Let's Do Launch

Byline: Samir A. Husni

The good news in the magazine business is that there are low barriers to entry. Experienced editors and publishers as well as avid amateurs plunge in every year, launching hundreds of titles and - for the lucky few - turning a dream into a business.

The bad news is that most entrepreneurial efforts fail: 60 percent of launches don't make it to their first birthday. But in my years of studying launches, I have seen a pattern of behavior that separates the survivors from the casualties. What do successful start-ups have in common?

The right idea at the right moment

You've heard it before: If there is nothing else like your magazine on newsstands, then you are either a genius or others have tried the idea and failed. You don't have to be a genius or have the Time Inc. market research department on call to figure this out.

Last October, Jim Capparell, who has launched a number of computer magazines, realized that the timing couldn't be better for a magazine that tapped into America's frenzy for low-carb dieting. "You have to do it quickly with no time for mistakes," he says. LowCarb Living was trademarked Oct. 7, 2003 and the magazine was at the printer by Dec. 20. It may be the shortest amount of time, that I know of, for a magazine to be conceived and launched.

Capparell had a staff of six and just $200,000. But he had an idea that clicked, and he was able to sell it to Curtis Circulation Co., the national newsstand distributor. "If distributors see the enthusiasm in you, it makes up for a lot of shortcomings," Capparell told me. LowCarb Living started out with a distribution of 84,000 and by the third issue it had more than tripled, to 297,000 copies. Capparell says he expects to bring in $5 million in revenue this year alone and is working on a spinoff called Summer Entertaining.

Of course no good magazine idea goes unimitated. I told Capparell about the launch of Low Carb Energy published by Coincide Publishing LLC in Long Beach, Calif. "You know, if I were them I would copy me too," he says.

Listen to the market

A magazine has to do more than fill a hole on the newsstand - it must approach potential readers the right way. Dawna Stone is a triathlete and sports enthusiast who found it puzzling that Time Inc. and Conde Nast had walked away from the women's sports market after spending millions to develop magazines in the category. Stone created a 32-page prototype and held two focus groups, one on the East Coast and one on the West for a total cost of "well below $10,000."

She was surprised to learn that both readers and advertisers are more interested in the lifestyles of active professional women than in professional women athletes. "Women are more interested in hearing, reading and dreaming about sports and things they can relate to more as a hobby than as a profession," Stone told me. The audience didn't want to read about the Williams sisters, Rebecca Lobo or any other professional athlete.

Stone is bootstrapping Her Sports with an annual budget of less than $1 million, using her own savings. She's starting out with a controlled circulation of 50,000 and feels confident that the magazine will be profitable at that size. But it would be really profitable with 100,000 circulation.

Pinch every penny - hard

This leads me to my third piece of advice. If you decide to bring a magazine into this world and you want to watch your baby grow and mature into a profitable publication, then listen to those who walked the yellow brick road ahead of you: watch what you spend and what you spend it on. The reason most magazines never make it to year two is that their publishers have not budgeted realistically. It is highly unlikely that revenue will be sufficient to cover costs in the first two or three years. So stretch your capital. Avoid expensive office space, rely on a virtual staff and think about every nickel. Spend money where it counts, but be ruthless with expenses that won't make a difference to readers or advertisers.

Jana Pettey, the editorial director of the newly launched teen title, Justine, gave me a simple example. Instead of Fed-Exing media kits, press releases and sample issues - which she did routinely before she joined the magazine - she uses second-day priority mail. The cost savings: almost $15,000. Here's a last bit of advice. Spend wisely, move cautiously and let the good karma work. Starting a new magazine is very doable. As Capparell of LowCarb Living says: "This is the only media business that a small guy can get into and end up a big guy with just a little cash to invest."

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