Dear Phase2 -- Build Some Premium Themes Plz

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Tran's picture

There are hyperlocal journalists all over the country (world?) starting community websites like mine.
But Gazette is hideous. Very few small town publications have the ability to hire a company to do all their site architecture and make custom themes -- Trustworthy companies want $2,000 to $10,000 for this.

On the other side of the spectrum, premium themes range from $29 to $79... but they don't have things like ready-made standard advertising holes and all the other stuff a publisher needs.

You could probably sell OP Premium themes for $300 to $500... a lot more than $79... but a lot less than $10,000.

Comments

I'm afraid this won't happen.

ithacaindy's picture

I'm afraid this won't happen. Beyond the hobbyist, the value in Drupal is its necessary high level of support. P2 is in the support business. Why sell a premium Drupal theme that is suitable out-of-the-box for commercial use, when you can sign large publishing enterprises to support contracts?

The majority of small-to-mid sized publishing operations use the default Drupal profile, customized to their needs. Only rarely do you see a commercial publisher with a ready-to-wear premium theme. That is the environment P2 is stepping into.

Drupal's lack of commercial viability without extensive customization is why you see the majority of small publishers (i.e. ones without large IT budgets) migrating to alternatives, such as WordPress, which has captured 90 percent of small tech-based news operations, for example.

Since OP essentially is Omega with customized modules, a possible transition while remaining with Drupal could be done relatively easily.

Soooooo looking forward to

Tran's picture

Soooooo looking forward to Themegeeks and hope they are more responsive than P2.

AOL is dumping $150 million a year into hyperlocal. I worked for Patch for 2 years and quit to do my own thing because I saw the writing on the wall.
A lot of Patch editors and people are beginning to understand that they can set up a hyperlocal website .. staffted by a one-man army,

There's a huge market out here. I'm going head-to-head against a chain newspaper that been slowly killing local news in my town. They're making the jump to "Digital First" but they're never going to be able to do it cheaper than I can as one person.

We've got all these drupal themers selling themes/installations for $2 for 60...
But where is the mid-market?

Good question - and seemingly

ithacaindy's picture

Good question - and seemingly a market opportunity for someone.

Your experience sounds much like my own. I'm going up against the nation's largest chain: starts with "G" and ends with "annett." I call such digital efforts part of the "me, too" crowd. About the time they get the "Digital First" concept, along comes "Mobile First."

OpenPublish Drupal Theme

webtomme's picture

Commercial themes aren't economical (yet) as customized development and support work is way more lucrative, especially if consultancy is required for high-standard enterprise solutions.

The Drupal low-end market is still too small and not attractive enough for designers to provide out-of-the-box generic themes as they have a much bigger market for these general use case sites in Joomla and Wordpress. I do believe it will change significantly when D8 matures.

We are working on commercial themes, including 2 magazine/news themes base on OP @ $US80. If you need to see a live preview of current state, pm me. We still encounter lot's of buggy things in OP, while building sites for clients (esp. translation, reference show conflicts). There is a considerable risk to choose a distribution to build themes for while it matures pretty slowly, but designers/front-end specialists collaborating with distro maintainers, that's the right way to go and the community will benefit.

@webtomme

There is a considerable risk

ithacaindy's picture

There is a considerable risk to choose a distribution to build themes for while it matures pretty slowly, but designers/front-end specialists collaborating with distro maintainers, that's the right way to go and the community will benefit.

Exactly. For designers to become attracted to Drupal, there must be an audience of users. For Drupal to gain an audience beyond coders, it must be welcoming to designers. In programming terms, the Drupal platform needs to decide whether it is okay with being the FORTRAN or would rather be the PHP of CMS alternatives.

cnergis's picture

We are working on commercial themes, including 2 magazine/news themes base on OP
@ $US80. If you need to see a live preview of current state, pm me.

I would gladly pay above $80 if I can find themes that have been molded around particular distributions like OP .. I am sure I am not alone here, and I don't mind getting my hands dirty some .. So, I am not after a 100% finished product, but would certainly not want to start from scratch to get a theme cleaned up for OP (don't have the time, and the required comfort levels with drupal for that .. yet) ..

So, some of the risks you talk of can be covered from expected returns from folks like myself. So, perhaps there is a new community element in the drupal echo system that can be enhanced .. perhaps, call it 'drupal-buddy network' .. where coders and themers can charge $50-$200 to help site-builders who are unable to dedicate the time or who do not possess the required technical proficiency for the mods they are seeking) .. I reckon this would be a win-win for drupal, themers, coders .. yes?

bravo, I'm using OP3 for

imagenews's picture

bravo, I'm using OP3 for www.imagenews.com.au and would like to have a new theme dropped over the OP distrib. Happily pay up to $200 because I don't have the full skill to do the work myself. I hope this gets legs.

OpenPublish

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