How to Start a Magazine Publication Business

Magazines are publications, usually periodical publications, that are printed or published electronically. (The online versions are called online magazines.) They are generally published on a regular schedule and contain a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by prepaid subscriptions, or a combination of the three. At its root, the word "magazine" refers to a collection or storage location. In the case of written publication, it is a collection of written articles. (This explains why magazine publications share the word root with gunpowder magazines, artillery magazines, firearms magazines, and (in various languages although not English) retail stores such as department stores).

While launching a magazine may seem primarily a creative endeavor, there are a variety of tried-and-true publishing guidelines that can help you chart a more objective path to success. Testing a variety of go/no-go scenarios can help you avoid starting a publishing business that doesn't attract the revenue and readers you need to succeed.

Have you spent your life dreaming of starting up your own magazine? Maybe you want to create a mag about your favorite activity (skateboarding? Shopping? Following celebrities?) or maybe you want to get information out into the world about an issue you are passionate about. Whatever your reason, this article will help you through the process of creating a magazine and running it successfully.

Brainstorm concepts for your magazine. Before you start building your publishing empire, you need to create something. If you have not done so already, sit down with a trusted friend and start bouncing ideas off each other, and see what emerges. Ask questions like:

What will be the topic of your magazine? Focus on things you love and know well, whether that is sports, fashion, computers, or social networking. Creating a magazine based on your passions will be more engaging, relevant, and useful to your readers than a topic you have no relationship with.
Who is your target audience? This will help you focus on your possibilities. For example, if your topic is fashion, your demographic will have a huge impact on the style and substance of your magazine, as well as potential ad revenue. If your target market is teenage girls/boys, for example, you'll approach the writing, content, even the logo and color scheme much differently than you would if you were targeting men over 40, or gender-neutral 20-somethings. Determine the age, gender, income level, geographic location, and education level of your target audience.
What caliber will your magazine be? As odd of a question as this may be, you will have to decide if you want your magazine to be an authority on a subject (like cooking or fashion) or if you want your magazine to be light, gossipy publication

Essential Elements of a Newsletter or Magazine Business Plan:

Magazine and newsletter business plans usually include a text description of the editorial idea, some sample pages (possible a mock cover, table of contents, and a few feature articles), and three years of financial projections, plus detailed analysis of competitive publications. I offer a simple planning kit that includes a text outline of the text and a financial workbook.

Publishing magazines and newsletters is significantly different from other manufacturing or service businesses. Many prospective investors or lenders may not understand how the publishing business works. The ones who do understand publishing will expect to see that you understand it too. Here are the essential elements to include in your plan for a new magazine, content-based website, or newsletter.

Editorial Vision: Describe what your publication will do for its readers by listing the kind of stories you plan to publish. Include graphics if you have them. in fact, some people create dummy pages to show a sample table of contents, one or two different covers, some departments, and a feature article or two. Make sure a reader will understand how your publication is going to be different from all others in the same niche. In addition, explain who will write for you and how your staff will put the magazine together. This is the place to list prominent people in your field who might write for you or serve on your editorial advisory board (if you have one).

Audience Marketing Strategy: Describe your target readers and why they need your publication. Describe your pricing and competitive strategies. In particular, explain what your publication does for its readers that no competitor is currently doing for them. Outline your audience marketing plans -- how you plan to sell subscriptions, build traffic, and distribute single copies. Be as specific as possible. That is, if you already know a distributor willing to put the magazine into retail stores, say so. If you have no contact with any distributors, then explain how you will go about finding one.

Potential Spin-Off Products: People who are not familiar with the publishing business often overlook the great potential for ancillary revenues from spin-off products that periodicals enjoy. You will be smart to talk about potential books, conferences or trade shows, spin-off publications and other ancillary product opportunities in your plan.

Advertising Sales Strategies: Assuming you will sell ads, describe the prospective advertisers and why they will be excited to advertise in your publication. Note where these companies are currently advertising, how much they are already spending on advertising, and why they might switch to your publication or increase their marketing budgets appropriately. Also detail how you plan to sell ads: who will make the calls, how you will set up selling territories, and how much you will spend on marketing and sales support services.

The Stages of Your Business: Prospective investors need to know that publications generally need 3 to 5 years to build a foothold and achieve profitability, after they have created trusting relationships with a healthy number of readers and advertisers. Explain your strategies for supporting the publication during the years before it reaches profitability.

Experts Who Will Help You: Luckily, you can add people with sound publishing expertise to your team as advisers, consultants and part-time contributors without having to hire them as full-time employees. Investors will be reassured to know that you have publishing experts on board, even on a part-time or consulting basis.
As you look at potential sources of money, you should begin to make up a list of prospects and decide which sources look best for your business. Fundraising may be your first chance to practice being an efficient businessperson: Try to concentrate on the people who are most likely to help you. If you aren't careful, you can waste lots of time chasing the wrong people.

Instruction:

Step 1

Create a business plan. This will help you define what you are going to do, and help you plan for the future. You will have to develop hard numbers for revenue, understand the competition, and codify your needs so that you will always know what you're doing—even when you don't!

You will also need a business plan when you approach the people who will fund your venture. They're much more likely to invest in your venture when they see you've invested time and effort yourself.
Consult a business plan consultant or writer who can help you to create a solid, cost-effective plan. While this will cost you money, it will ultimately save you money in the long run.

Step 2

Create a demographic profile of your readers. If you are publishing a magazine for profit, your circulation list is your lifeblood. Advertisers will spend money based on who is reading the magazine, not simply the content offered. Demographics include gender, age, income and education levels, ethnicity or other factors such as career or political affiliations. This will also help you determine who will buy the publication if you are selling subscriptions or where to place the magazine if you are distributing it free. If you can create a specific demographic profile of your readers, proceed to the next step.

Step 3

Create an annual editorial calendar for your magazine to determine whether or not the publication is viable. While no other publication may be serving your target market, do not proceed until you verify that you can create enough editorial to fill the pages of your magazine each issue. You will not need to write articles, but you will need to create titles for columns, departments and features, with a specific list of article titles for each monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly issue to see if your concept is viable. If you can create an editorial calendar, move onto to the next step.

Step 4

Create a circulation list for your publication. A controlled-circulation magazine sends the publication to specific readers, such as a trade group, households in a certain zip code, school alumni, church members, sports enthusiasts or other groups. You can purchase lists from organizations or work with a list broker to create a list. If you plan to give the magazine away, via racks or other public display areas, determine exactly where to place the magazines and make sure you have permission to do so. If selling subscriptions, a list broker can help you with a direct mail effort. If you can create a circulation strategy, you are ready for the next step.

Step 5

Meet with potential advertisers to discuss their interest in your proposed publication. Present them with information regarding your exact circulation, including number of copies mailed, distributed free, sold on newsstands or projected subscriptions. Only after advertisers know exactly what type of readership is targeted will they want to see the proposed editorial calendar. Once they are sold on your concept, they will let you know what they will pay for advertising and how much they will buy annually. These discussions should not be sales pitches, but informal, professional exploratory discussions. If you are profit-motivated, you will be creating your magazine for advertisers, not simply readers. At this point, if advertisers are interested in your publication you should prepare for the next step.

Step 6

Create a budget, based on your expected advertising revenues, newsstand sales and subscriptions. Expense categories will include manufacturing costs such as printing, postage or distribution, layout and design. Overhead will include office space, equipment, software, legal fees, website development, marketing, employee costs, insurance and other general expenses associated with running a business. If your projected advertising revenues, newsstand sales or subscriptions cover your expenses, it is time to launch your magazine.

Step 7

Launch a website. As you're about to launch your magazine, put up a website. It doesn't have to be elaborate, at least not at first, but it will give people a place to see teasers to your publication and the content before they buy it. It'll also be a place where you can have an active community forum for feedback and commentary—invaluable if you want to grow into a successful publication.

Set your website up so that some of the articles are open to public browsers, but others require a subscription to your magazine to be viewed.

Step 8

Hire a management team.This is most likely your primary role, though you will undoubtedly be participating in the other roles as well. You'll oversee everything, do the books, look for funding, find printers, and more. However, on top of the stuff you do, you will also want to pick up managers to head the different parts of the publication process. These include:

Publication manager. Somebody has got to be out there sourcing printing houses, paper costs, doing spot checks, proofing, and being the point person for everything to do with the nuts and bolts of publishing.
Sales manager. All those ads have to come from somewhere, because that's where a lot of the revenue is going to come from—especially at first, as you give away copies as fast as you can. Having somebody working that revenue stream every day will make a huge difference on your bottom line.
Marketing manager. Even if you build it, they're not going to come unless they know about it. A marketing manager will spread the word, get your magazine placed on newsstands, bookstores, distribution houses, and more. Your marketing manager will also know what the competition is doing—what's in their press kit, what promotions they're running, and how they're being successful—and then do it better!

Tips & Warning:

Understand that "survive" doesn't mean the magazine makes enough money to buy swanky cars and mansions for yourself. It literally means “survive”. Of every hundred magazines that are launched, just one magazine actually survives a two year period. Making hundreds of thousands of dollars is another topic entirely. But, on a positive note, a few of these newly launched magazines do make a lot of money, so you still have a fighting chance.
Be prepared, and be proactive. Planning ahead for possible difficulties will help you should any of those come to pass. Instead of being reactionary, you'll be able to meet them with a plan.
Be realistic, but no need to be pessimistic. After all, starting a magazine is a simple mix of business strategies and creativity. Get it right, and you've got the money. Get it wrong, and you’ll have a wealth of experience.
Don't expect to break even or make money on your first or second issue. Many advertisers will wait until you have published several issues to gauge your quality, marketplace reception and viability before committing to purchasing advertising. Plan to have enough funding to run your business for six months before making per-issue profits.

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Friday, October 3, 2014