How can you start your own community magazine?

Help with starting a magazine?

• How do you start a magazine? The Art organisation that I am a member of wants so to start circulating a magazine to its 300 members and the wider University community. We would appreciate any tips and references, however small. I've identified these areas that need treatment (there might be more not listed here)...funding, administration, circulation and promotion... Funding

• Answer:

  First, when you distribute a publication to only about 300 people, you don't call it a magazine--you call it a newsletter. This is usually something simple--typed on your word processor, ginned up with some illustrations, clip art, nice fonts or whatever, and edited for spelling and content by someone who knows how to write for such things, and then printed at your local Kinko's or CopyPrint Center. You will find a great range of prices for printing, so get what you can get as cheaply as you can get it. Take samples of your newsletter/zine to local printers, tell them how many, ask what they offer and how much. To distribute the publication, you can do several things. (1) you can mail it, first class. This will cost you a minimum of 42 cents per "flat" (copy.) It might cost more. (2) you can mail it by "bulk" rates. You will need to go to the post office and get a bulk mail permit. This will significantly lower your mailing costs, but the permit costs some $$ up front. (3) you can distribute the zine for free--find locations in your local area where they will take a stack of them and let you replenish them every month (or quarter, or however frequently you are publishing.) This can get expensive, as you probably can see. So you will want to sell "subscriptions." I have published some 10-15 newsletters/small magazines in my lifetime. There are many ways of selling your subscriptions. If your organization has membership dues, you will include the 'zine in those dues. Raise the dues if you need to for publication. If you don't have dues, then you can offer it by distributing SAMPLES with your subscription form enclosed or inserted in the center. Make sure the number of issues for the price is fair, and included clearly. Someone will need to maintain the subscriber lists on a database, and you will need to have some "checkback" method for seeing if this magazine/newsletter is meeting the needs of its subscribers--surveys are okay for this. Your best bet is to find a local organization and go ask them how they are doing it in your area. They will be glad to help you, probably--and if they are successful, they will know the area and what works--and probably which printers do the best/cheapest job. As you grow, you can expand and improve the magazine. DON'T make the mistake of trying too much at the first--slick covers, color printing, and beautiful photos are great--but they are very very expensive to reproduce in bulk. And there is one other thing you need to be aware of: COPYRIGHT LAW. You need to make sure you don't "steal" or "borrow" content or photos or artwork that is copyrighted by others. Even a repro cartoon can get you into serious trouble with someone's attorney. Almost every single published item is copyrighted--one does not need to REGISTER the copyright to OWN the copyright. If a local person has written a story, then THEY OWN THE COPYRIGHT. You and your magazine do not. You may, if you like, contract to buy the First-time publication rights (First North American Serial Rights) from the person, for money, or for free copies of the publication. This means you own the rights ONLY to publish that thing one time--in one issue. You don't own the rights forever, and once the publication is released, the rights revert back to the owner. But other publications are a tempting source of material--I have worked with many newsletter publishing organizations and everyone is always wanting to send you this "cartoon" or "article" they cut out of the newspaper, or some other magazine or some book--and wants you to re-publish it. You can if you GET PERMISSION from the original publisher first--most places will give you reprint rights for one issue, and some won't. You need to abide strictly by this law. If the work donated to your magazine is original, you need to make sure that it's okay to publish it. Ask the donating person to sign a release form to publish it, or write a letter stating that it is their original work and they are allowing you to publish. You aren't going to sell your magazine sight-unseen. Remember that. You will need to make a few first--so people can see what they're buying. Sample issues should be given out to any place willing to carry the magazine/newsletter on their premises. Dont' leave them there month after month without checking back to see if they are finding an audience. And don't worry if it doesn't work out. 90% of them don't. Only the really useful ones last. So whatever content you put in, make it useful to your readership or you won't have much success. About production: Most word processors have templates that will give you layout ideas. Make it interesting, but don't "junk" it up with a lot of "dancing bologna." This is annoying, hard to read, ugly in the long run, and if you're an arts organization, ultimately a killer. Be tasteful, but not boring. Search your organization for someone who has published a newsletter before and ask