What is a good magazine and what does it take to make one today

1. Lay a Solid
Foundation
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for Growth
Making A Good Magazine
Advanced Magazine Publishing Institute | India 2012
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

2. What is a good
magazine?
• Nice look?
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• Thick varnish &
glossy paper?
• Quality pictures?
• Good journalism?
• Lots of ads?
How do you know your
magazine is good?
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

3. Business Of Magazine Publishing
What is a good magazine?
“Good” vs
“Nice To
Read” trap
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

4. What is a good magazine?
Away from metaphysics…
Three whales of Success
in Publishing
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• Understanding your
mission
• Service orientation – don’t think
product, think services
• Being a reader-centered
Remember: Publishing is one
of the exact sciences!
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

5. A Solid Foundation
Target group: Know your reader
• Who is my reader? • What do I want to tell
him and how can I do
• How does he perceive the that?
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information?
Example from one
magazine’s portfolio
Purpose: To refill, revive,
and renew the body of
Christ, especially
pastors, evangelists,
and lay leaders. To
reach, preach, and
teach the word of God
to perishing souls.
Audience: Pastors, leaders,
believers, youth
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

6. A Solid Foundation
Build A Reliable Business Model
• strong concept: how to make money
or to spend money?
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• effective strategic planning
• diversified income sources
• timely and effective fundraising
• well planned budgeting and cash
flow projection
• developed marketing concept and
strategy
• ongoing audience and market
research
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

7. A Solid Foundation
Team building
Make your team working at its maximum capacity
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• unity of goals
• splitting and
differentiation of
responsibilities
• personal brands
development
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

8. A Solid Foundation
Relation building
• Relations with audience =
success with readers
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• Relations with partners =
market success
Get ready for a paradigm shift!
Magazine is not a glossy bound periodical with articles, photography and
illustrations
Magazine is an authoritative niche content from vetted sources in any
format
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

9. Media in the III Millennium
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Challenges for modern publishers
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

10. Media in the III Millennium
Content is a king!
Transition in reader’s demands:
•from the bunch of glossy paper
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sheets bound on one side
•to the content they like
delivered in the
most suitable
format.
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

11. Media in the III Millennium
Challenges to the modern publishers
The last century has seen three important changes for the
media industry. It has moved…
• from a world of information scarcity to information
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overload,
• from a world where commercial and government bodies
needed the media to disseminate information, to one where
they can disseminate information themselves.
• from a world where people needed the media for
information, to one where they can access – and produce –
it themselves
The modern journalist can no longer justify
a role simply processing content from
source to consumer.
He needs to move above the content.
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

12. Media in the III Millennium
Challenges to the modern publishers
How can traditional
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• offer keywords media successfully
and ideas for compete with
further search
• offer competent ?
views and opinions
• offer people rather
than events
(“rumors effect”)
• offer interactivity
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

13. Media in the III Millennium
The New Role Of Media
From content providers to community discussion facilitators
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• remain their
effectiveness if rapidly
changing needs of the
audience
• interact and co-operate
with their audience
• effectively use the
modern communication
technologies
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

14. Scared by the task ahead of you?..
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Bangalore, October 8, 2012

15. A Word Of Encouragement…
Remember that Titanic was
constructed by tough
professionals…
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Bangalore, October 8, 2012

16. Business Of Magazine Publishing
A Word Of Encouragement…
…while Noah’s Arch
was built by the
God-lead amateurs.
Moral: if you are led by the Lord, no matter how difficult the task
might look like, the outcome will be good and long-lasting
Bangalore, October 8, 2012

17. Questions?..
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Thank you!
Bangalore, October 8, 2012