I was interviewed by Ashley Norris for FIPP website as part of his series of interviews with the speakers at the FIPP Congress in Portugal, June 7 to 9.
Please click here to read the interview.
Archive for May, 2022
Revealed: The Simple Secret For A Successful Magazine Launch. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Doug Bitto, Principal, Advantage Circulation Consulting.
May 17, 2022I found my match. Doug Bitto, the principal of Advantage Circulation Consulting, LLC. is as big of a magazine junkie as I am. He also is a firm believer that if it is not ink on paper, it is not a magazine. He describes himself as a bit of a pop culture junkie. “Magazines have fascinated me ever since I was very young,” he told me, “so it’s no surprise that I gravitated towards the business.”
Doug’s formula for a successful magazine is relatively simple as he says: “The underlying formula for all successful print magazines is relatively simple: Passion combined with deep knowledge, framed within the greater cultural understanding (i.e. what people actually want to read and buy at this particular moment in time).”
So with that in mind, and after a chat with Doug, here is the Mr. Magazine™ interview: Enjoy.
Samir Husni: During our chat, I felt I found my match in a person who believes in the power of print, can you please explain why?
Doug Bitto: When a print magazine is produced and distributed, it is a permanent snapshot of a culture. It cannot be changed, to be reviewed and scrutinized for decades (or even centuries) after being produced. A digital “magazine” on the other hand can be altered and the original message lost forever, including the advertising which is an essential component of cultural understanding. In addition, print is much more effective than digital in conveying a message because more of our senses are used when interacting with print. When was the last time anyone smelled their iPad?
S.H.: You run a circulation consulting company, do you mind expanding some of what your company does and your role running it?
D. B.: We have evolved into an end to end consulting firm over the last 20 years. In addition to the physical nuts and bolts aspects of newsstand distribution and management, we have expanded to include consulting on product development, working very closely with editors and designers. One of our strengths, I believe, is our ability to successfully recognize cultural trends and how they are applicable to our clients.
As far as my role is concerned, I wear many hats. At the end of the day, however, it’s about ensuring that I successfully guide my clients.
S. H.: Small, regional, and new niche magazines are your specialty. Why and do you think there is still room for new magazines in this digital age?
D. B.: Culture is constantly changing but much like radio, print will always be around. One trend we are seeing post-pandemic is the return to traditional media, as discussed in a recent article by Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2022/04/why-marketers-are-returning-to-traditional-advertising. Personally, I have not “seen” a digital ad in years, much less clicked on it. And if I find myself on a website that has pop-up ads (or worse yet, autoplay ads) I immediately click out without even looking. Not only are they annoying, they can actually create physical stress. Multiple studies have shown this. As the article states, people are becoming “ad blind” digitally due to these factors.
Print on the other hand is relaxing. And if ads are well curated, they fit seamlessly within a print magazine. I hate to break it to the digital ad folks out there but from a practical standpoint, print ads are far superior. When you turn the page of a print magazine, you HAVE to look on the next page. Ad blindness is almost impossible.
Advertising aside, magazines are rapidly turning into higher quality, higher dollar items with very little or no advertising. Again, not a new trend, but it is accelerating. And people are willing to pay for this experience. Out of the six new title launches we have recently launched or are launching over the next few months, four fall into this category. All are high quality in content and physical presentation. All are between $12.99-$14.99US, $14.99-$19.99CAN.
S. H.: Define a magazine for me.
D. B.: I take a traditional approach. Mirriam-Webster’s first entry is how I would define a magazine:
Definition of magazine
1a : a print periodical containing miscellaneous pieces (such as articles, stories, poems) and often illustrated
A digital publication is not a magazine, even though our culture is now defining many forms of media as a “magazine”. A different term should be used to describe a digital only publication.
S.H.: Can you share a success story of a new launch that you consulted on, and can you share one that failed?
D. B.: I would like to speak in general terms first.
The underlying formula for all successful print magazines is relatively simple: Passion combined with deep knowledge, framed within the greater cultural understanding (i.e. what people actually want to read and buy at this particular moment in time). A product that not only informs and inspires, but entertains. Especially with niche and hyper-niche titles, readers are more than likely to be passionate experts in their own right. They are looking for knowledge above and beyond what they possess. The “formula” does not guarantee success but without its understanding, failure is guaranteed. The most successful publishers have an innate understanding of this.
Regarding a successful launch, we have one title in the Sports Category that was basically a “gear” catalog when first presented to me. At launch it was approximately 40% catalog, not including additional advertising. But the content was excellent. The launch issue sold 51%. They have since expanded their content extensively but to this day their best selling issue of the year is always the “gear review” issue. Again, the publisher is one of the top experts in his field. And readers trust that the message being printed and products being presented are high quality.
Now for the really bad failure. When I first started consulting over 20 years ago I signed a lifestyle magazine whose only concern was ad dollars, as I came to find out later. Content was secondary. Lowsingle digit sales on the launch issue. And when I say low, I mean LOW…3%. Naturally, they did not last for more than a couple of issues.
S. H.: Anything else you would like to add.
D.B.: It may sound ridiculous in the digital age but nothing has really changed on the newsstand side of the business since its inception. Print magazines are produced and sent through distribution channels to retail. I believe that this industry has in many respects lost sight of the fundamentals. We cannot forget that this is an organic business and the most important people within the distribution channel are the merchandisers. Proper title placement and rotation are absolutely essential. Without merchandisers who understand how to merchandise magazines as the unique products that they are, the industry suffers.
On the publishing side, I foresee almost all of the large publishers eventually going digital with print being reserved for special issues, and small independent publishers launching at an increasing rate. This movement started more than a decade ago but it will accelerate and become more prevalent in the future. Driven, ironically enough, by the digital age and the increasing ease of publishing in print.
S. H.: What keeps Doug up at night these days?
D. B.: Without question, the health of the newsstand distribution industry. With costs rising and large publishers continuing to go digital only, all levels are being squeezed. That being said, I am actually very positive about the future of newsstand. There will undoubtedly be more pain to come, but I believe that this industry will survive.
S. H.: Thank you.
Meet “Brainstorm Buddy”: Helping Put Your Ideas On Steroids. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Founder And Creator Linda Formichelli.
May 12, 2022Remember those days when you were told ideas come by the dozen and they are worth a dime? Well, with today’s inflation, they may even be worth less than a dime. Thus, when I heard about and tried Linda Formichelli’s Brainstorm Buddy, I was quick to reach out to her and request an interview. Anyone and any tool that can help enhance an idea and help execute it better is worthy of a Mr. Magazine™ interview. Using technology and AI to help enhance the quality of writing, reporting, and journalism is what pushed Ms. Formichelli to invest time, money, and effort to create Brainstorm Buddy.
An experienced writer, reporter, editor, and educator for over a quarter century, Ms. Formichelli came up with the idea while teaching a class called “Writing for Magazines.” She did not stop with the idea, but rather decided to act upon it, and execute it in a way that others can benefit and enhance their writing and journalistic abilities. And, as you and I know, we need that today more than ever.
The tool is very simple to use, but the work behind the scenes was not as simple as the end result. So, without any further ado, join me in this conversation with Linda Formichelli, founder and creator of Brainstorm Buddy.
Samir Husni: In a nutshell what is Brainstorm Buddy and who is its audience?
Linda Formichelli: Brainstorm Buddy tool is tool based on journalism best-practices that tells you if your content ideas are solid…before you sink a lot of time and money into developing (or pitching) them. You answer six questions and get a score of 1 – 100, and if your topic could use some improvement, the tool offers customized advice. For example, it can tell you if your idea is too broad, not relevant enough, weak overall, etc.
On the surface it may look like your goal is “get all A’s or you lose,” but that’s actually not the case. Some elements depend on other elements, and sometimes there are ways to shore up an idea that’s weak in one area by improving a different area. Brainstorm Buddy also accounts for evergreen ideas, which are those ideas than aren’t especially unique or timely, but you almost have to publish them because people are always interested; for example, “walk off the weight” for a women’s magazine or “how to budget” for a bank brand.
The tool is meant for anyone whose job or business depends on them coming up with a fairly constant stream of content ideas. The very first iteration, which was just a list I created in 2005, was meant for freelance writers who were pitching article ideas to magazines. Over time I adjusted it to include content professionals, both on staff and freelance, and then I realized it applies to other creative professionals, like podcasters, as well. Most of the verbiage in Brainstorm Buddy is geared toward writers, but I tried to change it up a little bit to be inclusive, and you can also extrapolate the examples into any medium.
S.H.: Why did you decide to create BB?
L.F.: In short, I needed a way to codify the “rules of good ideas,” which I had internalized through years of experience, in a way that anyone could use.
S.H.: As a writer/author/journalist yourself, how do you think this tool helps?
L.F.: Brainstorm Buddy takes the knowledge that veteran writers have accumulated in their brains through many hard years of experience, and presents it in a format that anyone can take advantage of. With Brainstorm Buddy, you don’t need ten years of developing content and pitching publications and businesses under your belt to know how to develop a salable idea—you can just run it through Brainstorm Buddy, get a score, and see suggestions for improving the topic if needed.
For creatives like content writers, journalists, podcasters, and so on, ideas are the coin of the realm. I like to say, “No ideas = no money.” But it’s not just ideas they need—they need good ideas, and those are hard to come by. Brainstorm Buddy helps take away some of that stress of needing to be always coming up with engaging, interesting, useful, relevant content ideas.
It took a while, but over time the content industry collectively realized that to be authoritative and trustworthy, content needs to be based in journalism best practices. Because Brainstorm Buddy was born out of a journalism class, it helps not just magazine writers, but other types of content professionals as well.
S.H.: Can you tell me the invention/creation process of BB? It seems, as I mentioned, very simple to use, but what is behind the simplicity in use?
L.F.: Brainstorm Buddy originated from a class I started teaching around 2005 called Write for Magazines, where I taught writers how to generate salable article ideas and how to pitch them to magazines. At that time I had been earning a living writing mainly for magazines for eight years, and I had sent hundreds of pitches.
The idea generation part of the class was challenging because there was a lot of confusion around what went into a salable idea. Many people were very unclear on the concept, and when I critiqued their ideas they would often want to just throw them out and start all over again—even though my stance was always that you can take almost any idea and make it salable if you fine-tune it enough.
The first thing I did to make it easier for my students was to create a list of six criteria that every idea needed to have. I had internalized these criteria over my years of pitching and writing for magazines, but it was difficult to explain to students what a good idea was until I was able to codify these criteria on paper.
That did help, because I could then look at a student’s article idea, run it through the six criteria, explain where the idea was lacking, and offer suggestions for bolstering the areas of weakness. And a lot of my students had success! I had students with zero previous credits breaking into magazines like Woman’s Day and Reader’s Digest Canada. I still have writers emailing me to tell me that I helped them launch their career.
Then, a couple of years ago, after I had moved more into the content writing arena, I created a toolkit called the Content Calendar Playbook. This was meant for on-staff content professionals who needed be constantly creating ideas for blog posts, white papers, social media posts, guides, and so on. It included video walk-throughs where I brainstormed ideas almost in real time—I had some rough ideas ahead of time that I fine-tuned and fleshed out live on the video. I thought this would help show users that a content idea is not just a “one and done” thing, where you come up with something and it’s either 100% great or you throw it out and start over.
I also wanted to include my list of the six criteria from the Write for Magazines class in the Content Calendar Playbook guide…but I realized it needed some tweaking. I realized that some things really were more important than others, so it wasn’t fair to say you need all six of them in equal amounts—or that you really need all six of them at all.
So I created an inverted pyramid-style “filter” where the most important criterion was at the top and the less important, nice-to-have criteria were toward the bottom.
That worked out better. But as I developed the toolkit and the filter, I knew it was even more complicated than that. However, it seemed that a formula that really hit on all the right criteria in all the right amounts and combinations would be too “fiddly” to explain and use…so I decided it would be useful to create a simple app that would help users figure out if their content idea was any good.
My husband has a math degree and is a former freelance writer, so I got him to help me hash out the different scoring weights and dependencies and turn it all into a numeric formula.
S.H.: How can folks access BB and is it available for anyone?
L.F.: Brainstorm Buddy is available to anyone at www.brainstormbuddyapp.com for a monthly or annual subscription. If you go for the annual subscription, you get two months free. I plan to raise the price little by little over time as I build in more features.
S.H.: Any additional info you wish to add?
L.F.: If you plan to try out Brainstorm Buddy, I recommend first reading my article on how to ensure an accurate score. When I beta tested the tool, I saw an awful lot of very high scores, which didn’t really jibe with what I saw when I was teaching and coaching writers live. I realized that we’re all very enamored with things we create; in fact there’s a term for it: the IKEA Effect.
The article is meant to help combat the IKEA Effect; it walks users of Brainstorm Buddy through steps that will help them look at their ideas with a critical eye—just as an editor, client, or reader would. I’m also working on a video for that page in case some people would rather watch than read.
I have lots of plans for improving Brainstorm Buddy. I so appreciate the early adopters, and want to make sure they get their money’s worth and more! Right now I’m working on videos for each results page. The videos will include different examples from the written advice, so if you want you can both watch the video and read the copy, and not get the same examples twice.
As a long-time writer for service magazines, I know how useful it is to include lots of relevant examples, because you never know which one will really “land” with someone. I try to make the advice more actionable by using examples from different content areas, such as brand content, consumer magazines, trade magazines, and even podcasting.
I’m also looking into moving to a platform where Brainstorm Buddy users can get their scores and the advice emailed to them, and where they can share their scores on social media.
People’s ideas and scores will never be shared, but I plan to aggregate the data for research and education purposes. That way I can help writers and content pros even more by sharing information on, say, idea trends, average scores, the most common problems with ideas, etc.
I’d love to eventually incorporate Flip-Pay, which is a system where you can pay per use instead of having to get a subscription. A lot of publications use Flip-Pay to let people pay for access to a single article. Of course, it will be cheaper to get a Brainstorm Buddy subscription, but there will always be people who are certain they want to use it just once or twice, and who don’t want to commit. I have a proposal from Flip-Pay, but right now it’s above my pay grade.
Finally, I also started a blog that’s all about great content ideas at http://www.brainstormbuddyapp.com/blog.
S.H.: And my typical last question: what keeps Linda up at night these days?
L.F.: I hope the answer doesn’t have to be current-events related; if I even get started on that I won’t sleep for a week.
I’m always trying to balance “just being” with my natural need to be constantly creating. I retired from writing over a year ago, and somehow I ended up as busy as ever: I’m not only working on Brainstorm Buddy, but I started a referral network of freelance writers, started teaching myself to oil paint, took on a ton of home improvement jobs, and started acting. I’m also always extra-invested in whatever my 13-year-old son is into, which right now is weight training and football. So I’m often up at night worrying about one of these things, or worrying because I’m worrying about these things when I should be retired. But I just love all these creative activities!
S.H.: Thank you.
Protecting Your Brand. A Mr. Magazine™ Musing… From The Vault.
May 10, 2022The following is a column I wrote for Content magazine back in 2008. Although it has been 14 years since I wrote it, I still stand by every word in it. Enjoy this journey through the Mr. Magazine™ Vault.
Protecting the Brand
Six (plus one) easy ways to know your customer’s customer
Content Magazine Issue 03 Spring 2008
The most essential objective on the mind of any marketing director or head of a company is protecting the brand. This is paramount because companies must ensure their brand is not tarnished. That challenge becomes a huge responsibility on the shoulders for any individuals launching custom publications. If you fail to understand and help promote your customer’s brand in the proper way, the only thing the future holds for you, your marketing director or your media company is disaster.
There is no better way to protect and promote a brand than by understanding the customer’s customer. Knowing the people your custom publication targets is important to your success as a custom publisher, but success can only be guaranteed if you know the advertisers that are targeting your audience as well.
One of the simple questions I always ask people is, “Who is your audience?” Without really knowing who it is you are trying to reach, it is impossible to be successful at custom publishing. When I hear clients telling me that “everybody” is their audience, I know they haven’t even begun to do their homework. Before you attempt to create a custom publication, here are six plus one easy steps to consider:
1. Know the brand. This may sound elementary, but if the brand becomes unclear or gets diluted, it will lead to failure of the brand across the board and media outlets. You must know the brand inside out, upside down, forward and backward. It’s not enough to just know the brand you are working with from a marketer’s standpoint. You have to know it from the customer’s standpoint as well. Become a user of the brand, and if you aren’t the target demographic, find someone in your company who is.
2. Humanize the brand. You know the brand front and back; the next step is to make it warmer and more approachable than a concept. Imagine that soft drink, that pair of shoes, whatever product it may be, as a human being. Is it young or old? Rich or poor? Male or female? If you have taken my advice and have worked to know your audience better, then you should be able to identify the exact demographic and psychographic information about the human being that your brand has transformed into. Who does this human being want to have a conversation with? Once you have humanized your brand, it is much easier to create a voice for it.
3. Identify the voice. By combining the vision and the value of the brand, it becomes easier to create its voice. Is the voice preaching? Teaching? Conversational? Confrontational? Storytelling? You name it. Humanizing the brand isn’t enough. You have to take it further and come to a realization of how to protect the voice of the brand.
4. Identify the prototype person (if there is such a thing). Now that you have identified the voice of the brand, you need to identify who will be carrying on a conversation with it. A good way to think about it is if the humanized pair of shoes or the humanized soft drink came knocking on the door, would you welcome it in? You have to identify who will respond to the product. It will be easier to pair advertisers with your customers if you know who is involved in this conversation and exactly what they are like.
5. Think of the conversation that will take place. Once you have the humanized brand and the prototype person that will be holding a conversation, you need to think about the conversation that will take place. What will they talk about? Custom publishing has multifaceted goals, from the creation and retention of customers to the engagement of customers. Which of these facets applies? Also, how long will the conversation take?
6. Find the addictive elements of the conversation. What makes the prototype customer ask the humanized brand more questions? What aspects of their conversation make the customer more engaged? Find out what will make that prototype customer come back for more. In this day of brand dilution, not providing your customers with an addictive, exclusive and timely yet timeless conversation will do nothing but make the engagement between the brand and the customer brief. And when that happens, customers have no other choice but to look other places for the conversation they need, want and desire.
7. And above all, a dash of good luck. Why seven steps and not six? Because I believe seven is a much better number than six. Hope your next project will excel with these easy seven steps.
Until next time… all my best
Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
Magazine Media Center
Preserving the Past, Present, and Future of Magazine Media
samir.husni@gmail.com
In Magazine Publishing, There’s Nothing More Exciting Than The “Launch.” An Excerpt From Our Wisconsin Magazine. From The Mr. Magazine™ Vault.
May 3, 2022
Our Wisconsin magazine is approaching its tenth anniversary in 2023. In its second issue there was an editorial talking about the “joys of magazine publishing.” I found myself emailing my friend Roy Reiman, Publisher of the new magazine Our Wisconsin, and Mike Beno, the magazine editor, to ask their permission to reprint parts of the introduction to the second issue of the magazine. So without any further ado, here is an excerpt from the February/March issue of Our Wisconsin magazine:
In magazine publishing, there’s nothing more exciting than the “launch.” Not many other things in business come close to this kind of adrenalin rush.
You begin by coming up with an idea or concept for a magazine you feel is “entirely different”. You’re sure potential subscribers have never seen anything like this before.
So you spend months (in our case, we began last spring) planning the format, the design and mostly the content. And then you start gathering that content…which isn’t easy when you don’t have a publication to showanyone. You just have to wave your hands a lot and write lengthy descriptions of what you plan to do.
Then you pull all this together…sort through hundreds of pictures and ideas for articles (some terrific, some not even close)…write and design 68 pages…and finallyput the first issue on the press, printing enough to “test the market”….
And then you wait.
And it drives you crazy. You wait for more than a week for the first response…any response, to see what total strangers think of your “baby”.
“Inventing” a magazine is much more personal than inventing a lawn mower or a toothbrush. It’s more revealing of who you are; it’s an extension of your personality. There’s a lot of you between those pages. So the fear of rejection is greater.
After you put that sample issue in the mail, you’re like a field goal kicker with the game on the line, with its heel or hero element. So you wait as the ball sails…for a long week or more.
If, when the early responses begin trickling in, you learn readers don’t like the first issue, it hurts. To a degree, it’s as though you learned they don’t like you.
But when you learn they like it–and some people even say they love it–wow! That ball is sailing through the middle of the uprights, and every subscription is a pat on the back.
I love magazines, and I love magazine launches even more. That is no secret. So, when I acquire a new magazine or read a story about a magazine launch, the urge to share my love with the whole wide world is overwhelming.
A revised copy of the aforementioned blog was first published on March 30, 2013.
Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
Magazine Media Center
samir.husni@gmail.com
Newborns And The Life Cycle Of Magazines. A Grandpa Perspective… A Mr. Magazine™ Musing.
May 1, 2022Today, I am the proud grandpa of seven bundles of joy. The youngest, Sophia, just turned one and the oldest Elliott is now 14. When Michael, my second grandchild, was born I wrote a blog on April 26, 2011 that is as true today as it was 11 years ago… here is a repost of that blog. Enjoy.
I am sure you’ve heard this simile before: “Launching a new magazine is like giving a birth to a new baby.”
Well, I had the opportunity to put this simile to the test this month, and I promise this will be one of the very few times I bring personal and family issues to the blog. But as long as it is relevant, I figured why not?
My second grandson was born April 8. Baby Michael had difficulty breathing on his own (which meant we all had difficulty breathing). So, for ten days or so, the joys of birth turned into the agony of survival; and that my friends, is what led to this particular topic — the life cycle of new magazines.
When I have heard people use the aforementioned simile, I used to take it for granted.
However, I gave it a lot of thought during the past three weeks, and decided to compare human life with the life of a new magazine. After all, I have been preaching and teaching the importance to humanize media, particularly print, for years now. Without any further delay, here are the life cycles of a new magazine:
The Joys and Pleasures of Conception
Consider the A-HA! moment when you get the idea for a new magazine and the pleasure you feel, the joy that makes you rush and share the news about your idea with others. It is the same as the pleasures of making love hoping to conceive and have a baby.
It is the act of conceiving that brings all the joy and pleasure to the couple, the same as the act of coming up with an idea you think is going to be worth a million bucks! Many folks call me or email me daily with ideas they just conceived and want to share the news, seek advice or start the planning process of the “birth” of this new baby. It is rare during this stage that any negative thoughts come to mind. It is all about new beginnings and the joy of the moment at hand.
The Pains of Labor
Giving birth is not as much fun as conceiving. It does not take a genius or even a man to understand that. Women know it and feel it. Giving birth is hard labor, but the pains of labor are an important part of the life cycle of that newborn, whether a human or a magazine. After months of nurturing and tender loving, the time comes to give birth.
The pains of labor are well-documented and need no explanation. Getting that first issue out, meeting the deadlines and hoping all is A-OK are all part of the life cycle. It is the same with the mother and baby. You have to go through the pains of labor before you are able to enjoy and celebrate the birth, which leads us to the next stage of the life cycle of new magazines.
The Celebration of Birth
While the pleasures of conception may last a few moments, the celebration of birth is supposed to last a lifetime. With a new birth, you are only thinking positive thoughts, happy thoughts. Excitement is in the air and all around you. You are so proud of your new baby, new magazine.
You check every part of the baby; you check every page of the magazine. In most cases, you are there at the printer waiting for that first signature to come out from the presses. You hold it in your hands exactly like a mother holds the baby for the first time. Birth means celebration. Your future freezes at the present moment and the world gets reduced to your surroundings and the new creature (baby or magazine) at hand. You do not want any interruptions of that moment of celebration.
Then, as if lightning strikes, reality hits — and all of a sudden, you are not alone. You discover that the joy of celebration is just the beginning to the next step of the life cycle of the newborn — the fight for survival.
The Fight for Survival
It is a jungle out there. There are so many magazines and there are so many babies in the world. You have to carve your own niche. If the baby can’t breathe on his or her own, your entire world stops. You change course and plans. Your new magazine is out, but now you have to put it in the hands of the distributors. The tender, loving care you’ve given your new creation is no longer in your hands. Someone else is in charge.
You feel like you are losing control, and the doctors — the distributors — are in charge of that newborn. The baby must fight for survival. The new magazine must fight for survival.
The big difference here is new babies, thank God, have a much higher survival rate that new magazines. Here is where the similarities end: Survival rate for new magazines is less than two in 10 after four years of publishing.
Thank goodness for human life. We age much better than magazines, but in both cases we have to start the journey of life.
The Journey of Life
As in any creation, life does not stop at birth. Life continues, day after day, issue after issue. The journey of new magazine launches starts slow, very slow, and progresses as those new magazines try to develop customers who count, thus giving the magazine a long journey in life.
Folks in our publishing industry now plan their new launches around the 11-to-13-year life span: Three years to establish the magazine and lose money in the process of building the magazine base; four years of solid growth and money making; three to five years of reaching a plateau and one final year to prepare the demise of the publication.
Thank God the journey of life for new babies is not the same as the journey of life for magazines. The simile ends with the beginning of life. The journey, my friends, is a completely different story. Let the never-ending story begins.
For the record, this blog has been approved by Mr. Magazine Jr.™ and big brother to baby Michael, Mr. Elliott himself.
Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
Magazine Media Center
samir.husni@gmail.com
Mr. Magazine 