Importance of magazine distribution?

If you don't distribute the magazine, your basement will get *very* full. If you have a local magazine, such as a city magazine, or a regional business magazine, you can deal with a local distributor. Otherwise, you probably are best off dealing with a national distributor. Some smaller magazines select their printer on the basis of who else is being printed at the same facility - they can piggyback and save a bundle on freight. Some smaller magazines, such as real estate or used car magazines, set up their own delivery routes. It's pretty easy to convince convenience stores, restaurants, etc., to carry these magazines. Getting into chain stores is more difficult, but hardly impossible. One advantage of this is that you can get into many locations - such as restaurants - that don't deal with news distributors. Another is that you can often get preferred placement. For instance, mom-and-pop stores may sell your magazine at the register, instead of in a rack of magazines that get ignored. You also can get the magazine to all locations on the date it's printed, instead of dragging it out over a week or two. The disadvantage is that you have to set up drivers. Because they think gasoline is their only cost, you can probably get them to run the routes pretty cheaply. On the other hand, there is a LOT of turnover, and sometimes, you don't find out that Joey quit until he's four hours late showing up for his route. Magazine publication is a *really* tough business. It's hard to get advertising from companies that use agencies until you've been around five or ten years - and most magazines can't survive that long. Don't ignore direct mail to get subscriptions. And the secret of that is: you can sell subscriptions easier *before* you have a magazine to show people.