to join a 'contributor co-operative' magazine where 3/4 of the joining fee was given back to you to donate to other contributors' work within the co-operative, if it was deserving.

And 100% of profit (after costs were covered and investments were made) was divided equally among members as dividends.

So after a while you may well have covered your costs, especially if you were contributing good stuff and receiving lots of donations from your peers.

It's free to view for the public but to be a contribute you have become a member.

Let's just assume for arguments sake that all other variables such as design, branding and subject matter were awesome - this is a hypothetical scenario.

How much, if anything, would you pay to join?

(this is research,of sorts, for an academic project. Don't worry DiS, I'm not intending to shit on your doorstep. I study publishing [yes, really])