Bold designs in print and digital publishing
We Have a Game Changer is the story behind the stories at iconoclastic news service Daily Maverick. To celebrate their first ten years, we produced their history in a beautiful print edition, a crafted ebook, and a mobile-friendly web book.
When they decided to publish a book commemorating their work – a full ten years of journalism in an age of digital disruption, big stories and complex politics – the Daily Maverick team knew what they wanted:
- To publish their book independently, so that they would have full control and could make the most of their own community of supporters.
- To publish the book in multiple formats: a collectable, print edition and a free-to-read web edition.
The print format had to be unique and beautiful, a collector’s item that loyal readers could delight in. We worked with Karen Lilje of Hybrid Creative, who created a gorgeous timeline-based page design, inspired by the chronological nature of the content.
The Electric Book Works team digitised the content and coded the design to generate a print-ready PDF, a Kindle-ready ebook, and website version of the book.
Daily Maverick’s existing readership is online, and the organisation is openly opposed to paywalls: “South Africa is already a poor country. Allowing only those with means to access Daily Maverick content would make us even poorer,” says CEO Styli Charalambous. In an editorial column, Daily Maverick writes:
we’ve decided to also put the entire contents of the book online … It will live on a dedicated microsite to ensure ease of accessibility to those who would not normally have that opportunity. We’re taking this brave step, betting along the way that our members, those who like the physical feel of the book, and those who can afford it, will want to hold those 100,000 words in their hands, be it on paper or Kindle.
We Have a Game Changer is published under Daily Maverick’s debut imprint, Maverick 451.
You can read the website edition online here. You can buy the print book directly from Daily Maverick. The ebook is available on Amazon.