Mr. Magazine

Today we present two more 7 questions and answers from our interviews with the editors and publishers of the 30 Most Notable Launches. The interviews will be published based on the alphabetical order of the names of the magazines. Today’s magazines are Aromatherapy Thymes and Artful Blogging. To read a short profile about each of the aforementioned magazines just click on the magazine name. We have asked the editors or publishers to answer the same 7 questions. Click here to read part one and here to read our interview with Tyler Brule of Monocle magazine, our first international notable launch of the year. What follows are today’s two notables:

Patricia Carol Brooks of Aromatherapy Thymes answered our questions:

1. What do you consider the single most important achievement your magazine has accomplished in today’s marketplace?
Our goal of taking an alternative health magazine and making it mainstream and commercial which is atypical for an alternative health magazine that usually has a niche market.

2. Looking back, what was the most important hurdle you were able to overcome?
Surprisingly, we were able to assemble, research and collect informative articles of interest, but finding quality photographs and photographers to match the articles was an initial hurdle. Because the intent was to present the science and show the true beauty and art of aromatherapy.

3. What was the most pleasant surprise?
That so many people were interested in aromatherapy and enthusiastic that we presented aromatherapy in a down-to-earth and artistic style.

4. What is the biggest challenge you are facing today?
The two biggest challenges are, maintaining the integrity of the essential oil trade through informative articles and staying in contact with essential oil distillers in the U.S and abroad and coordinating the distribution channels for our market.

5. Imagine you have a magic wand and you can strike the magazine and make it human? Describe that human being.
Humble, compassionate, artistic like Degas, and poetic like Henry David Thoreau.

6. The number of new magazine launches has been on a steady increase. What advice do you offer to someone wanting to start a new magazine?
Do your homework by learning the publishing industry and most important find your readers and do you best to give them a publication no one else can and listen to them.

7. Finish this sentence: in 2011 your magazine will be…
Recognized worldwide as a reliable reference for aromatherapy and a publication that brought the distilling, trade, sell and distribution of essential oils to forefront.

Staci Dumoski of Artful Blogging answered our questions:

1. What do you consider the single most important achievement your magazine has accomplished in today’s marketplace?

Artful Blogging has breached the barrier between the print and online worlds. There’s a lot of talk about the decline of print as people turn to electronic means for news and entertainment, but we’ve turned that digital awareness to our advantage by offering contributors and readers something concrete that they can hold on to, kind of a “best of the best” of what they might find online. It lends a sense of permanence to the ephemeral virtual world. I hope it makes people realize it doesn’t have to be one or the other — print and digital media can help each other grow.

2. Looking back, what was the most important hurdle you were able to overcome?

Simply conveying to contributors, distributors and buyers what we are trying to accomplish, and getting them to believe that people really would spend money for content they’d already seen online.

3. What was the most pleasant surprise?

How beautiful the magazine is to look out. With dozens of artists representing all different art forms, it had the potential to be a real visual hodge-podge. But instead it’s turned out to be something of a visual masterpiece! That, and the response of our readers, who were buzzing about it on their blogs before it even hit the stands.

4. What is the biggest challenge you are facing today?

The Internet is always changing, and we have to stay responsive to that change by adapting to what’s going on in the online community. We don’t want to bore our readers by getting stuck in a rut.

5. Imagine you have a magic wand and you can strike the magazine and make it human? Describe that human being.

Exactly the kind of person you’d like to have over for tea and conversation. Or rather, a whole room full of those people — kind, colorful, generous, and inspiring.

6. The number of new magazine launches has been on a steady increase. What advice do you offer to someone wanting to start a new magazine?

Don’t underestimate the importance of your visual impact. As enamored as I personally am of the inspirational stories our contributors tell, our #1 reader response is always about how gorgeous the publication is.

7. Finish this sentence: in 2011 your magazine will be…

…a completely different creature than it is now. More than that, I can’t say, because who knows what the Internet will look like five years from now? For sure we’ll be right there on the edge, helping all our artful readers keep track of the digital realm.

Starting today and for the next ten days we will be publishing our interviews with the editors and publishers of the 30 Most Notable Launches. The interviews will be published based on the alphabetical order of the names of the magazines. Today’s magazines are 0-60, American Driver and Antenna. To read a short profile about each of the aforementioned magazines just click on the magazine name. We have asked the editors or publishers to answer the same 7 questions. Yesterday we’ve published our first one with Tyler Brule of Monocle, our first ever International Notable Launch of the Year. Here are the first three of the American magazines.

Brian Scotto of 0 – 60 magazine answered our questions:

1. What do you consider the single most important achievement your magazine has accomplished in today’s marketplace?

The concept for 0-60 was to redefine the American car magazine, but actually translating the ideas we had in our head to the page was the difficult part. 0-60 is the magazine we wanted to read, something that fills the void between the mainstream and enthusiast titles and focuses on stories that take a different approach, where the writing, photography and design all play an equal role. That said, our greatest accomplishment has been finding a publisher, editorial team and art department who were all wiling to take the risk and challenge each other to make 0-60 what it is.

2. Looking back, what was the most important hurdle you were able to overcome?

With an audience that is captivated by the immediacy of the Internet, we needed to create a modern print magazine that complemented the material found on the Web instead of trying to compete with it. 0-60 needed to be a print evolution. Quite simply, we just had to do it better than everyone else. We’ve spent weeks working on just one page.

3. What was the most pleasant surprise?

Rarely can you make everyone happy, but we’ve received glowing responses from automakers, advertisers and readers alike. Usually, to please one you must upset the other. Readers constantly tell us that 0-60 fits them perfectly, and obviously reaching that target audience delights the advertisers and automakers, too.

4. What is the biggest challenge you are facing today?

The automotive publishing world is cluttered; however, 0-60’s unique mission has allowed us to overcome this and stand out to the industry, plus convince new readers who have become disenchanted by the current crop of car mags to come back to the newsstand.

5. Imagine you have a magic wand and you can strike the magazine and make it human. Describe that human being.

It’s my best friend; the guy I talk cars with. He shares my passion, my interests and my style. He gets it.

6. The number of new magazine launches has been on a steady increase. What advice do you offer to someone wanting to start a new magazine?

Prepare for a struggle—there’s no room left in the print world for half measures and “me too magazines.” Your product must be clearly differentiated from the others sharing shelf space. But while hard work and sleepless nights should be rewarded, you also need to have an excellent relationship with distributors, wholesalers and retailers. At the end of the day, magazines need to sell.

7. Finish this sentence: In 2011 your magazine will be…

…ranked amongst the big “buff” books like Car and Driver, Motor Trend and Road & Track, but still be as unique and progressive as it is today.

Timothy Miller of American Driver magazine answered our questions:

1) What do you consider the single most important achievement your magazine has accomplished in today’s marketplace?

“American Driver” being mentioned first and in the same sentence with “Robb Report,” “Cigar Aficionado,” and “Automobile” magazines by an advertising media buyer.

2) Looking back, what was the most important hurdle you were able to overcome?

All the “no,” “not interested” and “that’ll never work” comments.

3) What was the biggest surprise?

The warm handshakes and bright smiles from the car owners, car collectors and automotive enthusiasts we meet from around the country and the eagerness with which they open up their homes, garages and businesses to our staff and readers.

4) What is the biggest challenge you are facing today?

Building and increasing the advertising, marketing and promotional value for our advertisers in creative, ground-breaking and measurable ways while also incorporating new, innovative ideas into our editorial mix.

5) Imagine you have a magic wand and you can strike the magazine and make it human? Describe that human being.

That human being would be Jay Leno – an affable, successful, entertaining and intelligent car nut.

6) The number of new magazine launches has been on a steady increase. What advice do you offer to someone wanting to start a new magazine?

Step One: Read as many magazines as you can in your neighborhood bookstore. Buy your top five favorites and determine your motivation for those purchases.
Step Two: Purchase and read Samir’s “Guide to New Magazines.”
Step Three: Read Samir’s “Guide to New Magazines” five more times and then donate it to a college.
Step Four: Beg and borrow $2 to $6 million and call me in the morning.

7) Finish this sentence: In 2011, your magazine will be…

In 2011, “American Driver” will be the brand most requested, recognized and welcomed by those influential automotive enthusiasts enjoying the luxury lifestyle.

Dennis Page of Antenna magazine answered our questions:

1. What do you consider the single most important achievement your magazine has accomplished in today’s marketplace?

Creating a magazine that is “art” in itself.

2. Looking back, what was the most important hurdle you were able to overcome?

Photographing the entire magazine with original photography (no stock, no pickup,
no jpegs).

3. What was the biggest pleasant surprise?

Women’s Wear Daily gave us an out-of-the box glowing review, as though it was a Conde Nast launch.

4. What is the biggest challenge you are facing today?

Trying to get the respect from high level advertisers that only Conde Nast can command.

5. Imagine you have a magic wand and you can strike the magazine and make it human?
Describe that human being.

It’s a collabo of James Bond from Undefeated and Holden Caufield from “The Catcher in the Rye”.

6. The number of new magazine launches has been on a steady increase. What advice do
you offer to someone wanting to start a new magazine?

Make sure there is a real audience. Don’t create a magazine just for advertisers.

7. Finish this sentence: In 2011, your magazine will be….

…..a brand marketing “think tank.”

What do Lawrence F. Kaplan, Andrew J. Bacevich, Helene Cooper, Christopher Hitchens, Robert Kagan, Michel Kazin, Joshua Muravchik, P.J. O’Rourke, Ronald Steel and Leon Wieseltier have in common? They are the editorial board of the newly relaunched World Affairs journal. The journal was first published in London in 1837. Lawrence F. Kaplan, the journal’s editor asks and answers the question regarding the mission of the new World Affairs. “So what one idea will World Affairs champion?” Kaplan asks. He is quick to answer, “There won’t be one, but many: Rather than adhering to some party line, this journal will celebrate and encourage heterodoxy and open debate.” Kaplan adds, “The biases of World Affairs may seem quaint, even parochial, by comparison. The journal will not wear its heart on its sleeve; its probably somewhere in the space between board members Kagan and Kazin, which, as it happens, is also the distance between two sides of the same creed.”
World Affairs’ tag line is “A journal of ideas and debate” and it is indeed a journal of ideas that deserve debate. Ideas that give journalism that matters yet another venue for readers looking for something to sink their teeth into. So, once more for those mourning the death of good journalism, please pick up a copy of the launch issue of World Journal at a newsstand near you. I promise you will not regret it. To learn more about World Affairs click here.

What do you do when your web site reaches “2 million people coming to the site each month, over 250 columnists, 120 partner groups, a dozen talk radio shows, and more than 4,000 grassroots bloggers.” Very simple according to the folks at Townhall.com, the conservative website launched some 15 years ago by The Heritage Foundation. Distill all that information and put in one place: a magazine named Townhall. Chuck DeFeo, Co-Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine wrote in the first issue, “The media landscape of today has grown so wide and so fast paced that it is difficult to keep up with it all. As we looked to 2008 we saw an opportunity to provide something that captures the myriad of voices and distills it into one product.” That one product is called a monthly magazine. Wow, just think, if such a product was not invented hundreds of years ago, what would the pundits write about this new product that distills and captures all kind of voices floating through the wilderness called the internet! I guess we have a tendency to forget about all the great technological inventions from paper to the magazines themselves. I have said it before and I will say it again, our problem is not with medium, it is with the content. Let us work on the content and see what wonderful results print, both magazines and newspapers can still deliver in this day and age.

I do not usually use this space for personal information, but this time I am making a major exception. My first grandchild was born on Dec. 28 and I am pleased to share with y’all what my friend Steve Cohn wrote in today’s minonline:

The University of Mississippi journalism-department chairman is the expert on “magazine births,” but daughter Diala Husni Chaney gave him the best “launch” of all with the December 28, 2007, birth of his first grandchild, 8-pound/seven-ounce Elliott Samir Chaney. Congratulations to Diala and husband Phillip Chaney, and to Samir, wife Marie, and family.

Since neither Diala, an attorney, nor her two siblings, followed their Guide to New Magazines author/father’s footsteps, Samir hopes that perhaps a generation from now Elliott will be “Mr. Magazine Jr.” Stay tuned.