How do I start my own magazine?

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^Off-topic, but I love your idea of having illustrations only, WhiteLinen!
 
A ton of money, a ton of connections and a ton of style. Actually, these days, you dont need style.

I kind of want to start my own fashion magazine, nah, it's too much work.
 
But do you need a ton of money and a ton of connections if you are only intending to start a very small magazine, and just make it for those who have already said they want to order it?

Thank you for the compliment, Ilaughead.
 
Thanks for pointing that out and finding the thread,Berlin. I was thinking the same thing. I'm going to merge so that there's one reference for starting a new fashion magazine ... and the various ways of approaching it ... both mainstream and small indie.
 
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WhiteLinen said:
I need help with a question like this too. I would like to start making a small fashion magazine, which would only include fashion illustrations. Is this possible, how to get started and how to get people who are interested in fashion illustrating to this project?
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First of all, decide what your aims are and what your target market is. Would it be sensible, for example, to start off as a twice-yearly magazine, covering each year's Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer seasons? Given the nature of your proposed project, I would suggest an issue every six months to begin with.

Then produce a dummy issue, sourcing fashion illustrations and ads from existing publications by means of high definition scans etc etc. It is fine to do this from a copyright viewpoint because it is not for publication and not for profit. Everyone does it. Pad the visuals out with dummy text to represent text because you will obviously have short articles in the magazine, particularly in the Front-of-Book part. In other words, make it look good.

Even if you change the design and style later, the dummy should speak for you and your goals. You should be able to hand it to a publisher or a backer and know that if they don't understand it, it's because they aren't getting it, not because you missed the mark. The title can be a working title but should be good. Straplines, decks, standfirsts, pullquotes and captions should, ideally, be generated specifically for the dummy as they will help it to "speak" for you.

If you are not skilled in the use of publishing design and layout programmes like InDesign and QuarkXPress, get someone who can lay your dummy out for you. InDesign is replacing Quark. Even if you think you can lay it out yourself - I am presuming that you are not an art director or maquettiste - you will trip up when it comes to bleeds, colour tones, gutters and all the rest of the magazine layout voodoo. Of course, if you just want a fanzine look, then you could probably do it yourself.

Most printers will try to rip you off for printing a dummy magazine so you have to get quotes from a few and look at their products. You could print and bind the dummy yourself if you're feeling creative. Laser printing will suffice but ink looks better. It depends on how big the book - as we call magazines - is and how complicated it is. Fashion illustrations are not too complicated.

You should print at least two or three. One of them is for your lawyer, to be placed in his/her safe in a sealed, dated envelope. If you don't have a lawyer and money is tight, you can also post the dummy to yourself by registered mail. When you get it, don't open the envelope. Just put it somewhere safe.

Sourcing material: you could start off by sourcing some genuine, original material directly from designers. This is what you will be doing once you get your magazine up and running so why not start as you mean to continue? Get in touch with clothes designers, handbag designers, shoe designers and so on. Most designers do their own sketches. Some have assistants to "finesse" things. If you get a couple of "names" to give you stuff for your dummy, that's a major selling point when you pitch it to backers.

Anyway, I hope these few pointers are helpful. Good luck with it. It's a good idea. As for distribution, if you take the indie route rather than selling it to an established publishing house, that's another topic in itself! However, you're looking at quite a specialised target readership/market, which usually simplifies things. But do the dummy first, get it protected as best you can, and then we can talk about how you get Issue#1 in front of people.

PK
 
^ Prosperk - karma!:flower:

That is great advice. You have such a solid understanding of the business side of things. Thank you for sharing all your information to us!:D
 
Wow! What a litany of information here so far. Magazine's are tough business and I find it extremely admirable for anyone to go on this venture! Magazine's are an integral part of what keeps our industry alive. Depending where you are, if the quality of the magazine is good enough and promotes local industry then you may even be eligible for government assistance. In canada, a publication that has been in print for over one *magazine* year (12 issues) qualifies for government grants that must go towards editorial content (not to pay the masthead). There is alot of paper work involved though, often private funding is necessary.

Distribution is also a number one priority after you go to print. There are many companies which distribute to the top magazine stores (chapters, Indigo, Press International, Wal-Mart, Coles etc.). One of the major companies that does this is Disticor (www.disticor.com). They are a great resource.

Editorial content is extrememely important to consider as well. Get good writers. And if your a fashion mag EXCELLENT photographers, stylists, makeup artists, models and illustrators. That is KEY.


There are a few trends to be taken into consideration as well, the decline in popularity of print, the saturation of the market, and the rise of paper prices for example.

Good luck to anyone that starts a mag! I really hope to see some more exciting magazines come out!
 
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prosperk, you give very sound advice. i'm a photo editor for a newspaper/magazine company so i'm somewhat familiar with the production, though moreso on the visual side rather than printing/distribution/ad sales. how can i learn more about this? do colleges offer classes on these sorts of things? i'm assuming perhaps if i pursued a degree in publishing or mass communications?
 
smashinfashion said:
prosperk, you give very sound advice. i'm a photo editor for a newspaper/magazine company so i'm somewhat familiar with the production, though moreso on the visual side rather than printing/distribution/ad sales. how can i learn more about this? do colleges offer classes on these sorts of things? i'm assuming perhaps if i pursued a degree in publishing or mass communications?
Click to expand...

Thanks! People helped me so I am just trying to pass it on. It seems that you are interested in moving from the creative to the business side of publishing or, at least, widening your scope of knowledge. Maybe you have your sights on an eventual publisher position with a firm or running your own show.

You could certainly pursue a degree in mass communications in order to build up a knowledge base of print media in conjunction with other meda like, of course, the internet, television and video/dvd/cd-rom etc... You would need to research the degree as those offered by some academic institutions are not as comprehensive as others. I presume you would also need to fit it in around your "day job".

I have to tell you that I started out in magazine ad sales - on motorcycle and skateboard titles - and learned more about it on the job in two months than any college could ever have taught me. If you're assisting someone who is keen to teach you in order to lighten their workload and have more time in the pub or whatever, you will learn fast.

The same goes for other areas like distribution and printing. You could pick up a lot of on-the-job knowledge - which tends to trump college knowledge - by working more closely with editors and art directors who might take you with them when they go to supervise the actual printing of an issue. As for distribution, make friends with your firm's distribution director, They're usually happy to talk about what they do to anyone who treats them as human beings! You'll be amazed how much you can learn in this way.

To put this knowledge to practical use so that you can refer to it on your resumé or CV, you could think about proposing "special projects", like photographic supplements, in your capactity as photo editor. They could be bundled with issues of titles your firm produces, or freestanding. The latter is good, although finance directors and other bean counters tend to be scared of freestanding "books", as they call them.

What about a special retrospective on an American photographer or artist: Walker Evans or Georgia O'Keefe? Or something on the building of the local railroads. Or something on the Apache? Or outlaw bikers? Whatever you think your boss will swallow! You're a photo editor...so you can dream up all kinds of ideas. Supplements can be sponsored, which is where calling advertisers comes in, Even liasing with your ad department will teach you a lot about their job. And then there are CDs and other media, covered by "special projects".

See what I am getting at? Why spend three years in college, slaving in some McJob and getting acne from the fast food grease, or popping speed to stay awake at night school, when you have the best college money cannot buy right there around you, in your workplace? Believe me, on a resumé, nothing beats on-the-job experience. That's the thing about publishing: it's one of the last true meritocracies! You can either hack it or you can't. Later on, you could pick up a degree in communications to "formalise" what you would pretty much know already.

Just my ten centsworth...

Rgds,

PK
 
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wow, just found this thread!

Very informative...
i'd love to have my own magazine one day...

so right now I'm only working on the 'online magazine' type thing cause of my age...
but I know someone who could help me get experience at POP magazine etc, so I may try that soon...
 
I've thought about emailing lots of smaller publications...there are so many magazines out there & who knows...
 
^I think there already is a thread for this in Careers and Education...
I'm trying to look for the link... but I guess a mod would be stronger smart to find this...
 
Here's my advice for those who are still thinking about starting a fashion magazine. My apologies if some of this has already been covered! I did it myself back in '04 and have never regretted it, but so many people fail because they don't have a solid plan in place before they head into production. Which brings me to my first point....

Before you start anything, know what it is that you want to achieve. I can not stress this enough. You need to do your research and determine who your target market is. What is the tone, style, voice, of your magazine? What makes your magazine different from the glut of competitors out there? Why should people read your publication? Come up with a launch plan -- what needs to be done in order to launch the first issue? Do a one year plan -- where are you going to be one year from the launch date? Do a 2 year plan, a 5 year plan, a ten year plan. Know what you need to do before you start doing it.

Second, build a solid team to help you get it done. DO NOT DO THIS ALONE -- YOU WILL FAIL! At a minimum, depending on the size of your pub, you will need an advertising manager, an art director, a photo editor, and an editor-in-chief. You also need to build an incredibly strong team of freelancers, work with the best team that you can afford. If this is a fashion magazine, you need strong photography. The photography is far more important than the editorial -- at least for a fashion magazine. The photography is going to be what sells the magazine, not the copy. Work with an experienced team that you can rely on.

Which brings me to connections. You need to have them. A lot of them. You need to be able to network and get the word out there that your magazine is in production. Ask for referrals and recommendations on who you should be working with. I would almost venture to say that you should only hire or work with people that have been referred to you. Networking is how you're going to make this magazine fly. Most of the photographers, writers, MUA's, hair stylists, etc. that I've worked with have all been people that I have met or people that have been referred to me. I've met people at parties who, for instance, their brother's best friend worked in the advertising department at Chanel -- and ended up landing me an account with Chanel. You never know who you're going to meet.

Speaking of Chanel, we should probably talk about financing and advertising. You need $100,000 in your bank account to be able to produce the first issue. If you don't have that, you need to get it from investors before you start doing anything. Also, have a strong budget and business plan in place befoire you start production. You need a strong, experienced advertising manager on your team that knows the ins and outs of the industry, has a multitude of connections in the industry, and knows when sales cycles start and end. I recommend that you start selling ad space for the first issue 6 months prior to the launch, and never, ever offer discounts.

Final point is promotion and circulation. You need to be able to get your magazines in the hands of your readers. A previous poster recommended Disticor in Canada -- I highly recommend them, although I'm not sure if they service the states. The magazine I launched is a free mag and we do all of our own circulation, so I'm not the best person to ask about circ contracts. But you do need to have a firm circulation plan in place. In terms of promtion, this for me is the fun part. I enjoy creating a buzz, and it's important to remember that your readers have to have your magazine on the tip of their tongue in the weeks leading up to your launch. You may want to look into entering into promotional and marketing partnerships with other companies. I believe someone mentioned a deal they did with the Gap where they gave away a free bag with each subscription -- that is gold. You can look into partnering with record labels, fashion houses, film studios, the opportunities really are endless. Be creative and make sure that whaever you choose, if anything, is unique to your readers and really speaks to your demographic and enforces your brand in their minds. Events is another method that we use quite often for my magazine and is an easy way to keep our brand in the minds of our key readers. And also reinforces our relationships with advertisers through sponsorship opportunities.

I think the most important thing to remember is to be prepared, have fun, and be financially secure. Create a unique, quality product, and everything will fall into place. I'm here if you need more info!
 
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