Magazine Startups

Roughly 1,000 magazines are launched every year, says Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni, a magazine consultant and chair of the journalism department at the University of Mississippi. Nearly 20,000 consumer and trade publications exist in North America, according to the National Directory of Magazines. So how can you launch a magazine that stands out?

asks Steve Cooper of Entrepreneur.com, writing at MSNBC.com in Secrets of Starting a Magazine. Many of the startups fail because of faulty or lack of a sound business plan. Planning takes research and time. Others don't make the hurdle due to the lack of capital in an Ouroboros of advertising and readership chasing each other. Having a complementary website isn't to be ignored, either. If the print version doesn't fly, you can always call it an ezine! The point Cooper drives home is that magazines are businesses. Nowhere are writers mentioned. Oh, to be sure there's a little squiggle somewhere in the financials that represents expenditures for content, a miniscule amount among the costs for printing, advertising, promotions, and marketing.

The survival statistics say "don't do it," but they don't tell the full story. "Big companies put a title on newsstands just to see what happens and then fold it within the same year," says Woodward, explaining that this skews the stats.

Husni says that of the magazines that fail, 70 percent never make it past their first issue. Starting a magazine is relatively cheap and easy--at least for the first issue. Woodward estimates you can put the first issue on newsstands for as little as $15,000.

And this is why I counsel new writers to stay away from startup magazines, although those are the ones you see advertising for writers. Chances are, they won't be around to cut you a paycheck next month.

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