Magazine business plan

Many professional journalists or copywriters sometimes think about creating their own magazine.

Some already know the whole system of the magazine business from the inside, while others have yet to join the stream of publishing.

To ideally organize such a business, you need a clear plan for all the actions and aspects of the planned enterprise.

The business of creating your own magazine, organized in accordance with a well-thought-out business plan, will quickly find its target audience and will bring good profit.

The business plan of the magazine takes into account such important factors as: marketing analysis of the market, distribution channels of the magazine, production component, promotion channels, including advertising, economic calculations, as well as project risk assessment.

Journal business plan: defining the target audience

At the very beginning, it is necessary to clearly define the subject of the published journal. In doing so, the following must be taken into account:

1) It is necessary to analyze the tastes, interests and preferences of modern society, thus choosing the most successful position.

2) Recently, magazines with themes of informational, financial or cognitive direction, as well as magazines for women (the market for such magazines is about 15% of the entire market of magazines in the Russian Federation) have been in demand.

3) A good solution would be to create your own unique publication, which, for example, is not in the city of the main sales of the magazine.
It is important to determine in advance the volume, frequency of issue and circulation of the magazine.
All these factors depend on the popularity of the publication.

It is clear that popularity will be low at the initial stage, so you need to stick to average values: 60-70 A-4 glossy pages with a circulation of a couple of thousand copies, the frequency is every month.

Magazine Business Plan: Promotion and Distribution Channels

Before the magazine is released into mass production, it is necessary to conduct an advertising campaign to attract the target audience and potential buyers.

A good solution would be direct mailing of free magazine examples. Print publications are mostly supported by advertisers, so it would be acceptable to release a couple of pilot issues specifically to attract them.

Sales are made through kiosks, supermarkets, shops or by subscription.

Journal Business Plan: Business Expenses

Before starting this type of business, you will have to spend a little money. To start a business you need:

1. purchase the necessary office equipment: 2 computers, scanner, telephone, fax, printers (inkjet, laser) — about 200 thousand dollars;
2. in an unequipped room, you will also have to purchase furniture;
3. at the start, you will also have to spend a lot of money on advertising — about 150 thousand dollars.

In total, to start a business, you will need at least 350-400 thousand dollars.
Next, the costs of publishing the first issue of the magazine will follow:

1. Renting space for a medium-sized office — about 50 thousand dollars.
2. Salary for the work of the publication’s employees is approximately 40 thousand rubles.
3. Layout — from 30 thousand dollars.
4. Correction of texts — within 7 thousand words.
5. Transport — 3 thousand and above.
6. Consumables — within 5 thousand.
7. Other expenses — from 35 thousand dollars.

The monthly expense will be about 180-200 thousand dollars.
The income from the magazine can reach 200% of the costs and this is not the limit, but, in general, the profitability of the enterprise will depend on competition, marketing and specialization.

Journal business plan: the main risks of the project

Please note that the first couple of months the magazine may not be profitable. The main thing is to survive this «critical» period, then things will go like clockwork.

The risk lies in mistakes in promotion, recruitment, topics — after all, in every aspect you can turn on the wrong path and ruin the magazine.

Magazine business plan