I recently interviewed the founder of the new Preemie Magazine (watch out for the interview to be published at WomenHomeBusiness.com), and one of the topics we covered was how to successfully launch a new publication. We get a lot of questions from our readers on how to start a magazine.
In a nutshell, here are some steps to starting a magazine:
1. Conceptualize your magazine – what is its editorial voice, what types of information should it have, who should it be for
2. Determine how large (or small) your target audience – this can help you determine the viability of your idea. You don’t want to start a magazine where only you and 2 friends would be interested in
3. Decide your revenue model – should it be by subscription or should it be by advertising, or both
4. Write your business plan to help you think through your idea
5. Gather a team to help you create your magazine (ad sales, layout, editorial team, printing, etc.) and decide whether to outsource or do in-house some of the processes involved.
6. Raise financing
7. Start production
Some of the excellent resources on how to start a magazine that I found on the Web are:
- Magazine Publishers of America
- MagazineLaunch.com
- 10 Tips on How to Launch a Magazine
- The Surviving Small Press
If this is a business you are interested in, the following books are must-reads:
- Launch Your Own Magazine: A Guide For Succeeding in Today’s Marketplace by Samir Husni
- The Magazine: Everything You Need to Know to Make It in the Magazine Business, by Leonard Mogel
- The Magazine: From Cover to Cover, by Johnson, Sammye; Prijatel, Patricia
- Career Opportunities in Magazine Publishing by Monti, Ralph
- Starting and Running a Successful Newsletter or Magazine by Woodard, Cheryl
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