs to be used when activating their subscription on the new website. Please check your spam folders to see if you have received these, and follow the instructions.
If you have not, just drop us an email to info@theblizzard.co.uk and we’ll look into it for you.
They appear in the My Account page for subscribers in pdf, epub and mobi formats.
No. Subscribers will have their orders retained on the new site (called 'legacy subscribers' on the My Account page), while everyone who had paid for downloads or single print editions on the old system will still be able to access their downloads, simply email info@theblizzard.co.uk with a request.
If you have a query about an old order, similarly drop us a line and we'll be able to answer any questions you may have.
Many recipients of gift subscriptions from our old site opted for online access, so that they could download ebook versions as well as enjoy print access.
For boring technical reasons, your account and the gift giver's account are treated separately for the purposes of the migration to the new site - as someone on the old site who had digital access you have been given digital access on the new site, while the hard copy subscription is associated with the email address of the person who bought you the subscription.
If you are the recipient of a gift subscription and wish to tie the original print details to your new account, simply drop us an email (to info@theblizzard.co.uk) to let us know that you have activated a gift subscription, and we can link them together. There is no reason to worry that hard copies won't be posted to you, as all of your subscription details have been brought across to the new system, but doing this will mean that you are able to update your address details if you move house.
You can do this by logging on to the ‘My Account’ page, and choosing ‘Manage Subscriptions’.
Legacy subscribers (ie, those who subscribed with us before the switch to the new website in June 2017) who make either quarterly or annual recurring payments won't show an expiry date. To check when your next payment is due, email info@theblizzard.co.uk.
If it’s a subscription-related query, you can do this by logging on to the ‘My Account’ page, and choosing ‘Manage Subscriptions’. If you have a query about an old download order or one-off print edition, email info@theblizzard.co.uk and we’ll be able to let you know.
Make sure you're logged in!
If you are logged in, or can't access your subscription login for some reason, just drop us an email to info@theblizzard.co.uk and we’ll look into it for you.
From now on you have the ability to choose which is the first issue you will receive. By choosing ‘current issue’ you will get the most recently released print edition in our next mailing batch (sent within 5 working days). By choosing next issue, you will wait until the next in our regular release schedule of March, June, September and December.
If you have chosen ‘current issue’ when signing up to a print subscription, your first issue will be dispatched in the next mailing batch, which means (depending on where you are in the world) it will be with you in around a week or two. If you’ve chosen ‘next issue’, as soon as these become available you will be included in the subscription mailing and be among the first to receive your copy.
New issues are released in March, June, September and December, and you can check on the status of your subscription by heading to the ‘Manage Subscription’ page, via the ‘My Account’ link.
You can do this by logging on to the ‘My Account’ page, and choosing ‘Manage Subscriptions’.
You can see when your payment is due to recur by logging on to the ‘My Account’ page, and choosing ‘Manage Subscriptions’. If your payment is not received for any reason, or your subscription is due to expire, we’ll be in touch by email.
You can do this by logging on to the ‘My Account’ page, and choosing ‘Manage Subscriptions’. If you pay by direct debit, then cancelling the instruction with your bank will also trigger the cancellation of your Blizzard subscription. To see which will be the final issue you receive, head to ‘Manage Susbcriptions’.
Subscribers will have access to The Blizzard in pdf, mobi and epub formats in the same way as on the old site shortly.
Download our epub format for use on your iPad, Sony Reader, iPhone, Kobo, Nook, BeBook, Desktop Computer and other eBook Readers. The mobi format gives the best results on Amazon Kindle, while the pdf is suitable for computer/laptop reading and requires Acrobat Reader, a free-to-download plug-in.
All single issue purchases of The Blizzard will be dispatched within five working days. We typically dispatch our weekly batches on Wednesdays (although at certain times, such as Christmas, dispatch days can vary).
Deliveries to the UK typically take two to four days from the date of despatch to reach the customer. Overseas delivery times are naturally longer - deliveries to Europe take five to seven days to arrive, non-European deliveries can take up to fifteen days if you’re really far away from Sunderland.
Please take into account the length of time it may take to ship your order to you. We send out orders in weekly batches typically on Wednesdays, and so even for UK-based customers this means it could take up to 10 days from the date you placed your order to when you receive your issue (and naturally even longer for overseas orders).
In the first instance please email us (info@theblizzard.co.uk), and we will be able to ascertain which batch your order was dispatched in, and when we would estimate you should receive delivery of it. For UK orders, we will consider the item lost in transit if it has not arrived within 10 working days of the date of dispatch. For European orders this period is 15 days, and for non-European orders it is 20 days.
There are currently no plans to release an app for The Blizzard. That said, several years ago there were no plans for The Blizzard. We’re better at writing than we are at planning.
In short - iTunes 'no', Kindle Store and Google Play 'yes'. All third party sites charge the full RRP of £3 for the ebooks (or local currency equivalent).
In order to download the ePub version of The Blizzard on your IOS device (iPad, iPhone, iPod), you will need to have iBooks already installed before attempting the download in Safari. You can get this from iTunes.
On Android devices, due to the wide variety of web-browsers and app compatibility, you can download any number of applications to open the ePub version. Some of our favourites are Aldiko and the ever popular Kindle app. If you're still having problems downloading The Blizzard directly on your Android device, you can still download it to your PC and sync it to your device. For more information on how to do this, please refer to the manual that comes with your device.
Each Kindle also comes with its own email address, and you can email the mobi file directly to your device.
As a quarterly publication, we will release Issues of The Blizzard in the first week of March, June, September and December each year. Precise dates will be announced on the website and our social media channels nearer the time for each Issue.
The Blizzard was set up was to offer writers the chance to publish articles on subjects about which they were passionate that wouldn't have been published elsewhere, either because the topic or the approach seemed too esoteric, or because they required space unavailable in more mainstream publications. A few sketchy suggestions of generic topics won't cut it: this should be something you've been burning to write.
Please bear in mind that as a quarterly publication it is unlikely that we will be able to feature many more than about fifty to sixty writers in any one year, and with interest in writing for the Blizzard continuing to be high, competition is fierce. We are 'print first', so all articles are published in the magazine and then replicated online - we do not publish pieces solely on the website. By sheer weight of numbers the vast majority of pitches will inevitably have to be turned down. Sorry about that.
With that in mind, here are a few helpful guidelines to pitching:
1 - Pitches should be brief, ideally no more than 250 words long, and should set out the subject matter, the approach to be taken and why the writer is the correct person to write the piece.
2 - It's also worth bearing in mind that we may be at least 3 months away from having space to feature your article, so hot takes on current events or reactions to anything currently in the news are unlikely to be successful. That's not to say all pieces need to be timeless, but bear in mind that you might not be featured in the very next issue available.
3 - We suggest that anyone wishing to write for the magazine should first read The Blizzard to get an understanding of its style and subject matter. Non-subscribers can access three free articles a month on this very website. It's also worth checking that it's not a subject we've covered before.
Pitches should be directed to the editor by emailing info@theblizzard.co.uk.
As above – send your ideas and examples of work to the editor via info@theblizzard.co.uk.
Anyone wishing to host/reproduce content from The Blizzard should email us in the first instance. Wholesale copying or reproduction of our content, or hosting of electronic copies, without our express permission is not allowed.
If you want to selectively quote our pieces, feel free (although please provide an attribution and a link to the relevant article).
We are flexible, creative and happy to look at packages encompassing space in the magazine as well as possible spin-offs. If you or your company are interested in some cost-effective advertising, get in touch with us and discuss your advertising requirements by emailing David Rose - david.rose@theblizzard.co.uk.
Our cover image is Soccer Dog; adapted from a series of sketches by Woz at the Kingsley Motel, Manjimup, Western Australia.
The Blizzard is a disparate co-operative of writers spread around the globe. We do have a lavish office in Sunderland with a small but perfectly formed team that performs the behind-the-scenes work, but unfortunately we are unable to offer any work experience placements or internships at present.
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