Will my magazine survive?

Comment by magmom on November 13, 2009 at 4:58pm

Well first of all I think you're selling yourself short only focusing on working women. (unless of course there's already a dedicated women's magazine in your area and you're going more for a niche market) And feminism is about choice whether it's to work or be a SAHM and SAHMs spend just as much as working women/moms do.

I publish a local family magazine and while we don't call it a women's magazine 80-90% of our readers are women and I don't think we would have made it this far by only targeting one specific segment of a particular gender. we want everyone's money

BUT back to your original question it all really depends on money and overhead. In the beginning my husband and I did EVERYTHING. from graphic design, the magazine layout to deliveries and still didn't turn a profit until the 4th issue. (each issue cost about $4-5k to publish)

I think with a large staff it could get SUPER expensive. The great thing was that we didn't even have an ad salesperson until a little over 2 years in and were thriving with just people picking up the magazine and calling us to place an ad. (mostly female owned businesses btw)

So yes it can definitely be done because I had NO experience in publishing and faked it till I made it....:-)

Comment by Ann S on November 16, 2009 at 8:46am

thank you so much for your response, I would actually have a section in my Magazine called 'The Super MOM".. it is more about women making a difference vs. working in prefessional fields... do you rely on subscriptions .. how did you distribute your magazine and get people interested in the first issue? Did you do any pre-launch campaigns?

Comment by magmom on November 18, 2009 at 7:36am

Mine is a 100% free (ad funded) and I didn't spend a penny on advertising or launching. I got a tip from a friend that had a magazine in the 90s that said to get your distribution points in place first because that's the first thing people will ask when you're either trying to sell them an ad or if they call to purchase one after seeing one out and about.

We have distributed 10000 issues from the get-go. We initially took about 2000 back each month but now we take back less than 50.

Do NOT rely on subscriptions it's the fastest way to sink your business. Getting the magazine in front of as many eyes as possible is the key. And since you will be the "new kid" you will be held to a higher standard than the newspaper or other local publications and they'll be watching for response to their ad like a hawk.

Comment by Ann S on November 18, 2009 at 7:44am

Thanks again, so did you have to share a Prototype to get initial advertisers interested? Or just statistics of target market?

Comment by magmom on November 18, 2009 at 9:42pm

We had an 8 page prototype/media kit but had very few ads in the beginning. (under 5 paid ads) We hoped for more of a if you build it they will come and fortunately that's what happened.

Content was another surprise. Once it was out we had floods of local people that just love to write and would send articles and now we have about 16-18 features each month. We only have one staff writer to do interviews but we actually pay her more freelance style by the word and a flat fee for interviewing people. Local, local, local is the best advice I can give too when it comes to content. The newspapers these days are flooded with AP content and even if the local person writes an article on a similar subject to an AP story it's automatically more interesting because it's on a local level and potentially about or by someone they know.

How large is your town?

Comment by Ann S on November 19, 2009 at 7:54am

Thank you! I can't appreciate enough the time you take to write back. I am in Long Island, NY so it is a pretty large town. Did you have to come up with initial capital? Did you have to hire distributors to get the magazine to the target audience?

Comment by magmom on November 28, 2009 at 2:52pm

My husband and I did everything! (he still does all the deliveries even now) We paid for the first 4 issues out of pocket and finally started a profit at the 5th. Each issue was about $3700 to print, And it took about 2 days to distribute in all 100-150 locations that we had in the beginning. People were calling to place ads a week after being out. We just added our first sales person in August.

Comment by Mandee Widrick on December 9, 2009 at 11:51am

Magmom - you have provided some great info. I was about to post a question similar to Ann's but then I found this post. I, too, would love to pick your brain a bit about the magazine industry. I'm a young entrepreneur and plan to launch a new mag about horses in early 2010. If you have a few minutes, I'd love to email you a few questions?

Mandee

Comment by 6thAveConcepts on December 9, 2009 at 2:38pm

Newspapers (apologies in advance if I start to sound redundant) work very similar to what Magmom has said. Advertising is where the money is at, not cover price and not subscriptions. Magmom's $3700 cost was just print; it didn't count the other expenses.

I've been laid off from my last paper since Dec. 2008. What scares me is the idea and mindset people have that print is dead and online is the answer. I strongly disagree with this. There is something about a tangible object like a book, newspaper or magazine that is appealing. I think print will always be around. We just have to market ourselves somehow. Still, the decline in print media and the bad economy makes me worry about advertisers wanting to pay for more or new advertising.

Ann S - Will your magazine succeed? Do you have a shot? I think you do. If the market is there then you'll be great. Apparently you think the market is there.

How you present yourself may be a factor to your success. You will appeal to a broader audience if you downplay niche words. You state you're a feminist. As a man, that immediately turns me off due to the negative stereotyping associated with the word feminist. You can still present the same stories, same pictures, etc... present the same message you want without using the niche words or phrases.

Example: I was told to design a new monthly newspaper section for the over 60 crows. My initial title ideas were shot down because they simply screamed "RETIRED AND ELDERLY." Instead of calling the section "Golden Years" or some other tired expression associated with retirement and age; I was encouraged to call the section "Lifestyles" or "Living" or something a little less specific. Yes, all the stories were still going to be targeted toward that particular niche, just the title was a little more appealing to the masses as a whole.

Something to think about.

I'm really glad to see Magmom's had the success she has had. I'm curious - Magmom, have you seen a decline of late with this economy?

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