Media Buyers in Dublin

stilllearning

Im starting up a new magazine in 2012 and looking for media buyers.

Our target demographic is males aged 18 - 60

15,000 circulation and 45,000 readership per week expected

Digital copy also in the works

Be great to hear from you

PrintBob

I don't think Ill be able to help you with that but may be able to help you on the production side. Have you sourced a printer yet? I would be able to provide you with a very attractive quote for full on-site magazine print and finishing - PM if interested and I can fill you in. Good luck with the venture.

bigneacy

Thats a big demographic, can you narrow it down to social class or background sectors- how are you going to attract 55 year old upper class tennis players to the same magazine as say 19 year old college students?

I'm not asking to waste your time - I may be interested in talking to you, but i need more info first.

PCPhoto

I'm interested in learning more and may be in a position to help.

I work as a freelance photographer and have links to some of the Agencies in Dublin , Cork and Limerick - I assume your magazine will be looking for images so might be in a position to negotiate a deal for you.

stilllearning

Hey guys,

thanks alot PM you both

Gloomtastic!

Welcome to the mad world of publishing! Spent nearly 20 years working in the business, including start-ups.

Be prepared to fight for every cent for the next seven years, it's a vicious business. And it will take you seven years to gain the confidence of useless media buyers.

My advice is try your idea as an on-line version first. The costs are so much less (a printed mag will cost you upwards of €15k to print/distribute). Get a forum going so your readers come back regularly.

If you do want to go down the print route, regardless of what PrintBob says (;)) get Walsh Colour Print in Tralee to quote. They're the cheapest printers in Ireland I've found. Service is ok but this is Ireland!

Good luck to you, don't let the basturds get you down!

stilllearning

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Welcome to the mad world of publishing! Spent nearly 20 years working in the business, including start-ups.

Be prepared to fight for every cent for the next seven years, it's a vicious business. And it will take you seven years to gain the confidence of useless media buyers.

My advice is try your idea as an on-line version first. The costs are so much less (a printed mag will cost you upwards of €15k to print/distribute). Get a forum going so your readers come back regularly.

If you do want to go down the print route, regardless of what PrintBob says (;)) get Walsh Colour Print in Tralee to quote. They're the cheapest printers in Ireland I've found. Service is ok but this is Ireland!

Good luck to you, don't let the basturds get you down!

Thanks for the advise Gloomtastic. Dont worry I confident this can work.

JohnDigital

Magazines are a very difficult business, and magazines targeted at men even more so in this market. The UK has a raft of very high quality magazines that are available here and its terrifically hard for anyone to compete with the editorial features and print quality that those guys can afford to put together. Even at that men in Ireland don’t buy magazines in anywhere approaching the numbers that women do. Just look at any news stand and you can see that for every 10 female magazines there is one male. This is not because publishers have overlooked a market opportunity, it’s the way the market is.

You don’t state what type of magazine it is your producing so I’m assuming it’s a general lifestyle magazine with probably a mix of sport, technology, music, motors, culture, fashion etc?

There is probably a market for a good male targeted magazine but as has been mentioned above its hard to imagine one that will universally span the ages that you have suggested, unless it’s on a very singular subject like a type of sport, or it’s of the naked variety.

Generating advertising revenue to support the magazine is the biggest challenge you will face and you will need advertising to support it as you won’t make ends meet on the cover price.

Magazine advertising has a role in a media mix, but it’s not for everyone and doesn’t suit every campaign. It’s is about the least efficient in terms of cost that you can have. Let’s take your 45,000 readers for a start, and assume that a page ad costs €2,000 that s a cost per thousand readers of €45. Advertisers can buy a similar sized ad in national press at a cost per thousand of less than €10. Television for less again and Radio even cheaper than that again. But for you, your main competitor with be online and that’s where lots of money that once would have gone the way of magazines is now going and you are competing with cost per thousands of low single digit euro’s for lots of display activity.

You might want to look at your numbers again as they are I believe very ambitious. You have a circulation of 15,000 I presume this is your planned print run? Even the best magazine doesn’t sell its whole print run so if you are printing 15k then sales of 12k would be average enough, so to get 45k readers you need each magazine to change hands 3.75 times. Men don’t tend to swap magazines as much as women do so I’d say you would be exceptionally lucky to have an average or more than 2.5 readers per copy which is a 30,000 readership.

You won’t have any way to measure your readership so be cautious about quoting it as media planners know that you don’t know and have just picked the number out of the sky. In the early days you won’t have an ABC audit so advertisers will be taking a bit of a leap of faith with you as well and they will be looking to mitigate their risk by getting a very tight price off you. Selling advertising in your first edition will be very hard, so you will have to be prepared to take a hit on that one as most advertisers are very protective of their brand image and will want to see the finished product before committing to an association with it.

In terms of contacting media buyers first stop is iapi.ie members directory and look under ‘media specialists’, it’s the media planners in those companies that you want to speak with. You will find it very hard to get in to see people, truth of the matter is that they just don’t have time not that they cant be bothered meeting you.

If I were you I’d make approaches through linkedin and by phoning the media specialists and asking for a client list and email contact details for the relevant planners. Identify the clients that you think your publication might suit. Base this largely on whether those clients regularly use magazine advertising or at least some form of print advertising and you will get quickest wins. Send the relevant media planners details of the publication by email (try to keep file size of your email as light as possible). They will want to see details of the proposed contents of your first edition and who’s writing for it and at least a mock up of the front cover.

You have to bear in mind that media planning is a very fast moving game these days. For the most part campaign timings are very close to the wire and there is only a small window of opportunity for a media planner to consider your publication in their proposed plan. It’s important that you remember that. Just because there may be a campaign that is a perfect fit with your magazine if the client has signed off on the plan you’re not likely to be able to get them to come up with extra cash to get you on there too.

Budgets are usually very tight and advertisers demand the best value for their investment and this is what makes magazine advertising really difficult to justify for a media planner. But as I mentioned there are advertisers for whom the environment of a good quality magazine targeted to a specific demographic that they want to reach will mean that they can make the justification of spending that premium.

Best of luck with it. Wish I could give you some more help but I’m afraid my times not free.

antoinolachtnai

I know this is not the answer to the question asked, but I have to say it. If you don't know any media buyers, you should not launch a magazine. You have to have advertisers' support for the early days, otherwise you will run out of credibility and cash extremely quickly.

In terms of numbers, I would be very tactical and cynical. 15,000 readers requires you to be as big as Phoenix Magazine, a magazine that is tightly run and has been building (or at least trying to retain) readership for decades.

Anyway, is there really any point in getting involved in print anymore? The future is fairly clearly online now, even if the model isn't clear yet.

PrintBob

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

If you do want to go down the print route, regardless of what PrintBob says (;)) get Walsh Colour Print in Tralee to quote. They're the cheapest printers in Ireland I've found. Service is ok but this is Ireland!

We're definitely worth a shot, I can tell you that much! Also service would be top notch, genuinely.

There's definitely some good advice on this thread and its very interesting - I mean we've all allowed the thought of publishing a mag cross our minds.

stilllearning

John Digital thank you for your detailed reply, I will reply in a private message to you.

Anto thanks for your input but you really do not project an attitude of optimism or entrepreneurship. Ireland needs creativity and it needs to encourage and support each other for the country to prosper.

Print bob got your email thank you. Will be in touch before Xmas

Gloomtastic!

stilllearning wrote: »

John Digital thank you for your detailed reply, I will reply in a private message to you.

Anto thanks for your input but you really do not project an attitude of optimism or entrepreneurship. Ireland needs creativity and it needs to encourage and support each other for the country to prosper.

Print bob got your email thank you. Will be in touch before Xmas

Please do not delude yourself for one minute that your project will succeed on creativity. It's all about getting the revenue in, to hell with editorial integrity or creativity, it's about paying the bills. And the bills (great big ones) will come from every direction, trust me.

Again, I wish you good luck but please go into this venture with your eyes wide open and be prepared to do whatever it takes, i repeat WHATEVER IT TAKES!

RATM

OP put this string into Google and you'll get a lot of media buyers

site:ie.linkedin.com ("media buyer" OR "media buying") -inurl:dir

To be honest though print not dead yet but is dying. I read way more news online and through Apps than ever and this is a trend that is unstoppable.

Also if you do go ahead I'd advise getting quotes to print from the UK & NI. I was involved with a newspaper with a 4,500 print run every fortnight and it was significantly cheaper to have it printed in Wales and then shipped over to Dublin. Sad but true.

stilllearning

RATM wrote: »

OP put this string into Google and you'll get a lot of media buyers

site:ie.linkedin.com ("media buyer" OR "media buying") -inurl:dir

To be honest though print not dead yet but is dying. I read way more news online and through Apps than ever and this is a trend that is unstoppable.

Also if you do go ahead I'd advise getting quotes to print from the UK & NI. I was involved with a newspaper with a 4,500 print run every fortnight and it was significantly cheaper to have it printed in Wales and then shipped over to Dublin. Sad but true.

RATM thank you for the search recommendation. I agree with you entirely print is dying but it is not dead yet and it will never fully die. Anyway our strategy is to build our digital platform through the presence of print firstly.

Year one 90% print 10% digital
Year two 60% print 40% digital
Year three 50% print 50% digital.

Thanks for your comments

Chet Zar

stilllearning wrote: »

RATM thank you for the search recommendation. I agree with you entirely print is dying but it is not dead yet and it will never fully die. Anyway our strategy is to build our digital platform through the presence of print firstly.

Year one 90% print 10% digital
Year two 60% print 40% digital
Year three 50% print 50% digital.

Thanks for your comments

Why not digital first to gauge interest and make more realistic projections, then print?