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TV Guide, TV Insider magazine and tvinsider.com President Tony Frost & Group Editorial Director, Michael Fell Bring Television Coverage In Print To A Razor-Sharp Level – The Mr. Magazine™ Exclusive Interview…

January 5, 2024

“Customers committing to longer term subscriptions and positive customer feedback. So they’re telling us that they want TV Insider, this is the magazine that they’ve been waiting for. We just have to market it on a larger scale and we have to promote it better…” Tony Frost

“You want to give people real content. There was a lot of lists online, but I think the curation is the key. We’ll pick each of the major streamers and other smaller streamers that our readers are interested in and give them an in depth amount of shows and reporting…” Michael Fell

When you think of the name TV Guide, your mind might go back about 40 years to the heyday of television and its printed cohorts, such as the aforementioned golden phoenix. And I call it a phoenix purposely because the frequency print magazine has definitely risen from the digital age’s ink ashes, along with two more great magazines from parent company NTVB Media: TV Weekly and now TV Insider (also frequency). While their accompanying websites are very complimentary and, in the case of tvinsider.com, going strong, you can’t emphasize enough that the print version of the magazines are just as prominent, if not more, than their pixels on a screen.

I spoke with Tony Frost, president and Michael Fell, group editorial director of the titles recently and we talked about the need for a printed streaming magazine that focused and curated television information for the readers. Tony and Michael are firm believers in print, much like yours truly. They see a definite want and need for this print magazine, along with the others. It was a refreshing discussion on something we all three love and have in common: print.

So please enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ exclusive interview…

But first the soundbites:

On what he was thinking in launching a monthly print magazine (Tony Frost): As I told you earlier in the year, Samir, Michael Fell, our group editorial director and editor in chief of TV Guide, carried out a very extensive survey of readers. And we got the response that there was a need for significantly more streaming-focused content. So we decided that we would give it a go.

On whether focused curation is the future of print (Tony Frost): Curation is a very good word; we have experts – TV Guide’s complete editorial team – who know TV from the inside out. The same team has brought that expertise to TV Insider. Over the whole year, the 12 issues will give you the most comprehensive guide on what to stream and why you should watch the editors’ recommendations. The choices are carefully curated.

On cornering the market on TV magazines and the synergy the publications are producing (Tony Frost): TV Weekly, produced out of NTVB’s Troy, Michigan HQ, is a double issue and TV Guide is a content-laden triple. Both carry grids for regular channels – in TV Guide’s case they have been doing this for 70 years. And we launched TV Insider as a monthly for streamers. We’re covering all bases.

On cornering the market on TV magazines and the synergy the publications are producing (Michael Fell): You ask about synergy, I was thinking about how complementary the magazines are. I’ve always found this fascinating since Andy (DeAngelis) and Larry (MacKenzie) came on board; TV Weekly, as far as the grids and listings go are distributed regionally like TV Guide used to be.

On any changes coming up in 2024 (Michael Fell): A lot of 2023 was just seeing what works. Now we know that something like this can be successful and I think we’re going to be a little more focused on our cover choices.

On how the future magazine material might be decided (Tony Frost): In 2023, the emphasis was on what was the biggest show coming out from which streamer during the month that we went on sale. That’s where we started and continued during 2023. And now it might be that instead of doing the biggest show, we’ll still do a big show, but focus on a specific genre.

On any predictions on streaming (Michael Fell): The reporting really settled into a certain groove post-strike about the contraction of the streaming services, such as not spending as much money, not going crazy with sequels, and being really focused. But we’re all about the consumers. And to me that’s a great thing, because streaming is THIS big and so if it becomes just THAT big, it becomes easier to handle for the consumers and we can in turn be more focused and curated for them.

On what they’d like to say that they had accomplished within the year (Tony Frost): We’re looking to extend our reach; we’re looking to make the magazine more visible; we’re looking for twice as many subscribers, and we’re seeing very encouraging early renewal indicators.

On what keeps them up at night (Michael Fell): I’m sleeping pretty well. (Laughs)

On what keeps them up at night (Tony Frost): There’s not much that keeps me awake at night, let me tell you. (Laughs too)

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Tony Frost, president TV Insider, & Michael Fell, group editorial director and editor in chief, TV Guide.

Samir Husni: I’m calling 2023 the year of bookazines. We have more than 1,000 bookazines published and less than 100 regular frequency magazines. It may be closer to 50, I haven’t had a chance to count mine yet. Yet, if my memory serves me right, you are the only publisher launching a monthly magazine in 2023. Almost all of the new magazines that came out in 2023 are either quarterlies, bimonthlies, or twice a year. But you have launched a monthly. What were you thinking?

Tony Frost: As I told you earlier in the year, Samir, Michael Fell, our group editorial director and editor in chief of TV Guide, carried out a very extensive survey of readers. And we got the response that there was a need for a significant amount of streaming-focused content. So we decided that we would give it a go.

And so far, it’s been an exciting challenge. We’re undoubtedly producing a very good magazine, getting a lot of praise from the industry and support from subscribers. And a decent number of them have signed up for a two-year deal, not just one. The numbers aren’t huge, but they are very encouraging. Our first subscription issue was in April and after eight months we hit our first 12 months subs’ target. That is impressive. And we’re going to build on that in 2024.

We recognize the challenges of print magazine economics in the current climate, so we did take a cautious approach with marketing spend. And we decided that we had to make every test dollar count. The same with newsstand; we’ve been very cautious with our retail presence. But we feel there is support for this title. We used 2023 as an experiment to see what works on the cover. We’ve gone from the launch issue with Kiefer Sutherland in March and his then new action series, to costume drama with Bridgerton. We’ve done the final season of Billions and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first TV role in Fubar. By the way, Arnold, loved the magazine – he complimented us big time on it. Plus we’ve tested Sci-Fi on the cover with Marvel’s Loki.

They’ve all sold similar amounts at newsstands, but Bridgerton and Loki seem to be the most solid. So we’ve been learning as we go along – in 2024 we aim to put pedal to metal. For instance, I believe we have a new Bridgerton in the spring, is that right, Michael?

Michael Fell : Yep, May is the next season.

Tony Frost: So we’ll be all over that for our readers. And we have The Walking Dead as well!

Michael Fell: Yes, Rick and Michonne are coming back at the end of February. So we’re looking at that as a possible March issue. And if I could add something to Tony’s response to your original question, the why of it all has to do with the volume of programming.

You can go back a year ago and go online and find television guidance, and some of this is still true today. There are a lot of lists where people will recreate the publicity release list of stuff coming up in a particular month. It’ll just be a list of titles with no information. Or a little plot info. You often find 50 best shows on Netflix to watch now. And I’m looking at that list and I’m thinking I know those aren’t the best shows; I can see they’re just adding a few lines to the press release from the titles. I think there was a need that we saw. A curated, focused, structured need for reviews and guidance where we report on the shows.

You want to give people real content. It wasn’t there online. We’ll pick each of the major streamers and other smaller streamers that our readers are interested in and give them an in depth amount of shows and reporting. But it’s still something that they can understand and appreciate and take hold of, as opposed to the massive lists and surface reporting that was online. I really think curation is the key.

Samir Husni: So do you think focused curation is the future of print in 2024?

Tony Frost: Curation is a very good word; we have experts – TV Guide’s complete editorial team – who know TV from the inside out. The same team has brought that expertise to TV Insider. Over the whole year, the 12 issues will give you the most comprehensive guide on what to stream and why you should watch the editors’ recommendations. The choices are carefully curated.

Michael Fell: The services? It doesn’t stop. It keeps coming up. We cover 10 to 12 of the premier streamers. Our readers will often request info about smaller services like Acorn and Britbox. A big part of what the magazine does is provide the library material. Going back, there’s so much volume on television, is a monthly magazine that has a fair amount of library content; is that worth it to the reader? And we decided internally that it was.

I told Tony this once; just before we were launching the magazine, I was in Tucson, Arizona visiting my brother and we were talking… do you know Mike Flanagan, Samir? He does a lot of shows on Netflix, like The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor. We were talking about some of his series and my brother mentioned how Mike Flanagan reuses some of his actors on different shows.

We were talking about Bly Manor and Midnight Mass and I asked him what about The Haunting of Hill House, which was Mike Flanagan’s first big Netflix series. He was like – what! I never even heard of it. And I was staring at my brother who subscribed to TV Guide magazine, was married and had two kids, one in college and one about to go to college, and I told him that his statement was proof to me that a monthly magazine with as much news stuff as we can, which also has a fair amount of library material, would be of major use to readers. He didn’t know anything about The Haunting of Hill House – and he liked Mike Flanagan’s other shows. I told him that I had a magazine for him that would be launching soon.

Tony Frost: There’s 82 networks, 42 streamers, and 26 production studios currently. Plenty for us to write about. (Laughs) There’s also a bit of reverse engineering here, which I told you about earlier. First we had our well-established website, tvinsider.com, which has 10 million page views per month, so a lot of the work that Michael’s team does is repurposed on the website creating a natural synergy between the two. Also, tvinsider.com has proved to be a valuable source for new subscribers. So one supports the other and that has been a success.

Next year, apart from putting to use what we learned this year editorially and going deeper into that, we will continue drawing in subscriptions through traditional methods, reach new external audiences by direct mail and we’ve taken on a new digital marketing agency, named salestube, based in Warsaw, Poland, to optimize paid search and social media efforts across all platforms for an even broader reach. That’s very important.

As exciting as the material is that Michael’s team creates, we need more visibility; we have to get out there. And our website helps with the visibility. It’s very hard to make an impression at newsstand. As you said Samir, there are so many SIPs out there. We have a small draw at newsstand which we use to really test covers and editorial content, as opposed to bringing in any real revenue. Ultimately, we see TV Insider as a subscription model, but that doesn’t mean in 2024 we won’t attempt some bold moves at newsstand.

Samir Husni: Let me ask you about your company, not only TV Insider. You’ve cornered the television magazine market. You have TV Guide, TV Weekly, and now you have TV Insider. In its heyday, TV Guide used to have 18 million in circulation, when there were no digital guides or anything. Is there any synergy in all of these guides you are producing?

Tony Frost: In this day and age, TV Guide magazine has a million subscribers And is jam-packed with content. That number is still very impressive. TV Weekly is doing well and in TV Guide we’ve just launched “Extra” – for subscribers to get digital access to a newsletter and grids updated every 24 hours. We are not standing still!

Michael Fell: In our 2024 preview issue we’re launching a newsletter service called “TV Guide Magazine Extra.” This service is just for subscribers and it’s a weekly newsletter serving two purposes. One is to give them access to online grids and listings, which are being updated every single day.

There is still a lot of appointment viewing, watching network and cable television, so we want to make sure that their literal day-to-day guidance is accurate. So this newsletter is going to provide online links to daily updated grids that are substantial with programming information and plot information that you won’t find anywhere else. Even on websites that already have online grids, the detail that will be provided is amazing.

And also we’ll update them with new news items and articles within the newsletter for programming information, story information that we may not have been on top of in the previous magazine. So we want to make sure they’re completely updated with story and programming information.

Tony Frost: Last year when paper costs were sky high and most other chargesws were going through the roof, we had to make adjustments. The triple issue is a very robust magazine with a lot of content.

Michael Fell: Going back to your question, you asked about synergy, I was thinking about how complementary the magazines are. I’ve always found this fascinating since Andy (DeAngelis) and Larry (MacKenzie) came on board; TV Weekly, as far as the grids and listings go are distributed regionally like TV Guide used to be. It’s almost ironic that the guys who came and took over TV Guide had their own guidance products which were being delivered regionally, which we know in publishing and printing, the paper and postage end is extremely difficult. But they are able to put Channel 2 for CBS because they’re locally delivered,

Tony Frost: TV Weekly is a bi-weekly listings magazine, with regional editions just like TV Guide used to have. It is a valuable tool for many traditional TV users.

Michael Fell: Yes, so we take care of that customer who’s looking for really local information.

Samir Husni: Yes, such as mine is the Memphis area.

Tony Frost: Exactly. So TV Weekly is a double and TV Guide is now a triple. And we have TV Insider as a monthly for streamers. We’re covering all bases.

Samir Husni: As we look forward toward 2024, will there be any major change coming up in the New Year? As compared to 2023?

Michael Fell: A lot of 2023 was just seeing what works. Now we know that something like this can be successful and I think we’re going to be a little more focused on our cover choices. If you look at all the covers, they’re certainly very broad, covering your hit Netflix dramas, Marvel Sci-Fi’s, maybe we’ll think about DC, I don’t know. (Laughs) I try, I really do try with DC and Zack Snyder, but it’s on and off. The biggest star in the world, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a great serial drama coming from Showtime; we’ve covered all kinds of shows. And I can’t tell you what it is right now, but I think what we’re going to be able to do in 2024 is be more focused on the covers. And really drill down on what’s going to work.

Samir Husni: How do you decide what you’d like for the material to be?

Tony Frost: In 2023, the emphasis was on what was the biggest show coming out from which streamer during the month that we went on sale. That’s where we started and continued during 2023. And now it might be that instead of doing the biggest show, we’ll still do a big show, but focus on a specific genre.

Samir Husni: Do you have any predictions about streaming? Will it continue to go up or is it hitting its status quo?

Michael Fell: The reporting really settled into a certain groove post-strike about the contraction of the streaming services, such as not spending as much money, not going crazy with sequels, and being really focused. But we’re all about the consumers. And to me that’s a great thing, because streaming is THIS big and so if it becomes just THAT big, it becomes easier to handle for the consumers and we can in turn be more focused and curated for them.

There’s still going to be an amazing amount of overwhelming television and if the reporting from the industry says the sky is falling, we’re still thinking more about the consumers’ point of view. Such as number one: they’re not going to notice and two: it’s around the edges. And now streamers are focusing on, hey, maybe we shouldn’t do that fancy show that no one watched but we got to work with this great director. They’re like, let’s make some more shows that people are going to watch. And that’s all good for the consumer, the watcher, the viewer and that’s our audience. We’re not really industry-focused, we cover the industry, but always from the consumer point of view.

So, there will be some contraction, but I think it’s all good for the viewers. There will be plenty to watch. I’m just not crazy about the people feeling overwhelmed, especially if they’re reading our magazine.

Samir Husni: Let’s imagine that we’re in December 2024, what would you like to tell me you had accomplished throughout the year?

Tony Frost: We’re looking to extend our reach; we’re looking to make the magazine more visible; we’re looking for twice as many subscribers, and we’re seeing very encouraging early renewal indicators. Customers committing to longer term subscriptions and positive customer feedback. So they’re telling us that they want TV Insider, this is the magazine that they’ve been waiting for. We just have to market it on a larger scale and we have to promote it better.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Michael Fell: I’m sleeping pretty well. (Laughs)

Tony Frost: There’s not much that keeps me awake at night, let me tell you. (Laughs ,too)

I did want to say that one of our biggest successes over the past couple of years has been Yellowstone. We covered it from the beginning. TV Guide was the first magazine to put Yellowstone on its cover. Our Yellowstone articles have been repurposed for our website tvinsider.com and we did three SIPs under the TV Guide logo. Obviously, the show has been featured in TV Insider magazine on a regular basis. In November we completed our fourth Yellowstone SIP in a partnership with a360, under the subhead The Complete Story – All Four Seasons. It has sold well in a short time with a cover price of $13.99. We are happy with the results so far – and so are a360. I use this as an example of how important it is for a company like ours to be nimble and smart … always looking for the next opportunity.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Posted in A Launch Story..., Innovation in print, Magazine Power, New Launches, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

The Year Of The Bookazine… A Read, Beat, (… And Repeat) Podcast. Steve Tarter Interviews Mr. Magazine™

December 23, 2023

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.

To listen to the podcast please click here.

Posted in Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views | Tagged future, innovation, magazines, News and Views, print | Leave a Comment »

Doug Olson, President & Chief Media Officer of a360media to Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni: “There’s Always Room For Print.” The Mr. Magazine™ Return Interview…

December 15, 2023

“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.

Posted in Innovation in print, Inside the Great Minds of Magazine Makers, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Tagged magazine, magazines, media | Leave a Comment »

R.I.P. Phyllis Hoffman DePiano: How Hoffman Media Built a Multi-Million Dollar Company from Scratch by Focusing on their Audience… A Tribute From The Mr. Magazine™ Vault..

July 11, 2023

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.”

Posted in From the Vault, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views | 8 Comments »

The B Magazine Gets An A+. Publisher Michelle Thorpe Petricca, To Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni: “There’s Absolutely A Desire For Certain Segments Of A Population To Enjoy The Print Experience.” The Mr. Magazine™ Exclusive New Launch Interview…

June 19, 2023

“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

want to be sensitive to where that message lands.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Check out the second issue of The B here.

Posted in A Launch Story..., Innovation in print, Magazine Power, New Launches, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

The Old Farmer’s Almanac, The Little Engine That Could And Would. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Longtime Publisher Sherin Pierce.

June 4, 2023

“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 13^th 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.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Posted in Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

Steve Tarter Of Read Beat (… And Repeat) Podcast Interviews Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni

May 20, 2023

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.

To listen to the podcast please click here.

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AARP: The Magazine Serving The 50+ Americans. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Shelagh Daly Miller, VP and Group Publisher.

May 3, 2023

“”While some may view print magazines as a luxury item, we believe that AARP The Magazine is a necessity for our readers and a net value add to their lives. Many of our readers rely on AARP The Magazine for guidance on health, finances and wellbeing, and they appreciate the depth and quality of our content.” SDM

At a time where everything is aimed at generation Z or the millennials, AARP The Magazine, is doing just the opposite. You have to be at least 50 to access this mass-circulated publication that makes no apologies for its print prowess and passionate nature regarding ink on paper. The magazine is the largest-circulation publication in the United States with over 38 million readers and its AARP Bulletin reigns supreme with almost 33 million in readership. Combine the two together and the numbers are a staggering testament to the power of print and its relevant audience, while never ignoring the reach and information the brand’s digital extensions offer.

I thought it was time to revisit with Shelagh Daly Miller the Vice President, Group Publisher, AARP Media Advertising Network who has been with the brand for 23+ years. Coming from a background rich in advertising and publishing, she is a woman very much at home in the world of magazines and magazine media.

I interviewed Shelagh and asked about AARP and the world of magazines and magazine media. As always, the insights you will read about this 50+ audience are as intriguing and exciting as the content of the publications. So, I hope that you enjoy this very inspiring and print-positive Mr. Magazine™ interview with a woman and her brand that make no apologies for their faith and commitment to all platforms, print included, Shelagh Daly Miller, Vice President, Group Publisher, AARP Media Advertising Network.

But first the sound-bites:

On AARP The Magazine: AARP The Magazine is America’s #1 most-read magazine. It celebrates key 50+ life stages and lifestyles through three demographic editions, tailored to readers in their 50s, 60s and over 70+ years.

On diversity, equality, and inclusion: We understand that the experience of aging is universal, affecting people of every background.

On challenges facing AARP The Magazine: Many large print magazines are facing challenges with declining readership and engagement. We’ve been fortunate, however, to see all-time highs in readership and engagement, giving our advertisers confidence in our publications.

On magazines becoming luxury products: While some may view print magazines as a luxury item, we believe that AARP The Magazine is a necessity for our readers and a net value add to their lives. Many of our readers rely on AARP The Magazine for guidance on health, finances and wellbeing, and they appreciate the depth and quality of our content.

On goals for 2024: To empower 50+ Americans to live their best lives and help them make sure their money, health and happiness live as long as they do.

On the 50+ demographics: 50+ adults continue to be the financially dominant demographic. Over the past five years, 50+ households have contributed $1.8 trillion more to the U.S. economy than younger households.

On what keeps her up at night: One thing that keeps me up at night is the need to educate more marketers around the critical importance of the 50+ audience to their brands.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Shelagh Daly Miller, Vice President, Group Publisher, AARP Media Advertising Network.

1. AARP is better known as a lobbyist association on behalf of its members, the over 50 population, yet they publish the largest circulating magazine in the country today. Tell me more about AARP the magazine: its concept, mission and audience. Also what about its sister publication: The Bulletin…

Both AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin are part of the AARP Media Advertising Network, which also includes AARP.org, special publications, native content, newsletters and more. Our network delivers an average of 151 million monthly in-home and digital impressions.

AARP The Magazine is America’s #1 most-read magazine. It celebrates key 50+ life stages and lifestyles through three demographic editions, tailored to readers in their 50s, 60s and over 70+ years. Its contextual relevance drives high engagement and its massive audience of 38+ million readers is more influential than any other.

AARP Bulletin spotlights the news and policy-driven content that matters most to the lives of Americans age 50+. Its timely focus on critical information ignites a sense of urgency and consumer action among 32.6 million readers.

2. Since we last spoke (2016) lots have happened in the country: what impact did the pandemic have on the publications?

AARP Media Advertising Network was ahead of the curve in understanding the changing behaviors of the 50+ audience. Having already established a relationship built on trust with our members, we were perfectly positioned to provide them guidance and information during the pandemic. Every issue of AARP The Magazine in 2021 was among the top 10 for all time reader satisfaction, and AARP The Magazine had the largest gain in readers among the top 10 magazines according to MRI Simmons Fall 2021 data.

3. What about diversity, equality and inclusion? Almost every media company has tried to play catch up. What about AARP?

At AARP we understand that the experience of aging is universal, affecting people of every background. Across the organization, we work to combat ageism in society, including research we continually conduct to make sure we understand the needs of our members and are providing those insights to advertisers to give them the opportunity to be inclusive in their marketing.

4. What are some of the challenges facing a large print magazine?

Many large print magazines are facing challenges with declining readership and engagement. We’ve been fortunate, however, to see all-time highs in readership and engagement, giving our advertisers confidence in our publications.

AARP The Magazine, for example, saw readership reach a new all-time high of 38.7 million last year, up 3.2% – more than 1.2 million new readers – from six months prior (MRI-Simmons spring and fall 2022 data). That’s the highest six-month gain in the magazine’s history. We’ve increased readership across all our demographic editions.

Readers turn to us for the information they need to fuel every aspect of their lives – including trusted information to help them make purchase decisions. Eight of ten readers (78%) tell us they’re doing more research than they were just five to ten years ago, according to our 2022 AMAN Purchase Path Study. Nine of ten readers (89%) say that AARP’s media properties help them research new products and services they are interested in buying.

Greater reach and engagement among the powerhouse 50+ demographic – which drives more than half (53%) of all consumer spending each year – means a stronger value proposition for advertisers.

5. Some say print magazines are now a luxury item, you and I may disagree that AARP The Magazine is a luxury item, what say you?

While some may view print magazines as a luxury item, we believe that AARP The Magazine is a necessity for our readers and a net value add to their lives. Many of our readers rely on AARP The Magazine for guidance on health, finances and wellbeing, and they appreciate the depth and quality of our content.

AARP has built a reputation around connecting members to incredible discounts and benefits – ranging from travel to insurance – and our publications are a great guide for members to learn about those benefits. Our members look forward to receiving AARP The Magazine and many readers have developed a strong emotional connection to our informative and inspirational coverage.

6. As we look towards 2024, what are your goals and thoughts for the publications?

Our goal across our publications and the larger organization is to empower 50+ Americans to live their best lives and help them make sure their money, health and happiness live as long as they do. Providing that insight and direction has always been our north star and it’s the reason AARP The Magazine and our other publications aren’t facing the same kind of challenges other print publications are.

7. Is there anything you would like to add?

Many brands are finally starting to realize just how massive and dominant the 50+ demo is. 50+ adults continue to be the financially dominant demographic. Over the past five years, 50+ households have contributed $1.8 trillion more to the U.S. economy than younger households. They represent 53% of all annual consumer expenditures and generate 51% of all annual household income.

8. My typical last question, what keeps you up at night?

One thing that keeps me up at night is the need to educate more marketers around the critical importance of the 50+ audience to their brands. Marketers have historically focused on younger demographics, but the 50+ demo is powerful and growing, and brands that neglect them risk losing out on a substantial portion of potential revenue.

Our job is to connect the dots between our 50+ readers and the value they offer brands. Print ads in particular lend themselves to the delivery of more information, ensuring everything consumers need to get started on the purchase journey is right there in the publication. This helps brands move millions of prospects into the purchase funnel and achieve a meaningful return on their advertising investment.

Posted in Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

122 Years In The Making: Greenwood Ave. Magazine Is Born. The Mr. Magazine™ Exclusive Interview With Trey Thaxton, Chief Executive Officer and Founder.

April 24, 2023

“We want people to actually sit and read the stories, not just look at the photos, because we spend a lot of time choosing who we want to write and the stories that are written are all really meaningful and there are reasons behind that. And I want to make sure it’s not just scrolled through or swiped really quickly.”

“That we are still in print. This time next year we’ll be in our seventh edition and that we have reached millions of people through our stories in print. And hopefully received emails and letters about how this magazine has changed lives. And be able to give millions of dollars to North Tulsa kids and students and become more of a light to the community.”

Trey Thaxton is a Black entrepreneur with a plan to turn the violent history of Tulsa’s Greenwood district into an inspiring and bright future. Greenwood Ave. is a new magazine he has launched in print, no less, to tell the deeply moving stories of the district’s past, but most importantly to him, the refocus of all that trauma and hurt into a bright and challenging new future.

I spoke with Trey recently and we talked about his plans and how there was no choice, the magazine had to be in print for its longevity and tactile nature. For a man who is only 36-years-old, Trey is a staunch believer in print and believes that the medium is the only one that would work for his very important messages.

So, without further ado, the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Trey Thaxton, CEO and Founder, Greenwood Ave.

But first the sound bites:

On why it took 122 years to create a magazine about Greenwood Ave. and why it’s in print:

The reason I did the magazine; my background is in design, print design, and branding, and that’s why it’s in print for sure. I went to high school in Tulsa and college in Oklahoma. And I had never heard of Greenwood or Black Wall Street until after I graduated college. I felt it was such a tragedy not to have known that history when I had been walking in the shadow of Black Wall Street for over 20 years.

On what he’s offering Black entrepreneurs that that can’t find in other magazines: And other magazines are always focused on the history or trauma or the survivors and what they went through and their fight for justice, which is all necessary and part of the story, obviously, but for me I didn’t see a part that talked about the victory of Greenwood. I think for this magazine, you really get the insight into the victory part.

On how he has diversity, inclusion and equality in his magazine: That’s the heart of the whole magazine and the brand. Our theme is Greenwood Ave. is everywhere, so it’s not just in Tulsa, but around the world. Our goal is centered around those entrepreneurs who helped build Greenwood. So for us that is the essence of why we got started and what we’ll continue to do.

On what he says if someone asks why he’s so adamant about print: We want people to actually sit and read the stories, not just look at the photos, because we spend a lot of time choosing who we want to write and the stories that are written are all really meaningful and there are reasons behind that. And I want to make sure it’s not just scrolled through or swiped really quickly. I want it to sit on people’s desks and coffee tables and is passed around and shared and to really have a more tactile interaction than just a swipe on a screen. I think it means a lot more when you can touch and feel and not just read it, but feel the quality of the magazine as well.

On the cover price of $21: We wanted to make sure it was substantial and that number 21 obviously means a lot to the history of Greenwood in that year and is something we try to continue to highlight. On top of that, when people hear the word magazine, they might think of the news rags or something else on the shelf, but this is really more of a coffee table book. The word magazine is somewhat of a misnomer, but it is something that will last the test of time.

On any challenges he’s faced with this project: Just like with any startup, there will be challenges. A lot being capital or will anyone listen. The Greenwood Cultural Center worked for years telling the stories of survivors and there were a lot of documentaries about to start as I was starting this too, but for me there are a lot of different areas, there’s no one side to every story. For me, nobody was coming from the angle of the future.

On any pleasant surprises since he launched the magazine: The first was a little difficult. A lot of people in there were either friends of mine or acquaintances of people I’d met or one person away from them, but as we’ve gone on with the magazine and began to reach out to people who are outside our network to be a part of this, the response has been an overwhelming yes. They want to be a part of it. And how much the stories resonate with people outside of Tulsa has been amazingly beautiful.

On whether he think the magazine industry is moving in the right direction: I can’t speak to the magazine industry as a whole, but with what happened to George Floyd and that tragedy, there are a lot more people who are searching for ways to be an “ally.” We have a good friend here in town who has the only Black-owned bookstore in Tulsa, and he saw an enormous rise in interest in what they call an “ally box” where people from all over the world were subscribing to books on how to be an ally; how to be an anti-racist.

On why he decided to call the magazine Greenwood Ave. instead of Black Wall Street: I think Black Wall Street is ubiquitous, even Greenwood is becoming more well-known. Greenwood is a very known name. Tulsa was the first Black Wall Street, but there were others. So that’s a bit more ubiquitous. But Greenwood Ave. for me speaks to Tulsa. Being based in Tulsa, we do want to expand outside, but Greenwood Ave. to me just spoke more to Tulsa.

On what he would hope to tell someone in a year that he had accomplished with Greenwood Ave.: That we are still in print. This time next year we’ll be in our seventh edition and that we have reached millions of people through our stories in print. And hopefully received emails and letters about how this magazine has changed lives. And be able to give millions of dollars to North Tulsa kids and students and became more of a light to the community.

On what someone would find him doing if they showed up unannounced at his house: Most likely you’ll find me with my kids. Right after work I cook dinner; I’m busy every night. My wife is also an entrepreneur. She is a real-life super-hero, working with clientele so much as a therapist. I try to make it home every night to put dinner on the table for her and our two children. So every night we try to do something with our kids.

On whether he has a mentor or not: I look at a lot of different names. I’ve been able to take inspiration from everywhere, probably because I’m not a great artists I would say. I’m not sure how I passed any of my art classes in school. (Laughs) The great thing about this is I don’t have to do a lot. The meat is really everyone else, so that is the beauty of what this is. All the stories are really telling the great things that other people are doing. And that’s a great thing for me.

On what keeps him up at night: For this past year I’ve been really working on mindset and trying to figure out my purpose and direction. For entrepreneurship, we always talk about the pivot and I think COVID in 2020 – 2021 was a big pivot for a lot of people as far as their direction. When I started doing design after graduation, in my mind if I could just work for Nike or somewhere in the NBA that would be the pinnacle of my career.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Trey Thaxton, CEO and Founder, Greenwood Ave.

Samir Husni: Congratulations on the new magazine. It’s very well done.

Trey Thaxton: Thank you very much.

Samir Husni: Tell me, why did it take 122 years for somebody to create a magazine about Greenwood Ave. and why do it in print?

Trey Thaxton: That’s a great question. I’m not sure why it’s taken 122 years. I know for a fact that there are books on the subject. There have been a lot of documentaries that have come out in the last couple of years on Greenwood Ave and Black Wall Street. As of two years ago there’s a new history center dedicated to the memory of how Greenwood is rising – the new River Rising – in North Tulsa right now.

But the reason I did the magazine; my background is in design, print design, and branding, and that’s why it’s in print for sure. I went to high school in Tulsa and college in Oklahoma. And I had never heard of Greenwood or Black Wall Street until after I graduated college. I felt it was such a tragedy not to have known that history when I had been walking in the shadow of Black Wall Street for over 20 years.

Being a designer and an entrepreneur in Tulsa, I believe there’s no way to hide from the gravitas that the spirit of Greenwood is. I wanted to do something that highlights the history and hopefully no one else will have the excuse of not knowing what’s happening here. And once I started hearing about the massacre, the deaths, the 300 lives that were taken and the 600 businesses that were destroyed, for me, I’m a believer in Jesus and I know that there’s more power in the resurrection that there is the death. We just celebrated Easter and I always want to make sure that we highlight that resurrection, because to me that’s where the inspiration comes from.

I hear so many people now who are inspired by, not only that it was there before 1921, but that they actually rebuilt it bigger and better after the massacre. So to me, highlighting that resurrection; it’s not just those 40 blocks underneath Tulsa, it really is about the spirit that’s reenergizing, black people all over the world who are realizing their ideas, dreams and visions in various, different industries.

Samir Husni: You mentioned that it’s not just about the history; you’re not just reflecting on the past, but you’re projecting the future and making it more of a magazine for all Black entrepreneurs. What are you offering that they can’t find in other magazines?

Trey Thaxton: Greenwood focuses a lot on the trauma side of everything. For instance, our first issue, the author who wrote the first article is actually a descendant of Black Wall Street and Greenwood. His great-grandparents owned shops in Greenwood and he gets asked all the time because he actually runs a company called The Black Wall Street Times based here in Tulsa and Atlanta; he gets asked all the time to write or retell stories about Greenwood.

And other magazines are always focused on the history or trauma or the survivors and what they went through and their fight for justice, which is all necessary and part of the story, obviously, but for me I didn’t see a part that talked about the victory of Greenwood. I think for this magazine, you really get the insight into the victory part.

We’ve only had one to come out so far, but every first quarter is our “everywhere magazines” we’re calling them, where we talk to different people in different cities. Our next issue will be around Black chefs and we have 12 different chefs from around the country: Tulsa, Houston, Florida and New York, to name a few, who submitted recipes. So, it’s not just a magazine, it’s also a cookbook. So we have recipes from five-star restaurants and chefs from around the country and we get to tell their stories and recipes through the lens of food and its history.

The one after that is going to be around Black take-out entrepreneurs where we highlight, not only what they’re doing, but some of their struggles and how they overcame that. So I think that in this magazine we get to talk through what people are doing in different spaces and in different industries, but also talk about how they’re overcoming obstacles in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs have always been faced with adversity, so we talk about how they are able to overcome and hopefully will inspire people to continue to follow their own dreams and passions.

Samir Husni: The buzzword now after 2020 is diversity. How are you ensuring that the magazine for Black entrepreneurs will have diversity, inclusion and equality within its pages?

Trey Thaxton: That’s the heart of the whole magazine and the brand. Our theme is Greenwood Ave. is everywhere, so it’s not just in Tulsa, but around the world. Our goal is centered around those entrepreneurs who helped build Greenwood. So for us that is the essence of why we got started and what we’ll continue to do.

And the beauty of it is we get to characterize these different industries, whether it be tech or sports, or food, agriculture, or artists. Every issue will be a different industry, where we’ll talk to different people and show their diversity, not just in race and ethnicity, but in the diaspora as well.

In our first one we have features in London; in our artists issue we’re talking to someone right now in Lagos, Africa, so we’re trying to show diversity across the diaspora, not just in language or area. but also in disciplines as well.

Samir Husni: If someone asks why is this young man, who is also a print designer, so engrossed with print, what do you say?

Trey Thaxton: Funny you should bring that up. We get asked all the time if there will be a digital version? We’ll have digital aspects around it, but for me, I’ll be 36 this year, I grew up in a digital age, but I also grew up with print. I think with social media; it goes away so quick. If we did a digital magazine people might scroll through the pictures and we might get a couple of likes, but for me the print component will last a lot longer.

We want people to actually sit and read the stories, not just look at the photos, because we spend a lot of time choosing who we want to write and the stories that are written are all really meaningful and there are reasons behind that. And I want to make sure it’s not just scrolled through or swiped really quickly.

I want it to sit on people’s desks and coffee tables and is passed around and shared and to really have a more tactile interaction than just a swipe on a screen. I think it means a lot more when you can touch and feel and not just read it, but feel the quality of the magazine as well. We want it to be something people want to have in their space. It can get very easily lost on a phone or swipe or a save on Pinterest, so we want to make sure we have that tactile component.

Samir Husni: It’s not a cheap magazine; the cover price is $21. Tell me about that.

Trey Thaxton: Again, we wanted to make sure it was substantial and that number 21 obviously means a lot to the history of Greenwood in that year and is something we try to continue to highlight. On top of that, when people hear the word magazine, they might think of the news rags or something else on the shelf, but this is really more of a coffee table book. The word magazine is somewhat of a misnomer, but it is something that will last the test of time.

We try to make sure everything is evergreen. So when you pick this magazine up, the way it’s designed, the way the stories are written, the way we put it together; if you look at this in the next five years, it’ll feel just as relevant then as it does today. So it is a more expensive price, but it will last for a long time.

Samir Husni: Has this been easy for you, or have you faced some challenges with this project along the way and if so, how did you overcome them?

Trey Thaxton: Just like with any startup, there will be challenges. A lot being capital or will anyone listen. The Greenwood Cultural Center worked for years telling the stories of survivors and there were a lot of documentaries about to start as I was starting this too, but for me there are a lot of different areas, there’s no one side to every story. For me, nobody was coming from the angle of the future.

The challenges for me were if anyone would listen and care, but I’m a believer of doing something if it’s in your heart and you have a passion for it. With a business, you try to overcome your fears. We actually launched this project with a T-shirt series, it didn’t start as a magazine.

As a brand and logo designer, I would take the original names of some of the shops that were on Greenwood in the ‘20s like Rambo Cab Company and Dreamland Theatre and design the shirts to help tell the story. And during February and Black History Month, we did really well. And I thought, how do I continue the story after that, which lead to a video series where we went in and highlighted entrepreneurs who were carrying on the legacy.

That went over really well and we launched more merch around it and did more videos around it, and then just last year we really wanted to do that print component to help share stories and expand outside of Tulsa. And we wanted to help people get a piece of that history as well.

There are always challenges: how do we do a magazine; how do we fund it; will anyone buy it, and there has been a great response so far. For me, it’s really about the level of excellence. From that movie “Field of Dreams” they say, if you build it they will come, that’s not necessarily true. It sounds great in a movie, but if you build it, you also have to promote it, get the right team around and do it well. So for me, doing things in excellence I think has shone through some of the noise and hopefully that will continue to be the case.

Samir Husni: Have there been any pleasant surprises since you launched the magazine?

Trey Thaxton: The first was a little difficult. A lot of people in there were either friends of mine or acquaintances of people I’d met or one person away from them, but as we’ve gone on with the magazine and began to reach out to people who are outside our network to be a part of this, the response has been an overwhelming yes. They want to be a part of it. And how much the stories resonate with people outside of Tulsa has been amazingly beautiful.

When I started this, not being from Tulsa, I’ve been here since I was 11, but not being born and raised in Tulsa and not being a descendant, I wanted to make sure that I was honoring this properly and not just seeing it as someone coming from the outside and not capitalize on anyone’s trauma. I was trying to keep that up front and I got a great response from the descendants here and from people who had been fighting for justice for a long time. And that has been a really pleasant surprise.

When we first started doing the video series, I got emails from teachers who were showing our videos inside the classroom. That wasn’t something that I’d really thought about happening, but seeing it happen has been truly phenomenal.

We have a new partnership with Russell Westbrook and his team and the History Channel during the centennial. They used our video series as part of their curriculum to get out to kids in Tulsa and around the world. These are things you don’t see coming as you attempt to enlighten people. We were featured in Vogue magazine last year. Our jackets have been in the Wall Street Times and Wall Street journals. That kind of stuff is overwhelmingly amazing.

Samir Husni: After George Floyd and the other life-changing experiences we have had, do you think the magazine industry is moving in the right direction or just paying lip service?

Trey Thaxton: I can’t speak to the magazine industry as a whole, but with what happened to George Floyd and that tragedy, there are a lot more people who are searching for ways to be an “ally.” We have a good friend here in town who has the only Black-owned bookstore in Tulsa, and he saw an enormous rise in interest in what they call an “ally box” where people from all over the world were subscribing to books on how to be an ally; how to be an anti-racist.

So I think the hunger, thirst and curiosity was peaked a lot. I would say a few years later that seems to have dwindled down, but I try not to focus on the industry as a whole, obviously there are other ways to make money, so for me this is really more about purpose and passion versus any dollar amount.

Our parent company is actually called Goldmill Co. and that’s our creative agency that Greenwood Ave. is under, and our whole concept is to create brands that uplift, inspire and shine. So with Greenwood, we’re able to uplift the community by uplifting other Black entrepreneurs, not just in Tulsa, but around the world. We also give 10 percent of our proceeds to North Tulsa building efforts. The Oasis Project, a black-owned grocery store doing food deserts, we support them, along with many other North Tulsa projects. So we’re able to do things like that with our work with Greenwood Ave.

We inspire by shining a light on other entrepreneurs. We also want to have more resources to share and be that inspiration. And we want to give to other groups that are doing similar work. To me that’s what it’s all about.

Samir Husni: Why did you decide on Greenwood Ave. and not Black Wall Street?

Trey Thaxton: I think Black Wall Street is ubiquitous, even Greenwood is becoming more well-known. Greenwood is a very known name. Tulsa was the first Black Wall Street, but there were others. So that’s a bit more ubiquitous. But Greenwood Ave. for me speaks to Tulsa. Being based in Tulsa, we do want to expand outside, but Greenwood Ave. to me just spoke more to Tulsa.

Samir Husni: What would you hope to tell someone you had accomplished with Greenwood Ave. in a year?

Trey Thaxton: That we are still in print. This time next year we’ll be in our seventh edition and that we have reached millions of people through our stories in print. And hopefully received emails and letters about how this magazine has changed lives. And be able to give millions of dollars to North Tulsa kids and students and become more of a light to the community.

Samir Husni: If I show up at your house one evening unannounced, what do I find you doing?

Trey Thaxton: Most likely you’ll find me with my kids. Right after work I cook dinner; I’m busy every night. My wife is also an entrepreneur. She is a real-life super-hero, working with clientele so much as a therapist. I try to make it home every night to put dinner on the table for her and our two children. So every night we try to do something with our kids.

Samir Husni: Being a designer and a print person at a young age, do you have a mentor?

Trey Thaxton: I look at a lot of different names. I’ve been able to take inspiration from everywhere, probably because I’m not a great artists I would say. I’m not sure how I passed any of my art classes in school. (Laughs) The great thing about this is I don’t have to do a lot. The meat is really everyone else, so that is the beauty of what this is. All the stories are really telling the great things that other people are doing. And that’s a great thing for me.

As a designer I look at Pentagram a lot; they’re a huge design consultant that does things in print, branding, video and film. I look at that a lot. I love all that branding work. I try to look at everything, not just one or two people in the print world.

Samir Husni: My final question is: what keeps you up at night?

Trey Thaxton: Literally our son. He’s three-years-old and he wants to be up at night in our bed and not in his own. So that literally keeps me up at night.

For this past year I’ve been really working on mindset and trying to figure out my purpose and direction. For entrepreneurship, we always talk about the pivot and I think COVID in 2020 – 2021 was a big pivot for a lot of people as far as their direction. When I started doing design after graduation, in my mind if I could just work for Nike or somewhere in the NBA that would be the pinnacle of my career.

Before Goldmill, I actually worked the ministry for a while helping launch a church and became a choir director for a while and stepped down after about five years. After that, I prayed about it and knew that I wanted to make sure that everything I touched for the next twenty years had real value. So for me, it’s how can I have more value to my family, our staff’s lives and to the world. And how can I share value with other people.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Posted in Magazine Power, New Launches, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

Founder & CEO Laura Quick, Good Grit Magazine To Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni: “Whatever The Case May Be, Getting A Print Story Is Still A Really Big Deal.” The Mr. Magazine™ Interview…

April 3, 2023

“I think print is so unique. I’d love to tell you that we’ve grown our readership and we’re bigger than ever, but the truth is our readership has stayed boutique and that has really worked for us. We decided it would be better to serve a loyal, smaller group of people, a specific lane of humans who want to be talked to in a certain way than to try and go spend money everywhere, because shelves are so hard.”

“I think it’s about meeting the audience where they are. And what that looks like to me is not saying that one is harder than the other; it’s just knowing your audience and serving them in the right way.”

From Good Grit magazine to Good Grit Creative Agency, Good Grit the brand is going strong and promises to continue that upward swing. Laura Quick is the founder and CEO of the business and believes that the print version of the brand has the Southern niche in inspirational and aspirational storytelling.

I spoke with Laura recently and we talked about the magazine and how the creative agency ties perfectly into the brand. She is an admirer of Garden & Gun and Southern Living and believes that Good Grit falls easily into the same Southern culture type read with an emphasis on great storytelling.

According to the website, Good Grit is using ink on a page to give a voice to the people and places and things that most closely articulate ‘The Character of the South.’ Now without further ado, the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Laura Quick, founder and CEO, Good Grit.

But first the soundbites:

On how she’s still publishing today, even after the naysayers thought she’d never make it: Well, I’ve always said you have to be a little bit crazy to be in this business. (Laughs) You probably agree with that. The main thing that’s happened over the last eight years is I have learned to be a student of this industry and I had to do that because I didn’t come in with a vast knowledge of it. I really knew nothing about the industry. But I felt there was a hole in the market place.

On some of the challenges she’s faced and how she overcame them: Well, the pandemic was a huge challenge, obviously. And if I’m being honest, I think we were on the cusp of needing to make some hard decisions in 2019 going into 2020. We were already thinking of ways to evolve the brand. To make it more like a brand and less like a magazine.

On what she thinks the role of print is in her brand: I think that print plays the role of telling the story of Good Grit, who we are as a company and our value. How we see our value is that we are damned good storytellers. We love what we do and we’re really good at it. We feel that the unique position that we bring to the marketplace shows that we consider ourselves students of the clients; students of the brands that we get to serve, and I think people see that in print first. And they say why wouldn’t we at least consider hiring them for our branding agency.

On how she wants to celebrate her 10^th anniversary: We haven’t thrown any really big parties in a long time, but we plan to. (Laughs) We’re probably do popups in our biggest cities. We’ll do a popup on 30 A. Obviously 30 A has been a huge supporter of our brands since the very beginning. We have a lot of loyal subscribers there and a lot of loyal partnerships there. So doing something really cool down on 30 A; doing something big in Birmingham as our flagship, where we started and were founded. I think we’ll do something in Atlanta as we have, and possibly Nashville.

On whether it’s easier to tell a story digitally or in print: I think it’s about meeting the audience where they are. And what that looks like to me is not saying that one is harder than the other; it’s just knowing your audience and serving them in the right way.

On letting go of things now that she has people working for her: I’m proud to say that I have let go and what that looks like is getting to a place of profitability where you can hire great talent and trust them. We’re an all-female core team at Good Grit and our initiative is that every female on our core leadership team makes over six figures by 2025. And we are 80 percent of the way there. When you can invest in great people with high capacities and who believe what you believe, you can do anything. I’m convinced of it.

On whether diversity and inclusion is a part of her brand: We didn’t set out to be an all-women’s team, but it happened over time. And we have great chemistry. And we have over 200 freelancers that are very diverse. We have men and women, people of all races and color.

On anything she’d like to add: This is really hard work and it’s a very difficult business. But it is not impossible. I believe there are still meaningful jobs to be had. I do think you have to be well-rounded. Once every two or three months I have somebody reach out to me if I can go to lunch or for coffee to talk about a magazine they want to start. And I reserve 30 minutes per week for just that. Anyone that asks me to coffee or lunch, I’ll go with them because I think about the Sid Evans’ and the Marshall Mckinney’s and the Kristen Paine’s of the world who would take my calls and pull me back off a cliff. (Laughs)

On what keeps her up at night: I sleep pretty good. (Laughs) There’s not really one thing. I think if I’m ever stirring and don’t have peace, I can typically point back to not living within the habits that really work and keep me on track. Because if you’re staying up at night it means that you’re probably not on track or someone you know or work with.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Laura Quick, founder and CEO of Good Grit.

Samir Husni: We haven’t talked since 2016. And the first year after you published, people were saying there was no way you could make it, you’re crazy, etc. Now, eight years later and through a pandemic, you’re still publishing. What gives? How are you still doing it?

Laura Quick: Well, I’ve always said you have to be a little bit crazy to be in this business. (Laughs) You probably agree with that. The main thing that’s happened over the last eight years is I have learned to be a student of this industry and I had to do that because I didn’t come in with a vast knowledge of it. I really knew nothing about the industry. But I felt there was a hole in the market place.

I think over the years the reason that we’ve survived has been primarily because we’ve stayed and maintained our ability to be nimble. But we’ve also been compelled to evolve, to give people what they want, not what we think they want. So, we’ve stepped a little further into that hole that we thought existed and people have resonated with that.

I mean, we know that Garden & Gun is so good at helping us with aspirations, where we aspire to go. And Southern Living has done a great job of being a constant of ‘this is the place where you’re learning about the best recipes you need to be making.’ From Grandma’s Church Cookbook to what they see as quintessential Southern. And we felt like there was a progressive lane for Southern culture and we could really own inspirational storytelling. How do we tell a story that can inspire you to know that if you have failed or fallen down, you can get back up and you can come out of this thing with something good.

And that’s what we’ve been focusing on and we still feel like we don’t have it quite where we want it to be. When I talked with you before, I was so hell-bent that I wasn’t going to have any coffee on the cover. It was going to be this clean, beautiful cover with great imagery. I was so convinced that we wouldn’t be sponsored content, which is so laughable now because there is absolutely no way to survive this industry in my opinion without doing some creative, sponsored content. You can live inside of your brand and do it really well and invite clients and partnerships into that. And that’s what we’ve done.

So those are the big changes. I have implemented sponsored content and I definitely have copy on my covers. (Laughs)

Samir Husni: If you look at the status of magazines today, very few new magazines are launched like they used to be. Almost everything that’s launched is like a bookazine, with a $15 cover price. Yet in our Southern region, you gave the examples of Garden & Gun and Southern Living, and of course, there’s Hoffman Media. So there’s quite a bit of Southern magazines still being published on a regular basis. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced and how did you overcome them?

Laura Quick: Well, the pandemic was a huge challenge, obviously. And if I’m being honest, I think we were on the cusp of needing to make some hard decisions in 2019 going into 2020. We were already thinking of ways to evolve the brand. To make it more like a brand and less like a magazine.

So how do we become more of a household name than just a magazine that publishes six times per year? We had already made the decision prior to the pandemic that we would go from six issues to four issues. That felt logical to us; it felt easy; it felt seasonal; which we really loved to speak to our community in a seasonal way, because we want to be a tastemaker in that inspirational lane.

We walked into 2020 knowing we were going to four issues, had already made that announcement, had already presold half the year, and then the pandemic hit. Every one of them, not some, but every single advertising partner that we had said they were out. That wanted to leave. They were calling and wanted to pull.

Something we did in that moment as a proactive measure, knowing that was coming, was we made a decision to tell every sponsor and advertiser that we had to not pay us, but don’t pull out, to stay. Number one, the only way you make it in this business is by forging incredible relationships with partners and advertisers that believe similarly to you. And there are lots of them out there who want to tell a great story and have great stories to tell that we’ve been able to do and they have partnered with us in a purely advertising way.

We went to them proactively and said please don’t pull out, just don’t pay. Stay and you don’t have to pay if you don’t have the money. We understand. Most of our advertising partners are tourism-driven, so they get paid because of heads and beds tax. If they don’t have heads and beds in hotel rooms, then they don’t have money to advertise with.

And it was tricky. We had intentional conversations with every advertiser on what is the message? Are you curating a message; do you have one; do you need help with one? How can we help you tell the story of what is true in your area; what are the laws where you are; what are the mandates? How can people still come to your city or your town and enjoy it in a safe way? So we went to work. That was our main job during that season.

The interesting thing that happened in 2019 was we had already made the decision to launch a storytelling, branding, and creative agency that would go along with what we were doing. We have had this expertise that we’ve proven. We’ve definitely had more than 10,000 hours of telling powerful stories and we thought there was a lane in that. We did these incredible stories in the magazine for advertising partners and we looked at their branding and marketing and see the opportunity to take the momentum they had to the next level.

So we launched a creative agency in 2019. My first paying client was Southern Living, they hired us. One of my mentors is was the vice president for Southern Living on partnerships and sponsorships and she became my first client. And she hired us to do something really cool.

In March 2020 when the pandemic hit, the creative agency had already outgrown the magazine in six months. And so we had momentum. I think in those moments, people believed that our message mattered more than ever and they were more likely to spend marketing dollars because of a sense of urgency that they had to communicate with their audience whoever they were.

And this happened: the creative agency was going to the stars, which was awesome and all of our partners deeply valued the fact that we were proactive when it was to support them. We were saying we’ll put skin in the game; don’t pull out; create consistency; just don’t pay us. And they all paid; they all ended up paying. And none of them left. We retained 100 percent of our advertisers during that time.

I feel like the pandemic did act somewhat as a driver and gave us some momentum to rethink everything we were doing, tear down anything that wasn’t working and rebuild it in a way that would better support ad dollars and sponsorships and what those look like. In short, I believe that’s why we survived the pandemic, but it was also a jump off point for us. And we’re so grateful.

Samir Husni: What role does print play in the scheme of things concerning your brand?

Laura Quick: I think print is so unique. I’d love to tell you that we’ve grown our readership and we’re bigger than ever, but the truth is our readership has stayed boutique and that has really worked for us. We decided it would be better to serve a loyal, smaller group of people, a specific lane of humans who want to be talked to in a certain way than to try and go spend money everywhere, because shelves are so hard. You’re not making money, you’re losing money. I don’t know anyone in the business that I have a relationship with that’s just killing them on shelves.

The truth is that the group of people we serve is under 20,000 copies. We have strategic partnerships with about 30 high-end hotels around the South and we have a really good subscriber base. The thing that we’ve learned is that they love print. And as long as it’s not a bad guy on my P&L, we’ll stay in print.

When I say we own a creative agency called Good Grit Agency and people ask, what, the magazine, it’s great. Just the fact that people know our name is a huge deal and I am so grateful. It is the number one marketing collateral that we have and when I say we are expert storytellers, we have eight years of data in print to prove that. Everybody still wants to be in print. If you have a business or a nonprofit, or you have something you’re launching, whatever the case may be, getting a print story is still a really big deal. And now maybe more than ever because that slice of real estate is getting smaller and smaller, not just with Good Grit, but with everyone.

I think that print plays the role of telling the story of Good Grit, who we are as a company and our value. How we see our value is that we are damned good storytellers. We love what we do and we’re really good at it. We feel that the unique position that we bring to the marketplace shows that we consider ourselves students of the clients; students of the brands that we get to serve, and I think people see that in print first. And they say why wouldn’t we at least consider hiring them for our branding agency.

Samir Husni: How do you want to celebrate your 10^th anniversary?

Laura Quick: We haven’t thrown any really big parties in a long time, but we plan to. (Laughs) We’re probably do popups in our biggest cities. We’ll do a popup on 30 A. Obviously 30 A has been a huge supporter of our brands since the very beginning. We have a lot of loyal subscribers there and a lot of loyal partnerships there. So doing something really cool down on 30 A; doing something big in Birmingham as our flagship, where we started and were founded. I think we’ll do something in Atlanta as we have, and possibly Nashville. We have five big date markets, but those are our top four.

So we’ll do some popups there and probably boutique dinners. And really invite subscribers to that. We do have a lot of people who buy off the shelves too, but who usually find out it’s cheaper to subscribe, but there’s something about standing in front of magazines in a grocery store or a bookstore and choosing one resonates with a lot of people. We want to invite all of those people to come and celebrate telling the stories.

We’re also considering doing an awards ceremony there where we talk about contributors. We are nothing without the people who share their gifts with us: the writers, photographers; the cinematographers, and social influencers that really believe in our brand. We’re already talking about how we want to celebrate 10 years and honestly, I can’t believe it will happen. And I really do believe it will happen and it will happen with us having a print publication still.

Samir Husni: Is it easier to be a storyteller on the digital sphere or the print sphere?

Laura Quick: That’s a great question. I think they’re different. How you tell a story digitally is so dynamically unique from how you tell one in print. It’s odd, but with print you have someone who says, hey, I want to take this journey with you and I’m willing to invest the time, I’m willing to take time to sit down with you and read a 12 or 13 hundred word story.

What we know to be true with digital is we have about nine seconds at the most to grab someone’s attention. I think from a digital perspective, stories are different and they’re shorter. You have someone who is saying to you because of the platform you’re meeting them on that may not have as much time as they might on the swing on their porch.

I think it’s about meeting the audience where they are. And what that looks like to me is not saying that one is harder than the other; it’s just knowing your audience and serving them in the right way.

Samir Husni: When you first started you did everything at the magazine; you were that founder, the editor, etc. Today you have people working for you; you have an editor in chief. How does it feel to let go a little bit? Or have you let go?

Laura Quick: I’m proud to say that I have let go and what that looks like is getting to a place of profitability where you can hire great talent and trust them. We’re an all-female core team at Good Grit and our initiative is that every female on our core leadership team makes over six figures by 2025. And we are 80 percent of the way there. When you can invest in great people with high capacities and who believe what you believe, you can do anything. I’m convinced of it.

I would put my team up against anyone. They’re the most impactful and incredible humans that I’ve ever met and worked with. If I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t touch the magazine, those women run it and I focus solely on the creative agency and forging relationships with current partners and future partners. We don’t even want to do work on the agency side that wouldn’t be a good fit for the magazine. We’re looking for people who equally believe what we believe to do work with.

My confession is that the greatest gift that I’ve ever been given was the ability to let go and let people who are even better at it than I am take the lead and go with it. And they have far surpassed any work that I have ever done on my own.

I have a mentor who always said my ceiling is another woman’s floor. I always say that. My goal for these women is that in the next several years they’re making more money than they could make anywhere else and they don’t want to leave. And that they feel like they’re impactful and that we are busting through some glass ceilings that exist so that our ceilings may be other women’s floors eventually.

Samir Husni: Is diversity and inclusion a part of the tapestry of your brand?

Laura Quick: We didn’t set out to be an all-women’s team, but it happened over time. And we have great chemistry. And we have over 200 freelancers that are very diverse. We have men and women, people of all races and color.

One of the big initiatives we made in 2019 that we’re really proud of was to diversify our content. It’s really easy to be a white person who makes content about other white people because they are in your sphere. And so it takes some intentionality to really think about how we diversify; how do we really represent the South?

We’re proud to say that 60 percent of our content, creatives and contributors are diverse. They are not white. It was a big deal for us to do that and it took a lot of hard work because it’s just easier to do business and think about things through the lens in which you see the world. It takes extra effort to be intentional and invite other people into share how they see the world, and to say this is cool, pitch content into us. We want to do that type of work.

And that has been a big deal and a big accomplishment and I’m really proud of our team for making that an initiative and then doing it.

Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Laura Quick: This is really hard work and it’s a very difficult business. But it is not impossible. I believe there are still meaningful jobs to be had. I do think you have to be well-rounded. Once every two or three months I have somebody reach out to me if I can go to lunch or for coffee to talk about a magazine they want to start. And I reserve 30 minutes per week for just that. Anyone that asks me to coffee or lunch, I’ll go with them because I think about the Sid Evans’ and the Marshall Mckinney’s and the Kristen Paine’s of the world who would take my calls and pull me back off a cliff. (Laughs)

I think about those people and try to be really generous with my time. And when I sit down with people who want to get into the magazine industry, whether it be for career’s sake or they want to start one themselves, I try to be as brutally honest as I can because I wish someone would have done that with me even though I was crazy and didn’t ask anyone.

But I always admire people who are willing to ask questions and I’m as brutally honest as I can be in telling them that this is really freaking hard. (Laughs) And there is a reason why not very many people make it. But it can be done. I just believe you have to have a niche. The more niche you can be, the better.

And we’re constantly thinking about the filters in which we’re building content in and making sure it makes sense because lifestyle is really hard. It’ a hard lane to own. It isn’t as niche as you’d like it to be. We try and niche it down, with progressive Southern culture and storytelling being two of the ways that we do that. We’re willing to talk about things that not everyone who would say they’re Southern would be willing to talk about.

So, I like to have those candid conversations. I would say to anyone thinking about starting a magazine, you need to know really why the hell you want to do it and be willing to give a big portion of your life for it. And that’s most entrepreneurship. I would say that about almost any business. Now I own three businesses and between my husband and I think we own 15 or something. So, we’re a very entrepreneurial family. But this is hard work. I gave up a lot pf things for this brand. A lot of time with my son; a lot of money I could have been making working for someone else. I was almost living in my car the first two years. It was scary.

Samir Husni: My typical last question, what keeps you up at night?

Laura Quick: I sleep pretty good. (Laughs) There’s not really one thing. I think if I’m ever stirring and don’t have peace, I can typically point back to not living within the habits that really work and keep me on track. Because if you’re staying up at night it means that you’re probably not on track or someone you know or work with.

I’ll be 40 in a couple of months and I have learned is that you have to find habits and rituals that work for you and you have to live within them. Truly, the only thing you can control is yourself. And if you model great behavior as a leader, people with usually go with you if they’re the right people.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Posted in A Launch Story..., Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

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