How can you start your own community magazine?

What are the pros and cons of self publishing a magazine?

• I am very keen on starting a free magazine business for circulation in my community. I intend to make it a lifestyle magazine touching on issues about my community as well as community guide. i want to make it free because i don't want financial constraints to prevent people from having a copy. I intend to sponsor this magazine through advertisements and i want to self publish for a start to keep my cost as minimal as posible - not to say that i won't engage the services of creative people and freelancers. I would like contributions on pros and cons of self publishing a magazines, the successes and failures of self publication and most importantly if it will attract sponsors. I'd appreciate your opinions.

• Answer:

  I publish 10,000 copies of a free newspaper every quarter. I prefer a newspaper rather than a magazine for this because a newspaper is more recognizable, cheaper to print, gives you a lot more room, and is easier to make a profit from selling ads in. Attracting sponsors depends on two factors: cost of ad and distribution (or reach). An advertiser will look at price per magazine (or newspaper). For me, I sell a basic ad at $100 which works out to be 1 cent per copy. This is attractive. If, however your distribution works out to be something like .50 cents a copy it will seem much less attractive. To approach advertisers, you will need to already have your distribution points settled. Tell them where your material will go, who will get it, and so forth. The four hardest parts to a self-published material are: 1. Content 2. Sponsorship 3. Distribution 4. Printing Costs Settle these, and you will do fine. Many printers will charge an arm and a leg for low volume. If you print out, say, 10,000 you will find getting them all distributed will be a challenge. Sponsors will gauge the effectiveness of their ads by people who come in because of the ad. Try to sell multi-month (or issue) contracts to each sponsor. For more information, go to: http://www.makemynewspaper.com - this is where I get my newspaper printed. They have a lot of resources.