Magazine production

I basically have an idea of launching my own magazine sometime soon and was wondering what sort of costs I'd be looking at with it? I will design it myself and all but does anyone have a rough estimate of production costs in colour?

And are there any other things I need to take into account?

Would appreciate your input!

Magazine as in paperback?

Part of the reason very few people do proper independent magazines is because the cost per magazine for low volume production can be absurd. I think when i enquired about a high quality print run of 1000 for something last year, it was around £9 an issue for only 70 pages.

Originally Posted by Dan Magazine as in paperback?

Yeah, and thanks Oliver. I was thinking of starting small but that does sound costly!

That is quiet expensive.

How I look at it that I think if you want to start a magazine, start off with free ebook editions and see how that goes.

Then work off their.

Here's an article that may be of some help:
http://www.suite101.com/content/maga...estring-a40138

You said you're designing it, does that include typesetting? And who will be writing the articles?

If you're focusing on a specific niche, you can reach out to local businesses for ad spaces that will help recoup some of the costs. That should be the goal in the future to cover the costs of production.

It is a brave idea and, having studied journalism, one that is close to my heart.

One of the key factors in the success of offline press today is the niche you want to be in. Traditional news type of magazines will go out of business faster than ones about design, photography, architecture, real estate. Why? Because for those readers, picking up a magazine is not about extraction of headline news, it is a choice that fits their lifestyle. Certainly there are still millions of people who are still not computer/web literate, so its an easier choice to just buy the magazine. However, there are still enough people who pick up a newspaper or a magazine because they love it.

Having said that, the primary revenue driver for any offline media (there are exceptions) is advertising revenue. Depending on what the subject of your magazine is, investigate competing magazines, see who their advertiser's are. Then invest in creating a digital copy (or 40-50 copies of the real magazine), which means quality writers, excellent material, then go to potential clients and make a pitch. If you get their intent for X number of issues at prices you think can make you a buck or two (journalism won't make you rich fast so do not expect to make a lot of money), then proceed.

Before pitching though, build and prepare your distribution network to show how your magazine will reach the audience your clients would want to advertise to.