The Wide Open Newspapers
The physicalization of culture · a limited-edition art publication that explores culture through curation · both a publication and an art object
A creative direction and production house built around a global community of artists
Production — the physicalization of culture. Images, ideas and digital ephemera made tangible.
Curation — informed by the internet and the archive. Living cultural landscapes, not static repositories.
Thesis — what is the role of an image in today's culture? We slow images down and give them context.
Mission — elevate artists. Physical spaces, objects and experiences where work is encountered, collected, remembered.
It is our legacy product
It is a product we get to brand through curation. It is a platform and a spotlight for emerging artists. It is an exploration into the power of the image. It transcribes the ideas and interests of Wide Open into physical form. It democratizes access to physical art — for artists and for fans. It is a sort of graffiti: art transcribed onto a medium it was never meant to carry. It is as punk as it is high fashion. It is a way for culture to do more than scroll — off the phone, onto the wall. It is a blank canvas for us to explore.
Four offerings. One format
Our products — we own them end to end
Spotlights
For artists. 10 sheets, a write-up on each artist, a collab post on Instagram.
50/50 on sales · every 3–4 weeksEditorial
We write. A subject that deserves more than a scroll — the World Cup, an archive, a scene.
$15 sheet · $35 paper · every 6 weeksCollaborator products — their world, our format
Brands & musicians
Sponsorship, white label, or full collaboration. Legitimacy and money.
Paid briefs · fronted splitsEvents
A templatized city takeover — secret drops, a party, a dinner. A world tour, basically.
One template · any cityEverything feeds everything
Spotlights — we choose the right artists. That builds the community.
Editorial — we choose the right subjects. That gives it voice.
Brands and musicians — we choose the right collaborations. That gives us reach.
Events — we bring it together in person. That makes it physical.
After a few months, a few years, Wide Open Newspapers becomes a stamp. A brand.
The lane is empty
No one is physicalizing internet art. No one is serving the fans of visual artists. No one is preserving and documenting online culture. No one is platforming developing artists at the pace of digital culture.
Why us?
Magazines drop too slowly. Merch companies produce but don't curate. Galleries elevate but exclude. The newspapers are for us, by us.
The creative consumer
If you are a creative — whether you do big productions or draw as a hobby.
You go to Dover Street Market, you might find a newspaper. A bookstore, you might find one. Your local skate shop, you might find one.
Because culture is for everyone.
As our generation spends more time online, more people identify as creatives.
We want to be the receiving force — across genres, across disciplines. The best taste makers.
Taste is the membership card. Not genre, not scene, not age.
Four verticals. Click one
01
Editorial
Editorial
We buy rights. We write.
A subject that deserves more than a scroll — the World Cup, an archive, a scene. Builds our creative direction and our voice inside a community.
$15 sheet · $35 paper · every 6 weeks
02
Spotlights
Spotlights
The cosign factory. 10 artists per issue.
10 sheets, a write-up on each artist, a collab post on Instagram. Builds community. Builds the cosign.
50/50 on sales · every 3–4 weeks
03
Music
Music
One edition per tour stop. Never reprinted.
Flat fee or fronted split — the name is never negotiated. Gives us reach. Legitimacy.
Flat fee or fronted split
04
Brand partnerships
Brand partnerships
Sponsor an edition. Make your own. Throw an event.
We develop their world in our format. The highest margin of the four.
Paid briefs · their world, our formatEvents — the connective tissue · every drop is a gathering
Editorial + Spotlights — the verticals we own end to end
EditorialWe buy rights, we write. $15 sheet / $35 paper. Every six weeks. Every licensed archive rehearses the endgame.
SpotlightsThe cosign factory. 10 artists per issue, 50/50, every 3–4 weeks. Ten audiences per issue fold into ours.
Editorial — projection
Net / issue
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Net / year
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Spotlights — projection
Wide Open / issue
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Wide Open / year
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Paid to artists / year
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The partnership verticals — other people's worlds, our format
MusicOne edition per tour stop — one night only, never reprinted. Flat fee or fronted split; the name is never negotiated.
The filterVisual strength · fan devotion · cultural weight. White label serves everyone else.
BrandsSponsor an edition. Make your own. Throw an event. We develop their world in our format — up to the Louvre, up to IKEA.
Music — projection
Wide Open / show
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Wide Open, total
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Brands — projection
Revenue / year
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Profit / year
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Profit projection — the whole machine
All four verticals, one number. Pick a phase — it locks every projection to that phase and sums them.
Tweaks are kept per phase — save locks them in on this device.
Editorial — net per year–
Spotlights — Wide Open share per year–
Music — this phase's run–
Brands — profit per year–
Wide Open net — combined
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Bookstores. D2C. Subscriptions
Bookstores — ten down: Magculture, Yvon Lambert, Skylight, Quimby's. They sell out.
D2C — the store is live. The WC series is selling on it now.
Subscriptions — January 2027.
Events — the city takeovers. Secret drops, parties, dinners.
Everything we make is the marketing
A spotlight is ten collab posts.
A show edition is a case study.
An event is the brand made physical.
A collab is a cosign in someone else's community.
Niche pagesFive curator pages per editorial subject — the archive and moodboard accounts that own the niche. Their post beats any ad.
IG adsThe amplifier, never the engine. Tour-city geo-targeting · drop deadlines · retargeting buyers. The ad is always the editorial. Spend ≤ 20% of trailing revenue, killed under 2.5×.
Three ways in — and a weirder fourth
Events — collab with us on an event. Your name on the night.
Branded editions — a branded version of an editorial or a spotlight. Your name on the edition.
Made for you — a newspaper built from scratch. The sponsorship tier.
Phase 3–4 — objects beyond print. A candle that smells like the newspaper.
The brand gets stranger as it gets stronger.
The city takeover — one template, any city
Secret surprise drops — only findable in the city's native newspaper form.
A kiosk in Paris. A newsstand in London. A newspaper box in America.
A party opens or closes it. Sometimes a dinner.
Bring people together around the object. The community made physical.
Any city. Same template. The newspaper hides where newspapers live.
From rate card to our own press
Costs here are not a guess — everything runs on our printer's actual rate card, the same curve inside the Megadeth and Revivalists budgets: €4.50/copy at 50 → €2.01 at 1,000.
NowDigital short-run. The curve above — proven across Nike, Carti, Wavves and the World Cup series.
2–3 monthsThe printer switch: ganged weekly offset runs, €0.50–1.35/copy at 100+. Every margin in this plan roughly doubles; fronting gets cheap; the cadence gets affordable.
1–2 yearsProduction ourselves: a reserved standing slot in an offset run — near-ownership economics, zero capex — or our own equipment once volume is thousands a month.
The templateOne architecture, endless editions. Designing at tour pace — an edition per stop — is a production system, and we're building it before any whale needs it.
Quality lineCheap riso and duplicators max out at A3 and halftone the photographs — right for zines and inserts, wrong for the core product.
Cost per copy — today
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Print total — today
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Print total — after the switch
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Four phases. Scoreboards, not timelines
A phase is a set of numbers and a bank balance. Hit them and the next investment unlocks.
Phase 1 — Build
Build the audience and prove the format sells. Cadence is the evidence.+CommunitiesStart at the roots: the 75-bank, the Opium-adjacent internet, Paris clubs, the football internet.
Phase 1 is complete when — numbers, not dates
Copies sold — all channels1,500
Editorials published3
Spotlights shipped4 (40 artists)
Shows done, documented5
Brand brief in hand1
Bookstores reordering6+
Banked €10K → €8K into Phase 2: subscriptions · printer switch · first front.
Phase 2 — Monetize
Turn attention into revenue that repeats. Subscriptions launch; fronted bets go where phase 1 proved sell-through.+CommunitiesOne ring out: indie rooms, the design world, US collectors.
Phase 2 is complete when — numbers, not dates
Subscribers300
Editorials in the catalog8
Fronted shows, profitable3
5,000+ cap show1
Paid brand project1
Bookstores25
Banked €40K → €25K into Phase 3: archive fund · tour float · first hire.
Phase 3 — Own
Buy the first archive with our own money. Run the first tour. Hire.+CommunitiesInstitutions and their publics — the stamp opens the door now.
Phase 3 is complete when — numbers, not dates
Archive owned, selling1 (≥ €15K sold)
Tour done1 (≥ 10 stops)
Team holding cadence without us2
Institutional projects at $10–30K2
Subscribers1,000
Banked €150K → €100K into Phase 4: rights war-chest · offset slot · the team.
Phase 4 — The brand economy
Owned margins. The name does the selling.+CommunitiesGlobal — and smaller cities, because culture is for everyone.
Phase 4 — the destination, measured
Tour deals per year1–2
Owned catalog revenue / year€200K+
Brand-tier collabs1+ / year
Store network40+ stores
Base €300–700K/yr · whale €2–3M/yr.
Year one — the timeline
EditorialSpotlightEventDropMoment
July 2026E1
WC series live
Wave one: 10 artists locked
WC Final Jul 19
August 2026E1
Spotlight #1 built
Printer switch
September 2026E1 · S1
SPOTLIGHT #1
NYFW + London FW
NY Art Book Fair
October 2026E2 · S2
EDITORIAL #2
SPOTLIGHT #2
FIRST CITY TAKEOVER — ADE, AMSTERDAM 21–25
Art Basel Paris 20–25
November 2026E3 · S3
EDITORIAL #3 — Paris Photo / Offprint
SPOTLIGHT #3
Black Friday
December 2026E3 · S4
SPOTLIGHT #4
MIAMI TAKEOVER — ART BASEL 2–6
CHRISTMAS EDITION
DEC 31 — THE OPEN EDITION: year-end, open submissions
January 2027S5
SUBSCRIPTIONS LAUNCH
SPOTLIGHT #5
NBA Paris · PFW Men
February 2027E4 · S6
EDITORIAL #4
SPOTLIGHT #6
March 2027S8
SPOTLIGHTS #7 + #8
PFW 1–9
April 2027E5 · S9
EDITORIAL #5
SPOTLIGHT #9
Salone del Mobile 13–18
May 2027S11
SPOTLIGHTS #10 + #11
Subscription cohort two
June 2027E6 · S13
EDITORIAL #6
SPOTLIGHTS #12 + #13
PARIS STREET TAKEOVER — FÊTE DE LA MUSIQUE 21
Year 2
27–28The network thickens. 25+ stores · takeovers beyond the majors — Dakar Fashion Week · first archive conversations · eyes on LA 2028 — the Olympics edition.
Year 3
28–29The flip. The first archive — owned, produced, sold entirely through our own channels. The team holds cadence without us. The newspaper starts leaving the newsstand: objects, exhibitions.
Year 4
29–30Anywhere the image goes. Legacy rights. Institutions. The object beyond print. Blurry — the milestones decide, not the calendar.
The windfall rule — how lumpy music & brand money re-enters the machine
Banked into the next phase's investment fund — the gate arrives early40%
Reinvested into demand — geo-targeted ads on the next cities, drop pushes, event fuel20%
Held as risk float — the war chest for the next fronted bet40%
Decided in advance, applied the morning after. Windfalls speed up the money gates — never the proof metrics.
What the money looks like, phase by phase
Planning figures, not promises. Every number traces back to the models above.
Phase 1 · H2 2026 — build
Breakeven by design+Editorial — WC series + issues #2–3, D2C + bookstores~€10K
Spotlights — 4 issues, our half of the split~€1.5K
Music — flat-fee shows + first fronted split~€4.5K
Brands — conversations only,€0
Revenue~€16K
Costs — print, Offprint booth, shipping, tools~€10K
Net~€6K
The real output: the audience, the case studies, the printer switch.
Phase 2 · H1 2027 — monetize
Revenue starts repeating+Subscriptions — founding tier, ~200–400 subscribers€20–40K
Editorial — issues #4–6 + back catalog + mystery boxes~€12K
Spotlights — 9 issues, pace tightening~€3.5K
Music — bigger rooms, fronted splits€8–15K
Brands — first paid project€5–15K
Revenue€48–85K
Costs — print, travel, fairs, first contractor help~€25K
Net€23–60K
Year one all-in: ~$65–100K. The number that matters more: subscribers.
Phase 3 · Years 2–3 — own
The flip+Music — first tour (one edition per stop) + regular big rooms$300–500K
Brands & institutions — 2–4 projects/yr at $10–30K + white label$60–150K
Editorial + subscriptions — catalog compounding, first owned archive selling$80–150K
Spotlights — still small money, still the engine$10–15K
Revenue / year$450–800K
Costs — editor + producer, production at tour pace, events$200–350K
Net / year$150–350K
First archive purchase: small. A proof, not a bet.
Phase 4 · Years 4–5 — the brand economy
Two cases, same plan+Base machine — drops, subs, shows, white label, brand projects$300–700K/yr
+ Tours — one to two per year, one edition per stop$500K–2M each
+ Owned rights — the catalog sells forever, full margin$200–500K/yr
+ Brand tier — Nike / LV / Louvre flat feessix figures each
Whale case, revenue / year$2–3M
Net margin at scale40–60%
The machine is the confident build. The whales are what it earns swings at.
Open questions
01Oversized newsprintEphemerality as concept — or an archival art-print tier beside it?
02Limited vs openTimed editions for papers · numbered 50–150 for prints — test it
03Art-world identityEditions house, publisher of multiples, or something unnamed
04Mystery boxesOurs (Dec test) + riding others' boxes as discovery
05Assets per dropThe unfold is the native reel — find the minimum kit
06Subscription detailsJan 2027 locked · pricing + shipping + scope open
07Editorial subjectsNeed to be found well in advance — a running list, scouted quarterly
08Planning collaboratorsWriters, photographers, guest curators — who, and on what terms