Mr. Magazine

“This idea will never work,” is by far the most often used phrase when it comes to launching a new magazine. The history of magazine publishing is filled with stories about great publishers who were told, time and time again, that their magazine idea would never work. Guess what, that fire did not quench their passion and desire to prove the naysayers wrong. Reader’s Digest, Rolling Stone, People and Maxim are but four magazines whose publishers heard the aforementioned phrase, “This idea will never work.” (photo illustration from she-fit.com)

So what is the difference between yesteryear and today? Passion and dreams. Magazine publishing was an act of passion and a conception of a dream. Publishers dreamt and lived and executed their dreams. Today, dreams have become business plans, test issues, focus groups, more focus groups and an entry and exit strategy for the newborn publication.

Yesterdays’ magazines were the “dream come true.” For example, some, like The New Yorker, had no masthead. The product was the dream, and the dream was more important than the dreamer. Magazine publishers were in the business of making their dreams come true. The magazines were the most important manifestation of the passion and dreams of the publishers. Reading the history books of how some of those great magazines were born, one must wonder what has happened to the old publishing business model.

Magazine publishing has become a business plan, numbers and statistics, analysis and more analysis (think “paralysis by analysis”). Ideas are no longer the manifestations of a dream. They are the results of calculated risk analysis with no passion, or for that matter any type of emotion. Magazine publishing has become the domain of the MBAs, with their computer-generated flow charts and five-year projections.

I know times have changed, and companies and boards of directors have taken over most magazine publishing houses. Very few individuals still dream and decide. The board has to report to the shareholders and the shareholders to their pocket books. These are the days where dreams are kept dreams and never brought to fruition.

The reason for this lengthy introduction is to issue a call for the creation of a new position in magazine and media publishing companies – The Chief Dream Officer, i.e., someone in charge of dreaming and executing big ideas. Steve Jobs did just that. No focus groups, no test markets, no statistical analysis of the success or failure of the iPhone, iPod and iPad. Dreams fueled by passion and executed by sheer will power. “If you build it, they will come,” can easily be translated into, “If you publish it, they will come.”

Each and every company needs a Chief Dream Officer. After all, we have all types of chiefs now, from a Chief Revenue Officer to a Chief Content Officer to a Chief Creative Officer. Why not add one more chief, the Chief Dream Officer? The job description – dream big, execute bigger and follow your passion. If you publish it, they will come. Just know your “it.”

I know of one such company with an unofficial Chief Dream Officer. Mr. R is the strategic dreamer of the company. This blog is a salute to his dreams and a call to make his title official. In magazine publishing, the road to success is paved with a lot of dreams. History teaches us that behind every successful magazine, there existed a Chief Dream Officer. Let’s remake some history today.

An unprecedented gathering of some of the biggest names in the magazine and media industry will descend on Oxford, Mississippi on Oct. 26, 27 and 28 to share with an audience of industry professionals and journalism students their perspectives on the future of the printed word in a digital age.

The second ACT (Amplify, Clarify and Testify) Experience, hosted by the Magazine Innovation Center at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, promises to be the most intimate, innovative experience to date, with seminars conducted by media CEOs, presidents, publishers, printers, marketing and advertising gurus, circulation experts, editors in chief, creative directors, software developers, brand renovators and futurists. It all makes for two-and-a-half days of great testimonials on the status of the magazine industry today, tomorrow and in the years to come. You are invited to have a center stage seat with the 24 speakers as we “think and do” the future of the printed word in a digital age.

The agenda is set and registration is still open for the remaining few seats from the 100 reserved for media professionals attending the ACT 2 Experience. Check the agenda here and register here.

Any questions, feel free to email me at samir.husni@gmail.com

Join us for two and a half days of Magazines, Music and Mississippi. Register now.

When times are good, or so it seems, the magazine business model always seems to tilt back toward that “advertising centric” model and the business of counting and selling customers’ eyeballs to the advertisers. When times are not so good, you start hearing about publishers who want to be in the “consumer centric” model and who are looking for customers who count rather than just counting their “eyeballs.”

My friend Roy Reiman, founder of Reiman Publications, proved it once, twice and more than a dozen times that the “consumer centric” business model for your magazine can and will work if your magazine is necessary, sufficient and relevant. Roy did it the 80s, 90s and the early parts of the new century. However skeptics today say it can’t be done now. Times are different. Indeed they are, and indeed before Roy’s huge success with his titles which ranged from Country to Taste of Home (the largest selling cooking magazine in America), someone else have been publishing a “consumer centric” magazine in Yonkers, New York aptly named Consumer Reports.

For years Consumer Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports published the magazine without a single page of advertising and not only the magazine succeeded, it also thrived. Well, taking a page from Consumer Reports business model, the publisher decided to launch a new magazine five years ago in the midst of an “advertising centric” thriving magazine business model. Times were good, very good indeed when the first issue of a new shopping magazine called Shop Smart appeared for the first time on the nation’s newsstands in September of 2006. Shop Smart was born with one catch to its business model: NO Advertising. Another attempt to launch a “consumer centric” magazine, not out of necessity but rather out of a philosophy and firm belief that the model still works.

Shop Smart celebrates this month its fifth anniversary and on that occasion I had the opportunity to interview Lisa Lee Freeman, the magazine’s editor in chief. In typical Mr. Magazine™ Interview’s style, what follows are the sound bites followed by a very lightly edited full interview.

The Sound Bites:

The positives of a “consumer centric” business model: If you are always depending on your readers to pay for content and to value that content, then you have a much more solid long-term business model, in terms of stability from year to year.

The negatives of a “consumer centric” business model: I think a lot of companies don’t have the patience to wait for something to grow using this kind of model. It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure.

The link between print and digital: We had decided early on that Shop Smart was going to be very Internet friendly and have a digital focus in terms of shopping.

The young ones who don’t read magazines: For the ones that don’t, you’re never going to reach that audience with print, so you need to have some kind of digital product. You need to be able to reach them and get them in the habit of paying for your content in the digital space.

The role of an editor today: Being an editor right now is a really big challenge. It is a big challenging time right now. You can’t just be a print editor. You can’t just think that you’re just this magazine editor. You’re a dinosaur if you think that way.

Best advice for future journalists: If you can package content in a compelling way that is your most important skill. That’s going to help you on any platform. It’s all about knowing how to package content for different platforms.

The future of print: I think print is still very vital and I think it will be for the foreseeable future but I do think that print is going to be translated into the digital space.

The role of printed magazines: We are in the business of delighting people and surprising people. People go on the web for more social interaction and information gathering and it’s less of that escape than curling up with a magazine. It’s a very different experience.

The function of a printed magazine: Magazines really are about enjoyment, finding a few moments to steal for you. Magazines provide that little escape. It’s fun that people still want that experience. It’s not just about the information.

The most important role of editors: It’s all about creating an entertaining experience. You’re a curator, as an editor and doing a print magazine you’re working within a very strict set framework that is very fun. It’s like painting a picture every month and you’re giving it to people to enjoy.

The changing role of editors: I still have to be really hands on but that is probably unusual in the business. You have to let go, if you love writing and editing then you might not want to become an editor.

And now, for the lightly, very lightly edited transcript of the interview with Lisa Freeman, editor in chief of Shop Smart magazine:

Samir Husni: We have heard a lot lately in our business, every time the economy is down, that we need to return to that consumer centric model instead of the advertising centric model. Why do you think, even a shopping magazine succeeds in this consumer centric model, and why do you think other people are not imitating what you are doing?

Lisa Lee Freeman: The truth of it is that when you start a new magazine and you’re not allowed to take advertising, it almost feels like you’re tying your hands behind your back. It’s like eliminating revenue that most magazines have. It is kind-of a crazy business model in some ways, but in other ways it brings discipline to the process because it requires you to make money on your content and not rely on advertisers. We’re not growing quickly in terms of subscriptions. We have to make money on every single subscription we sell and that’s a very high bar. You do sacrifice growth for profitability. In these times, I think a lot of magazines have gotten too dependent on advertising and that ultimately hurts a lot of magazines. If you are always depending on your readers to pay for content and to value that content, then you have a much more solid long-term business model, in terms of stability from year to year. You’re not going to have as much fluctuation. Once you have a subscriber they tend to stick with you and they are the ones supplying the funds.

SH: We live in an age now where nobody is patient anymore. Everybody wants everything now. Everybody wants to break even within six months, make money within nine months, and yet you are telling me that the consumer centric business model is more of a model that is slowly building, step-by-step. Does that drive you crazy as an editor?

LF: YES. We could have gotten much bigger much faster, if we had a different model. With that said, I think that people really value our content and when you charge for what you provide people are paying a price for the value. It has taken awhile for us to make money. At the end of the day, it takes years to get up to a level of profitability. You just have to have patience. I think a lot of companies don’t have the patience to wait for something to grow using this kind of model. It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure.

SH: Do you think Shop Smart’s business model would have worked if Consumer Reports was not behind it?

LF: No, I don’t think it would have actually worked. I think the Consumer Reports brand has provided a lot of support for the product. I think it would be very difficult to launch a magazine into the market place right now, especially given our economy. That foundation and that brand recognition we had right out of the gate really helped us. With that said, a lot of our customers are new to the brand and have never purchased any Consumer Reports products. While CR has helped because it has given a certain amount of brand recognition that is not the only reason people are buying it. What Shop Smart has done is really broaden the audience for the content we produce at Consumer Reports, which has been very satisfying for me.

SH: Lets go back five years in history… Can you recreate that first time you were told that you were going to publish a shopping new magazine, with no hypes, no ads, just great buys? When you first knew that Consumer Reports was going to do this magazine?

LF: When I came here I saw the need for a women’s magazine. I proposed this magazine and it was originally turned down. This was six years ago and I had just come on board at Consumer Reports. A lot of my friends weren’t reading CR because they thought it really wasn’t for them. It was boring and it was all about charts and graphs. They bought it but only when they absolutely needed it, like if they were buying a refrigerator they would pick it up or they would subscribe to the website. I thought that with the kind of information we had here we could create something really compelling without the charts, without the graphs. It could really be focused on just the best. Women don’t have a lot of time. Just tell people what to buy, what not to buy, and give them some tips on how to find a good deal. That was the genesis of my idea. I wrote a long proposal. Elizabeth Crow, the editorial director, at the time was wowed and thought it was brilliant. I had proposed that we really needed to test more women’s products. The company said they didn’t have money to test for a new magazine. We had several meetings and it kind-of got kicked to the side.
The art director, Tim LaPalme, at Consumer Reports, had pitched a magazine for young men and it was very visual and very much what I had envisioned for Shop Smart. It had short, little charts, it was quick and fast moving and more visual. He actually did some mock-ups. When they saw them the marketing department said “Wow, you know what, maybe we should do some focus groups.” The marketing department here is really smart and they invited a few women. The men in the focus groups were asking about the charts and icons for ratings. The women in the groups felt that this was something they might be interested in. The head of newsstand at the time came running down the hallway after the focus group and said “Lisa, you’ve got a magazine!” She explained to me that she was in the meetings for the original concept that I had come up with and she said, Lisa you should work with Tim, who was the designer for this other magazine. We came up with some more mock-ups. In my vision it was the women’s magazine that I had envisioned. We took out all ratings, even mentions of ratings, made it visual, gave it a completely different voice, a different look and feel, and added a lot of the how-to and the service stuff that women’s magazines are known for. We then went back out and did some more focus groups. Women went berserk— they loved it. Online shopping was really coming into it’s own, it was still early on but people were still really eager to learn about the websites they should go to and that sort of thing. We had decided early on that Shop Smart was going to be very Internet friendly and have a digital focus in terms of shopping. For the focus groups I put together all these fake websites and descriptions of them. I also added some wacky cleaning tips that I made up, like use pencil shavings and alcohol to clean all your chandeliers. We knew we had a winner when women in the focus groups were literally taking this made up stuff jotting down. They wanted to take the materials with them. I had to run in there after the groups were done and let them know these are not real websites and don’t use pencil shavings on your chandeliers. We had more focus groups and shortly after we launched Shop Smart.

SH: The magazine was born and it was ink on paper in this digital age. You have a very successful marriage between print and digital and CR has the same thing. Do you really think any magazine today can exist for 5 years without a digital presence?

LF: You have to have the right digital presence. I think a lot of publications made the mistake of thinking, ‘well, we’re just going to throw up a website and put a bunch of free content up there, so that we’re there and our brand is out there in the digital space.’ In some ways that was a big mistake because a lot of people got used to not paying for stuff online because they have all this free information out there. What Shop Smart is focusing on and what I hope to accomplish over the next several years is digital model with applications that will play off our material, things that people are going to pay for. The reason we all have to do this is even though we’re not going to make money off of it right away and there are not a lot of big bucks even where people are paying, we have to be there because if you spend any time with people in their 20s, you’ll find out that print magazines are not one of their things. A lot of them do read print magazines but a lot of them don’t. For the ones that don’t, you’re never going to reach that audience with print, so you need to have some kind of digital product. You need to be able to reach them and get them in the habit of paying for your content in the digital space. You can’t do that just by throwing up a free website and thinking that they’re going to become familiar with your brand and then they are going to start buying your print magazine. I don’t think this generation is going to do that. I don’t think we can count on that kind of transition.

SH: So, how do you capture them? How do you reach them?

LF: I think you have to reimagine the content that you provide and figure out a way to provide it in new platforms that people are willing to pay for; mobile apps, iPad apps, tablet apps, and things of that nature. A lot of companies are now creating TV shows and they have products that they’re selling with their brand. You have to find new ways to reach those audiences and you have to think about your brand in a whole new way. Being an editor right now is a really big challenge. You can’t just be a print editor. You can’t just think that you’re just this magazine editor. You’re a dinosaur if you think that way. We all know this. The challenge is finding the time and the resources to figure out what to do with all these product extensions and figure out how we are eventually going to make money off of these things. No one’s really making big bucks off these product extensions yet.

SH: Did your education help you or prepare you for this new role as an editor? What should we be doing in terms of educating and preparing for the future editors? Should we add marketing, should we add digital skills? If someone graduates with the basics, writing, editing, reporting, design, critical thinking… are you telling me this is no longer enough?

LF: I think it is no longer enough. We can’t lose sight of it. If you can package content in a compelling way that is your most important skill. That’s going to help you on any platform. It’s all about knowing how to package content for different platforms. That’s how you’re going to succeed. It doesn’t hurt to have some knowledge of digital, social media; editors need to be in the social media space. Editors need to be familiar with how it works and how it gets done. If your not doing it in school, you need to keep up with it and figure it out. If you don’t have the business and marketing skills, then you need a strong team behind you and really you need a partner. I don’t work with an ad sale rep, a traditional publisher that’s selling advertising, but I do have to partner with the business side in order to make the products get off the ground. So far, we only have a digital version of Zinio and on the Nook but we’re planning other things. If you don’t have those business skills, you certainly have to partner with the people on the business side to figure out how to make this stuff work. Sorry I’m stating the obvious, but it’s something I wrestle with everyday.

SH: A lot of magazines are killing their print editions and opting to stay online only. I tell whoever is willing to listen that if your magazine is dying in print, online only is not your ticket to the life after. If you are failing in print, digital is not the salvation. What do you think?

LF: I think print is still very vital and I think it will be for the foreseeable future but I do think that print is going to be translated into the digital space. Already we are seeing some interesting stuff with the iPad apps. Those really are magazines, it doesn’t matter that they are not on paper, they are still more or less traditional magazines the way they are put together. Print or digital, the way that they are imagined and the way that they are packaged are very similar. Add video, add some pyrotechnics but at the end of the day it’s all about creating an entertaining experience. You’re a curator. An editor who is doing a print magazine you are working within a very strict set framework that is very fun. It’s like painting a picture every month and you’re giving it to people to enjoy. We just finished a bunch of focus groups and from some of the informal discussions the one thing that we are finding is what magazines were to them. The thing that came about over and over again is that magazines really are about enjoyment, finding a few moments to steal for you. Magazines provide that little escape. It’s fun that people still want that experience. It’s not just about the information, it’s about providing an experience and entertainment, a little relief and maybe you’ll come away with some ideas you didn’t have before. We heard a lot of people in the focus group saying “wow, I didn’t even know I didn’t know that” or “I didn’t even know that was something I might be interested in.” We are in the business of delighting people and surprising people. People go on the web for more social interaction and information gathering and it’s less of that escape than curling up with a magazine. It’s a very different experience.

SH: What’s your biggest challenge today, as someone who has a success story on his or her hands?

LF: Time. I have no time. I do a lot of media as part of my job. I have three television appearances this week. Over the weekend I was on the Early Show, yesterday I was doing the Nat Burke show and I was there all afternoon, tomorrow morning I have the Today Show. I have to be out there being the spokesperson. I have my people out there too but there is so much media. I feel that I have to be part of that media machine. I have to be a solider for the magazine and be a spokesperson and engage with other media outlets; newspapers, radios, TV stations. We need to be part of the conversation. I feel like I need to be twittering. I think as editors you can’t just sit in an air-conditioned building all day, at your desk, cooking up page layouts. You have to be out there engaging with your audience in new and different ways that includes not just being a spokesperson but also figuring out ways to extend your brand and to reach people in different ways. There are a lot of days that I don’t even know what to do first and I feel overwhelmed because I know that there is so much work to be done. I haven’t even launched any of these products yet. I am working on all of these different angles. You are pulled in a lot of different directions, the biggest challenge is figuring out what do I do first every day, how to prioritize. There are days that I can’t do any editing at all. So little of my time these days is devoted to sitting down and planning and editing. I have such a small staff that I still have to be really hands on but that is probably unusual in the business. You have to let go, if you love writing and editing then you might not want to become an editor.

SH: What makes Lisa get up in the morning? What’s the source of energy that gets you going everyday, even if your day is a 20-hour day instead of an 8-hour day?

LF: I am so excited everyday, in spite of the time and prioritizing, I am really excited about what we are doing here and being a part of this brand, of this place, of helping people make good choices in their life when it comes to being a consumer. I feel like we do a lot of really good work here on safety, on getting good deals, and in so many areas of people’s lives. People get so excited about shopping and they are interested in making good choices and getting good deals and keeping their family healthy and safe. I feel like we are doing really good work here. I talk to people and they really feel gratified by Shop Smart. We have this cult following, we don’t have huge subscribers but the people that we do have are engaged. I get letters everyday saying how wonderful this magazine is. I feel so gratified every day because of the impact that we are having. Even though the magazine is not as big as I would like it to be, I feel like the impact goes way beyond the magazine because of all the media that we do.

SH: In 2016 you’ll be 10 years old, where do you see Shop Smart? Five years from now, what can you tell me about Shop Smart?

LF: I would hope that we would be a lot bigger. I would like to see us at 1 million. Even though we are growing so painfully slow right now. We are going to be a lot bigger and a lot more than just a print magazine. We are going to have a lot of other properties and a lot of other ways that we are reaching out with our information. I am hoping we will have all the apps, a much more enhanced website, and outreach through social media. I am hoping that the fruits of all my efforts right now will be seen in the next five years. It will be seen, as it’s own brand and come out of the shadow of Consumer Reports. It’s poised for really good growth and to be a recognized brand in it’s own right.

Change is the only constant in our magazine business; however, most apply that change to content and design rather than their business model for a changing magazine industry.

Since its birth, the American consumer magazine has followed a variation of one business model: circulation revenue from single-copy sales and subscriptions, and later advertising. In the early days, circulation was the major source of revenue; later, advertising became the major source, reaching a whopping 80 percent of the total revenue. When the economy collapsed in September 2008, the advertising market dried up, leaving the magazine industry facing a major crisis.

Add to that technological advances, expansion of digital media and the creation of tablets, and it’s clear that signs of the demise of the magazine industry’s business model were written all the over the wall. All of a sudden, industry leaders started talking about the need to reinvent the business model and to become more “consumer-centric” rather than “advertising-centric.” With the economy rebounding and digital solutions explored, the talks about the new business model have dried up, and we are back to our old ways.

1: Content and 2: Price
For years I have felt that cable television has been the best thing to ever happen to the magazine industry, and that we can learn and apply a lot from both its content and its business models in our own business. From its very beginnings, cable television has followed a consumer-centric model, regardless of how much advertising was later added to its programming. Consumers had to pay a price (and a high price, for that matter) for the premium channels they wanted to receive. That price came on the heels of free television when all consumers had to do was pay for the television set. Today, the average family pays almost $70 a month for cable services—compare that to free television just 30 years ago.
Having more choices means less time spent on different channels, but it also means paying much higher prices for those channels. The more specialized the channel, the more specific the amount of time spent with it and the higher the price paid for it. Whether it is the Playboy Channel or HBO, people are willing to pay more for it.

The same should be the case with magazines. Having 10,000 titles available for the general public today, compared to 3,000 only 30 years back, does not translate to selling more magazines. In fact, the opposite is true. More means less. However, for example, when an almost ad-free magazine caters to the needs of a specialized, literary-minded audience who are interested in food as a culture, Lucky Peach magazine is born with a single-issue price ($10, in this case) that is equal to almost a two-year subscription to a host of general-interest magazines.

3: Distribution
In addition to the price and content, the distribution method of cable television provides the magazine industry with a last, but not least idea for sales and distribution. Cable is sold via bundles, not per channel. A few tests are taking place worldwide regarding the business of selling media via bundle rather than individual entities. On a recent trip to the Netherlands and to the United Kingdom, I witnessed magazines sold via bundles on the newsstands. Three, four and up to seven magazines bundled in one unit—aimed at a targeted audience, and sold at a discounted price—are available to customers to purchase.

Back in the days of broadcasting, folks were able to get one, two or three channels, based on the receiver they bought. Today, a basic cable package is at least 30 channels or more. No individual choices, but starting with the basic and going up with the specific bundles the customer needs, from sports (as many channels as you are willing to pay for and as specialized as multichannel packages for specific sports) to movies, to adult programs, to news, etc. Trying to sell magazines as a specialized bundle may also be another way to promote the consumer-centric model that can survive both the technological changes and the advertising-dependent business model.

No matter what the next step is, one thing is for sure: Doing the same thing over and over again is, as the Chinese say, insanity. We must change our business model, and we must change today. Tomorrow is already too late. PE

Samir Husni, aka Mr. Magazine™, is founder and director of the Magazine Innovation Center at The University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media. He can be reached at samir.husni@gmail.com and can be followed at MrMagazine.com.

This column appeared in the current issue of Publishing Executive magazine. Click here to check it out and the entire current issue of Publishing Executive magazine.

The previews for the Magazine Innovation Center’s ACT2 Experience, “Restart Your Engines: The Future of the Printed Word in a Digital Age,” are starting to appear. Media Industry Newsletter (min) and The New Single Copy newsletter previewed the ACT2 Experience in their August 1, 2011 editions. The ACT 2 Experience is limited to 100 “experience makers.” To be one of the 100, you need to register today because once the 100 slots are filled, you will have to wait for next year. The ACT 2 Experience takes place Oct. 26 thru Oct. 28 at the campus of the University of Mississippi Meek School of Journalism and New Media. To register click here or visit http://www.magazineinnovationcenter.org/act2

Here is The New Single Copy Preview:

ACT2 Experience. The Second Act Set for
Mississippi in October
The Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi will be the scene for the second edition of the ACT Experience, called “Restart Your Engines: The Future of the Printed Word in a Digital Age.” The dates are October 26 to 28, 2011. The director of the Innovation Center is Samir Husni, journalism professor at the University. Among the speakers will be Frank Anton, CEO of Hanley-Wood; Scott Crystal, former president of TV Guide; Sid Evans, group editor, Time Inc. Lifestyle Division; Phyllis Hoffman DePiano, CEO, Hoffman Media; Kent Johnson, CEO of Highlights for Children, Inc.; Steven Kotok, president, The Week; Will Pearson, president, Mental Floss Inc.; Roy Reiman, founder, Reiman Publications; Sue Roman, president, The Taunton Press; Bob Sacks (AKA BoSacks), Precision Media Group; and John Harrington, publisher/editor, The New Single Copy. Other speakers and participants include Vito Di Bari, designer and futurologist (Italy); Scott Coopwood, publisher, Delta magazine; James Elliott, the James G. Elliott Co.; Nina Gerwin founder, Eye Capture; Jeremy Leslie, editorial designer and founder, magCulture.com (U.K.); David McDonald, CEO, True North Custom Media; Mark Pasetsky, founder, Cover Awards; and Franska Stuy, editor in Chief, Libelle (The Netherlands). Husni also plans a panel, featuring printers and paper company executives, on “The Future of the Printed Word.” For more information on ACT2, go to http://www. mrmagazine.com/act/.

The first edition of ACT, which stands for amplify, clarify, testify, was held in October 2010. It differed from any other publishing conference I have ever attended. To some degree, it was because of the eclectic group of speakers, but it was also elevated because of the university atmosphere, and the participation of the university’s journalism students, who contributed an enthusiasm and excitement that convinced the grayer heads that there will be a future for print in the age of digital.■

And here is the min preview:

SAMIR HUSNI ANNOUNCES AN “ACT 2” FOR THE MAGAZINE INNOVATION CENTER.
Newest hat worn by the University of Mississippi journalism professor and Guide to New Magazines author is Magazine Innovation Center founder (July 2009), and in that capacity Husni will host the second ACT (amplify, clarify, and testify) conference on the Ole Miss campus from October 26-28. Theme is Restart your engines: the future of the printed word in a digital world, and the faculty includes the recently hired Time Inc. Lifestyle Division group editor Sid Evans, ex-TV Guide president Scott Crystal, The Week president Steven Kotok, Hanley-Wood ceo Frank Anton, and Reiman Publications founder (1965) Roy Reiman. Returning from last year’s inaugural Reimagining our future while we still have time are The New Single Copy editor/publisher John Harrington, and Precision Media Group founder/ president Bob Sacks (better known for his bosacks.com Web monicker).

The second annual ACT Experience “registration doors” are officially open. Click here to register and learn more about the two and a half days of Magazines, Music and Mississippi. Registration is limited to 100 persons, so do not delay if you want to be one of the participants as we “Re-Start Our Engines” and look into “The Future of the Printed Word in a Digital Age.”

The Magazine Innovation Center at The University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media introduced its annual ACT Experience last October. ACT stands for Amplify, Clarify and Testify and the Experience, that lasts for two and a half days on the university campus, teams some of the top industry leaders with magazine media folks looking for solutions for today’s publishing problems. The think-and-do-experience (neither a course or a conference) is an intimate gathering that is limited in attendee’s number but not limited in ideas and solutions. ACT 2 Experience is themed “Restart Your Engines: The Future of the Printed Word in a Digital Age” and takes place October 26 – October 28.

Industry leaders who are confirmed headliners and keynote speakers at the event are, in alphabetical order:

Frank Anton, CEO of Hanley-Wood
Vito Di Bari, Innovation Designer and Futurologist, Italy
Scott Coopwood, Publisher, Delta Magazine
Scott Crystal, Former President, TV Guide and former Publisher, National Geographic
Phyllis Hoffman DePiano, CEO of Hoffman Media
James Elliott, President, The James G. Elliott Co., Inc.
Sid Evans, Group Editor, Time Inc., Lifestyle Division
John Harrington, Partner, Harrington Associates and Publisher/Editor, The New Single Copy newsletter
Nina Gerwin, Founder, Eye Capture
Kent S. Johnson, CEO of Highlights for Children, Inc.
Steven Kotok, President, The Week, Felix Dennis Publications
Jeremy Leslie, Editorial Designer and Founder, magCulture.com, The United Kingdom
David C. McDonald, CEO, True North Custom Media
Mark Pasetsky, Founder, CoverAwards and former editor OK! Weekly and Life & Style weekly
Will Pearson, President, Mental Floss Inc. and Co-Founder mental_floss magazine
Roy Reiman, Founder of Reiman Publications
Sue Roman, President of Taunton Press
Bob Sacks, President of Precision Media Group (bosacks.com)
Franska Stuy, Editor in Chief of Libelle, The Netherlands

In addition to the aforementioned industry leaders, a panel discussion will take place about the future of the printed word lead by leading industry printers and paper companies.

Our thanks to the early sponsors Delta Magazine, Democrat Printing & Lithograph Co., Freeport Press, Fry Communications Inc., IOStudio, James G. Elliott Co. Inc., Publishers Press, and True North Custom Media. To become a sponsor please email me at samir.husni@gmail.com

The ACT 2 Experience is limited to 100 attendees in addition to the speakers and sponsors.
Click here to register if you want to ensure a seat at the ACT2 Experience.

The man who has been selected as the innovation designer for the Milan World Expo 2015 and the professor of Innovation Design at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, is the latest addition to the list of headliners who will engage a limited number of participants in the second annual Magazine Innovation Center’s ACT Experience at The University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media this coming October 26 to 28.

The internationally acclaimed innovator and futurologist joins a host of other prominent leaders in the field of magazines, media and communications in the two and half days of think and do experience that promises to be unlike any other media course or conference anyone has ever attended. Themed, “Restart Your Engines: The Future of the Printed Word,” the ACT 2 Experience promises to engage both speakers and attendees in a host of discussions leading to answers and solutions for the many of the problems facing our industry.

Industry leaders who are confirmed headliners and keynote speakers at the event are, in alphabetical order:

Frank Anton, CEO of Hanley-Wood
Scott Coopwood, Publisher, Delta Magazine
Scott Crystal, Former President, TV Guide and former Publisher, National Geographic
Phyllis Hoffman DePiano, CEO of Hoffman Media
James Elliott, President, The James G. Elliott Co., Inc.
Sid Evans, Editor in Chief, Garden & Gun magazine
John Harrington, Partner, Harrington Associates and Publisher/Editor, The New Single Copy newsletter
Nina Gerwin, Founder, Eye Capture
Kent S. Johnson, CEO of Highlights for Children, Inc.
Steven Kotok, President, The Week, Felix Dennis Publications
Jeremy Leslie, Editorial Designer and Founder, magCulture.com, The United Kingdom
David C. McDonald, CEO, True North Custom Media
Mark Pasetsky, Founder, CoverAwards and former editor OK! Weekly and Life & Style weekly
Will Pearson, President, Mental Floss Inc. and Co-Founder mental_floss magazine
Roy Reiman, Founder of Reiman Publications
Sue Roman, President of Taunton Press
Bob Sacks, President of Precision Media Group (bosacks.com)
Franska Stuy, Editor in Chief of Libelle, The Netherlands

In addition to the aforementioned industry leaders, a panel discussion will take place about the future of the printed word lead by leading industry printers and paper companies.

The ACT 2 Experience is limited to 100 attendees in addition to the speakers and sponsors. Watch this space for more information about registration and other important information regarding the ACT 2 Experience. In the meantime, save the date and if you have any questions or want to know more, please email me at samir.husni@gmail.com

When I started the Magazine Innovation Center more than one year ago, my goal was to help amplify the future of print. The goal, was, is and will continue to be, to use digital and the new technologies to help amplify print and its future. Last month I had the opportunity to visit one such company that is practicing what I am preaching: they are using technology to amplify the future of print.

HP, through its MagCloud operation provides a service that offers publishers a complete publishing cycle. From uploading magazine pages, to printing, distributing and banking, MagCloud opens the opportunity to any one with an idea for a new magazine to use its services to make dreams come true. While print on demand and MagCloud is still in its infancy compared to the traditional printing model, I saw a lot of hope and a lot of possibilities for the future and power of the printed word. Some major magazine editors such as Jackie Leo, the former editor in chief of Reader’s Digest magazine used MagCloud to publish her first print issue of The Fiscal Times and the same is true for LiveStrong magazine published by Lance Armstrong and his LiveStrong organization. So what gives?

Well, to find out, I’ve opted to ask the folks at HP’s MagCloud about this “service” and they were generous enough with their time and information that led to this edition of the Mr. Magazine™ Interviews. Andrew Bolwell, HP’s Chief MagClouder answered my questions about MagCloud and its stated goal of “People publishing their passion.”

In typical Mr. Magazine™ Interviews here are the sound-bites followed by the complete interview:

MagCloud really sits at the cross roads of marrying our expertise in print and cloud services

For us it’s never been a matter of print or digital it’s been about choice.

We aim to be a one-stop shop for content publishers so they can focus all of their attention on their content and their customers.

We see MagCloud as much more than print-on-demand service; it’s a content publishing platform.

With MagCloud, publishers can now focus all their attention on content creation and marketing their products

I think at some point nearly all magazines will be printed on demand.

The beauty of digital printing is you can offer the same professional quality consumers expect from traditional magazines without the overhead of large print runs and long lead times.

And now for the full interview:

Samir Husni: When a normal consumer thinks about HP, their brains don’t jump directly to ink on paper. So why is HP interested in something like MagCloud?

Andrew Bolwell: HP has been a leader in both consumer and commercial printing for a long time. If you think of the number of HP digital presses used in the publishing industry we’ve been putting ink on paper for quite some time now. We’ve also been focusing a lot of attention on the cloud with web services and back end infrastructure. MagCloud really sits at the cross roads of those efforts, marrying our expertise in print and cloud services, so is a natural extension of what HP does well.

SH: How much do you believe in the future of ink on paper printed products?

AB: For us it’s never been a matter of print or digital it’s been about choice. You can’t deny the beauty and wonderful tactile nature of print. People buy magazines in print every day and we don’t see that going away anytime soon. We also think if you can take that beauty and permanence of print, and marry it with technologies that allow printed content to be highly customized, then you can start to imagine some pretty interesting new print products and advertising models. But back to my point on choice, we also appreciate the convenience of digital and that’s why we’ve been expanding to offer a digital option to our publishers and readers as well.

SH: Digital printing and print on demand is gaining ground around the globe, how does MagCloud set itself aside from other print on demand companies?

AB: We see MagCloud as much more than print-on-demand service; it’s a content publishing platform. What our customers appreciate is that they can simply upload their content to MagCloud and make it available in a variety of formats—print and digital—at whatever price point they want, with MagCloud managing all of the heavy lifting and providing the publisher with royalty payments. So order taking, printing, distribution etc.

With MagCloud, publishers can now focus all their attention on content creation and marketing their products, because we handle all the other aspects of production and distribution that in the past have made publishing a relatively expensive and risky endeavor.

SH: What do you see as the future of print on demand?

AB: Very bright. I think at some point nearly all magazines will be printed on demand.

SH: What are the goals of MagCloud?

AB: We want to transform the publishing industry, and create a model where anyone can easily publish content and distribute it as print and digital products worldwide. All as easy as uploading a video to YouTube.

We also want to remove the barriers and mystique of traditional publishing in order to proliferate the creation and distribution of highly customized, targeted content. People publishing their passion.

And we want people to have access to a much broader and diverse range of highly targeted magazines than is available using traditional publishing models today.

SH: Entrepreneurs seem to be a natural fit for the advantages of MagCloud, but how can an established magazine or media company benefit from MagCloud?

AB: It’s a good question. MagCloud is enabling existing media companies to be more experimental allowing them to adopt that same entrepreneurial spirit.

The beauty of digital printing is you can offer the same professional quality consumers expect from traditional magazines without the overhead of large print runs and long lead times.

With MagCloud established magazines can create customized and versioned issues based on audience, location or special interests, repackage existing content archives or test market new titles.

SH: What is the MagCloud model and how does one publish through MagCloud?

AB: MagCloud is as simple as uploading a PDF. A publisher uploads a PDF of their publication to the MagCloud website, selects their binding type and sets a price for both print and digital versions. The MagCloud service takes it from there with order and print management, as well as global distribution. We then pay publishers monthly based on sales.

SH: MagCloud seems to work as a pre-press, a printer, a distributor and a banker, can you elaborate on how exactly the role of MagCloud is defined?

AB: Yes, we aim to be a one-stop shop for content publishers so they can focus all of their attention on their content and their customers. MagCloud’s role is as content service provider; we provide publishers a self-service content publishing platform that takes their magazine from PDF to print and digital consumption.

SH: In a few words, what is vision and future of MagCloud?

AB: In a few words? A content service that enables a world of publishers to easily make their content available to a world of readers, in both print and digital formats.

We want to be the service that enables that. And looking forward, we want to evolve the MagCloud platform with additional services, such as content targeting and advertising, that will offer publishers new ways to make their content profitable and allow it to be consumed in new and compelling ways.

SH: Can you tell me about some of the pleasant surprises and biggest disappointments Magcloud faced in its first two years?

AB: One of the greatest surprises has been the diversity and creativity of the publications that are published through MagCloud. We have magazines on almost any topic, created by publishers of all ages all over the world, and have seen publishers collaborate using only the web to create magazines that until now were just not possible.

It’s been truly exciting to see the breadth of content that MagCloud has unlocked.

Disappointments? Maybe that established media companies would become greater innovators and take more advantage of services like MagCloud to deliver a new breed of custom content to their subscribers. There are great editorial and creative staffs out there that without the logjam of traditional publishing economics and distribution barriers could create some truly amazing targeted publications for their readers. I’m still waiting for my custom golf magazine, but we’re working on that…

SH: Thank you.

And for those of you who are still reading, what are you waiting for? Go get your magazine ready, upload it and join the wonderful world of print: one magazine at a time. Enjoy!

Wow! That was my reaction when the April’s copy of Men’s Health magazine arrived in my mailbox. A complete departure from their traditional cover design and colors. Men’s Health has been a leader in creating subscribers’ covers that differed from the single copy ones (usually with reduced type size and fewer cover lines), but the April issue subscription edition is new to me and the rest of the magazine subscribers.

Gone is the familiar white background and the majority of the cover lines. In, is an action and active, rather than passive, picture. Gone are the multiple cover lines. In, the one cover line offering all kind of “Expert advice on getting fitter, looking leaner, eating better, investing smarter… and crushing any opponent.”

Who says you need technology to create innovation in print! Covers that make readers take a second look are an innovation by themselves. Once you take a second look, you are engaged and the magazine is already in your hands. Enjoy!

This is a story of a family business, a very successful family business. Taunton Press, publisher of everything “Fine” was founded more than 35 years ago. Its corner stones: consumers; its publishing model: consumer centric. The end result is one “Fine” magazine after another. Fine Woodworking, Fine Cooking, Fine Gardening… you get the picture.

I had the opportunity to talk with one “Fine” member of Taunton Press, Sue Roman, the president of the company and daughter of the founders Paul and Janice Roman. After my initial questions about the company and its role in today’s market place, I found myself going back for more. I discovered that there was as good a story about Sue Roman as the one about the company she leads. Sue was gracious enough to answer my “company” questions and then sits for a second round of questions, but this time about her story, her dreams and how she ended up on the helm of such a very successful magazine company.

So, in the usual Mr. Magazine™ Interviews, here are the sound bites followed by the two interviews, the company one and the personal one:

In our magazines, the reader is at the center. We ask them for a hefty subscription price, and then work really hard to deliver that high value in the magazine.

We strive to serve all the information needs of our customers.

All advertising is endemic to the subject of the magazine for all of our magazines.

We honor both the reader and the advertiser. Readers know to look for the advertisements in the front and the back of the book; however when they are in the article well they will find no advertisements to distract them from the content at hand.

Our editorial/art teams are masterful with using the magazine format to take complex ideas and processes and make them accessible and engaging.

If the publisher doesn’t think the magazine is valuable, as signaled by the subscription price, the reader won’t think it is valuable either.

When you’re focusing on communities of people who are passionate and who will talk to you and who like what you’re doing, you just kind of keep wanting to do more and figuring out what you can do.

I thrive on the challenge of what’s new and what’s going to resonate with people today.

I think one of the best skills you could ever have is being a good writer, a good thinker and a good interviewer. If you can do those three things, you can go far in any kind of publishing.

Where I see the difficulty is in the already-existing businesses that have already trained their readers to not value their product, to not pay for the product.

And now for the interviews:

Samir Husni: Let us start from the beginning, the foundation of Taunton Press. Take us through this consumer centric family business.

Sue Roman: Much of the foundation of how we operate was established at the beginning. My father, Paul Roman, started Fine Woodworking magazine, and hence the company, in 1975 to serve people just like him. He was a hobbyist woodworker and wanted to make beautiful things out of wood, but couldn’t find good information. He talked to the best woodworkers in the country at the time and asked them if they would be willing to share their expertise. Several key woodworkers said yes and he knew he could make the magazine. Next he and my mother, Janice Roman, his business partner, had to find out if enough people wanted the magazine. They created a direct mail piece that instructed people to send $8.00 for a quarterly magazine to a post office box in Connecticut. The response was very high (15%), so they cashed those checks, used that money to send out more direct mail, and with the first issue they had 25,000 subscribers and a sustainable business. I’m including a scan of the first direct mail piece and an article written about the launch for Fine Woodworking’s 25th anniversary.

From the beginning, advertising has been a service to the reader to help them find the tools and materials they needed to practice woodworking. All advertising is endemic to the subject of the magazine for all of our magazines. Even though Taunton magazines have a high demographic (the average HHI for our magazine readers is $150,000), the point of the advertising is to serve them as enthusiasts. This creates a win-win for the reader and the advertiser. Readers read the advertisements with great interest and need, and advertisers reach highly qualified, highly active participants. We honor both the reader and the advertiser. Readers know to look for the advertisements in the front and the back of the book; however when they are in the article well they will find no advertisements to distract them from the content at hand. All size advertisers are important to us, as they are to our readers, and you will see fractional ads in prominent places in both the front and the back of the magazine. All of our magazines follow this format.

We strive to serve all the information needs of our customers. Not only does Taunton serve them through magazines, but also through websites, books, DVDs, apps, and ebooks. We do fulfillment in house so we can stay close to our customers. When you call customer service you are speaking to someone in Newtown, CT who can help you with all product needs, or put you in touch with one of our editors if you have a question about the activity itself. We had a guy ankle-deep in wet concrete call Fine Homebuilding with a foundation question. That’s not uncommon at all. We had a gentleman sadly call our customer service to cancel his Fine Woodworking subscription after many years because he had developed an allergy to wood. After letting him unload his disappointment about giving up a hobby he loved, our customer service rep suggested he needed a new hobby, and by the end of the call he had switched his subscription to Fine Cooking.

SH: Your were one of the early practitioner of the “consumer centric” magazine publishing model before a host of companies started paying lip-service to the phrase. Can you expand on that consumer centric concept.

SR: In our magazines, the reader is at the center. We ask them for a hefty subscription price ($29.95-$37.95 for a one-year subscription depending on the title), and then work really hard to deliver that high value in the magazine in terms of finding the best experts in the field to be authors, producing detailed photos and drawings, and using archival quality paper. The beauty of our model is that by staying close to our readers, and serving them well, we can provide advertisers a highly engaged audience who are hungry for the products and services they offer. The readers are highly qualified because they have spent a good amount of money on the magazine demonstrating that they are willing to spend money on their passion because they are deeply engaged. The engagement level our readers have with every one of our magazine is off the charts (for instance, an average of 2.4 hours spent reading each issue of Fine Woodworking; Source: Harvey Research 2010 subscriber study). This means that the ads are in front of our readers multiple times. Since Taunton’s beginnings and even in the most recent surveys, well over 90% of our readers tell us that they keep every back issue for future reference. For convenience we have produced DVD archives of all our issues, which have been big sellers for us.

SH: What are the secrets of success in your publishing business model?

SR: We look for three things in a magazine. First, will the readers support the magazine? That means will they pay a subscription price and single copy price that is sufficient to profitably produce the magazine. Second, is there a strong base of advertisers who want to specifically reach these people? Third, is the subject matter well served by the format of the magazine? Can it be compellingly communicated on a magazine spread, and is there an ongoing conversation about the topic that will keep the magazine lively for years to come.

SH: Do you think that is the reason of your success story on the newsstands?

SR: We’re doing very well on the newsstand because readers can see and feel the quality of the magazine when it is in their hands. But there’s another factor–Taunton’s approach is in perfect alignment with the needs of wholesalers and retailers. We have high cover prices ($6.99 – $7.99 for core issues, $6.99 to $12.99 for SIPs) and manage our sell-thrus carefully. Combine that with consumers wanting our magazines, and the result is that wholesalers and retailers can make good money on our distribution without handling tons of copies. And because newsstand sales is a profit center for us, we continue to spend promotional dollars even in the economic downturn. We also treat the wholesalers and distributors as our partners, and send them a monthly electronic newsletter to keep them up to date on the new issues we are bringing out.

SH: Lately you have been publishing a host of special interest publications (SIPs). Is this a trend? How do you see the future of SIPs?

SR: In the last seven years we have produced a number of SIPs. Using our excellent newsstand distribution, we publish issues around particular topics that complement our regular issues. We work hard to make these highly valuable products, and the cover price matches that value. Because we produce some of the most in-depth, authentic information on the interests we publish in to satisfy our core hobbyists, SIPs with their single-topic orientation represent “the last and best word” for many folks who are not full-out enthusiasts. Introducing them to Taunton in this way helps us garner direct sales of other products while they are focused on their projects.

SH: Although you are consumer centric, yet your magazines include advertising. What role advertising play in your publishing business model?

SR: While the biggest proportion of our revenue comes from the reader in subscription sales, direct ancillary product sales, newsstand, and trade sales of our nearly 1,500 products, the advertising revenue is very important to us from the standpoint of overall profitability. Part of our mission is to connect enthusiasts with the suppliers of the tools and materials they need to be successful in their activities. We can do this in a number of ways including in the magazine, on our website, and in apps. Our leads are highly qualified because they have demonstrated their commitment with the money they spent to purchase our magazine and with the time they spend reading it. Taunton is an integral part of the markets we are in, and we want the tools, materials, and supply makers and distributors to be as successful as possible. We will work with them in creative ways to get in front of the people who want their products and services.

SH: If you take a look into the crystal ball, how do you see the future of printed magazines and what are you doing to amplify it?

SR: If you study our magazines, you will see how well served the information is by the magazine format. We can combine technical drawings, how-to photos, and deeply informative and engaging text all on the same spread. Our editorial/art teams are masterful with using the magazine format to take complex ideas and processes and make them accessible and engaging. Readers recognize this when they hold one of our magazines in their hands, and are willing to pay a high newsstand price or subscription price for it. This bodes well to me for the future of our type of printed magazine.

Our readers refer to back issues many times. We have used digital editions as a handy reference for them to search through past issues. We have been selling digital archives in CD or DVD format for nine years. Digital editions are also highly valuable to our international readers because they can get them on the publication date and not wait weeks for their issue to arrive in the mail. Digital issues are also a good way for people to have access to the magazine wherever they are.

And there are many other ways to serve enthusiasts both in print and digital formats. Taunton has a robust book program with more than 40 new titles per year and a backlist of more than 500 books available. Our fastest growing area has been online–Taunton’s Home and Garden Network is now number 15 in Comscore’s home category for web visits. We can connect and serve enthusiasts on our websites in ways that complement and support our magazines. Our magazine editors are completely plugged into our web activities. Video is a very compelling medium for how-to information, and we produce a lot of it for our sites. Our online audience is also highly engaged and makes the commitment to pay a fair price for content. We have over 80,000 paid members to our websites.

SH: If someone comes to you and say, “Sue, I would like to start a new magazine,” what would you tell that person?

SR: When people ask me for advice, I tell them to charge a subscription price that truly reflects the value of the magazine. If the publisher doesn’t think the magazine is valuable, as signaled by the subscription price, the reader won’t think it is valuable either. This also frees you from ups and downs of advertising for the success of the magazine.

In good times and in bad times, people have a fundamental need to create things with their own hands. People like to control their corner of the world, and make things to share with family and friends. We saw more people realize this after 9/11, and sales of our magazines, especially on the newsstand, reflected this. The economic crash in 2008 definitely hurt foot traffic in stores, decreased the money advertisers had to spend, and hurt the housing industry overall, and we felt all those things. However the underlying business model proved to be sound. With a balanced revenue portfolio between subscriptions, newsstand, and advertising, and with a rapidly growing digital/online business, we were able to cope and adjust to the new economic circumstances.

SH: How do you view the future of Taunton Press five years from today?

SR: Five years from now, Taunton will be fulfilling its mission of connecting enthusiasts with compelling and trusted information, services and products that help them fulfill their aspirations. We’re counting on print still being a viable format, but we are also preparing for more digital delivery through apps, mobile, web, and formats yet to be invented. Basically, our premise doesn’t change because enthusiasts will always want relevant, in-depth information and celebration of their passion. However, we are excited about the increased numbers of tools we have in digital media to address these passions and the ability to serve the reader anytime, anyplace, and in whatever form they want.

And now for the lightly edited, in typical Mr. Magazine style, interview that focuses on the woman who reigns today on the helm of Taunton Press and her dreams that came true and the one dream that, one day, maybe one day will come true. Intrigued enough, read on…

SH: One of the fascinating things is that Taunton Press is a family business. How did your parents drag you into this business?

SR: When my parents launched this, I was just getting into my teenage years. I was very much aware of what was going on. It was a very fast-growing business.
They would come home from work and talk about what they were doing over the dinner table every night. They were wrestling with, “How do we grow this company? What’s next?” It permeated the house with all their business discussions. At one point we told them that they couldn’t talk business at the dinner table anymore.
I worked here every summer through high school, through college. They were always short-handed and growing fast, and there were lots of opportunities. So, each summer they would throw me into a different area and say, “Go help out this person,” or “Go figure that out.” It was great training. I did everything from typing in subscription orders, developing photos in the darkroom; one summer I drew the charts for one of our first woodworking books. I programmed computers.

In 1984, my father said, “Well I don’t really have a good sense of how all the different parts of this business work together, will you collect all the data?” I spend all summer collecting data on all the different parts of the company; talking to different people and I put together this huge report for him, which I labeled at the time, “The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Taunton Press.” It was just a wonderful way to grow up.

When we started video, I got a call when I was in college and got asked if I wanted to go out to California and be the grip on a photo shoot. I said, “Of course,” and I spent a week in a photo shoot with the brass wood-turners in the country. I always had a very good feel of what it was all about growing up. But when I graduated college, I couldn’t get far enough away from here.

I actually went off in a different direction. I was very interested in cultural studies. I studied African history, I did a semester in Nepal and after college I moved to Mexico. I thought I was going to be an anthropologist or do something with cross-cultural interaction. Then I got interested in bilingual publishing. I decided before I go start my own bilingual publishing company, maybe I should make sure I know what I need to know. My parents had always told us they didn’t want us to come back here and work after college. That wasn’t a problem; nobody wanted to.

Then five, seven, eight years later, my parents were telling us, “Any of you want to come back and work here?” I said I would come back for a couple years and learn the ropes because I really wanted to start a bilingual publishing company. So, I moved back from Mexico and they plugged me into a marketing job and then a year later, Fine Cooking was an idea that we started working on. I told my father I really wanted to get on the editorial side. Then I became an assistant editor. I completed 19 years here the other day. I guess I never got around to doing that bilingual publication.

It’s just been a fascinating place to work. It’s been constantly evolving, constantly changing. I gravitated to the editorial side and new product development. I spend a lot of my time here in new products. When the web was young I spent a couple years trying to figure out what that was going to do for us and leading our new media group. When you’re focusing on communities of people who are passionate and who will talk to you and who like what you’re doing, you just kind of keep wanting to do more and figuring out what you can do. There are so many different ways of doing that. Magazines are great and they’ve gotten a lot more interesting over the years with all the new tools. And there are books, web, video, digital, mobile and apps, and I just find it really fun and exciting.

SH: The entire environment for the Taunton Press was consumer-centric even before that term existed. A lot of people are paying lip-service to the term “consumer-centric,” but you’ve been practicing it and you continue to practice it. Did that make an impact on your decision?

SR: People here are very close to what they’re doing. One of the ways we recruit Fine Woodworking editors is we show them our workshop. And we tell them,”Well, you can do your own projects there on nights and weekends.” You’re surrounded by people who are the audience; they are cooks, they are woodworkers, they are sewers. There’s no gap between us and who we’re writing for. You just get that feeling that we are really a part of all of our communities that we’re in. We have people here who are on the high-passion end and they really get our readers. Most of our editors were readers before they came here. It flows very authentically.

SH: Do you see more magazines going in the direction of your business model, or it is impossible to do at this point? Can the Taunton Press business model be replicated in today’s marketplace?

SR: Definitely. I’m part of the independent magazine group at the MPA and there are many more companies like us now. I think you can start a business like this. Where I see the difficulty is in the already-existing businesses that have already trained their readers to not value their product, to not pay for the product, to wait for a subscription notice to tell them their product gets cheaper and cheaper the longer you dawdle on your renewal.

The companies that have already trained their customers to think a certain way; I think it’s going to be tough for them to make this switch. Also, it goes back to the DNA of the company. Where is the power and authority within the company and is it balanced or is it in the hands of the advertising? And if it is, that’s a hard shift for a company to make if you launch that way and you’ve been that way, then getting into these new distribution streams or into new gadgets and delivery mechanisms, they’re just more of a new twist on what you’ve already been doing.

With our business model, we can add on more of an ad based product, we can add on a completely user paid product, a continuity thing, like a subscription, we can add more of a one-off product, like our book sales. Or we can do something that is very blended, which is how online is for us. We’ve got a whole mix of businesses online and they can all play together.

SH: What makes you tick? What makes you say, “Wow, I love my life,” or “God, here’s another day.” Give me the reason you get out of bed in the morning.

SR: I thrive on the challenge of what’s new and what’s going to resonate with people today. It may or may not resonate with them yesterday, but what’s going to resonate with them today, what’s going to resonate with them tomorrow and how can we figure out how to make that. I love making things.

SH: What advice do you give to journalism students? Should they just give up and go major in something like anthropology? Do they have a future in journalism?

SR: I think one of the best skills you could ever have is being a good writer, a good thinker and a good interviewer. If you can do those three things, you can go far in any kind of publishing, and also having a lot of flexibility. I didn’t get into what our editors do here, but our editors travel out to the woodworkers, to their woodshops; they interview them, they have dinner with them, they help them write their stories, they take photographs, they might take video, they might blog about their trip. Being open to the interesting things going on in the world and being able to distill them in ways that other people can understand, which I think is what journalism is all about, is a great skill. There are more outlets for that now than there have ever been, so I think it’s an even more desired bundle of skills.

SH: Thank you.