Start a magazine
 

Hi there,

I'm thinking of starting a magazine that will sustain itself with the advertising. The magazine will be free and of public interest. We will publish 80 thousand units every three or two months.

I've already have the distribution arranged so that's the key point of the proyect. It's interesting enough to make people want to advertise in it.

Wich insides could you give to someone who is just starting in this business?
What shoul I be aware of?

Thanks in advance

pirer

Re: Start a magazine
 

How much are you advertising costs? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Start a magazine
 

What is the topic the mag will cover?

Re: Start a magazine
 

Sniper,

Nothing and everything in particular. The content of it doesn`t matter at all if it`s reasonable.

Which costs should I be aware of? The printing, design, creating the society...

Thanks

Re: Start a magazine
 

I've looked into this in the past. A few things to consider.

With the ever growing popularity of the internet, printed magazines as a whole are declining in popularity every year.

If you're going to be successful, you need a full understanding of the industry. You should know the specifics on writing, editing, publishing, distribution, and most importantly, how you're going to acquire new advertisers and how much of a profit they're going to bring you every month.

A magazine, even a small local one, is no easy task and requires a pretty large financial investment to get off the ground.

Have you approached candidates for advertising? Do you know what the going rates in your area are? Running a magazine would be a ton of work on both the creation and sales fronts.

I would recommend working for a magazine company first to get an idea of how everything fits together.

I'm not saying that it can't be done, but it won't be easy. And if you don't know exactly what you're doing, I'd put my money on the magazine failing within the first few months.

Re: Start a magazine
 

I ran a small special-interest magazine about 7-8 years ago. Our main problem was getting enough advertising; we charged $3/issue but the actual printing cost was twice that, and we ended up going back to online only because we just couldn't get enough advertisers to cover the cost.

Re: Start a magazine
 

[ QUOTE ]
Sniper,

Nothing and everything in particular. The content of it doesn`t matter at all if it`s reasonable.

Which costs should I be aware of? The printing, design, creating the society...

Thanks

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Doesn't sound like you've fully thought this thru...

If its free, you are making your money off advertising... if people don't look at the magazine, no one will see the ads... the only way you get people to look at the mag is if they are interested in the content... no readers, no advertisers... make sense?

Re: Start a magazine
 

Personally, I can't think of a single reason not to start a magazine online first and if success & demand dictate, then move into the publishing realm.

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We will publish 80 thousand units every three or two months.

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Where did this number come from and how does it vary by ~160k/yr?

Re: Start a magazine
 

I've been in advertising and publishing for a long time, and helped quite a few magazines in my area get started.

All of them had a specific idea though. Not 'Anything and Everything'.

You need a topic, because you need a demographic because you need to sell potential advertisers on what crowd will read your rag.

I just launched a mag on 4/1 actually, but we're going online first, building revenue and then selling to a big publisher and bailing for the print side of things. This seems like a good way to go.

Re: Start a magazine
 

OP, might I suggest a subscription to Folio:? It's free, and it's the #1 publication ABOUT the publishing industry.

www.foliomag.com

Re: Start a magazine
 

I work for a company that uses this business model. We sell ads and use that revenue to print and distribute books. Despite the increase in internet usage, our book counts haven't dropped. We use the internet as a supplement to our products and use it to upsell our clients. We are a publisher of print publications first and foremost.

OP: You'll really need to find a niche or "topic" for your publication or no one will advertise with you. Hint: Find your potential clients' needs and then fill those needs.

Re: Start a magazine
 

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I've been in advertising and publishing for a long time, and helped quite a few magazines in my area get started.

All of them had a specific idea though. Not 'Anything and Everything'.

You need a topic, because you need a demographic because you need to sell potential advertisers on what crowd will read your rag.

I just launched a mag on 4/1 actually, but we're going online first, building revenue and then selling to a big publisher and bailing for the print side of things. This seems like a good way to go.

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Kidd - If you have the time, could you talk more about this process/gameplan?

Re: Start a magazine
 

Hm I guess I can hijack this thread a bit since OP just sorta died (overhashing a possibility?)

Anyways, I came across this same idea only about a year ago when I was eating at a Japanese curry place in LA. (Where I live). I found this website http://www.magazinelaunch.com/ and read a lot of articles about it. I also talked to a friend's mom who worked in the publishing business for years and she told me this is not a good business to go into for the profit margin is low and does not see a decent return even if you do well. (She is considered extremely successful btw in China). Anyways, my target was towards Asian American entertainers, like Ebony, except it's for Yellow (ha). It seems that Asians are finally getting a bit more recognition in the entertainment industry, I thought, and it would be a good time to start taking advantage of it. Now back to the curry place. They had displayed couple of magazines out at their doors. One was a fancy magazine that was printed on a fairly nice material, sort of like the material from National Geographic. I was surprised that they'd waste so much money on it but it did grab my attention and I took a copy. The other one was a magazine that concentrated on ricers (souped up Azn cars) but were printed on crap paper, like newspaper paper. Now, I grabbed a copy too because it's something that I am a bit interested in. And being in the middle of a place that was predominantly Asians, (Sawtelle) I just came up with this idea. It seemed great at that time but school just caught up to me and i didn't come around to do anything. But now as I read this thread, a lot of people are interested in helping this guy, who has absolutely no idea what he wants. And here I am sitting, with a decent idea and actually have thought it through. I wasn't much of a 2p2er back then thus i didn't seek help at that time.

Re: Start a magazine
 

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But now as I read this thread, a lot of people are interested in helping this guy, who has absolutely no idea what he wants.

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If I had an idea I wouldn't be asking for help...

For the rest of you, thanks for the help.


I understand what you're saying but the matter is we've already cover those things. Finding a niche has already been done.

Our public, since the magazine is free, will open it all the same no matter what we are writing inside. Think at these magazine as the ones you get in a plane.

Would you recommend me doing like a mock magazine? Will that help me to sell ads? Or is it a pdf version better?



Thanks guys

Re: Start a magazine
 

I can certainly ad two things......

If you have no history running mags, it will be much harder than you think to sell advertising unless you have a HUGE niche that is REALLY hot.

Second, free distribution mags aren't as popular to advertisers for a lot of reasons.

Re: Start a magazine
 

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free distribution mags aren't as popular to advertisers for a lot of reasons.

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I'm interested in this. Could you explain please?

thanks

Re: Start a magazine
 

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free distribution mags aren't as popular to advertisers for a lot of reasons.

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I disagree whole-heartedly. We sold over $300 million in ads for our free publications last year alone.

Re: Start a magazine
 

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You need a topic, because you need a demographic because you need to sell potential advertisers on what crowd will read your rag.

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[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Very nice use of the typo...

Re: Start a magazine
 

Why not do functionally the same thing with a website for almost no cost?