How to launch a specialist magazine

Many new launch specialist magazines appear each year, however the success rate is sadly very, very low. Better planning, research and preparation in the early stages could perhaps have saved many of them. In this article I will look at some key fundamentals that could make all the difference to the success of a new launch specialist magazine.

Research your market and audience

Before you do anything, take the time to really research the potential of your idea. There are numerous information sources at your disposal, not least of all the internet, which has opened up access to a plethora of statistics and market research which, can save you both time and money in the early planning stages. You will need to research:

* Who is the target reader/audience – how easy are they to identify and reach?
* How big is that potential audience?
* What is the competition – how well serviced is the potential reader already?
* What is the advertising potential – which advertisers will want to reach the reader?
* Is there an information need for the audience?
* Will time sensitive content influence frequency?
* Will it have sufficient general consumer appeal to warrant shelf space in retail newsagents?
* Should it be a book rather than a regular frequency magazine?
* Should its distribution be controlled circulation or B2B rather than via the newsstand?

Answering these questions will either put you off altogether or help identify the route to market, which won’t always be via the newsstand. The retailers’ shelves are creaking with product and some of it, the very specialist stuff, shouldn’t be there at all. Vanity publishing is a great way to blow your cash; just because you like it doesn’t mean it must be worth publishing.

You only get one chance to launch

You will not succeed if you do not spend the time at the front end getting it right. If only I had a penny for every new magazine launch, where on receipt of the first issue’s copies, the publisher has said, "Wait ‘till you see the next issue it’s going to be much better!" Too late, you’ve already blown it I’m afraid.

The consumer will have already written it off based on the first issue they see. That’s what they will base their judgement on. They won’t give you the benefit of the doubt and come back for the next issue. Getting them back on board thereafter is a gargantuan task that is rarely achievable and certainly not without considerable additional cost to the publisher. Invest as much time, effort and energy in the all important first issue as you can.

Naming the title

You should give as much consideration to this as you would a new born child – it’s that important. Make sure it does what it says on the tin. A title that’s too clever will often miss the point and miss the consumer it is trying to attract. Keep it simple. If it’s not obvious what the content is from the title and you’re determined to stick with that particular title, include a permanent strap-line that spells it out to the reader.

Planning and preparation

Don’t rush it through or try to push the project forward. Respect the time scales and lead times set out by the distributors and retail chains; they’re in place for a reason. Don’t expect the best results and don’t be disappointed in the final achievement if you only give half the lead time required to sell a new product in. If it’s a seasonal product it’s probably best to put if off until next year rather than launch out of season or force the distributor to play catch up after you’ve missed the boat. Meet regularly with key people and keep them in the loop along the way.

Your product vs competitors

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of existing competitors’ products. Consider all of the following; advertising/editorial ratios, paginations, cover prices, on sale dates, frequencies, paper stock for covers and text pages, seasonality. Don’t hit the shelves with a £3 cover price and 100 pages if all of the competition is £2 and 200 pages – it will fail!

Front covers

This is your shop window to attract your readers. In the same way that a beautifully laid out butchers, fishmongers or fruit n’ vegetable shop window is a treat to the eye, so should your covers be.

Advertising the product to the reader

How is the target consumer going to find out about this new magazine? Specialist consumer publishers can very rarely afford TV advertising, which in any event isn’t necessarily an appropriate way to reach your target audience. Radio can be more effective for reaching a very specific or clearly defined audience or age group at a fraction of the cost. The weekend newspapers have multiple supplements covering a wide variety of interests and reaching massive audiences and the regional press can target small communities and geographic regions very effectively. Bus shelter advertising is also more cost effective than you probably realise. If you have a low budget for advertising then PR stunts are low cost and can be massively effective if picked up by the media. Direct mail to your audience via an association or membership list is very effective as the audience is already clearly defined. Time spent sourcing these avenues for direct mail, leaflet drops or sample issues will pay off.

Simply dumping 30,000 copies on the newsstand and hoping the target reader stumbles across it on the shelf in their local newsagent doesn’t work. The newsstand can be an incredibly wasteful, hit and miss approach to marketing a new magazine. We’re talking needles in haystacks.

Reader habits

We are creatures of habit. I, for instance, rarely browse in my local newsagent, although I browse for ages at WHS Victoria and I browse irregularly at my local WHS when I’m in the high street.

In order to capitalise on the reader’s habitual routine you need to think about the following in conjunction with your advertising plans and copy placement strategy:

* What are their shopping habits?
* What are their commuting habits?
* Where do they practice or carry out their special interests?
* Are they male or female?

Build a picture of the target reader and their habits and build the product to meet their needs. Then build both your retail distribution of copy placement and advertising campaign to match their habits.

The launch is just the start

Look way beyond the first issue. All too often the arrival of the first issue is met with a massive sigh of relief, all the hard work and effort put in over the preceding few months encapsulated in the first magazine. Now the real work starts; you only have a few weeks to put the second issue together and so on month after month. The schedule is relentless and with a small team it has to run like clockwork. Running late on issue 2 is not an option, it’s not going to look professional and if you told your readers in the first issue when to expect issue 2 on the shelves they’ll soon stop looking if they can’t find it.

Product aside, your forward looking must include your circulation strategy, where do you want the orders to be etc. Your circulation strategy needs to be realistic and achievable and agreed pre-launch so that the whole supply chain from distributor through to retailer knows what part they’re playing and what is expected of them.

Don’t let yourself get complacent if it’s all going well. The minute you get lazy at the top someone will topple you from your comfortable perch. An innovative approach to publishing keeps everyone, including your competitors, on their toes.

You can’t afford to sit back. In the UK we produce exceptionally high quality magazines with relatively low cover prices and often add value with free gifts too. The consumer therefore has high expectations from a magazine particularly if the competitors are regularly adding value for the reader. The forward looking plan must include retail and consumer promotions both in store and on cover. You need a schedule of planned promotions against subsequent issues after the launch issue. Not every issue, but strategically scheduled to capitalise on the seasonality and relevant big issues or boom times that you plan to publish around.

Summary

Most of this is obvious, but talk to any distributor and they will recount endless tails of publishers, both supposedly experienced and novices alike who have fallen foul to one or more of these hurdles. Sadly most of them will not have had the resources to regroup and continue.

In the same way that location, location, location is the maxim for property purchase, planning, planning, planning is the maxim for successful specialist magazine launches.

As a smaller specialist publisher you are unlikely to have the budgets and available resources of the big publishers but that doesn’t mean you can’t compete in the same arena.

A small publisher can generally make quick decisions and influence the next issue because the chain of command has fewer decision makers to go through. However, where the big publishers have an advantage is in their planning process; they are looking forward way beyond the next issue. They will create a plan for the next 6 to 12 issues or more. Just focusing on the next issue that you need to get out of the door will ultimately back-fire on you.

In the final analysis, you are competing for the same shelf space which is accessible to all. It is the product itself which has to compete for the ultimate prize – the reader actually buying a copy and continuing to buy it issue after issue because it’s better than the competitors.

Finally, question everything at every step and leave no stone unturned. Just because it’s always been like that doesn’t mean it’s always been right.