Turn your ideas into positive growth

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 1, 1996 by Robert Sentinery

The business of publishing requires us to wear many different hats. As an independent publisher, I continually find myself developing skills and talents I never knew I had--from writing and editing, art direction and design to hard-core advertising sales. The most effective publishers have a strong working knowledge of the many facets of magazine publishing, but it's not a good idea to spread yourself too thin. Managing the minutia of day-to-day operations can leave little time for you to develop new ideas and directions for your company.

Recognizing this dilemma, I recently hired a business consultant with a background in print media to help me put a business plan together. Here is some of what I learned.

Think and grow rich

The first phase involved numerous brainstorming sessions to identify problems and develop new directions for the publication. You need at least one good brainstorming partner, preferably someone who has a vested interest in the process. Schedule hour-long meetings to be held three times a week for the first two weeks. Imagine where you would like your company to be in one year, two years, even five years. What is preventing you from reaching these goals? Take lots of notes, and watch for recurring issues.

The whole point of brainstorming is to let loose and communicate everything that comes to mind. Some issues that surface might be rather surprising, really wacky and even practical. Looking at these ideas as a whole helped us to see what direction we wanted to take and how to get there.

After a few sessions, I was amazed at how my feelings about publishing began to change. I felt inspired and excited about the future. I started to worry less about day-to-day problems like printing hassles or editorial deadlines and began to concentrate on where the project was going. When I entered into this process, I'd intended to work on the nuts and bolts of the operation. The unexpected bonus was that I became totally rejuvenated about the magazine, the way I felt in the beginning.

The second stage was to analyze the raw information and organize it into a plan of action. By the end of our brainstorming sessions, goals, ideas, problems and potential solutions filled more than 20 pages of handwritten notes.

One of the issues that became apparent concerned the audience of Java, our local monthly. There was a definite conflict between who was actually reading the magazine and the audience the graphics were designed to attract. Originally, the title had a grungy, underground look designed to appeal to a "Generation X-ish" crowd. We discovered that we wanted a broader audience, including mature readers with larger disposable incomes. So it became obvious that a redesign was in order.

Selling first, circulation second

Another goal was to promote our product aggressively, to have the java logo emblazoned on billboards, bus shelters and even the buses. The only obstacle was our financial package: It would have to improve dramatically. As our consultant was quick to tell us, "The most important thing about your magazine is sales--because without capital, you can't do anything."

This helped us to refocus our energies. Before, we thought that having an interesting, great looking product would make advertisers come to us. But to reach our new goals, selling had to be priority one.

Right off the bat, we wanted to increase our circulation by 20 percent, which would raise our printing and distribution costs as well as add the expense of obtaining more streetside racks. This meant that our total ad revenue had to increase, too. We ran some projections and set up a budget that reflected increases in both expenses and sales. We incorporated incremental improvements over the next 12 months, providing that our sales targets had been reached. These monthly targets helped to motivate our salespeople.

Ultimately, we created a growth plan that not only moved us to the next level, but resulted in a much healthier profit margin as well.

In publishing, it is easy to lose sight of ways to improve our products, to get caught up in the deadline drudgery of pumping out issues. Often, we ignore opportunities to change, thinking, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Yet, positive growth can be achieved if we set aside the time to work on it. In fact, you probably already know what it is you want to do. Get your ideas down on paper; formalize your thoughts. You may have forgotten how creative you can be. Now is the time to say, "Look how far we've come--but how do we get to the next level?"