Where can I recycle magazines for money?

Can magazines that serve niche markets make money?

• In a bookstore recently, I browsed the magazine section. There were literally hundreds of magazines, some of which are very, very specific in their audience. How do these very specific magazines survive? Specifically: 1.) How do they make money, when (in some cases) very few advertisers book ads? 2.) Where do they get printed, and what's a good cost estimate basis? 3.) How do they find writers / contributors and how much do they pay per article? I have an idea for a similarly focused magazine. The content would be from both independent writers (where do I look for them?) and subscribers themselves. Because of the niche, I don't expect that there'd be many advertisers. Do magazines survive on subscription rates alone? I'd not want rates to be very high, but I expect high volume. What steps should I take to research the viability of this? I expect the answers and good direction here to lead to more questions for the right researcher. Thanks!

• Answer:

  Can niche publications make money? Absolutely! Hi, thanks for bringing your question to answers.google. On a subject like this I believe a bit of an introduction is essential. I have been involved in trade publications and regional publications for decades, both as a writer, and on staff. Currently I am working with neighbors on a publication focused on small town life and based in West-Central Pennsylvania. The simple answer to your opening question is, yes, highly focused publications can make money. A subscription rate of as little as $25/year can, when combined with a good mailing rate, actually show a profit but your real money would come from advertisers. As for finding writers, you will find that you have a far greater problem keeping them from beating down your doors. Everyone wants to be a writer, or so it seems. You may be able to find pretty decent writers who will write for free. Paid professionals such as myself, will require $1 per word or perhaps more and you will want a few of them because they are more reliable. You didn?t mention the particular focus of your publication so I can?t be specific but you will probably be able to get ?placed? articles from businesses which provide goods or services related to your publication?s topic(s). As for a printer, you need to negotiate with local printers to look for the best rate. For any reasonable sized new publication (5-50,000 print runs) you will do best working with a smaller local publisher simply because you need to learn the business and they should be willing to work with you. Enough of generalities. I can only think of two publications which would fit your description ? regional magazines and trade publications. Trade publications are all those highly-targeted publications which are often given away to qualified individuals in their target market. Your average hardware store gets several, as does every other kind of retailer you can think of. There are literally tens of thousands of trade publications but they necessarily survive on advertising. Regional publications or other targeted consumer publications also need significant ad revenue to survive. Because of the costs involved in printing each issue (about $1.25 for each glossy 40-50-page magazine based on a run of 10,000) you need advertising to pay the basic costs. The only sort of publication which doesn?t involve that big basic cost is the online magazine. Whether or not that is possible for you to consider depends on the topic and the target audience. To address your specific questions: The ones with little advertising may actually be all advertising. They are either paid for by some business associated with the topics covered in the publication or the articles are paid placement pieces where PR agencies actually pay to have the articles run. Where to they get printed? That depends on a lot of factors but they may be produced by local printers and you will have to talk with all of them to find the best deal. Even more important is how you will mail the publication. USPS rates are runious for small magazine publishers but you may be able to ride on someone else's deeply discounted rate. Begin with your local or regional Chamber of Commerce - they may know who you should talk with, or they may actually have their own discounted rate and by joining you will be able to use it. Having discounted USPS rates make the difference between loosing money on every subscription and making a small amount of money. How do they find contributors? If you place a notice in the local paper or in any of the online freelance sites, or even contact other publishers with a different target audience, you will quickly be flooded with offers to write for you. Depending on the perks you can offer and the focus of your publication, you can expect to pay between $0.50 and $2.00 per word for quality professional writing. If you have lots of time and editing skill, then it is perfectly possible to work entirely with beginning freelancers who are desperate to get their name on published articles in order to build their careers. Almost every freelance writer begins that way. You might also contact any local newspaper to see if they will share the names and contact information for their local columnists and stringers. Local newspapers pay about $25 for a column so you can see that the writers would probably be happy to work for you at very reasonable rates. There are three basic categories of freelancers which you will need to deal with. 1) Professionals with no specific expertise. You will be surprised how quickly a professional writer can pick up even the most esoteric knowledge and write about it. 2) Experts in the field with no writing experience. Expect to do a lot of editing. 3) Professional writers with expertise. These rare individuals earn 6-figure incomes but may well be prepared to work with you because they can turn out so much copy so quickly. You will probably need to work with all three and it's important to know which is which. Internships for office staff can also be extremely useful. Journalism is one of the hottest college majors and there aren?t very many openings. I know that this is a good source of very inexpensive help in many areas. By the way, it is relatively easy to get Amazon.com to carry your established publication. Here is a GREAT introduction to the business http://www.publishingbiz.com/html/faqs_startups.html Determining the viability of your project. Skill sets You MUST be a salesperson at heart. You can hire ad sales people even on a commission-only basis but if you can?t sell yourself and your ideas, you can?t succeed. You will probably end up ?closing? most sales too. You need to have, learn, or hire desktop publishing and photo editing skills. Printers will need ?camera? ready files to print. First steps Determine the focus of your publication. Decide who would pay to advertise in it. Determine if the market is already completely covered by other publications. A good place to start is simply to go to Google and search for: magazine (topic) Since I don?t know the subject area I can?t do this for you. Google search term: freelance writers ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-43%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=freelance+writers For more information see: www.publishingbiz.com is probably the best place to start for all your questions. Freelancers http://freelancewrite.about.com/ www.worldwidefreelance.com/ www.outsourcetoday.net www.freelancewriting.com/ Publishing www.business.com www.publishingbiz.com/html/faqs_startups.html www.publishingbiz.com/html/links.html Circulation http://www.circman.com/ Circulation Management Magazine is a free trade publication An essential purchase is the $20 ?Starting & Running a Successful Newsletter or Magazine (Starting & Running a Successful Newsletter Or Magazine)? by Cheryl Woodard You can find it at Amazon.com or www.publishingbiz.com Thank you again for turning to Answers.Google for help. I have personally been involved in more than 20 startup publications in one capacity or another. Good luck.