Future of "Steemit Weekly" - asking for opinion

Hope you are doing great. I'm writing to you with the hope that many people will respond for my post and help me to make a proper decision.

I'm making "Steemit Weekly" project since over the month, currently preparing third edition of the newspaper. I believe many Steemians already heard this name at least once, as I publish each edition in multiple communities (started with seven, now it's already nine), also @pennsif helps to promote it putting it in the news each time when the new edition is ready and @disconnect spread the message about the contests I'm announcing. If you don't know it yet though, check this link.

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Struggling with some problems

When I decided to start the project, I knew it will be very time consuming, but I also assumed it will be profitable enough to focus only in the newspaper and not publishing anything else.

It is time consuming, indeed, we have approx 90 contest entries every edition, putting it all together, proofreading, translating etc takes two days per 10 hours of work each (probably will be less with the time, I'm hoping to master it some day), but there is a problem with the profit.

I guess, my mistake was to expect more income from the up-votes which doesn't come directly from Steemcurator, but the reality shows that 95% of the income from the likes under the newspaper posts is from one account and without the support of this one account, it's impossible to make it work.

Power of the Up-votes of another users who are interested in the newspaper is too low to make it profitable, so it's based on the help from SC01 only. My plans were different.

I think the project might cost too much to continue. Even though the first edition received some big help from SC01, it was not enough to cover the costs, not to mention earn the money (and obviously my expectation included rewarding me for the work, which means extra money for me).

I was writing about the June income here. To make it short:

During the 1st edition 1 STEEM = 0,5 USD

Cost of the newspaper = 60 USD
Cost of printing = 42 USD (should be 5 SBD which is more, but I cut it to lower debt)
Income from Steemit Weekly posts = 95,51 USD
Total income = -6,49 USD

Second edition 1 STEEM = 0,25 USD

Cost of the newspaper = 38,75 USD
Cost of printing = printing cancelled to lower debt
Income from Steemit Weekly posts = 21,77 USD
Total income = -16,98 USD

In general making the newspaper not only cost me a lot of work but also, until now, almost 23,50 USD. Of course I was able to cover it because I earned thanks to another posts and contests I participated in, but it forces me to work double - first to continue non-profitable project, then to earn enough to have the money for the rewards. My plan was to make the newspaper once per week what would not let me write any other post or participate in any other contest. For now it seems to be impossible.

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What next?

Third edition is in progress and I'll publish it like was planned before, but then I will have to figure out some other solution. I have few ideas and I am curious of your opinions:

1. Dropping the project totally and come back to it after a year or two, when my SP will be much higher

• I will be able to sponsor the rewards partially on my own, will be less dependent

• no newspaper for some time

1. Giving back the project to someone more powerful.

If you are an orca or a whale, you want to make Steemit Weekly and your income allows you to do it without any problems, I can give you the community, logo, infographics I created, all rights to the newspaper and contact to the translator, proofreader etc. You have my full blessing - I'm doing it for the community, so don't worry, I don't want anything in return.

1. Limiting the newspaper to one edition per month

• Less work, lower cost

• still won't be profitable

1. Cutting off some income, lower rewards to the winners, less articles

• Lower cost and newspaper still every two weeks

• less users interested in writing the posts; cutting the number of articles means excluding some communities which already are in the project

Right now I do think that the first or second option is the best. I might make the falstart - I believe in the project, I think it's really great, but the cost might be too high to make it work.

CC:
@steemcurator01
@toufiq777
@tarpan
@haidermehdi
@yousafharoonkhan
@xpilar
@marcybetancourt