More Than 1,200 Bookazines And At Least 71 Magazines Were Launched Last Year.
Dr. Jen Ashton, Full Pour, GeN 3, Greenwood Ave., Highlights Brain Play, Nuts, OVR, The B,Tezza, And Trails Are The 10 Most Notable Launches…
2023 could easily go down in history as the year of the bookazine. More than 1,200 titles were launched last year covering every subject or personality under the sun (dead or alive, may I add). However, in the midst of this ocean of bookazines, there were also some brave souls who decided to buck the trend and publish magazines with frequency.
Leading the pack was the publisher of TV Guide magazine , which in March brought the only monthly new title in 2023, TV Insider, a magazine for those who want to know what to stream next. That daring monthly launch and the need for a television streaming guide in the midst of all the streaming platforms available , made it easy for Mr.Magazine™ to name TV Insider the 2023 launch of the year. (Look for my interview with the president of TV Insider Tony Frost and its group editorial director Michael Fell on Friday).
And the 10 most notable launches of 2023, with quotes from their first editorial, in alphabetical order are:
Dr. Jen Ashton: “ From menopause to mental health, from sleep to sugar control, from thinning hair to skin rejuvenation, from weight loss meds to workouts that work – I’ve covered health topics you’ve told me are important to you. I hear you, and I am fluent in women’s health.” Dr. Ashton, Editor- In-Chief.
Full Pour: “Here at Full Pour, we love a good glass as much as anyone. Whether it be wine or beer, a spirited sip, an infused creation, a zero-proof selection or even a great cup of coffee or tea, we’re into it all – true beverage lovers through and through.” Lauren Buzzeo, Editor and Publisher.
GeN 3: “ While well on its way to becoming an overused buzzword, Web3 is more than just passing hype. The fundamental concepts behind this arguably overused term are enduring and impactful… While developers continue to create and build, GeN3 steps forward to showcase the latest developments and innovations as they happen. We are here to tell the story of Web3.” Sarah Block, Editor
Greenwood Ave.: “We seek to uplift entrepreneurs standing on the shoulders of those who came before us and, in doing so, inspire the next generation of Black makers, doers, and dreamers not just in Tulsa, but around the world. Greenwood Ave. is everywhere.” Trey Thaxton, Founder.
Highlights Brain Play: “Are you mad about mazes, loco for logic puzzles, and bonkers for board games? If you’re like us, you will love them all. As “puzzle people,” we are not afraid to take on a challenge. We know that every problem has a solution, and we are determined to figure it out.” The Editors
Nuts: “ Fashion magazines have traditionally sold dreams. The mood of Nuts is anxiety and malaise—the abortive night out, the workout gone wrong, the branch of Footlocker about to get looted. Yet there’s something else deep within it, too: for one, the hope that the 21st -century angst expressed by the anonymous voices haunting these monochrome pages might one day be dispelled.” Alex Needham. (Nuts editor and creative director is Richard Turley).
OVR: “ OVR is about getting out there in our vehicles to responsibly explore and discover the world around us. Whether we’re forging ahead into the backwoods or taking a well known route on a favorite road trip, it’s all about getting out and enjoying the ride as well as the destination.” Jerry Tsai, Editorial Director.
TEZZA: “The app started with the two of us, following a passion and building something together just because we love it. The fact that it has grown so much and is used by millions of creators around the world is just as humbling as it is invigorating… And with that we give TEZZA MAGAZINE Issue 01. This will be the first of many and we can’t wait to feature more artists and creators in the years to come.” xx Tezza & Cole, The Founders.
The B: “ Perhaps you are visiting for the first time, or maybe you attended summer camp or college nearby and now have property in the surrounding area. Or you’re lucky enough to be a local. Whatever the case, I expect you relish our creative culture, outdoor pursuits, and good living. The Berkshires speaks to you.” Michelle Thorpe Petricca, Publisher
Trails: “ This magazine is a return to the established route – quality journalism, printed in a real magazine, with a focus on the adventures that encourage us all to get outside – and our chance to improve on it.” Ryan Wichelns, Editor-In-Chief.
And there you have the cream of the crop from 2023. Looking forward to a healthy and prosperous new magazine year in 2024. Remember, if it is not ink on paper, it is not a magazine.
From the Read, Beat, (… And Repeat) podcast by Steve Tarter:
Media folks have been taking questions about the magazine industry to “Mr. Magazine” for decades. Samir Husni, 70, now retired after more than 30 years as a professor at the University of Mississippi, is still the oracle when it comes to magazines with his Mr. Magazine blog (https://mrmagazine.me/). “It’s the world of bookazine these days,” said Husni, referring to the single-issue publications that turn up at checkout counters across America on subjects from Amazon to Zorro.
In 2023 at least 1,000 bookazine titles hit the marketplace, he said. In addition to filling ballparks, Taylor Swift led in the number of bookazines published this year. “Jesus ran second,” he told Steve Tarter. The bookazine concept succeeds with consumers despite a high cover price (that now ranges between $14 and $15), said Husni. “It’s just one issue so there’s no long commitment. If you’re interested in going on a cruise, you’ll pay $15 for a copy of ‘Cruises on the Cheap,'” he said. “The age of the mass magazines is gone,” said Husni, who recently donated his vast collection of magazines (five storage units worth) to his alma mater, the University of Missouri. While Samir remains a supporter of the great magazines of the 20th century, citing Life, Reader’s Digest, TV Guide, and National Geographic, he’s not ready to shovel dirt on the printed page. “As long as we have human beings, we’ll have print,” he said.
“Magazine advertising and print publications are definitely going to be a part of our mix. Digital is definitely going to grow. It’s not one or the other, it’s both.”
“I think the weekly is now more of a story behind the story if people want to get a little more in depth on what’s going on. It’s also a great summary vehicle, especially on the celebrity and entertainment side of things.”
As I sit in front of my computer today, I have a very deep need to tell everyone how blessed I am. This interview with the inimitable Doug Olson is my first since having a massive heart attack and three stents placed in my heart’s arteries that really showed me how much I love my family, my life, and my work. While recovering, of which I am very thankful to God, I have been reflecting on what makes Mr. Magazine™ Mr. Magazine™, if you will. I have found that the love and care of my entire family is my number one possession in life. And the title of Mr. Magazine™ isn’t just a moniker. It’s also who I am. I’ve missed the words, pages, and smell of ink on paper. It’s in my blood and it’s who I am. And I am very thankful. I’ve missed you all.
And now Doug Olson.
There is no doubt that Mr. Magazine™ loves interviewing magazine media people and Doug Olson definitely falls under that category. Prior to his role today as President & Chief Media Officer of a360media, the media division of accelerate360, he was President of the Magazine Division at Meredith Corporation, the leading multi-platform media company in the country. Throughout his career, he has held a variety of senior leadership positions in technology integration, strategic planning, and service delivery. In short, the man knows his way around magazines.
In this interview, we talk about magazines and magazine media, what he thinks they mean to the world today and where they’re headed in the future. He marvels at how successful bookazines have become and talks about the cultures that a360 is maintaining. It’s an informative discussion and I invite you to sit down, read and enjoy.
And now the complete interview with Doug Olson…
But first the soundbites:
On 2023, in terms of magazines and magazine media, especially for a360media: I think 2023 was a little bit more like 2022, input costs that went up are still there and are slowly starting to come down. I would say the consumer has held in there with us, both from a subscription standpoint and at newsstand.
On the amount of weeklies a360media has: Yes, we have a lot of weeklies and obviously that’s something that we’re constantly looking at. As long as the consumer holds in there with us we’ll continue to provide them and when the consumer shows signs that they don’t need a product anymore, we’ll make some changes.
On the role of a digital weekly in today’s digital age: I think the weekly is now more of a story behind the story if people want to get a little more in depth on what’s going on. It’s also a great summary vehicle, especially on the celebrity and entertainment side of things.
On the different companies they use to produce their bookazines: At the end of the day we want premium content. So we’ve gone to partners. People that have really good content in some of these genres. We think that they can do it at a very affordable price. And they like it because they get paid for their content and we like it because we know we have a better than average chance of it working out for us as well.
On whether bookazines are a reflection of American society: I believe that’s a true statement. If the consumer finds something that they’re really passionate about, what we call enthusiast brands or participation brands, something that they’re really into, they’re willing to pay their hard-earned money for it.
On whether bookazines will dominate a360 next year: In 2024, we’re probably going to reduce our number of releases and put more draw out on things that we think have a high probability of selling. And so would you rather have 500 that sell an average of X or would you rather have 400 that sell at a higher than X average.
On what his hope are for the women’s weekly magazines that a360 has: When you look at Woman’s World and First for Women, we think they have a tremendous upside. The digital properties of those are still relatively small. Both are two of the top-selling magazines in the country from a units and dollars perspective, with Woman’s World being the biggest. First for Women is 17 times per year, a tri-weekly, if you will. So we think they have a big opportunity.
On having ads in the bookazines: That’s really a content play there for the consumer, so you’re not going to see advertising, unless it’s really something special, within the pages of the magazine. Now the covers, especially Cover 4, is something that we have been talking with some of our marketing partners about and they’re really trying it. But it’s working out really well for them.
On the revenue split between print and digital at a360: Our traditional business is still larger than our digital business. But I will tell you that I believe we will have big growth in our digital business in 2024.
On being at a360 for two years now and whether it has been easy for him: Well, year one, as you know, is nothing but constant inputs going up, so that’s always fun when you’re a magazine-centric, newsstand-centric portfolio. And then year two has really been a lot of Google changes, a lot of Meta changes. As you’ve read, a lot of people’s digital business has kind of stalled out in 2023 and we were not immune to that.
On what he is most proud of accomplishing so far: I would say that the leadership team that we have now in this organization and all of the changes that we’ve made to the culture.
On the future of quarterly magazines with celebrity partnerships such as Drew with Drew Barrymore: I’m a big partnership guy and I love those types of collaborations. Better with Dr. Jen Ashton (now Dr. Jen Ashton magazine) was very successful right out of the gate. Drew has really gotten a lot of great momentum, not only in the advertising community, but with the consumer.
On whether he thinks there’s still room for print in this digital age: Yes, absolutely. There’s always room for print. It’s just smaller and you have to be smart about how you do it. And you have to go where the consumer wants to be. And that’s what we’re trying to do. I think the biggest difference in what we’re doing and others have done in the past is if something isn’t working, we’re willing to give up on it and pivot to something else.
On whether he ever compares his job at a360media to Meredith: Probably more than some of the people who work for me want to hear. (Laughs) There’s some great people who work now for Dotdash Meredith, people who made me very successful in that role for many years that I would do anything for. So I wish them nothing but success and I think it’s going to take all of us.
On the future of tabloids: I think the tabloids have a very loyal audience. And it’s really a newsstand play. The advertising that they get is more direct response. I think they’ve done quite well through some really difficult times in the economy.
On the trust factor in print: The one thing I always found fascinating, no matter what the person’s background was, they always felt like if they had their own magazine that was the ultimate badge of honor.
On anything he’d like to add: How did we possibly get through the last several months without Mr. Magazine and his trademark being a part of our lives? In all seriousness, we’re so glad you’re back. Many people have been praying for you. And we missed you.
On what keeps him up at night: The biggest thing that keeps me up at night is what is Google doing? Because all of us trying to build our digital business, keeping up with Google used to be tough. Now it’s a full time job.
And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Doug Olson, President & Chief Media Officer of a360media.
Samir Husni: How would you describe 2023, in terms of magazines and magazine media, especially for a360media?
Doug Olson: I think 2023 was a little bit more like 2022, input costs that went up are still there and are slowly starting to come down. I would say the consumer has held in there with us, both from a subscription standpoint and at newsstand.
The nice surprise for us was that print advertising has actually held up pretty well. I know there has been a lot of secular decline over the last 10 years in magazine advertising and we’ve had a good year there.
And our Specials business continues to grow. We’re doing really well there. I think we’re somewhere at the 35% or 36% of every single unit sold at the newsstand comes from a360 media and about 30% of every dollar spent, all of the revenue, comes from a360 media. So we’ve really done a lot of good work on the newsstand, especially with our Specials.
Samir Husni: And you’re still the only major magazine media company in the States that has nine weeklies?
Doug Olson: Yes, we have a lot of weeklies and obviously that’s something that we’re constantly looking at. As long as the consumer holds in there with us we’ll continue to provide them and when the consumer shows signs that they don’t need a product anymore, we’ll make some changes. We have made some changes in the last couple of years since I arrived here, but obviously we are keeping a close eye on everything.
Samir Husni: What’s the role of a print weekly in this digital age?
Doug Olson: I think the weekly is now more of a story behind the story if people want to get a little more in depth on what’s going on. It’s also a great summary vehicle, especially on the celebrity and entertainment side of things. It is hard to keep up with all of the news and who’s doing what and what releases are coming out and who’s starring in what television shows and what streaming services are available. So I think it’s a very good executive summary of what’s going on. But really the stories are more the stories behind the story. \
Samir Husni: You said your bookazines are exploding and yet when I look at them I see the rather large cover price. For example, the latest Taylor Swift with the collector’s poster was almost $18. And you’re also using so many different companies. I see Turnpike Media is doing some, Ten Media, Twenty-Two Media; can you explain how this works?
Doug Olson: That’s a great question and it’s by design. As you know from all the great work you’ve done in the industry, I’m a big believer in this bookazine format, the higher-priced, lower-frequency magazine, if you will. Our whole strategy is real simple: if we have owned and operated premium content, we will put bookazines out there under our owned and operated brands.
But really at the end of the day we want premium content. So we’ve gone to partners. People that have terrific content in some of these genres. We think that they can create it at a very affordable price. And they like it because they get paid for their content and we like it because we know we have a better than average chance of it working out for us.
But we take the risk. We take the risk on what the draw should be, where to distribute it, etc.? So it’s kind of a win/win. The content organizations get to be content houses and get paid for their great work and we do what we do and that’s take the risk and evaluate all of this.
Samir Husni: So it’s more like a freelance? You buy the content from them regardless of the situation?
Doug Olson: We have a couple of different business models, but we certainly have a pure- content house model where we’re just paying them to do content for us. And we also have some partners where they participate in the upside if there’s any profit. We’re very flexible on our approach to this and at the end of the day: if we think it can work for us and if it works for our partner, then we’re all in. So we’ve gone from a couple of hundred bookazines a few years ago to around 525 that we’ve put out this year in 2023.
Samir Husni: Bookazines are technically taking over the market. You have to search for a frequency-published publication anymore. We use to say that magazines were a reflection of American society, but today do you think it’s the bookazines that are the reflection?
Doug Olson: I believe that’s a true statement. If the consumer finds something that they’re really passionate about, what we call enthusiast brands or participation brands, something that they’re really into, they’re willing to pay their hard-earned money for it.
The trick now is this has all went down really from mass to niche and if you find the right niche… you know as well as I do that Taylor Swift and Barbie and some of these things in 2023 were absolutely on fire. We did way more around Barbie and Taylor Swift this year than we did around the Queen passing in 2022. We thought the Queen was a big event for the industry, but that was a rounding error compared to what Ms. Taylor Swift has done for the economy.
Samir Husni: I see you’ve brought out some big names. Are they in-house or are they freelancers? I know Bob Guccione Jr. did a Jesus magazine, he was the editor in chief, Steve Russell did a Cruise bookazine, Keith Blanchard is doing a lot of your own bookazines…are they all freelancers or something else?
Doug Olson: With our bookazines, we have a very small consumer revenue team that works on them. But almost everything else is either a partnership or freelance.
Samir Husni: It’s surprising to see all these titles; you said 525 this year?
Doug Olson: Yes.
Samir Husni: And if you add to that what Dotdash Meredith and Hearst is doing, bookazines are now the movers and shakers of the magazine industry. And you’re not only a publisher, but also a distributor. So I ask you, how do you see 2024 lining up? Do you see this trend continuing? Are we going to have 750 bookazines from you next year?
Doug Olson: It’s a portfolio play, right? Not everything you put out is going to be profitable. You hope that the majority of it is, but you never know, You get to a certain size and you are really only limited by display at retail. If you have enough display you can continue to put out a lot of product.
In 2024, we’re probably going to reduce our number of releases and put more draw out on things that we think have a high probability of selling. And so would you rather have 500 that sell an average of X or would you rather have 400 that sell at a higher than X average.
With input cost being so high, we also have something that we call our fast reprint strategy. It’s really a replenishment strategy. So if you and I come up with an idea and we decide to put a special out around beautiful photography in Mississippi and we put it out there and it sells really well right out of the gate, the first week or two, we’ll turn around and reprint it right away. Then replenish that if we need to, because on average these are mostly quarterlies, they tend to stay out around 80 to 90 days. So if we find something that looks like it’s going to be a hit with the consumer, then we want to do more of it.
Samir Husni: As I look at your portfolio, I see that you just brought Liz Vaccariello back to be editor in chief of Woman’s World and First for Women after Carol retired. You’re the only owner of women’s weeklies in this country, what’s your hope for these magazines?
Doug Olson: When you look at Woman’s World and First for Women, we think they have a tremendous upside. The digital properties of those are still relatively small. Both are two of the top-selling magazines in the country from a units and dollars perspective, with Woman’s World being the biggest. First for Women is 17 times per year, a tri-weekly, if you will.
That audience is quite different than where a lot of our competition is aimed. If you really look at the content of those magazines, it’s really mainstream women, that those products are aimed at; the C & D counties, the more rural areas, the Midwest, not big cities like some of the competition.
I have a lot of experience with the big city targets as well, but we really think that what we call the Women’s Lifestyle Group has a lot of upside so we brought Liz Vaccariello in and she’s honestly a hall of famer, if you will. With her EIC experience on Prevention, Reader’s Digest, Parents, Real Simple, and PEOPLE magazine; she has a ton of experience in this publishing world and a lot of success.
And we also brought in Cece Ryan, who was the publisher at PEOPLE magazine and before that the publisher at Real Simple and she’s going to lead our sales and marketing efforts. So we’re really throwing our shoulder into our Women’s Lifestyle Group because it serves the market really well already, but can serve it even better and be bigger and more important to our portfolio.
Samir Husni: I see some of the bookazines are now carrying a back page ad; is that going to be a change, in terms of starting to have advertising in the bookazines?
Doug Olson: That’s really a content play there for the consumer, so you’re not going to see advertising, unless it’s really something special, within the pages of the magazine. Now the covers, especially Cover 4, is something that we have been talking with some of our marketing partners about and they’re really trying it. But it’s working out really well for them.
You probably saw Skechers is on the back of several of our specials and bookazines… SAMIR HOLDS UP A BACK COVER OF ONE OF THE SIPS… yes, there it is on Martha Stewart. Skechers has been a great partner of ours and they continue to experiment with new things and I think it’s working out pretty well for them.
But we’re going to be really respectful. We know that when the consumer is paying that kind of money for a content product that they’re expecting a lot of content, so the advertising will be, at least at this point, really on the covers and we’ll try to make it relevant to why the person is buying it in the first place.
Samir Husni: Can you give me an idea what the split is in revenue between digital and print at a360media?
Doug Olson: Our traditional business is still larger than our digital business. But I will tell you that I believe we will have big growth in our digital business in 2024. And I would explain it to you this way: I’ve worked on some very large brands that had their fair share and it was really hard to figure out how you were going to get the next five percent out of some of those brands. They were so large and so successful to the advertising community. But we’re still working on getting our fair share.
When I came into the organization, I brought a lot of very accomplished leaders with me over the last couple of years. And we’re still trying to get our large chunk of “fair share.” So we’re not looking at three or four or five percent growth like everyone else is, we’re looking at how we can get 10, 15 or 20 percent growth. We still have a ways to go to get our fair share in the digital space. It’s definitely smaller than the traditional part of our magazine portfolio.
Samir Husni: You’ve been at a360 for almost two years now. Has it been a walk in a rose garden for you?
Doug Olson: Well, year one, as you know, was nothing but constant inputs going up, so that’s always fun when you’re a magazine-centric, newsstand-centric portfolio. Then year two has really been a lot of Google and Meta changes. As you’ve read, a lot of digital businesses have stalled out in 2023 and we were not immune to that.
But we feel like between the people we’ve brought in and the partnerships we’ve developed during the last six months that we’re really positioned well to get our fair share of the digital business. So you’ll see us talking a lot about our digital growth and at the same time, you also saw the growth in our bookazine side of the business has been substantial. And that made up for some of the erosion we’ve seen or secular decline we’ve seen on something like a weekly magazine.
Samir Husni: If you had to pick one thing that you’re proud of accomplishing during your two years at a360, what would that be?
Doug Olson: I would say that the leadership team that we have now in this organization and all of the changes that we’ve made to the culture. Obviously, you get measured as a leader in media today by your financial results. I think all of us are on the hot seat because it’s not a walk in the park, to use your words, to be in charge of these organizations. But we’ve held our own and we’ve put a team of leaders together here that are unbelievably talented and accomplished. I think the best for us is yet to come. We’re going to have an awesome 2024 and beyond.
I’m really excited for what they’ve done in a very short period of time. A lot of them have been here less than 10 or 11 months. They and their teams are so collaborative and there are a lot of really good people here. They just needed really good leadership and they now have that. So I’m most proud of the leadership team and all they have done on the softer side of the business as far as changing the culture and getting the people to collaborate and be on board for what we’re trying to do.
Samir Husni: And you were one of the few who launched a few quarterlies besides the bookazines this year, including Better with Dr. Jennifer Ashton, Drew from Drew Barrymore, what do you think the future is for those type magazines?
Doug Olson: I’m a big partnership guy and I love those types of collaborations. Better with Dr. Jen Ashton (Better is now called Dr. Jen Ashton magazine) was very successful right out of the gate. Drew has builtup a lot of great momentum, not only in the advertising community, but with the consumer. The subscriptions with that one are doing great. So we’ll see more of that. I think that’s all part of the mix in this portfolio play that we call bookazines.
Samir Husni: So you still believe there is room for print in this digital age?
Doug Olson: Yes, absolutely. There’s always room for print. It’s just smaller and you have to be smart about how you do it. And you have to go where the consumer wants to be. And that’s what we’re trying to do. I think the biggest difference in what we’re doing and others have done in the past is if something isn’t working, we’re willing to give up on it and pivot to something else.
I think a lot of the big publishers in the past have been really hesitant and by the time they made that decision it was too late. We have a lot of performance indicators that we keep track of. Magazine advertising and print publications are definitely going to be a part of our mix. Digital is definitely going to grow. It’s not one or the other, it’s both.
Samir Husni: Do you ever compare your job at a360media to Meredith?
Doug Olson: Probably more than some of the people who work for me want to hear. (Laughs) There are some great people who work for Dotdash Meredith, people who made me very successful in that role for many years that I would do anything for. So I wish them nothing but success and I think it’s going to take all of us in this industry to do our part. We can’t be fighting each other, we have to keep a united front to the industry so they see that magazines still matter. And they’re still a great base to feed other platforms from a content perspective.
They’re just so different. We had all of this digital traffic, all of this data, and all of these huge brands when I was at Meredith and they made some decisions about which ones they wanted to go forward and which ones they didn’t, obviously, now that they’re under Dotdash.
Now I have a different portfolio that has different needs and different wants, if you will. We’re going to try and get our fair share of digital, but at the same time we still think, especially in the bookazine genre, that the consumer is really interested in something that they’re passionate about. And we’re trying to serve them as best we can. So, two different ends of the spectrum. Meredith was very subscription-driven and this organization is much more newsstand-driven. But they both needed advertising. So there’s a lot of similarities, but they come at it from different perspectives. Great people in both organizations.
Samir Husni: Any future for the tabloids? Someone told me the tabloids were the digital of print.
Doug Olson: I think the tabloids have a very loyal audience. And it’s really a newsstand play. The advertising that they get is more direct response. I think they’ve done quite well through some really difficult times in the economy. I’m not the expert in the tabloid business, but I can tell you that I have a lot of respect for the people who work on those titles. And they have a very loyal audience, so for the foreseeable future, they’re doing just fine.
Samir Husni: Any comment on the trust factor in print?
Doug Olson: I think I’ve told you this before when we’ve talked, but getting back to the partnership part of the bookazine business, I have always been fascinated. We had a lot of partners that had very successful television shows or other venues when I was at Meredith, someone like Martha Stewart.
But the one thing I always found fascinating, no matter what the person’s background was, they always felt like if they had their own magazine that was the ultimate badge of honor. With Joanna Gaines, I think she is most proud of her magazine The Magnolia Journal. At least, when I was there she said that all of the time. And if celebrities had something with their name on it, there was just something special about that.
I’m a big fan of magazines. We’ve all had to pivot. I don’t think the mass thing is a great idea. I wouldn’t launch a magazine that’s aimed at the masses in 2024. But if you find something 100,000 here or 200,000 there and do something really well, they’ll support it. And advertisers will come as you put together these audiences. It’s just a different way of doing it. You just have to be really patient and selective and put out premium content that the consumer is willing to spend their money on.
Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Doug Olson: How did we possibly get through the last several months without Mr. Magazine™ and his trademark being a part of our lives? In all seriousness, we’re so glad you’re back. Many people have been praying for you. And we missed you. We missed someone in the industry that still believes in it and still organizes all of us. I couldn’t be happier to be your first interviewee on your comeback. And I’m super glad that you’re back on the job.
Samir Husni: Thank you. I really appreciate that.
Samir Husni: My typical last question, what keeps you up at night?
Doug Olson: The biggest thing that keeps me up at night is what is Google doing? Because all of us trying to build our digital business, keeping up with Google used to be tough. Now it’s a full time job. You have to make sure that your team out in the field knows exactly what they’re doing because everyone is looking for partners, brand safety and everything else, it’s become the number one thing. Keeping up with your digital business is keeping up with Google.
Samir Husni: Thank you. Season’s Greetings and the best of the New Year. Below is a picture I took of a Blue jay celebrating the season. See you in 2024.
A great magazine founder and publisher died yesterday July 10, 2023. Phyllis Hoffman DePiano died yesterday leaving her publishing company, Hoffman Media (the little engine that could), to her twin sons who loved, adored, and worked with their mom. In 2017 Phyllis and her two sons spoke at one of my magazine conferences and my friend Linda Ruth was able to sum and write up their presentation. What follows is a tribute to a great lady and her story.
Phyllis Hoffman DePiano presents with son’s Brian Hart Hoffman and Eric Hoffman
In publishing, founder Phyllis Hoffman began, there are no rules, no manual on how to be a successful publisher. “When we started in 1983 I was clueless,” she told the audience. “I knew that needlework was huge; I knew there were not magazines. And that was pretty much all I knew.” Hoffman was laughed out of every printer but one. They had no concept of direct mail. “What we did was printed up little brochures for shipowners to put into customer bags, inviting the people to be a charter subscriber. We went to Atlantic Media show with nothing but a single poster. We knew our break-even—it would be 3500 subscribers, paid in full up front, and that’s how many we got for the first issue. So we knew we could go one year.” Additional subscribers began to trickle in, till one day, Phyllis remembered, that she went to the post office with her two-year old sons, and the box was empty. Her heart sank—until the postal clerk invited her to retrieve the sacks of mail in the back, too much to fit into her box. By end of first year they had 100,000 subscribers, a 95% renewal rate—and they were turning down advertisers. That’s right—with a 68 page magazine, 70% content, 30% advertising, there just wasn’t room in the book.
Brian Hoffman, one of the two-year-olds at the post office that day in 1983 and now a co-president of the company, took up the story with Southern Lady magazine, Hoffman’s first magazine to branch out from craft to lifestyle. “Our company’s growth has followed our conversation with our customers,” he explained. “We listen to what they want, what they need, and then we work to give it to them.” An important lesson that Brian shared was to be patient. “Creativity is important, and it’s exciting,” he said. “But don’t change for the sake of change. Readers don’t feel the need for constant change; they are looking to you for consistency, to give them what they need and love. It’s easy to get off course, but listening to your readers will put you back on.” Creativity is important, innovation is important, but Brian emphasized the need for creative constraint as well, and for listening to the readers and acknowledging what they want. “Put your content out there. You’ll soon know if it’s a success,” he said. “The readers will tell you.”
Eric Hoffman—the other twin boy, the other co-president—wound up with advice to the students in the audience. “I asked my young children what they would advise,” he said. “Be patient. Try hard. Work as a team. Help each other figure things out. It’s good advice,” he said. “Here at the ACT Experience, we’re a team, and we’re figuring out some big problems.” The lessons that Hoffman Media can bring include a belief and dedication to quality, in circulation, in editorial, in product, in audience. Hoffman runs each of its revenue streams as stand-alone profit centers—each has to make sense on its own, each must be a strong component of the whole. “The gimmicks built into the magazine business have caused a lot of problems,” he said. “We don’t give stuff away. Not to our subscribers, not to our advertisers. We work with our advertisers and prospects—the ones we believe belong in the mags. Just because they spend money doesn’t mean they belong with us. It keeps our business focused.” It is this focus, this understanding that they cant be all things to all people, that has guided Hoffman Media to a double-digit growth in a down market.
“This is an amazing business,” Eric finished. “All the dot coms are jealous of what we do. This is what we want to be doing 30 years from now.”
“The first issue is always the easiest issue to get out. The second issue is probably the hardest one that you’re ever going to do because it just doesn’t come as easy as the first one did. Then once you hit number three and four, and so on, then I think you get those processes down.”
“You asked something about print earlier. And why I’m still doing print. I still walk into neighborhood houses and see a copy of our magazine on the coffee table or see another magazine on a coffee table. And I was thinking to myself why do people keep this stuff right here? Why are they referencing this stuff on their coffee tables?”
A quarterly print publication that showcases one of the fastest growing cities of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Richardson Life Magazine (RLM) is as unique and interesting as Richardson, Texas itself. The magazine promotes upcoming events and connects people with their local neighbors while educating and informing them.
Mike Obert is a businessman extraordinaire and knew the voice and flavor of Richardson would bring people to the magazine like a pied piper. So along with his wife they decided now was the perfect time to breathe life into the dream. And so RLM was born.
Mr. Magazine™ hopes you enjoy this fascinating read with a man who is still a strong believer in print and proves it every time with his new magazine. The Mr. Magazine™ interview with Mike Obert, Publisher, RLM Magazine.
But first the sound bites:
On why he still believes in print and city/regional magazines in this day and age: I think print still resonates. And for doing city/regional type magazines, I think they’re extremely strong because I believe each city needs some sort of voice or flavor to go to for the information they want and need about some particular city.
On why now was the right time to publish this magazine: I think we’ve had success in some of the community magazines that we’ve done. And we just knew that the city that we were in needed that same sort of voice and there was nothing out there. We looked at it for probably two years and just decided to go ahead and launch this thing. And we’ve had tremendous response and feedback from people saying this is awesome.
On the many hats he wears and which he prefers; being a magazine publisher, ad guy, or outsource person: Probably a magazine publisher. I love that back-of-the-napkin strategy of putting numbers together. And should we do this story or this feature, and can we target these advertisers? So the publishing part to me is very exciting.
On whether it was a walk in a rose garden publishing this magazine or there were some challenges along the way:The launch of the magazine, because of the outsourcing that we do as well, probably made it a little bit easier for us to put it together because the engine was already there to put together a publication and get a website out.
On how an outsourcing company helps when launching a magazine: I think for me, the outsourcing provided us a lot of that back office-admin type stuff. Sending invoices, tracking payments, making sure ad copy was in. All those small little details that in the past for me has kept me up late at night.
On how he overcame any challenges with the magazine: I think it’s all process-oriented. Creating that process, even as you’re going through it, even if it’s an initial launch; when you’re going through that process you make sure that you’re documenting all the steps so that it’s easier for people to walk in. My take on any city/regional community type magazine that I’ve been a part of, is first off having that formula and the formula being what’s going to be my content?
On whether he and his team have ever questioned what was or was not in the magazine: I think you always kind of second guess it. I’m probably not a perfectionist. To me it’s always get it out, we can fix it and correct it. Print it. I’ve had a lot of conversations with my editor about the digital side of things and it doesn’t have to be perfect to get it out, because you can always change the digital side of things. The print side of things, I get it, let’s make sure that we’re not making a huge mistake or doing something that we don’t want to be out there.
On when someone asks him for advice on starting a new magazine, does he encourage or tell them they’ve lost their minds: I normally say, don’t do it. That’s the first thing I say, don’t do it. And then I say, why do you think you should do this? And then it’s what I said earlier. I think there’s been a lot of great editorial and content ideas that have been out there. It all comes down to that salesperson. And how are you going to generate revenue. A lot of people overlook that.
On how important it is to him to be a part of the community his magazine is about: I think it’s pretty important that they have the contacts, that they know the people to go after. I always tell people that I’m changing the world one quarter page at a time. I still sell ads. But I think I’m doing it not in an overbearing way. People know what my product is, and they know who I’m reaching.
On what he hopes to say about the magazine in a year: I would say a year from now that we’ll have a more clear formula for each issue. We’ve got a good blueprint in place. I think we’re still tweaking it a little bit, but as I said we don’t want to reinvent every issue. It doesn’t have to have something about new restaurants in Richardson or what new businesses have been launched around here.
On his busyness and when he sleeps: The outsourcing company has taken a ton of work off my plate. I’ve got my own personal executive assistant that does a lot of tasks for me. Before this call, I was on with her talking about the three things I need to get done today, including putting our digital issue up online and getting the social media plan ready for whenever issue number two drops. So all those kind of things are flowing through other people, which will free up the time that I have.
On any critique he’s had so far on the magazine: If I had any type of critique for issue number one it was the distribution and the circulation. Richardson is a town of 100,000, and we sent it to 15,000 people. Kind of cherry picked some of the different neighborhoods, more affluent neighborhoods. So if I had any kind of critique it was why didn’t you send it to 100,000 people? And that costs a lot of money. (Laughs) But that’s the only feedback that I’ve gotten on what I could have done differently.
On anything he’d like to add: There was one thing I was thinking about. I think you said something about print earlier. And why I’m still doing print. I still walk into neighborhood houses and see a copy of our magazine on the coffee table or see another magazine on a coffee table.
On what keeps him up at night: The price of paper. That keeps me up, though I think it’s kind of stabilized a little bit. From the business perspective there’s some things that I’m working on, such as some acquisitions. And I’m diligently working through a lot of spreadsheets. And it’s dipping my toe in the water versus jumping cannonball style in the deep in and let’s go. So I think that’s the main thing that’s been keeping me up at night right now, how fast do I want to go?
And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Mike Obert, Publisher, RLM Magazine.
Samir Husni: You’re a man of many hats, including now publishing a magazine for the city of Richardson, Texas. What’s the idea behind publishing a new city magazine, and specifically in print in this day and age?
Mike Obert: I think print still resonates. And for doing city/regional type magazines, I think they’re extremely strong because I believe each city needs some sort of voice or flavor to go to for the information they want and need about some particular city. And with the decline, I think of newspapers having the daily news content, that information, there still needs to be something that is going to tell the story of a city or a region. So that’s why I’m a big fan, a huge fan of the city/regional magazines.
Samir Husni: And what about the timing? I take it you and your wife are the engines behind this magazine?
Mike Obert: We are.
Samir Husni: Why did you decide now was the right time for this magazine?
Mike Obert: I think we’ve had success in some of the community magazines that we’ve done. And we just knew that the city that we were in needed that same sort of voice and there was nothing out there. We looked at it for probably two years and just decided to go ahead and launch this thing. And we’ve had tremendous response and feedback from people saying this is awesome.
Samir Husni: From the many hats you wear, which one do you prefer? Being a magazine publisher, ad director, or an outsource guy?
Mike Obert: Probably a magazine publisher. I love that back-of-the-napkin strategy of putting numbers together. And should we do this story or this feature, and can we target these advertisers? So the publishing part to me is very exciting.
Samir Husni: Has this magazine been a walk in a rose garden for you to publish or have you faced some challenges along the way?
Mike Obert: The launch of the magazine, because of the outsourcing that we do as well, probably made it a little bit easier for us to put it together because the engine was already there to put
together a publication and get a website out. I always say when launching any type of magazine, you’ve got to have good content and you’ve got to have a salesperson. Without those two things nothing else is going to work. So just making sure that I had those two things in place, I could plug the rest of it in later.
Samir Husni: What do you surrender from an outsourcing company that helps someone launch a new magazine?
Mike Obert: I think for me, the outsourcing provided us a lot of that back office-admin type stuff. Sending invoices, tracking payments, making sure ad copy was in. All those small little details that in the past for me has kept me up late at night.
The sending out of emails, where people wake up the next morning and ask, what were you doing up till 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. Even little things like charging credit cards after an issue goes out; it’s all just a very time consuming, repetitive task. And so the outsourcing firm that we have provides me the extra time so that I can get other things done for the magazine and keep it going.
Samir Husni: Going back to the rose garden, did you have any challenges along the way and if so how did you overcome them?
Mike Obert: I wouldn’t say it was a thorny Rose Garden. There were roses there and it felt good. But every time you picked a flower you might have had a little bit of a challenge picking that flower because of the thorns on it.
How did we overcome it? I mean, I think it’s all process-oriented. Creating that process, even as you’re going through it, even if it’s an initial launch; when you’re going through that process you make sure that you’re documenting all the steps so that it’s easier for people to walk in. My take on any city/regional community type magazine that I’ve been a part of, is first off having that formula and the formula being what’s going to be my content? I stress with my editors and my content, don’t reinvent the magazine every time we go to press because it’s just going to be too difficult.
The first issue is always the easiest issue to get out. The second issue is probably the hardest one that you’re ever going to do because it just doesn’t come as easy as the first one did. Then once
you hit number three and four, and so on, then I think you get those processes down. You figure out what’s going to be easier, pieces of content to be able to do each month, and you’re not trying
to hit a home run with every issue per se, but you need to have that templated format so that you can generate that content and get that publication to print.
Samir Husni: Did you ever think after the first issue was out that we should not have had this in it or oops we failed to mention this?
Mike Obert: Yes, I think you always kind of second guess it. I’m probably not a perfectionist. To me it’s always get it out, we can fix it and correct it. Print it. I’ve had a lot of conversations with my editor about the digital side of things and it doesn’t have to be perfect to get it out, because you can always change the digital side of things. The print side of things, I get it, let’s make sure that we’re not making a huge mistake or doing something that we don’t want to be out there.
But at the same time let’s not over polish the apple on every issue. Things are going to happen. So I come from that standpoint of let’s just learn from it and move on. Where my editor was stressing all the way up to the last second, asking did I change that? Is that correct?
Samir Husni: If somebody asks you about starting a new city/regional magazine, do you encourage them or tell them they’re out of their minds?
Mike Obert: I normally say, don’t do it. That’s the first thing I say, don’t do it. And then I say, why do you think you should do this? And then it’s what I said earlier. I think there’s been a lot of great editorial and content ideas that have been out there. It all comes down to that salesperson. And how are you going to generate revenue. A lot of people overlook that.
And the ad sales part, it’s not rocket science. But it’s not easy. So just making sure that you’re aligned with that person. A lot of publishers become that salesperson because they are so passionate about their product and their market that they take that part on and people trust them. And so they’re willing to advertise with them.
But I do tell people whenever they come to me to pause for a second. Make sure that you understand the sales part of it before you just jump in.
Samir Husni: In your case, how important is it for the salesperson to be a part of the community or a resident of the community if you’re going to launch a city magazine?
Mike Obert: I think it’s pretty important that they have the contacts, that they know the people to go after. I always tell people that I’m changing the world one quarter page at a time. I still sell ads. But I think I’m doing it not in an overbearing way. People know what my product is, and they know who I’m reaching. So I’ll probably get more people calling in about wanting to reach this audience.
There’s a lot of times you can send out emails or talk to people about getting into the magazine. But I think you need to have somebody that knows the key people and the right people to be able to launch the magazine.
Samir Husni: If you and I are talking a year from now, what would you hope tell me about RLM?
Mike Obert: I would say a year from now that we’ll have a more clear formula for each issue. We’ve got a good blueprint in place. I think we’re still tweaking it a little bit, but as I said we don’t want to reinvent every issue. It doesn’t have to have something about new restaurants in Richardson or what new businesses have been launched around here.
So if you’re coming to me from a year from now, I would say that. I’ve got that formula for the Richardson Life Magazine out. I’ve got a bunch of committed advertisers that are in for a year or two years’ worth of commitments. And we’re getting content that’s coming to us through the front door, and that we’re not having to completely reach out every time.
Samir Husni: You launched this magazine; you still have your outsourcing business; you have your family to take care of; when do you sleep?
Mike Obert: (Laughs) It’s a good question. I’m pretty consistent with going to bed as soon as the kids all go to bed. I’m always the first one up around the house so that I can get some things in before things start moving around here.
And it’s summer here. Things are a little crazier than normal. But the outsourcing company has taken a ton of work off my plate. I’ve got my own personal executive assistant that does a lot of tasks for me. Before this call, I was on with her talking about the three things I need to get done today, including putting our digital issue up online and getting the social media plan ready for whenever issue number two drops. So all those kind of things are flowing through other people, which will free up the time that I have.
Samir Husni: You mentioned that the reaction for the first issue has been very positive. Did
anybody critique anything?
Mike Obert: If I had any type of critique for issue number one it was the distribution and the circulation. Richardson is a town of 100,000, and we sent it to 15,000 people. Kind of cherry picked some of the different neighborhoods, more affluent neighborhoods. So if I had any kind of critique it was why didn’t you send it to 100,000 people? And that costs a lot of money. (Laughs) But that’s the only feedback that I’ve gotten on what I could have done differently.
Samir Husni: When is the second issue coming out?
Mike Obert: The second issue is at the printer right now and it should be out very soon.
Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Mike Obert: There was one thing I was thinking about. I think you asked something about print earlier. And why I’m still doing print. I still walk into neighborhood houses and see a copy of our magazine on the coffee table or see another magazine on a coffee table. And I was thinking to myself why do people keep this stuff right here? Why are they referencing this stuff on their coffee tables?
I’ve had a lot of advertisers that I’ve talked to about the difference between advertising in a city/regional community type of magazine versus just direct mail. And I’m mailing all of our magazines directly to homes. My point always has been when I go to the mailbox and I pick up
everything out of the mailbox, a magazine doesn’t go straight into the trash. It usually sits out and people will flip through it.
Sometimes I don’t know if my wife wanted this magazine or not, so I’m not going to toss it out. If I go and I get those 4X6 direct mail pieces, those are typically, if it doesn’t relate specifically to me, those are going straight into the trash.
So I always think of it of like I’m impacting these local community retailers, businesses and shops by delivering the audience they want to reach. So I’m connecting businesses with consumers. And to me, I think it’s pretty powerful that people hold on to these. They collect them. They know their neighbors, they know the different businesses. So to me, that just gives me a little bit of passion to what I do.
Samir Husni: My typical last question, what keeps you up at night?
Mike Obert: The price of paper. That keeps me up, though I think it’s kind of stabilized a little bit. From the business perspective there’s some things that I’m working on, such as some acquisitions. And I’m diligently working through a lot of spreadsheets. And it’s dipping my toe in the water versus jumping cannonball style in the deep in and let’s go. So I think that’s the main thing that’s been keeping me up at night right now, how fast do I want to go?
“We tend to reach consumers over 40 plus or 50 plus, who grew up with magazines, loved the experience of magazines; who miss magazines. They’ll tell you stories of what their favorite magazines were and how they’ve changed.”
“I believe that there are consumers who want to guarantee that this magazine comes to them. That when they go, when the weather turns and the leaves fall and they move to their second home in Florida or California or Palm Springs or back to Boston or back to the city, they want it in their mailbox. And that consumer is absolutely going to pay for it and go to their mailbox.”
The B, a magazine of the Berkshires, is a regional title that is both very well connected to the Massachusetts area and is a new launch. Michelle Thorpe Petricca is the publisher of the magazine and brings immense talent and experience to this position. Michelle has been a fixture at Condé Nast in the past and carries a lot of deeply held beliefs about magazines, especially print ones.
The B celebrates life in the Berkshires and beyond, but also provides entertainment and knowledge about the area for people moving there or visiting. It’s a stylish title with a host of possibilities. Mr. Magazine™ suggests that you find your copy today.
So please enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Michelle Thorpe Petricca, Publisher Of The B Magazine.
But first the sound-bites:
On how it feels to work on a smaller-sized publication than she’s used to: I love a launch. And I was part of Condé Nast with the launch of Lucky magazine, from the very beginning. And it has the same energy and the same excitement. Obviously, not the depths of floors of departments and support, however it’s energizing and thrilling for me to be part of that.
On one of her Condé Nast colleagues’ starting his own media company and magazine: I worked with Alan Katz’s wife for years at Self Magazine. I think Alan and Cheryl are just two very talented people. And I think what it shows is that there are stories to be told in this region, and there’s a lot of enthusiasm and passion for this region. And the fact that both are doing very well speaks to this untapped market in many ways. There’s a real hunger to be closer to the community.
On why she thinks people like herself still believe in magazines and in print: There’s absolutely a desire for certain segments of a population to enjoy the print experience. And I would say that that segment of the population in our community is not going to be Gen. Z though they are enjoying it. We tend to reach consumers over 40 plus or 50 plus, who grew up with magazines, loved the experience of magazines; who miss magazines. They’ll tell you stories of what their favorite magazines were and how they’ve changed.
On whether only print can link the past with the future in the present: You definitely found one of the most powerful platforms that we have at The B, and that literally is the archives of the Eagle which are situated in the basement here of the Clock Tower Building in Pittsfield. And if you came to the Berkshires and I brought you down there, your mind would be blown by the files and the archives of the history of Norman Rockwell, of Tanglewood and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
On whether the magazine was an easy launch: My husband was from the Berkshires. His family has been here for 100 years. His grandfather moved here from Italy, slept in a tent, built a wonderful business that’s going strong. And I didn’t think that this opportunity was possible, to be able to tap this passion I have for print. And I feel so fortunate that the Eagle recognized and held a high value to print and that they invested in me.
Michelle Petricca, right, with editor in chief Amy Conway.
On any challenges or roadblocks they had to overcome: So what have we overcome? I would say that introducing a new print product, you really had to pass a lot of litmus tests here because I think they’ve seen other publications in the area before and they weren’t always done by magazine people. They may have been done by newspaper people ensuring that you were going to deliver what you promised.
On whether the magazine is moving from controlled circulation to subscription: That is in the works. I believe that there are consumers who want to guarantee that this magazine comes to them. That when they go, when the weather turns and the leaves fall and they move to their second home in Florida or California or Palm Springs or back to Boston or back to the city, they want it in their mailbox. And that consumer is absolutely going to pay for it and go to their mailbox.
On the wantedness factor that print inspires: Yes, exactly. I was spending some time in Barnes & Noble in Pittsfield the other day. Magazines seem to still be alive by the number of publications and special interest titles and the ones that are still available to consumers.
On anything she’d like to add: As far as the B, people want a connection to the community, so much so that even on the grounds where we live there’s a massive reckoning going on with the Native American tribes that lived here. Many of the cultural institutions, like Jacob’s Pillow, which is one of the oldest historic dance sites in the country and Beckett Hits in Beckett. Massachusetts; at the bottom of every single of their email signatures, they say we are on the lands of the Munsee Native Tribes, so there’s a whole connection. The good and the painful in our community. That’s why there’s still so many untold stories here.
On what keeps her up at night: From a professional level, it would be to make sure that we got it right. That it was factually correct. We have a responsibility to do it right. And so oftentimes I circulate stories to the editors here, to other people in our community. To have them look through it to make sure it’s right, because the last thing I ever want to do is have any stain that reflects any print journalist that is here. So getting it right is important. That keeps me awake at night.
And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Michelle Thorpe Petricca, publisher The B Magazine.
Samir Husni: Congratulations on The B Magazine.
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: Thank you, I appreciate that.
Samir Husni: How does it feel? Moving from magazines like Lucky and Allure with hundreds of thousands in circulation to launch a small-sized publication, a beautiful publication, but one that elevates like fifteen thousand in circulation?
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: I love a launch. And I was part of Condé Nast with the launch of Lucky magazine, from the very beginning. And it has the same energy and the same excitement. Obviously, not the depths of floors of departments and support, however it’s energizing and thrilling for me to be part of that.
And then I was also part of US Weekly when it turned from a monthly to a weekly magazine. So I was prepared for the unexpected because the unexpected always happens with a launch. But I would say that being a part of the Berkshire Eagle, which is one of the longest continuously run newspapers in the country, it started in 1892, they have the same commitment to facts and credibility and to getting it right. Much like Condé Nast always wanted to do and does and still does.
Samir Husni: Your previous colleague, Alan Katz, also started The Mountains magazine. Now there’s two or three graduates from Condé Nast who started and launched magazines outside.
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: That’s right. In fact, I worked with Alan Katz’s wife for years at Self Magazine. I think Alan and Cheryl are just two very talented people. And I think what it shows is that there are stories to be told in this region, and there’s a lot of enthusiasm and passion for this region. And the fact that both are doing very well speaks to this untapped market in many ways. There’s a real hunger to be closer to the community.
Alan, his focus is seven counties, so it’s broader. He’s got Sullivan County, Catskills, seven counties. I’m focused on three counties, Berkshire County, Columbia County and Litchfield County. So there is a point of difference there. And there’s a point of difference with our voices. But that being said, I think it’s fabulous. I really do. Allen and his team are doing a great job.
Samir Husni: Michelle, it’s so rare to see small, regional magazines bringing in top publishers, top editors, national folks, like in your case. Like Amy Conway, who’s been the editor of Health Magazine, and Martha Stewart Wedding. Why do you think people like you and Amy still believe in this business, in print and in bringing a magazine into the world?
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: That’s a great question. There’s absolutely a desire for certain segments of a population to enjoy the print experience. And I would say that that segment of the population in our community is not going to be Gen. Z though they are enjoying it. We tend to reach consumers over 40 plus or 50 plus, who grew up with magazines, loved the experience of magazines; who miss magazines. They’ll tell you stories of what their favorite magazines were
and how they’ve changed. And maybe they’re not happy about some changes. So there was certainly a desire to bring magazines back into their life.
More importantly, they want the things that magazines are, well-written and visually appealing. And it’s interesting, when I worked at Allure and worked for Linda Wells, she would often talk about how a magazine would bring you to this magical place, and Allure would share possible visions of a different self, of all the possibilities that were out there for you. And how you want to present yourself to the world.
And so that aspiration and that inspiration is found in print, in these glossy, four color magazines. And when you come to a community, particularly like the Berkshires, you’re seeking pleasure. You’re seeking entertainment. You’re seeking visual experience of the outdoors, art, culture, theater. And so they’re pleasure-seekers and magazines bring a lot of pleasure. They’re very proud of where they live or where they have second homes, or where they’re visiting. And they have it in their homes. That is the greatest compliment. When someone says to me. I have guests coming up this weekend, and I made sure The B was in the guest room for them because they want to know more about where they’re visiting. And so print brings you closer to the experience. I think that that’s why it’s resonating with consumers today.
The other part of my experience was spending time at a company called Modern Luxury, which published 84 magazines in 22 markets. And so I worked at Modern Luxury while I lived here in the Berkshires and I commuted back and forth. I got to see just how personal it was for these city titles to these particular communities.
I remember it was Erin Lauder at Estee Lauder who wanted us to plan an event in Dallas, Neiman Marcus for a launch of one of her fragrances. And I heard from her team that these were the dates available in Dallas. So I call up Neiman’s and said this is when we’re going to have the luncheon and they said, whoa, we can’t do it that date. And I’m like, it’s Aaron Lauder, of course you can do it that day. And they explained, oh, no, that’s the Texas/OU football game day. And all the jets fly in from Oklahoma. And there are big Gala’s and parties all around his event.
So, I was able to bring that information back from the Dallas team of our local boots on the ground, and of Neiman Marcus local and go back to Estee lauder and say, well, here’s why that date doesn’t work.
So, understanding the ebbs and flows of a local community are really important and it makes you have a better event or better print project product. Or helps you connect brands and advertisers to that community in a more relevant and more powerful way.
Samir Husni: That art of storytelling is so obvious since you are also reaching to the archives of the newspaper from 1789 on and using some of those pictures. Do you think only print can link the past with the future during the present?
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: What a great question. You definitely found one of the most powerful platforms that we have at The B, and that literally is the archives of the Eagle which are situated in the basement here of the Clock Tower Building in Pittsfield. And if you came to the Berkshires and I brought you down there, your mind would be blown by the files and the archives of the history of Norman Rockwell, of Tanglewood and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
You’re transported when you walk downstairs and you go into these files of pictures that you’re holding that the Eagle owns. And so I don’t have any obstacles of publishing them. And knowing that there are people here that I can turn to… in fact, they have two Pulitzer Prize winning journalists on their editorial advisory board here. And being able to get it right, which is so important here at the Eagle is to tap those archives to connect the past of our community to the present.
And so when we take a topic, the summer issue right now is at press, and the theme is music. And music plays an outsized role here in the Berkshires, as you can imagine with the home of Boston Symphony Orchestra all summer long. But it goes back even further than that.
And our goal is, when this magazine comes out, that local mavens who have lived here for generations, to the tourists who happen to be staying at the Red Lion Inn, to a second homeowner from Williams College who loves the Berkshires, is to surprise them and to educate them, to help bring them closer to this community.
So we literally went into the fields of a place called The Music Inn, which is in Stockbridge, and was part of an old gilded-age estate called Wheatleigh. The Music Inn was a home in the 1960s of something called the Lenox School of Jazz, where black musicians would teach white musicians who came over from Tanglewood at night. And that school then turned in the ‘70s into something called The Music Inn where Bruce Springsteen played, the Allman Brothers, BB King, and we literally went for the music issue and spent time in a place called the Potting Shed, which is a home to this woman now who has a plaque to all the musicians that played on those grounds.
And so being able to walk those fields and give the history and bring the photographers, such as the talented Ben Garver, who is photographer for the Berkshire Eagle really helps bring the music experience to life. And then it also happened that really well known journalists like Tony Gervino, who was the editor in chief of Billboard Magazine and is currently the editor in chief of Jack Dorsey’s Title, a streaming music platform, happens to have a home in the Berkshires, and he’s like, I’d love to write an article for The B. And so when you live in a community where you can tap this talent, it helps make it an even stronger editorial product.
Samir Husni: You sound like you’re on Cloud Nine. Tell me, has the magazine launch been a walk in a rose garden for you?
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: It was really hard for me to leave Condé Nast in 2013. I mean, Allure was on fire. It was just so successful. And I loved the team. And I loved working with Agnes Chapski and Linda Wells and the whole Condé Nast family.
I moved for love. My husband was from the Berkshires. His family has been here for 100 years. His grandfather moved here from Italy, slept in a tent, built a wonderful business that’s going strong. And I didn’t think that this opportunity was possible, to be able to tap this passion I have for print. And I feel so fortunate that the Eagle recognized and held a high value to print and that they invested in me.
And then, of course, Amy Conway, our editor in chief, whose voice… it’s what she’s been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. And you can tell she was Martha Stewart’s right arm for 20 years. And Amy knows how to tell a story. She really does. And she has been a complete joy and delight to work with, and I mean it. We speak the same language, and we were able to tap a local designer here, Julie Hammil, who creates a lot of visuals for a lot of the cultural economy institutions here such as Berkshire Botanical Gardens, or the Berkshire School. And so we were able to really go local here. And that meant a lot. Yes, I am on Cloud Nine. (Laughs)
Samir Husni: Any challenges or roadblocks that you have had to overcome?
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: So what have we overcome? I would say that introducing a new print product, you really had to pass a lot of litmus tests here because I think they’ve seen other publications in the area before and they weren’t always done by magazine people. They may have been done by newspaper people ensuring that you were going to deliver what you promised.
So it happened fast. I literally was at an event with Hans Morris, who was one of the saviors of the Berkshire Eagle with a few other individuals who saved this incredible historic newspaper brand. And I was at an event with him, I guess maybe September or October. And we started talking. He used to be president of Visa and now is at NYCA Partners in New York and he knew my experience in magazines. He said let’s do it and I asked, seriously? And he said yes.
So going from October to launching a magazine in basically April was fast without having hired an editor, without even having a name or an editorial calendar, the specs and the press. It was definitely a lot of sleepless nights. But it was so personal. And that would be an obstacle because I didn’t want to walk into my local grocery store and say hi to my butcher or the florist and for them to say it didn’t really work. I really wanted to make them proud and I would say that was an obstacle. Having to deliver, I would say that was a challenge.
And then advertising, people literally writing checks from their own bank accounts, ensuring that you are going to deliver on what you’re promising. And ensuring trust in you. It is helpful that they knew who I was and they knew my husband. And they knew the Berkshire Eagle. That could be considered an obstacle. But my goodness, we doubled the number of advertisers and revenue in the summer issue.
But let’s be clear. This is not necessarily a done success. We have three more issues to go with different editorial themes. We’re experimenting with a wedding issue. And so some of these things are unproven. But I do believe that we have the perfect alchemy at the moment and that things look positive, but it’s not done. You know that path, there could still be plenty of obstacles, especially as we try to figure out a formula for subscriptions versus controlled circulation. Figuring and navigating that I’m sure will be an interesting endeavor.
Samir Husni: Are you moving from controlled circulation to subscription?
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: That is in the works. I believe that there are consumers who want to guarantee that this magazine comes to them. That when they go, when the weather turns and the leaves fall and they move to their second home in Florida or California or Palm Springs or back to Boston or back to the city, they want it in their mailbox. And that consumer is absolutely going to pay for it and go to their mailbox.
But I also believe that we could do a hybrid model that has some control distribution in places like Canyon Ranch or fine museums or restaurants. And that we can also still sell it in some places because there isn’t going to be an unlimited number of copies floating around. People are going to see it and they’re going to want it. And if they can’t find it, they’re not going to be happy about it. There’s a wantedness to this and there’s a scarcity model to this, so I do believe that a hybrid model will work.
Samir Husni: I think that wantedness is an important word you mentioned because. Again that’s what continues to differentiate print from the rest of the media that’s out there.
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: Yes, exactly. I was spending some time in Barnes & Noble in Pittsfield the other day. Magazines seem to still be alive by the number of publications and special interest titles and the ones that are still available to consumers.
I just think that this is personal to people here. And so when it’s personal and you’re writing about their community, they’re not seeing this online. They’re not reading about this really anywhere else. That it means something different and there’s a different value to it. Especially when you’re supporting their causes that are their passion points. We live in a community that wants to give back, that wants to help out, that supports the arts. That is incredibly inclusive. And our intention is always to profile those saints and eccentrics that really romp our beloved County. And people want to support that and want to be part of that.
Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: I guess the question is, if you lived here, Samir, or you were a second homeowner, would you subscribe to The B?
Samir Husni: (Laughs) Of course I would. My wife always asks me, why are you still getting magazines after we donated all our magazines to the University of Missouri where they are establishing the Samir Husni magazine collection in the library?
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: That’s incredible.
Samir Husni: 188,300 magazines. It took two 18-wheelers.
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: Do you have photos or a video of that happening?
Samir Husni: Yes. Actually they are doing a video on the whole transfer of the magazines from my storage units to the Library of Missouri.
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: Will it be on your blog?
Samir Husni: Once they send it to me, I will definitely put it on the blog.
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: Thank you! That’s magical. I can’t wait to see that. As far as The B, people want a connection to the community, so much so that even on the grounds where we live there’s a massive reckoning going on with the Native American tribes that lived here. Many of the cultural institutions, like Jacob’s Pillow, which is one of the oldest historic dance sites in the country and Beckett Hits in Beckett. Massachusetts; at the bottom of every single of their email signatures, they say we are on the lands of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, so there’s a whole connection. The good and the painful in our community. That’s why there’s still so many untold stories here.
Samir Husni: As long as you continue telling stories, you will continue to thrive and succeed.
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: I hope so.
Samir Husni: My typical last question, what keeps you up at night?
Michelle Thorpe Petricca: From a professional level, it would be to make sure that we got it right. That it was factually correct. We have a responsibility to do it right. And so oftentimes I circulate stories to the editors here, to other people in our community. To have them look through it to make sure it’s right, because the last thing I ever want to do is have any stain that reflects any print journalist that is here. So getting it right is important. That keeps me awake at night.
Even when we lay out the magazine, not being sensitive to advertisers as to where they are placed. Maybe that goes back to my Condé Nast days where, and this is probably not an appropriate story, but I was at Self magazine and we were laying out the magazine and we had a Revlon ad and the Revlon ad said, it’s a good hair day, and it was opposite of a Wonder Bra
ad that said, who cares if it’s a bad hair day. (Laughs)
And that was probably 1996 and it still haunts me to this day. You have to make sure that you’re sensitive to if I am this architect or this shop and I’m opposite this editorial, how does that impact me. And that keeps me up at night on a professional level, because I think about it. It’s their business and they care so much about this ad. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a one six or full page, this means so much to them into their budget into their marketing plans that I really
“We really believe that in the end you need to give your customers a choice of how they want to find you. And many of them want print. Our customers want the print product and we offer them four different versions of that.”
“As it gets harder and harder, we have to understand that we’re in this together. And that each of us has a responsibility of making sure we deliver the products to our readers. When we make it accessible to our readers, when we make it plain to them why magazines are important, I think the readers respond really well.”
The Old Farmer’s Almanac has been around for 232 years. It has been present in most of our lives forever. We have come to depend on it and to look for it every year. And it’s still as relevant and significant as it was when it first began.
Sherin Pierce is publisher of the magazine and has been for over 25 years. According to the magazine’s website Sherin leads a team responsible for the long-term strategic planning of the Almanac brand, including new product development, oversight of editorial, and management of the book’s finances and ancillary businesses. She also oversees the Almanac’s robust promotional and marketing activities, including the Almanac’s expansive social media channels.
In Mr. Magazine’s mind, she puts the magazine out there and meets people where they are, be that on digital or in print, or any other way they want to find it. Something she believes in strongly.
So please enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Sherin Pierce, vice president and publisher, The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
But first the sound bites:
On how The Old Farmer’s Almanac has survived almost two and a half centuries: I like to say how it’s thrived all these years is simply because I think when the Almanac started, it started with a very clear and simple premise: to always be useful with a pleasant degree of humor.
On how important it is for a magazine publisher to stay true to the magazine’s concept and not change with the wind: I think being authentic, being real, and understanding what your mission is and what people expect from you year after year, is absolutely the North Star for us. There are times, especially when people are faced with a pandemic such as COVID or faced with recession or inflation, they turn to things that are simpler and things that will help them in their daily lives.
On the competitors of The Old Farmer’s Almanac: In every publication we do with the name The Old Farmer’s Almanac, we pay so much attention and care to what we are putting out there for our readers. They get the experience of the Almanac in various forms, through calendars, through our gardening books, they get that whole experience, which is what our competitors haven’t been able to do.
On the circulation of The Old Farmer’s Almanac: We distribute 2.5 million copies. We have four different editions: a mass market edition, newsstand edition and two bookstore editions, with a hardcover as well. And why we’ve done this is because we want to make sure that all the different editions serve our multiple channels of distribution.
On having a minute number of editors over the last 232 years: We’ve had 13 editors and our 13th editor is retiring after close to 23 years. We’ve just hired the 14th editor in our Almanac’s history. It really builds the consistency of the product and the voice. People have time to hone what the message should be. We don’t have a revolving door. But to that point, there’s been 13 editors, but 23 publishers. The publishers always get fired. (Laughs)
On whether her job as publisher has been a walk in a rose garden: Oh no, not at all. It’s a walk in the field; it’s a walk in the woods; it’s a walk in deer-filled gardens and vegetable gardens, in shrubs and fruit trees. I think we would have been remiss if years ago we had said we’re going to just stick to print and not bother with the other mediums. But the group publisher in 1996 said we had to go on the Internet.
On some of the major challenges they’ve had: One of the biggest challenges we’ve had has been in retail. In one part of our retail presence we have our bookstore edition, which has been doing tremendously well, both in stores and on Amazon. We have our own direct distribution to Tractor Supply and to Ace and to the nontraditional bookstore accounts. Again the Almanac, being the type of product that can transfer different types of retail has done very well there.
On whether The Old Farmer’s Almanac is mostly older readers: No, it’s been surprising what readers have come to us for. I think the younger generation, many folks grew up without getting advice on most basic things in life. Look up at the sky, look at the planets. what are the signs of nature? How do you start a little garden? How do you do a container garden?
On 250,000 of the Veggie Garden Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook going into print: Yes, and for a gardening book that’s a lot. We printed six times. It’s a gardening book, but it came out at the time when COVID stuck in people at home, and they wanted something.
On anything she’d like to add: I think the Almanac is always a surprise. And when people read it, they always say they grew up with it, they always saw it in their grandparents house, or on the farm of a relative or something. And I always urge people to pick it up again for the first time. Remember. McCall’s ad campaign, read it again for the first time, it’s the same thing.
On what keeps her up at night: I think what keeps me up is that I would hope our distribution channels realize that it’s really a partnership. And that all of us have a responsibility of making sure that our publications reach our audience.
And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Sherin Pierce, vice president and publisher, The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Samir Husni: Recently you were featured on Jeopardy and they asked about the little
yellow magazine that has a punch hole in the corner. Your magazine, The Old Farmer’s Almanac is almost two and a half centuries old. Tell me what’s going on; how does it survive all of these years?
Sherin Pierce: Well, I like to say how it’s thrived all these years is simply because I think when the Almanac started, it started with a very clear and simple premise: to always be useful with a pleasant degree of humor.
So it started with that premise, to always be useful with a pleasant degree of humor. And I think the one thing that we’ve always tried to deliver ever since the first publication, the first issue in 1792 is to give people the information they need for their daily lives, which was very simple when it first started. The nation was an agrarian nation, and so it talked about the seasons, the calendar, the heavens, any other information that was pertinent, the holidays, the coach roots, everything that was important to people at that time.
And that’s what the Almanac has continued to do through the centuries, 232 years of continuous publication. It has always looked to see what do people need within the purview of what the almanac provides. We’re very clear about what we provide to our readers. We don’t stray in different directions, we talk about astronomy, the weather, gardening and other things such as food, home remedies, things that are useful to people’s lives.
We talk about the sunrise and the sunset; how to read the planets, things that yes, are available in many other mediums or in many other ways, but we put them together; we curate them; we fact check; we make sure that we fulfill what our readers expect from us year after year and also give them a little more. The expectations and the surprises are what keep the Almanac front and center and beloved because it fulfills its mission, hopefully, every single year.
Samir Husni: With all the changes that are taking place in society, somehow the Old Farmer’s Almanac has stayed true to its focus. It did not cover COVID: it did not cover the pandemic at all; it didn’t cover any civil war either. So tell me how important is it for a magazine publisher to stay true to the concept and not change with the wind?
Sherin Pierce: I think being authentic, being real, and understanding what your mission is and what people expect from you year after year, is absolutely the North Star for us. There are times, especially when people are faced with a pandemic such as COVID or faced with recession or inflation, they turn to things that are simpler and things that will help them in their daily lives.
Gardening was huge during COVID. And for us, people came to the magazine wanting to know how to garden. They wanted the most basic advice about how to grow vegetables; how to understand what they should do to fulfill this urge and need to garden and to understand that.
I think authenticity, building your credibility, and building people’s trust is very important, because that’s how they come back to you year after year in print, and in any way they can access the Almanac. They come back to you because you are curating the best advice and giving that to people. Trust and credibility you have to earn, it’s not something you demand, you earn it.
Samir Husni: Through the years you’ve had so many competitors, but you’ve managed to grow and grow. How big is this small publication?
Sherin Pierce: Well, first of all, the Old Farmer’s Almanac is our trademark name, as opposed to Farmer’s Almanac, which is a generic term for any farmer’s almanac. And there have been plenty of people who, when you’re the number one in the field, you have a lot of imitators.
And they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but only if the imitators are good.
I think people have been distracted and picked up and imitated. Again, it goes back to the quality of the information. The care and the quality of what we are gathering together for our readers is really important. And once you see what ours is, as opposed to what the other farmer’s almanacs have been trying to offer, I think people realize that you can’t rest on your laurels and say, well, I’m the oldest, therefore, I’m the best. The competition is fierce and you have to prove it year after year. You go back every single year and prove it.
And not just the Almanac itself. In every publication we do with the name The Old Farmer’s Almanac, we pay so much attention and care to what we are putting out there for our readers. They get the experience of the Almanac in various forms, through calendars, through our gardening books, they get that whole experience, which is what our competitors haven’t been able to do.
So as long as we’re able to keep the Mother publication, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, really vibrant and robust, useful and forward-looking, we’re good. We want backward-looking only with respect to the tradition. We want to be in the present and in the future, forward-looking because that’s how we want to take our readers with us to give them the best advice along this journey. Forward.
Samir Husni: And in a day and age where we are seeing circulations shrinking. what’s the circulation of The Old Farmer’s Almanac?
Sherin Pierce: We distribute 2.5 million copies. We have four different editions: a mass market edition, newsstand edition and two bookstore editions, with a hardcover as well. And why we’ve done this is because we want to make sure that all the different editions serve our multiple channels of distribution.
We also want to make sure that it’s not just retail distribution that we have all our focus on. We have subscription programs as well with the hardcover edition and reprints of the 100 and 200th anniversary edition. As a publication that has an archive that you can pull on and draw on, you can offer these special type of programs within The Old Farmer’s Almanac. We also have the Almanacs in a gardening club and an almanac club. So we’ve tried to find different ways of producing the Almanac. In total, with all the different editions, we’re 2.5 million copies.
Samir Husni: I think one of the reasons for your success and longevity is that consistency in the mission and in the concept. You don’t have a revolving door for editors. You don’t change editors every month. For the last 232 years, you have had twelve editors?
Sherin Pierce: We’ve had 13 editors and our 13th editor is retiring after close to 23 years. We’ve just hired the 14th editor in our Almanac’s history. It really builds the consistency of the product and the voice. People have time to hone what the message should be. We don’t have a revolving door. But to that point, there’s been 13 editors, but 23 publishers. The publishers always get fired. (Laughs)
Samir Husni: Is your job as publisher of The Old Farmer’s Almanac a walk in a rose garden?
Sherin Pierce: Oh no, not at all. It’s a walk in the field; it’s a walk in the woods; it’s a walk in deer-filled gardens and vegetable gardens, in shrubs and fruit trees. I think we would have been remiss if years ago we had said we’re going to just stick to print and not bother with the other mediums. But the group publisher in 1996 said we had to go on the Internet. We had to have our own website: almanac.com. We started that in 1996 and it really taught us a lot. We didn’t take the whole Almanac and put it on the website. Almanac.com gave us an opportunity, 24/7, to talk about all the various elements in the Almanac that you can’t cover in print and update because it’s an annual publication.
We could update that personally. We could give you your weather forecast based on your zip code. And we could do a lot of other things that you can’t do in print. So we found ways to pull people into The Old Farmer’s Almanac. The website sent people to print and print also promoted the website. They worked together, hand in glove, in tandem. Really enhancing one another.
Also on the website and through our email newsletters, we could talk to our customers and readers every single day. So that became important again because they had ways to reach out to us and to talk to us through feedback.
Social media just accelerated that or accentuated that more through Facebook. We have close to 1.7 million social media followers, Instagram and Pinterest too of course. What we do is make sure that people have access to us online in social media. But we also bring them back to our print products.
So everything we do, whether it’s our Veggie Gardener’s Handbook, which is a bestseller and Amazon’s number one vegetable gardening handbook, everything we do we’re able to cross promote and cross pollinate the information so that in our world all boats rise when you talk about everything. It’s not just we’re going to abandon print because print is dead as they said 15 years ago. Everything’s going to be on EPUB. When we have the Almanac as a Kindle publication or an iPad or Nook, we have that for people who want to access us that way.
But we really believe that in the end you need to give your customers a choice of how they want to find you. And many of them want print. Our customers want the print product and we offer them four different versions of that.
So we’ve had to listen and adapt and continually change some error to be a relevant part of the marketplace. And that’s what we’ve had to do as a small company with our limited resources, we’ve had to really be flexible and nimble and keep adapting.
Samir Husni: Being flexible is one issue you’re dealing with, but what are some of the major challenges you’re facing today?
Sherin Pierce: One of the biggest challenges we’ve had has been in retail. In one part of our retail presence we have our bookstore edition, which has been doing tremendously well, both in stores and on Amazon. We have our own direct distribution to Tractor Supply and to Ace and to the nontraditional bookstore accounts. Again the Almanac, being the type of product that can transfer different types of retail has done very well there.
And I’m really thankful for that because the newsstand as you know, of which we’ve always been a huge supporter and part of, has really presented a lot of challenges and a lot of increased expenses in terms of distribution costs, which every publisher is facing, every publisher. And we’ve all had to in the face of the supply issues. distribution cost, distribution to the store’s cost, and then the wholesaler distribution cost. Being constantly asked about increasing a discount. All these things, we’ve had to face all of that and figure out how do we fit in this newsstand marketplace where these huge wholesaler groups that are controlling our destiny.
For us, it’s been a huge curve over the last year that’s been the challenge that everybody’s facing. We’ve had to really review all our print orders and floor display programs. We don’t sell a single display for the Almanac without another product being in it. There’s always going to be an Almanac for kids or a calendar to help us offset and increase our sales so we can face some of these increased expenses. We’ve had to make those changes as well and push back and say no, this is as much as we’re going to be able to do. and this is the type of configuration we’re going to sell And that’s been our challenge.
And despite the merchandising problems that everybody experienced last year, the Almanac sales on the newsstand have been down 4 percent. But without those merchandising problems
we would have equaled or exceeded our 2022 numbers. So I’m really hopeful about 2024. Merchandising should hold. These are things beyond our purview, but last year that was a double whammy, the logistics fees and the merchandising problems. But we are able to still make our way through. We don’t want a repeat of that, at least the merchandising problems. And that’s the challenge.
So my advice always is make sure you have diverse channels of distribution so you’re not dependent on anyone for your success in distribution. That’s really important. And that’s really helped us.
Samir Husni: People keep on saying that only old people now care for print or look for print. Yet you have The Old Farmer’s Almanac for kids. Are all your readers mostly older?
Sherin Pierce: No, it’s been surprising what readers have come to us for. I think the younger generation, many folks grew up without getting advice on most basic things in life. Look up at the sky, look at the planets. what are the signs of nature? How do you start a little garden? How do you do a container garden?
All these most basic things have not been passed down recently. It’s like saying, well my grandfather taught me this. Everyone’s been so busy. And life has been so challenging and evolving, constantly on the move.
People haven’t had time to really master the basics and some of the basics that we can teach really well, they come to us for through online, through social media. People have come back to print. Proof is in the pudding. The veggie gardener’s handbook, which is a book, is now in its 6th printing. Over three years we’ve printed 250,000 copies and when you read the comments of people who are buying it, so many are like I was looking for basic information to teach and guide me as to how to do something. And this explains everything so clearly. I can follow it and it gives me confidence to do what I need to do.
And that’s what has been amazing. It’s young families, people starting out. They care about the environment. They care about sustainability. They want to know what kind of food they’re feeding their families. You have something within your control. You can do that. We can help you do that.
Reading, now that you get feedback very quickly through your social media, on almanac.com. I read the comments on Amazon all the time to see what people are saying when they’re reviewing the books. There’s so many ways people get back to. You know that the demographic that’s reading The Old Farmer’s Almanac is far younger than one would imagine it to be. And we are guiding another generation and saying, there are ways to do things. You don’t always have to have the biggest and the best. Sometimes you start small, you have success and you grow.
Your first little success grows into something bigger. But it’s a confidence in the advice and the truth. What people are looking for.
Samir Husni: And you said 250,000, right? 250,000 of the Veggie Garden Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook has been in print?
Sherin Pierce: Yes, and for a gardening book that’s a lot. We printed six times. It’s a gardening book, but it came out at the time when COVID stuck in people at home, and they wanted something.
So we’ve already licensed the Veggie Gardener’s Handbook to a publisher in New Zealand. And that’s our first foreign license. And now I got an inquiry to license it to a publisher in Italy as well. It’s just a common theme: how to grow vegetables? What are the pests? What are the things about the soil? You start with soil. That’s the most important thing. We have places where you can make notes and you can journal in the book. So it becomes a very interactive book in print. People have a level of comfort. How do you do companion planting; it’s all there.
Samir Husni: Before I ask you my typical last question, is there anything else you would like to add?
Sherin Pierce: I think the Almanac is always a surprise. And when people read it, they always say they grew up with it, they always saw it in their grandparents house, or on the farm of a relative or something. And I always urge people to pick it up again for the first time. Remember. McCall’s ad campaign, read it again for the first time, it’s the same thing.
People think they know it, but when they actually settle down with it and can read it in small chunks, they don’t have to read it in this one big binge, they’ll find that it is always so useful. It’s going to guide you in your life. It’s going to tell you; it’s going to give you that reassurance that every year, every day, the sun is going to rise, and the sun is going to set. And you’re going to know that every single day.
The seasons, you’re going to have four seasons. And no matter what happens, there’s a certain continuity to life. And that’s what the Almanac gives you. It gives you that optimism and that hope that you can get through anything. And I hope in each of our publications, our voice, and how we present the product, good value is what you’ll see running through each of the publications.
Samir Husni: My typical last question, what keeps you up at night?
Sherin Pierce: I think what keeps me up is that I would hope our distribution channels realize that it’s really a partnership. And that all of us have a responsibility of making sure that our publications reach our audience.
As it gets harder and harder, we have to understand that we’re in this together. And that each of us has a responsibility of making sure we deliver the products to our readers. When we make it accessible to our readers, when we make it plain to them why magazines are important, I think the readers respond really well.
But in these times when there’s a lot of trouble, when everyone’s faced with all the challenges, we need for everyone to understand that we have to work together. And it’s not a combative thing. It’s like understanding all the pressures that all of us have. But we have to work together to ensure that magazines stay a relevant and significant part of people’s lives.
That’s what worries me, but that’s why on the Almanac we found different ways of making sure that people find that little Yellow Book. (Laughs) That they can find it and can look at it and refer to it throughout the year.
“We believe in print and the transportive nature that it can provide and disconnecting from the blue screen, from the noise, from the constant chaos of our screens in the digital world for just a little bit. And with that in mind, we really wanted to create this beautiful print product that reminds people and returns people to understanding that there is quality to be had behind those experiences and behind those products.”
“And that’s really what we’re aiming for with Full Pour. It’s not you get your subscription, you flip through it in the restroom and you throw it away after five minutes, having not really read or retained any information from it. This is a beautiful package that you see, and you just want to spend time with it. You want to give yourself the excuse and the reason to really dive into the stories, to the beautiful imagery, to the wonderful feel and smell of the paper. I still believe that there is something behind that smell that people love. (Laughs)
According to the world at large, beginning a print magazine in these days and times is a really bad idea. People want the digital experience; the instantaneous gratification they feel when they get something online in a matter of minutes, seconds even. Of course, most of you know how Mr. Magazine™ feels: the word baloney comes to mind.
To prove my point in a huge way, please allow me to introduce you to Full Pour magazine and Lauren Buzzeo. Full Pour is a new print publication about wine, beer, tea; all kinds of beverages, alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
I spoke with Lauren recently and we talked about this new magazine and her decades of experience in the business. Working at Wine Enthusiast magazine for 16 years was a position that she stepped away from knowing that she wanted to start her own magazine and do things her own way. And that she did. Full Pour is beautiful and informative. I hope you will get a copy ASAP.
Meanwhile, enjoy this Mr. Magazine™ interview with Lauren Buzzeo, editor and publisher, Full Pour magazine.
But first the sound bites:
On what she was thinking to start a print magazine in 2023: (Laughs) Obviously, I don’t know; it is a very questionable choice, I know. But honestly at the heart of it, print and magazines are my passion. It’s always been something that I’ve been incredibly passionate about. And certainly from a professional and educational perspective, that’s what I got my degree in, in terms of English and Journalism, and I’ve worked in magazines for nearly two decades now and in publishing production overall. So it’s a format that I know and love and believe in.
On her new business model and the partnerships she’s making: What I came up with is a program that we call our “Flow-Into Community” program. And what that means is our advertising partners, and we will work with only one advertising partner per category per issue. So there’s not going to be tons and tons of advertisements, that’s not the magazine format we’re looking for. We’re really looking for very specialized, high-quality partnerships with dedicated partners that we know and believe in and similarly know and believe in what we’re doing.
On what people have said about the first issue which is out: Issue one is out. It came into the world officially at the end of March, and the response has been so overwhelmingly positive. I’m so grateful for it. I think at the end of the day, I created a magazine that I really felt was needed in the space and that I selfishly, really wanted to read and see myself in. The hopes that there were other people out there like me that wanted to see the same. And the response that we’ve received from the first issue tells us that indeed we were not alone.
On the esoterica of the magazine and whether she is trying to save the world with its creation: You’re right, even down to the mailer that we ship our single issues in. It’s cornstarch-based, it’s not plastic. So it’s 100 percent biodegradable and compostable. Because again to us every little bit that we can do that makes a difference helps. We’re not going to save the world; we’re not going to really change the world, but we can change what we do.
On any challenges she has faced along the way: I don’t know any magazine that’s a walk in a rose garden. But I will say that I am incredibly passionate and incredibly happy and fortunate to have had this opportunity to create this magazine. I wake up and I work all the time, every day. But I am so energized and so happy to be putting that effort and that energy into something that I believe in so greatly. And that has received such wonderful feedback from other people who are appreciative of those efforts as well.
On the uniqueness of the cover, black and white on the front, color on the back: I think at the end of the day we take our content very seriously, and we very much believe in telling the stories behind the bottles in a very informative way. So I’m not necessarily interested in more surface-generated content, more quick takes, infographics, buying lists, things of that nature. We really believe in getting into the stories of the who, the why, the how, the history, the geographic locations, whatever it may be to really provide that information to consumers to empower them to make those purchasing choices on their own for whatever needs they may have.
On the name Full Pour: Honestly, I dreamed it. I created the logo as well. The Pour is my penmanship. The Full part is a font type, but before I designed that, I drew it. It was in my mind, came to me in a dream. And so it was always something around Pour. Singularly “Pour” didn’t really seem to, I don’t know, land or resonate the way that I really wanted it to.
On anything she’d like to add: I’ll say on a side note my favorite page to put together for the spring issue was the contributors page. It brought me such great joy to be able to work with so many wonderful writers, artists, illustrators, and talent from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives.
On being her own boss: It feels great, but it feels scary. It feels liberating, but it feels empowering. There are so many emotions that go along with entrepreneurship that are intimidating and can cause apprehension sometimes, but at the end of the day are so infinitely rewarding that it outweighs to me any of the potential downfalls. So yes, it’s been great.
On what keeps her up at night: What keeps me up at night is finding enough hours in the day. I also have two small children. I have an eight year old son and a two and a half year old daughter. So I am a mom in addition to being a business owner. And sometimes finding the balance, the work life balance and the hours in the day to accomplish all of the things that I want to accomplish, is not an easy feat.
And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Lauren Buzzeo, editor and publisher, Full Pour magazine.
Samir Husni: First, congratulations on the new magazine.
Lauren Buzzeo: Thank you so much.
Samir Husni: My first question to you is what were you thinking to start a print magazine in 2023?
Lauren Buzzeo: (Laughs) Obviously, I don’t know; it is a very questionable choice, I know. But honestly at the heart of it, print and magazines are my passion. It’s always been something that I’ve been incredibly passionate about. And certainly from a professional and educational perspective, that’s what I got my degree in, in terms of English and Journalism, and I’ve worked in magazines for nearly two decades now and in publishing production overall. So it’s a format that I know and love and believe in.
The reason that I stepped away from my former position after nearly 16 years of working at Wine Enthusiast magazine was that for so many people over the last few years there was a lot of dialogue and consideration and retrospective thinking and realignment so to speak, in terms of priorities and what you want to leave your mark on in this world.
And to me I just saw that there was a need and a desire, hopefully beyond myself, for a new print product, specifically in the drinks media space that was really more of an organic and holistic view of the modern drinks landscape. I think a lot of legacy drinks’ magazines are very much beholding to either their namesake or their legacy audience. I think there’s a tie-in between the two.
But try as they might to sort of adapt and evolve and integrate other areas in the drinks and beverage world, it just never really lands or feels completely authentic or well-received from their audience that might be expecting something more singular from them, in terms of scope and coverage.
So to me, knowing how I consumed content and my passion for quality drinks and consumables across all categories, and just seeing other people around me: friends, family, co-workers, other professionals, and how they were enjoying beverages without this sort of dated notion of category exclusivity, to me just seemed like an opportunity for a fresh take from someone who can bring a comprehensive view to the modern drinks landscape.
So what that means is basically not focusing on one category exclusively, but really
embracing all of the different beverages that are available today, whether that’s traditional beverage-alc, wine, beer and spirits, but also encompassing the new cannabis-infused beverages, as well as non-alcoholic. And that could be in sort of that bev-alc proxy sort of vein, in terms of a non-alc Negroni or scotch, or whatever it may be. But also beverages like tea and coffee and Kombucha; again, things that we all know, love and consume in social settings with people we love at different circumstances and occasions, just equal opportunity consumption. So it’s really embracing all of those categories.
Samir Husni: Lauren, you’ve been in the business, for like you said, almost two decades. Yet your business model for the magazine is not the traditional. I mean you’re not depending on advertising, you’re charging $20 per issue, which you can subscribe to the legacy magazines for a year for that price. Tell me a little bit about this new business model that you are following and the partnerships that you are making.
Lauren Buzzeo: In addition to having this perspective of leaving my former position and thinking there’s got to be another way; there’s got to be a different way, that certainly correlates to our editorial mission. And in terms of the stories that we’re looking to share in each issue, it also extends to advertising and partnerships. And so with that thinking of what could be different, what could be better, what could be a new approach to something that honestly hasn’t seen a lot of change in innovation since the invention of a print advertisement, right? What could that look like, what could we do?
So essentially, what I came up with is a program that we call our “Flow-Into Community”
program. And what that means is our advertising partners, and we will work with only one advertising partner per category per issue. So there’s not going to be tons and tons of advertisements, that’s not the magazine format we’re looking for. We’re really looking for very specialized, high-quality partnerships with dedicated partners that we know and believe in and similarly know and believe in what we’re doing.
So what the “Flow-Into Community” program encompasses is the traditional insertion of an ad space for the partner, a full page ad they’re sort of used to, but it also means that we work with. the client to identify a nonprofit organization in our space. So whether that’s food and beverage at large hospitality, that is improving our community in some relevant, tangible way.
So in the case of wine, you can look at organizations such as Wine Empowered or Wine Unify; in the case of beer, you can look at the Michael James Jackson Brewing Foundation. In the case of cannabis, you could look at the Last Prisoner Project. And in the case of food, something like World Central Kitchen or City Harvest. So we work with our partners to select a nonprofit that then gets a dedicated spotlight page about that nonprofit’s work that is sponsored by Full Pour and the partner to give visibility, promotion, and space to that nonprofit, in addition to the partner’s traditional full page ad. So both of those placements go into the issue, as well as we have a grapevine page, which is essentially think of it like Kickstarter, but for nonprofits and donations.
So the grapevine page Full Pour commits a $750 seasonal donation to, and we encourage all of our partners and readers, anybody who’s interested can also make donations into this grapevine page. And then at the end of the issue season, all of the donations received are disbursed to the nonprofit partners for that season’s issue as well.
So again, we’re talking about a traditional relationship and format in terms of print advertising. But it’s also extending to really try to do something that goes beyond maybe a more self-serving interest for that partner, for that client and really promoting, giving visibility and monetary support and contribution to nonprofits that are really working to make our drink’s world and our world at large a better place.
Samir Husni: So tell me what was the response of the first issue. The initial one is out. Did people say wow, or something else?
Lauren Buzzeo: Issue one is out. It came into the world officially at the end of March, and the response has been so overwhelmingly positive. I’m so grateful for it. I think at the end of the day, I created a magazine that I really felt was needed in the space and that I selfishly, really wanted to read and see myself in. The hopes that there were other people out there like me that wanted to see the same. And the response that we’ve received from the first issue tells us that indeed we were not alone. That people were ready and excited for something new, a fresh take on drink’s journalism, and ready to embrace all of these varied categories that really did not necessarily have a home. A consistent home in a print format like they’ve experienced before.
So it’s really about building that community. An equal opportunity drinking for everyone, no matter what fills your glass, whether it is wine or a cocktail or a non-alc drink or an infused beverage. We have the content and the space for all of it. And I think it also speaks to just drinking with that category, cross category. I like to say I’m a proud cross drinker, and I think many of us in this modern beverage landscape are. We are enjoying a cup of tea or a great cup of coffee at one point with friends or over a meeting. Whereas we might be sharing a bottle of wine or a special beer on another occasion or on a family outing. So I think it’s really trying to embrace that diversity and that varied landscape that’s out there today.
In the last question you had asked about the format of the magazine. I just want to touch upon that really quickly because you’re right. We did come out with sort of a different, not only a different model in terms of the editorial content and not only a different model in terms of what we’re striving for with our advertising partnerships, but a different model in terms of the product itself.
We believe in print and the transportive nature that it can provide and disconnecting from the blue screen, from the noise, from the constant chaos of our screens in the digital world for just a little bit. And with that in mind, we really wanted to create this beautiful print product that reminds people and returns people to understanding that there is quality to be had behind those experiences and behind those products.
I think a lot of newsstand publications, they are great and they are wide-reaching, but I think that they also have a certain connotation to them in terms of how they feel, the tactile experience the reader takeaway. Whereas if you think of something more in lines of a book that sits on a shelf or a coffee table or whatever it may be, there’s a little bit more staying power, there’s a little bit more impact, there’s a little bit more reverence for the content and the quality behind it.
And that’s really what we’re aiming for with Full Pour. It’s not you get your subscription, you flip through it in the restroom and you throw it away after five minutes, having not really read or retained any information from it. This is a beautiful package that you see, and you just want to spend time with it. You want to give yourself the excuse and the reason to really dive into the stories, to the beautiful imagery, to the wonderful feel and smell of the paper. I still believe that there is something behind that smell that people love. (Laughs)
Samir Husni: (Laughs too) You’re preaching to the choir here.
Lauren Buzzeo: So this is what we’re trying to offer in terms of the experience of a print product. And it is very much in that sort of independent magazine or zine, which is very hard to define because there is such a variety in terms of formats and quality. But it isn’t that independent vein in terms of quality and that almost middle ground between a newsstand floppy and a hardcover book.
Samir Husni: You wrote a lot about the sustainability and the type of paper, and even the mailing envelope that the magazine is sent in. Are you trying to save the world? Or what are you doing?
Lauren Buzzeo: (Laughs) I would love to save the world, but I don’t think I could do it. But I think at the end of the day everything that I did in creating this magazine was with the question and with the frame of mind of there’s got to be a different way, there’s got to be a better way there’s got to be another way. What can that look like? What can that be? What can we do differently to make a better impact? And that is absolutely extended to production.
I think a lot of people might not necessarily know the impact that a lot of treatments, in terms of newsstand’s glossy magazines has on our environment, in terms of the laminates that are used for those covers, for those genes, the sourcing of the paper if they’re not environmentally friendly, if they’re not post-consumer waste.
So yes, we did very intentionally look for production partners that were in line with that thinking. So we do source 100 percent post-consumer waste recycled paper; we do use natural vegetable or soy based inks for all of our printing. There’s no chemical toners. There’s no plastic laminates or chemical laminates that will affect recyclability.
And you’re right, even down to the mailer that we ship our single issues in. It’s cornstarch-based, it’s not plastic. So it’s 100 percent biodegradable and compostable. Because again to us every little bit that we can do that makes a difference helps. We’re not going to save the world; we’re not going to really change the world, but we can change what we do. We’re not going to save the world. We can try to change the world. That’s what I’ll say.
Samir Husni: You’re so excited about the magazine and that’s great and you’re passionate about it. Tell me, has it been a walk in a rose garden or have you had some challenges?
Lauren Buzzeo: (Laughs) I don’t know any magazine that’s a walk in a rose garden. But I will say that I am incredibly passionate and incredibly happy and fortunate to have had this opportunity to create this magazine. I wake up and I work all the time, every day. But I am so energized and so happy to be putting that effort and that energy into something that I believe in so greatly. And that has received such wonderful feedback from other people who are appreciative of those efforts as well.
So no, nothing is a walk in the rose garden. And certainly as an independent magazine, and as a woman-owned, self-funded startup, nothing has been easy and I am wearing more hats than I ever thought I would have been.
But I am also a Taurus, and thank God for that because I love the challenge and I love to be stimulated. I love to learn new things and to have the opportunity to really dive into all aspects of print production. That part has been a pleasure and a joy and something that keeps me going every single day.
Certainly from a content perspective, that’s something that I was very comfortable and used to. And even from an overall direction, working with artists and writers was familiar territory. Things like setting up tax considerations. And to even sourcing some of those materials, like the mailing bag, which I did myself as well. There’s a lot of considerations, every step of the way that you don’t really know until you dive into it. But if you believe in it and if you’re passionate about it, it is infinitely rewarding.
Samir Husni: Tell me about your cover. It’s black and white on the front, but the same thing in color on the back. It looks like you want to enter the psychedelic word, but you don’t.
Lauren Buzzeo: (Laughs) I love that interpretation of it. I think at the end of the day we take our content very seriously, and we very much believe in telling the stories behind the bottles in a very informative way. So I’m not necessarily interested in more surface-generated content, more quick takes, infographics, buying lists, things of that nature. We really believe in getting into the stories of the who, the why, the how, the history, the geographic locations, whatever it may be to really provide that information to consumers to empower them to make those purchasing choices on their own for whatever needs they may have.
This isn’t something where we want to dictate what we believe people should be drinking. Because I don’t think that’s the way to go. I don’t think that that’s what people are generally interested in. And I think that in building our community we want to empower them with the information.
So in terms of the imagery we’re hopefully supporting a tone that is informative and serious with our content, but still fun and approachable. And I think our cover extends to that intent in terms of wanting to give a wide representation of all of the categories that we cover. So you’ll see representation of all the various main categories in that illustration and in every color illustration to come as well. But again in a very playful, vibrant, energetic format that we hope engages people to dive in, regardless of how serious the content might be.
Samir Husni: How did you come up with the name Full Pour?
Lauren Buzzeo: Honestly, I dreamed it. I created the logo as well. The Pour is my penmanship. The Full part is a font type, but before I designed that, I drew it. It was in my mind, came to me in a dream. And so it was always something around Pour. Singularly “Pour” didn’t really seem to, I don’t know, land or resonate the way that I really wanted it to.
So after a lot of deliberation with a lot of words to combine with it, I sort of landed on Full because that’s what we’re about, embracing the full category of drinks, beverages available to us. And also living a full and satisfying life. And the way that the beverages intertwine with our lives to give us that feeling of fullness and satisfaction.
Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Lauren Buzzeo: I’ll say on a side note my favorite page to put together for the spring issue was the contributors page. It brought me such great joy to be able to work with so many wonderful writers, artists, illustrators, and talent from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives.
And that is something that I am so keen and happy to continue doing with every issue of Full Pour, which is working with a wide range of contributors who bring different perspectives and energy to all of these different stories because we all come into various drinks and opportunities at different points and from different experiences and perspectives in our lives.
And I think that it’s important to give platform to all of those various capabilities and potentials in terms of entry points. So I love working with so many diverse voices and talents, and I really can’t wait to share more in the issues to come.
Samir Husni: How does it feel to be your own boss?
Lauren Buzzeo: It feels great, but it feels scary. It feels liberating, but it feels empowering. There are so many emotions that go along with entrepreneurship that are intimidating and can cause apprehension sometimes, but at the end of the day are so infinitely rewarding that it outweighs to me any of the potential downfalls. So yes, it’s been great.
And that is also largely reason why I did want to do this as an independent, self-funded project. I did want to just answer and speak to myself. I had a very clear vision. I didn’t want it to be compromised in any way, whether that was editorially, financially, or partners commercially. I really wanted to be true and authentic to what I believe this should and could be. And will work my hardest to keep that up for as long as I can.
Samir Husni: My typical last question, what keeps you at night?
Lauren Buzzeo: What keeps me up at night is finding enough hours in the day. I also have two small children. I have an eight year old son and a two and a half year old daughter. So I am a mom in addition to being a business owner. And sometimes finding the balance, the work life balance and the hours in the day to accomplish all of the things that I want to accomplish, is not an easy feat. But I think that those are the struggles that we all live with day to day in terms of finding our balance and staying true to ourselves and trying to be our best selves as possible. So I try not to keep myself up too much or for too long at night worrying about that and just do the best I can to meet all of those needs as best as I can.
I recently was heard on Steve Tarter’s podcast, Read Beat (… and Repeat). What follows is what Steve wrote followed by the link to the podcast. Hope you will enjoy and thank you Steve Tarter:
Show Notes
Samir Husni has the distinction of being known as “Mr. Magazine,” a title bestowed on him by a grateful student in 1986. Having made magazines his focus as a professor at the University of Mississippi for 37 years before retiring last year, Husni is now the founder and director of the Magazine Media Center. Husni told Steve Tarter that he picked up his love for magazines in his native Lebanon as a child, developing a love for publications involving ink and paper that has never wavered. Husni recently donated his extensive collection of magazines–two truckloads worth–to his alma mater, the University of Missouri where they will be stored and maintained to serve students and those with an interest in media, he said. Magazines, like newspapers, have gone through numerous changes in the digital age, said Husni. Consolidation of the companies that publish magazines has resulted in fewer titles coming to press, he noted. While 535 new magazines hit the market in 1996, only 74 new titles appeared in 2022, noted Husni, pointing out that newsstands are also disappearing from the American scene. Husni wrote the obit for the old-fashioned newsstand in 2014. That was the place that usually sold tobacco products along with magazines and newspapers. At that time he pointed to the new newsstands springing up in groceries and bookstores. Now those outlets are shrinking while the average price of an individual magazine (now at $11) continues to climb, he said. While the pandemic wiped out reading material in waiting rooms and airline magazines, subscription sales for a number of periodicals went up during that time, he said. One of the trends in magazine publishing today is the bookazine, said Husni. “This is a book made to look like a magazine,” he said. Subjects are chosen to grab public interest. It might be the Titanic or a rock group like Journey, anything that people might be willing to spend $14.99 on, Husni added.
My friend and co-panelist on the Pandemic Round Table Joe Berger, who is founder and president of Joseph Berger Associates Magazine Marketing and Consulting, also publishes a weekly newsletter every Tuesday. Included in this week’s edition there was an interview with me. Thank you Joe, and thank you for giving me permission to repost the interview. You can find a link to the entire newsletter at the end of this blog.
But now, for Joe Berger’s interview with Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni:
Five Questions With: Samir Husni, Ph.D. AKA, “Mr. Magazine™”
It’s the second Tuesday of the month so let’s go and meet someone in the magazine media world that you should know. Who is Samir Husni and why should you know him?
The Chicago Tribune called Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, Ph.D. the “man who loves magazines.” What started as a hobby at the age of 10 turned into an education and later, a profession. Samir is an expert in the field of magazine publishing and has extensively traveled the world preaching the love and importance of magazines in a digital age. Fun fact: Husni has spoken and consulted on six of the seven continents. He’s still waiting to go to Antartica to help launch Ice Quarterly.
Samir is an expert on new magazine launches and re-launches. His experience is based on years of studying the magazine industry and collecting publications. In fact, his hobby led to a collection of more than 40,000 first edition magazines and over 125,000 other notable publications that he recently donated to his alma mater, The University of Missouri-Columbia.
When Samir is not in his home office studying magazines, he’s out at the newsstands buying them.
Note: This conversation was lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Samir Husni (Photo by Robert Jordan)
Here’s our conversation with Samir Husni
#1: When and how did you begin working with magazine media? Did you have any specific training that helped to prepare you for your first job?
I started working with magazine media at a very young age. As far as I recall it was as early as the age of 10. I fell in love with the art of storytelling after purchasing the first issue of the Arabic edition of Superman in my birthplace Tripoli, Lebanon in 1964. The idea that you can capture a story on the pages of a magazine, illustrate it, and read it at your pace was a transforming moment for me. The powerful impact that had on me at that young age, led me to start my own magazines with the concept that I later used in my consulting career, “the audience of one.” I would create a magazine, using sheets of paper, crayons, pens and pencils, write, edit, and design, and at the end of the day sit down and read it. I was the publisher, editor, designer and reader all in one. All my training came from imitating other magazines, studying their content, their design, their audience. Magazines were my candy and any time I visited a newsstand, I was the kid in a candy store. So when I applied to my first job, I had a lot of passion to add to my resume, and that passion with my resume gave me the opportunity to work in the field that 60 years later I still love and practice.
#2: What are some of the big challenges you see the industry tackling this year? What do you foresee as the big challenges coming at us over the next few years?
The magazine media industry is an industry of challenges, big and small. This year is not any different. Finding a willing and capable audience who wants to and can afford the price of the magazine. Ensuring that you can find a way to put the magazine in front of its intended audience is still a major challenge.
With the disappearance of many newsstands and the shrinking of available space to display your magazine, it is harder than ever to find the title of your choice. Simply stated, if you can’t see it you can’t buy it.
#3: Do print magazines have much of a future over the next decade? Will there be print magazines twenty years from now?
I always say: There are only two people who can tell you the future: God and a fool. I know, for sure, I am not God, so here we go…
Print magazines are here to stay. And, by the way, I do not believe there is any other kind of magazine. If it is not ink on paper it is not a magazine. Folks must find a new name for all these fancy digital entities, maybe “telezines” or such. We never call television radio with pictures. We created a new word for it. So, are we going to have magazines 20 years from now? Yes we are is the simple answer. As long as we have human beings, we are going to have magazines that people can hold, touch, flip through, relax with and enjoy their “me time” with. Human beings thrive on three ships that cruise through them: ownership (you can’t own virtual), showmanship (you can show off what you own and carry) and membership (a sense of belonging that you know has its benefits, think AARP).
#4: If you hadn’t had a career in magazines (or journalism), what would you have wanted to do? Is that still something you’d want to do?
When your hobby turns into your education, into your profession, you never work a day in your life. I can’t see myself outside the world of magazines. That’s why after I retired from teaching, I did not retire from my studying and working with magazines. In addition to magazines, I always enjoyed photography and taking pictures (needless to say, an essential part of magazines), so I am now honing my skills in taking pictures and focusing on God’s beautiful creatures: birds.
#5: Did you have a mentor when you started out in your career? What was a good piece of advice that they gave you?
I was blessed to have too many mentors in my life. Almost every professor in my undergrad and grad school was a mentor. But two, way back in my days in Lebanon were truly my mentors. My editor in chief of the first newspaper I worked for in Beirut, Walid El-Husaini, who took me under his wings and showed me the art of making sense of what you write and design. Also, my university professor Walid Awad, who was a practicing journalist who helped nourish my career and asked me to work with him on many projects. There are too many to name, but one advice from them all: always remember your audience and remember you are never the audience.
Samir regularly publishes a blog with incredible interviews of magazine leaders. You can find it here.
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Mr. Magazine 