How to Start a Magazine

The magazine business is an entirely unique industry. It might even be said that every magazine is, in fact, its own business—what works for Playboy is very different than what works for Vogue. The key is in knowing how the business works, and then adapting to fit your idea. James Kobak has the know-how to teach you just that, with over fifty years of experience and several successful startups under his belt. He has written this book to help a new generation of magazine publishers avoid reinventing the wheel, and to let them learn from someone else’s missteps and heartaches instead of their own. The book starts with the basics: why there is a constant need for new magazines, what makes for a successful magazine, and the life cycle that all magazines go through. Then it plots out, step by step, what is involved in starting a magazine: how to test the concept for a new magazine, produce a pilot issue, develop a business plan, assemble a staff, raise money, and more. Next the book helps you develop an organizational plan: who’s in charge of what, how the various departments get their jobs done, and how they interact with each other. Finally, Kobak covers how a magazine’s strong brand can be used to expand into other areas, such as database marketing, book publishing, and the Internet. Peppered throughout with immutable laws of magazine publishing, real-life examples, helpful charts, and 168 things you must do, the book concludes with appendices on the history of the business, sources of information, major suppliers and consultants, a glossary of terms, and other necessary facts and information about this growing industry.