Anyone have any experience in creating a magazine?

Vintagekits

I have been running a boxing website for 6 months and its gone down pretty well so far, attracting over 20,000 page views a months already.

I have been asked by some people in the boxing industry if I considered starting an Irish boxing magazine.

To be honest, I wouldnt have a clue what type of people with what skills would be needed, how much money I would need to start it or how I would go about it.

Has anyone on here had any experience in this field?

jdivision

I wouldn't - it's really really hard to make money with a magazine these days, trying to get enough advertising for the printing costs alone. Online's the way to go these days.

IRE60

I'd agree wit jdivision - its such a specialist field it would be nearly impossible to target retail - the only other way is subscription and if that's the case the interweb is your only man.

as an aside, i had a peek at the site - plenty of good info for the dedicated "pugilist" - but (and I'm not trying to saddle the horse) its a model for wordpress or joomla etc - make life real easy on you and you can tag articles into really good categories - just a thought.

uvox

Try online first, via blogging software. Always welcome to see someone start a business, but for specialist interest in this economy, you really need to do your market research and determine the market.

Vintagekits

thanks for the comments guys. Just for the record my website is Boxing-Ireland.com

The reason I wanted to get a magazine going is because we have a lot of good will. Whenever I speak to anyone at shows they are full of praise and encouragement and I know other guys that have made a similar product work.

I have given a little help to the guys that start a Liverpool based boxing magazine and that seems to be going really well. http://www.merseygloves.com/

From our YouTube channel I know that 80% of people that view that channel at males between the age of 18 and 54.

From my Google Analytics I know that 45% of our reader are from the 26 counties and 43% from the UK, including NI where a lot of our readership comes from.

I thought that those stats would help us target advertisers, outside of the obvious targets - boxing promoters with shows on, equipment suppliers, gyms, pyshios etc

We would probably grow down the organic route for sales, i.e. through the website, outside shows and in local boxing gyms.

The only issue is that we are basically as collaborative or writers and photographers and no one with any technical expertise.

uvox

The stats would help you target advertisers, sure. However, you'd need to establish from users if they'd part with money for the magazine, how much, what your costs were, breakeven point etc.

Maybe check around for writers workshops, community groups, other sporting b bodies (GAA?), even the local church, and so on about how they got started with magazines?

Maybe http://www.ppa.ie/ can advise.

jdivision

If you're selling in places like eason's they take half the cover price. when you strip Vat out, you're looking at substantial costs. Technical expertise - well you'd need to buy Quark, photo editing software and a digital camera - you could probably do it with just that. The problem is getting people to buy something that they can probably get elsewhere free

flogen

Just to echo what people are saying here - stick with online.

If you've got a lot of goodwill for what you're already doing then put more effort into that.

My advice to you would be to look at developing the site into a fully-fledged and polished resource for boxing fans and fighters etc. A website will give you far more flexibility to create something current and offer resources for the community that a print magazine just does not allow.

If you want some inspiration look at a site like movies.ie as a great home-grown specialist magazine site. If you can make your site easier to navigate and put stuff on there that makes it a must-visit resource for anyone with any interest in boxing you'll stand a much better chance of creating something financially viable.

Vintagekits

Guys thank you for all the comments, much appreciated.

What doing a digital magazine that people could subscribe to for a quid or so?

uvox

You'd need some expertise there, too, though it's a better bet. Getting people to pay for stuff online isn't easy either! You could, I suppose, offer premium content after a while.

Maybe test it all out through blogging first. You can get some nice mag style frontends on WordPress, analyze it, chase up on comments, do surveys, etc. Best of luck.

outandabout

Stick with the website. The Irish market is too small for specialist sports titles and you would find it hard to attract both readers and advertisers.

Printing and distribution costs are also excessive compared to web.

seanmacc

I helped with the start up of a free magazine in the states and it was relitively easy if you're prepared to pony up a few quid.

It was a magazine based on the construction industry and we gave it out free. Our first two issues we took the full brunt of the cost. The guy i was doing it with owned a construction supplies business and he thought it a great idea for free advertising for his company.(All loses were tax deductable anyways) We wrote a couple of articles and rang a load of companies offering them 2 issues worth of free advertising (they just emailed us a jpeg). It was printed out like a bound, colour newspaper and we got 1500 copies printed. We then gave it out to bars, equipment rental companies, various construction sites as well as the company owners clients. Anyone who was willing to take it we sent them a few copies. After 2 months worth of issues we got back to the people who advertised with us and offered them a small introductory advertising rate which most of them took up. after a few months we upgraded to a glossy publication and it took off. It didn't make much money but it offered a load of free advertising to my mates company.
if you want to go down the road of a free publication its just a matter of getting out there and be patient. With your own area of boxing get it into every gym you know of and always keep a load of copies in the car. When its a free publication almost everyone wants to take it. You may even get sports shops to give it out too.

Good luck with it anyways and don't expect to make a penny out of it for nearly a year. it took us 6 months to start breaking even and over a year to make a modest profit.

outandabout

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade here but creating a magazine in Ireland is what's known in the book industry as Vanity Publishing.

That means you get the thrill of seeing your name on the credits and you can talk to your friends about the magazine you've created but it's not a commercial proposition.

The Irish market is too small for independent publishers starting off and having gone through the process there's a lot of grief involved before you even get to the newstands.

Is it worth it? I'd say no and I'd still argue a good website makes a lot more sense.

uvox

outandabout wrote: »

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade here but creating a magazine in Ireland is what's known in the book industry as Vanity Publishing.

That means you get the thrill of seeing your name on the credits and you can talk to your friends about the magazine you've created but it's not a commercial proposition.

That's untrue and also very unfair to anyone interested in promoting their sport or other interests, communicating with like-minded interested people, and working hard at it while trying to make it work commercially. If it's paid for by advertising or subscriptions, as it indicated, then it could hardly be a vanity project, which are normally defined by the creator pouring their own money into it.

gearoidof

Would you be aiming to make it a subscription service and have it mailed out to people, or would you aim to sell it in shops? the latter would be hard, but the 1st wouldn't be that hard, wouldn't even be too much of a risk if you can get enough people to subscribe before you do a print run.

outandabout

Originally Posted by outandabout
I don't want to rain on anyone's parade here but creating a magazine in Ireland is what's known in the book industry as Vanity Publishing.

That means you get the thrill of seeing your name on the credits and you can talk to your friends about the magazine you've created but it's not a commercial proposition.

That's untrue and also very unfair to anyone interested in promoting their sport or other interests, communicating with like-minded interested people, and working hard at it while trying to make it work commercially. If it's paid for by advertising or subscriptions, as it indicated, then it could hardly be a vanity project, which are normally defined by the creator pouring their own money into it.
..........
Hi UVOX

I'm not trying to be unfair to people who want to promote their sports or other interests but you must have a good commercial model.

Advertising is very hard to get (I know as I've tried selling it) and subscriptions need a lot of time and money to manage properly.


I'd still say websites are best but if someone can get financial backing for a magazine and come up with a plan that can make it pay its way, best iof luck.