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Anyone ever published a magazine?
FORGOT!!!!!!!!!! www.sceneboston.com and some advice just do it .every one will tell you i know this and that you had some great replys and some unexperienced idots. it's a very difficult thing to do and to make it is fabulous. if you find a great printer he will give you some great advice. find a great designer and editor and go for it P.S. all this after you have researched this idea to hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dec 31 05 12:03 am Link i currently work for a company that services the vacation industry, i am their graphic designer, i edit all the photos and edit captions and then put together the catalog layout for printing in the spring, its an annual catalog, so its pretty cool  Dec 31 05 12:07 am Link glenn usdin wrote: which, again, is why I am seeking this information from as many sources as I can get my hands on Dec 31 05 05:53 am Link area291 wrote: N/C Dec 31 05 05:53 am Link GB... You want an idea of costs and cash flow? There are several distribution models for publishers but here is an example of the cash flow for one and some comments on the others. You can call this: "How to get into trouble as an independent publisher...fast..." In the news stand distributor model. Magazine distributors often will give you, or rather you will have to give them, 90 to 120 day terms where payment is made to you only 90 -120 days "from issue last day of sale" dates. Thus, for the returns from the sale of issue 1 you won't see payments for that issue for anywhere from 90 - 120 days+ from the LAST day that issue 1 is in distribution. Then, they will be charging you up front for distribution + each month for handling news-stand physical returns [unsold; spoiled; ect] which becomes an up-front cost each month in addition to the production costs. The distributor will have [usually] revenue returns [billing] terms to the retailer that are due to be paid net 30 after the last day of sale [less credit for physical returns.] So your revenue stream begins to look like this... [on a 30 day / monthly issue cycle] - the financial risk is all yours... 100% of it. Note: Here in the term "fully funded" I am including the printing costs - you might and might not get "terms" from the actual printer but I doubt that they will print issue 2 unless you have made a payment covering issue 1 - so net 30 at best, and that just shifts that cost element [actual outlay of cash] by 30 days from issue 1 onwards. You will find that: you don't pay they don't print! issue 1 = fully funded / no revenue return to you issue 2 = fully funded / no revenue return to you / issue 2 out and corresponding to the last day of issue 1 distribution / contributors and distribution payments due on issue 1 issue 3 = fully funded / no revenue return to you / retailer remits issue 1 returns to distributor IF they pay on time / contributors and distribution payments due on issue 2 issue 4 = fully funded / no revenue return to you / contributors and distribution payments due on issue 3 issue 5 = fully funded / no revenue return to you / contributors payments due on issue 4 issue 6 = fully funded / revenue returns from issue 1 IF the distributor pays on time / contributors and distribution payments due on issue 5 issue 7 = fully funded / revenue returns from issue 2 / contributors and distribution payments due on issue 6 ect, ect. The dynamics change in the mail order / subscription only model, and change again in a combined part news stand [distributor] + part subscription model. Sooooooooo, if you have a print run of, say, 10K copies [not out of line for a start up] you could be looking at putting money in for the first six months and not see a dime back in cash returns. For such a print run it would not be unusual at all to see a cash investment in excess of $100,000 over that first 6 months with nearly nil cash flow the other way... except maybe advertising revenue beyond the second month ASSUMING your advertisers have 30 day terms AND pay on time. You can get even higher figures in cash outlays depending on how you acquire your material. If you are paying photographers and writers [or other contributors] for contributions, and the designer and anyone else those are also up-front costs of production - and generally billable by the contributors and the others net 30 days after publication [NOT last day of sale]... so these issue 1 costs will be seen just as issue 2 comes on line... and so forth. This, and possibly poor actual sales, is exactly why many start-ups don't last the first year. If you can't build SUBSTANTIAL sales [full face value (cover price) returns] by issue 3 you will be in deep doo doo. If your investors / backers don't know and fully understand the publishing business then you will be in deep doo doo with them too. Many will just pull the plug on you. Studio36 P.S. I worked for a previously bankrupt UK publication for over 5 years. The new publisher, who I was working for, bought out 4 titles in the bankruptcy and immediately scrapped 3 of them but saved one special interest title that had substantial subscription sales. That one has a current worldwide distribution of ca 35K copies in a mixed news stand and subscription model. It was being distributed and sold in the US by Barnes and Nobel until B&N pulled the plug on them [low sales volume[... in the UK W.H. Smith also pulled the news stand sales [also, they claimed, for low volume]... only the subscription sales as well as "other country" news stand sales, and the fact that the publisher is also in the newspaper business and so really, really had a handle on the publishing business, saved the title from a second bankruptcy. Had it been a single title independent publisher, as would be your situation, or a multi-title independent as it was before the first bankruptcy, that 4th title, too, would be history today. Dec 31 05 07:54 am Link JvR wrote: the famous "backer". Dec 31 05 08:04 am Link vegasmusicandfilm wrote: there will be no magazine. Dec 31 05 08:06 am Link Start an ezine first. It is a lot cheaper and easier. Easy to get filler content through various ezine article web sites to build traffic. You can also sign up with google AdSense for most of you ad space revenues. All performance based. - Just requires Search Engine Optimization skills to make it go. - If it's successful, do a hard copy version later. I am launching my own ezine this month (http://www.justchange.net ) Dec 31 05 09:10 pm Link Glamour Boulevard wrote: for a small batch depending on amount of colour pages and quality of paper you can expect to spend between #4000 and$10.000. ive co published two magazines in the past. one is still going its called da book. Jan 01 06 12:34 am Link studio36uk wrote: A very good overview. The only thing to add that the UK market is probably more subscription driven than the American market, where less people are willing to pay for subscriptions and advertising income probably makes up a larger share of the revenues. Of course, advertisers won't bite if you can't show them distribution among their target audiences. It's a catch-22, unless you just send the magazine out for free and completely discount the subscription income. Jan 01 06 07:50 am Link JvR wrote: Actually I doubt that with one exception and that is special interest magazines like the one I work for... and others like model railroads; certain car mags; photography mags; and similar. When they disappear off the news stands, and they do on a regular basis, there is usually some conversion to subscriptions that will keep them alive. JvR wrote: In our case and the others of the special interest type the advertising is usually very much targeted and tends to be longer term that just one or two issues. If you can get an advertiser in, and keep them in, it does keep the cash moving through the bank though, you are right there. Jan 01 06 08:34 pm Link a short list the ones i liked the most Fall 2002 Literary Potpourri, California October 2002 Cover, Wicked Hollow North Carolina Issue 4, Winter 2002 Cover, Pentax User Magazine, London, England Nov.Dec. 2002 Life Imitating Art (LIA) California Continuing Publication Cover & Illustrations Skyline Literary Magazine New York Jan 01 06 08:38 pm Link nathan combs wrote: This reply really has me scratching my head. Am I the only one? Jan 01 06 08:41 pm Link Glamour Boulevard wrote: the ??? was has any one been published in a mag well these are some of the mags i been published in there the ones that i was the most happy with i do not list all the mags and ezins and such because it makes too long of a list Jan 01 06 08:46 pm Link nathan combs wrote: That was not the question at all. Jan 01 06 08:48 pm Link Glamour Boulevard wrote: ho your right i miss read it sorry ;-> Jan 01 06 08:50 pm Link nathan combs wrote: lol Jan 01 06 08:50 pm Link |
