Publisher + Advice needed for new magazine

Tony 'arrison

Looking for a bit of advice on a magazine publication. Myself and a few of my mates are planning to publish a studenty-type magazine somewhat along the lines of “The Slate” (I know it’s a very tall order) which stopped a few years ago. It would include a fair few listings for events/gigs/nightclubs too.

We’re all willing to put up a bit of cash up front if needs be to finance the first edition but unfortunately after that we won’t be in a position to. It’ll be as cheap as possible to begin with at least, - worst quality paper, black ink only, maybe only say 500-1000 copies, etc. We wouldn’t think it would be too expensive; we’ve gotten a few reasonable 3 figure quotes from printers.

Obviously it’ll all completely fall by the wayside if we don’t get some form of revenue from advertising to break even – we’re not looking to profit out of this ourselves, and it’d probably be too tedious for us to be approaching businesses selling advert space to them (particularly at the beginning) while also trying to focus on the publication’s content and our own college work etc.

What I’d appreciate a bit of advice on is:
1. How would we go about setting up with a publisher
2. Does anyone know the name of a publisher who is familiar with these sorts of publications and would be willing to publish our magazine if we came to them with a sample issue and they liked it. They might have a mailing list of businesses to approach that have advertised in the past in these sorts of publications.

Thanks

blue4ever

Whilst I admire your ‘vision’ – you have to make a choice – make it work or don’t.

You can sit back and expect someone else to do the hard and most important bit – selling advertising. Writing copy, doing listings, getting reviews – that easy. Getting the revenue to sustain your publication – that’s what is needed.

Putting it on low grade paper in black and white is not going to attract advertisiers either - so you have to think quality.

Why would a publisher take you on and have to do the dog work getting revenue ! where is your risk in this?

Publishing is easy – getting revenue is not.

yamo

I doubt very many publishers would go for something like this. It's an extraordinarily fickle market you're targeting, and also, it's full of potholes and problems when it comes to libel/legal issues. The Slate worked well because a lot of the guys who were involved used to write for a magazine called 'Piranha' which was available in Trinity. Similar style mag - but it gave them a fairly decent grounding. However a lot of publishers would look at the Slate and the likes of Mongrel and wonder how much money they could realistically make out of this market, given that there is already so much competition. Your pitch would have to be pretty good and you'd want to have some examples of ideas/stories ready to show to anyone you meet. Being realistic, it would be difficult to pitch someone a magazine that you will run while still going to college.

the other thing I'd suggest is that you look at the marketplace. If you're seriously interested in publishing a magazine or setting a magazine up, you should already know all the major players in the Irish market and what sectors they specialise in. All you need to do is look in the contents section of any magazine to find out who the publisher is. The fact that there aren't many publishers out there should serve as some warning!


To be honest, you might be as well off setting this up as a blog in the initial stages. At least that way you could try and develop a bit of a brand and a name for your publication. Also, it would give you a concrete set of figures to show to potential investors a little bit further down the line. It would be a good way to build up a listenership, and it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than going down the road of paper and ink. If you bring out a publication on cheap paper that looks and feels crap, then people won't pick it up. Most places won't even stock it. Think of how few fanzines you see nowadays - all of them are made on the cheap, but few, if any get pride of place in coffee shops or any other establishments. I would strongly suggest the blog/webpage route as a way of getting your content out there. Look at John Ryan, who is no mug in the magazine world - he's set up two magazine style Irish blogs (www.blogorrah.com) and the barefoot fan (which I think is being relaunched soon). He's developing two brands that will probably turn into a handy little earner over the next couple of months and years...

jmcc

yamo wrote:

I doubt very many publishers would go for something like this. It's an extraordinarily fickle market you're targeting, and also, it's full of potholes and problems when it comes to libel/legal issues.

A publication like this would be a nightmare for a publisher because the audience is effectively changing every few years. Thus what worked in Year 0 will not necessarily work in Year 0 + n.

Irish magazine publishers tend to be either cynical operators or complete fools and few magazines last more than a few years.

You have to identify your market, identify your advertisers, identify your costs and then ask yourself if it is worth publishing. Otherwise set up a blog.

Regards...jmcc

Tony 'arrison

Just to say thanks for the comments – they’re all very much appreciated.

We reckon the best remedy to our naivety and inexperience to this whole publishing game is probably to learn the hard way. We think we’ll go ahead with producing the content of the first issue, maybe distribute a pre-release version with blank spaces (or better yet a window detailing the target audiences potentially reached through advertising in it, which could be repeated or varied in the different spaces set aside for advertising in the sample issue) for potential advertising among whoever we think might be interested. We’ll put a whole page advertising our advertising space and giving contact details in the first issue etc.

If we distribute this issue with blank spaces among potential advertisers/publishers theres a possibility we could get money prior to release, but more importantly we should get much valued feedback on the publication as a whole and we can use this to see whether the project can be a success or not. if not, we’ll probably go for the blog/web option.

Once again, anymore advice/suggestions/comments etc would be very much appreciated.

yamo

if you're going to go down the route of producing a dummy run of the first issue, I would strongly advise you to consider doing a four (or more) page run and getting it printed in colour and on decent paper. That way, you can send out an attractive sample issue to potential advertisers. If you send them a cheaply printed black and white effort, I would almost guarantee a 90% binning rate!

Don't forget that advertisers get a lot of calls now from all manner of media organisations, from community tv/radio to local papers, and they're used to seeing at least reasonably well put together pitches for advertising money. If your content is even close to that of the slates, and if your presentation is good, you're far more likely to get a result on the advertising front. also, if you look like you're taking this venture seriously, you're more likely to get feedback than if it looks like something that was cobbled together after reading the about.com guide to using Microsoft Publisher.

I really can't advise you enough against going down the cheap and cheerful route. The 'it'll do' attitude (and I'm not suggesting you have that attitude) is a sad trait of an old Ireland. If you're serious about doing this, and you're serious about making some money from it, then you have to think about creating a product that people will actually want to pick up. Look at the quality of the Mongrels/Backpackers/Totally Dublins of this world - all free mags, but all produced as well, if not better than some of the magazines that have the audacity to charge for the privilege of reading them!

I don't want to sound relentlessly negative or anything - but I know a lot of people involved in magazine publishing and I know what it's like to set up a media company and go through the whole rigmarole of pitching for business and funding etc. If I can be of any help, just drop me a private message...

jmcc

Tony 'arrison wrote:

We reckon the best remedy to our naivety and inexperience to this whole publishing game is probably to learn the hard way.

The trick is to learn from the mistakes of others.

We think we’ll go ahead with producing the content of the first issue, maybe distribute a pre-release version with blank spaces (or better yet a window detailing the target audiences potentially reached through advertising in it, which could be repeated or varied in the different spaces set aside for advertising in the sample issue) for potential advertising among whoever we think might be interested. We’ll put a whole page advertising our advertising space and giving contact details in the first issue etc.

Never, ever do something so stupid. To a publisher, that's a red flag that the pitcher doesn't have a clue about publishing or the target market. Put in dummy adverts to fill the spaces. And have a section detailing what will be in the next issue.

Regards...jmcc