Running a Magazine

Business Money
1

So I’ve been running a magazine for about 3 1/2 years now. Bilingual. Monthly. Free. 36 pages. 8000 copies. Ostensibly island-wide. I have what seems to be a loyal readership and lots of people tell me how grateful they are that I continue to do this work for Taiwan. It’s nice, warm-hearted stuff and it make me feel pretty good. And I absolutely love doing it.

Trouble is, the thing is going to ruin me.

The magazine in question (Highway 11) is financed entirely by advertising. I have tried to keep rates as low as possible but most people balk at our prices (those that do buy are almost unanimously happy with the advertising).Our rates, as far as I know, are some of the lowest on the island.

However, paper prices are through the roof and distribution costs about a third of my printing cost. Printing and distribution alone are setting me back over NT$100,000 per month. I’m never able to consistently cover that cost with my advertising. With winter on the way (low season) things could go from bad to disaster in a hurry.

I like what I do. I think I’m reasonably good at it, but I’m just having a hell of a time trying to make it work as a viable money-making (or at least not money-losing) business. I have entertained the thought of shutting the print version of the magazine down and moving strictly to the website but the site doesn’t generate the hits that would be necessary to lure advertising in any REAL quantity. True, I could spend more time ensuring more people visit, but I’d want to make the transition seamless. And websites aren’t the same as a magazine, really.

There are people who are adamant that the print version is the commodity worth keeping. I can’t charge for it (the quality is simply not good enough to make people pay for it and I don’t have the capital to invest in some sort of jump to that level). I’d love to keep it, myself. I really like doing it and it beats the hell out of teaching but without the long-term advertisers/investors necessary to keep me from going broke, I’m getting fidgety about the future.

Sorry for the randomness of this post, I really don’t know where to begin or end on this topic. What I do know is that I’ve gotten to a point of indecision about the mag. Do I continue on, and hope that it’s reputation lure more and bigger advertisers in the near future (and in the meantime, taking some pretty heavy losses), move to only a website (eliminating print and distribution costs) and compete with any number of competing websites that get thousands of times more hits that we do or pack it in altogether.

I know someone is going to suggest government support and we are going to make an attempt to get some sort of government funding for this, but that takes time and I don’t really want to rely on the government for survival. Absolutely any suggestions (or follow-up questions) are welcome.

Thanks,

Ecaps

2

Been there, done that! :laughing:

Sorry, man - I’ll post a little bit more this evening. I just wanted you to know that you are not alone!

3

Ecaps, you thought the magazine might be an escape from teaching. Think again. You’ll be buxibaning it until the day you drop. You should have gone into plastics.
:smiling_imp:

There is no money in any English-language publication. Your best option is to cut back on the scale (i.e. expense) and consider it a hobby.

There is a graveyard full of publications started by foreigners in Taiwan.

4

Roll call:
That (Neige) magazine
24/7
Taiwanease (not dead, but in a coma)
+886

5

[quote=“almas john”]Ecaps, you thought the magazine might be an escape from teaching. Think again. You’ll be buxibaning it until the day you drop. You should have gone into plastics.
:smiling_imp:

There is no money in any English-language publication. Your best option is to cut back on the scale (i.e. expense) and consider it a hobby.

There is graveyard full of publications started by foreigners in Taiwan.[/quote]

I would suggest he tries the subsidy route through the Hualien County or central tourism office. In Taiwan the market is too small for what you are doing, yet you provide a valuable service none-the-less that could be of interest of the Hualien gov to support. It’s admirable that you have tried to support this through advertising alone but the fact is that in publishing small enterprises that survive do so with support one way or the other. So what? Wall Street can’t even survive without gov support. This is the way the economy works. If you were a stupid wasteful little rag then yes it would be odious to support you but your magazine has great little article and information that helps tourists coming to Hualien understand the east coast better. In other words, you help bring in business by making the region more accessible.

6

Distribution: 1/3 of your printing costs. Any opportunities there? How do you distribute?

7

Catching up…

If I had a dime for all the people that told me that starting a magazine would be my undoing, I’d have retired. I know the folly of starting mags on this island, but I’m determined to make this one work. I’m not about to give up. Not yet, at least. Just trying to find new angles. Government support is definitely on the table and being pursued, but as you can imagine, it might take the better part of the next decade to get them moving on it.

I’ve thought about scaling down, but to me it’s akin to quitting. I’d like to avoid that if possible. I have a hard enough time fitting what I have into each magazine and 8000 copies has proven to be nowhere near enough.

As for the distribution, I have a courier company deliver to our various distribution points straight from the printer. They deliver to all our locations except Hualien City, where I do it personally, and Taitung where I have a friend do it for me. I’ve thought about consolidating my distribution to only Eslite Bookstores, Train Stations and Airports (And a few Tourist Sites) but I haven’t done that yet. I will reassess my distribution points this month. As for the courier. It’s the cheapest one I’ve been able to find. They are unreliable and a real pain in the ass, but I can’t afford anything better as of now.

Thanks for all the replies. I really am going to take every one seriously and decide a new course of action.

Cheers,

Ecaps

8

Yes, been there. Done that too. Closed the magazine pretty quickly when I realized I had no market…

If you have any thoughts about selling your product, then you must take it seriously. You will never know how much people will pay for a product if you give it away. Really. Worse. We found out that because people DON’T pay for a product or service, they tend not to place any value on it at all. We know this based on our experience offering bonuses and freebies in our business. Now we just don’t.

You wrote: “There are people who are adamant that the print version is the commodity worth keeping. I can’t charge for it (the quality is simply not good enough to make people pay for it and I don’t have the capital to invest in some sort of jump to that level). I’d love to keep it, myself. I really like doing it and it beats the hell out of teaching but without the long-term advertisers/investors necessary to keep me from going broke, I’m getting fidgety about the future.”

“However, paper prices are through the roof and distribution costs about a third of my printing cost. Printing and distribution alone are setting me back over NT$100,000 per month.”

IMHO, you’ve answered your own question quite clearly. You will have to pay your own money to keep the magazine alive unless you make some hard choices. Without knowing the finances, I’d say your chances of having any investors would be pretty limited to whoever you can strong arm into giving you donations.

Simply. You don’t have enough money from non-magazine sources to support the magazine in its current form. You can’t raise enough money from magazine sources to cover your costs. Therefore, you will have no choice but to make some concessions: cutting production or distribution or going online only. The only other choice is to pay for it out of your own pocket, if you are willing to keep going that way.

The only real chance you have to keep the magazine afloat is with sponsorship from an organizing or government department or through private donations. But since that is a longer term plan, then you will have to start finding money from somewhere…

Some ideas for monetizing…

  1. sell something along with the magazine: T-shirts, cups, mugs, pictures… electronic products…
  2. subscription for copies delivered for 12 months: try to add value;
  3. stop giving away advertising for free; sell it or barter it if you must;
  4. donations
  5. affiliate programs (work on a better trafficked site)

Cutting costs: have you any idea about your distribution effect? In other words, how many copies are you seeing thrown away at each point? Which points distribute more effectively? I’d suggest that you probably get most of your distribution from just a few locations… Can you service those locations yourself, and cut out the distributor? Also, I’ve heard a few stories about distributors throwing print runs away and pocketing the money? Have you checked up on those sites to make sure copies are actually there?

So I reckon you could cut your production costs by 1/3rd and totally remove your middleman if you checked your distribution and did it yourself… also, you could get out and meet some of your distributors yourself, making contact with people face to face is THE only way to do business in Taiwan. Phone calls are often disregarded, but face-to-face is much more valuable.

I’m hitting the submit now…

9

OK. You’re pushing a magazine with a monthly print run of 8K at production/distribution costs of 12.5NT$ each copy. Perhaps you’re underselling yourself when you think people are reluctant to spend NT$50 on a local magazine. Most magazines in 7-11 are much more expensive.

The last ramble that I thought of adding: if a business is losing money as it is, how will throwing more investment capital help? It’ll just end up losing even more.

Having been involved in amateur publishing for sometime, I learned the only rule for covering your costs is: MAKE SURE YOU EARN MORE THAN YOUR COSTS otherwise your costs will bite you … there is no such thing as a breakeven business. If it’s breakeven, it’s losing money. Perhaps not today. Certainly tomorrow.

So, to build a profitable business tomorrow, you need to lay the foundations of profit today. You need to decide what it is your business is selling. Is it the magazine? Or is it something else? Apologies if my words offend you, but you’re asking tough questions.

There is no shame in running a charity or service that provides value to people (plenty of people do)… but you need to be clear about what you are intending to do. Are you a business? Or are you a hobby? Once you decide that, you’ll find the other decisions easier.

Oh, and BTW, I never saw a single copy of the magazine when I was in Hualien. That’s several times now. So…

Kenneth

10

If you charge NT$50 per copy, and the distributor gets a large cut of that, he’s gonna push the magazine. If you split it 50/50, and selling the mag means you lose half your readership, you’re still in the money (production and distribution costs are going to be less if you only sell 4,000). But, personally, I think a magazine with a price on it will be valued more and pushed more by your distributors. You stand to make money, which means you can relax a little and focus more on building your business.

You could also look at expanding to cover the whole island - now that’s something I’d be likely to pay for.

If you do start bringing in the money, you can then give Animals Taiwan some free ‘Animals for Adoption’ ad space. :howyoudoin:

11

Your magazine is cool. I always look forward to reading it. Consider that.

I think you should look into how Compass runs itself. That’s a free mag.

12

I think you should look at developing your website more. Don’t just re-publish the contents of the magazine on the web, but leverage the content. Perhaps partner with an existing Taiwanese website that does online bookings for B&Bs and hotels by offering an English language translation. Include a regularly updated blog in both Chinese and English into the site. These are just a few ideas.

Invest in a good web designer and do some good SEO (many Taiwan websites seem to have very poor SEO). My point is with a bit of good design and building on the existing content then there are possibilities to make something out of the website.

It is understandable to be attached to a paper magazine. Perhaps downsize it or go quarterly as a way of maintaining your brand and promoting the website. And also not everyone uses the internet so there is still some place for magazines.

13

The thing about Highway 11 compared to the other been there and done thats is that Highway 11 is actually pretty good.

Sorry to hear you can’t keep it going.

14

Thanks everyone for your advice and comments.

I have narrowed my options down to three, but still trying to decide which is the most viable:

  1. Go strictly website.

As Wix said, do some work on the design, get some optimization going and ready do it up right, no paper, no distribution.

  1. Go Quarterly.

Do the same as above but publish a quarterly print version in order to get the word out farther. I’d probably print a slightly larger magazine if I went quarterly.

  1. Kill the magazine altogether.

Something about scaling back and downsizing just screams defeat to me and a lot of wind has been knocked out of my sails. I’m really wondering whether I’ve got it in me to do much more.

:s

15

Sir,
Option 4. Find a sponsor.
Option 5. Find a job which supports this magazine.
Option 6. Find a more workable business model. (look at the compass chaps)
Option 7. Gather a collective to co-sponser the magazine.

I have the acumen of a wizards sleeve.

GO FOR IT!!!

I love your mag.

16

[quote=“Ecaps”]Thanks everyone for your advice and comments.

I have narrowed my options down to three, but still trying to decide which is the most viable:

  1. Go strictly website.

As Wix said, do some work on the design, get some optimization going and ready do it up right, no paper, no distribution.

  1. Go Quarterly.

Do the same as above but publish a quarterly print version in order to get the word out farther. I’d probably print a slightly larger magazine if I went quarterly.[/quote]
Option 2 sounds like a good idea. You could update the website more frequently than you now publish, then publish only the best material in a quarterly. Less stress, lower costs, better quality.

17

We are crying out for content and a voice from home. Some recognition that home exists and that we arent a bunch of losers. Provide that and people will PAY.

18

Has your baked bean consumption increased, decreased or stayed the same, since arriving in Taiwan?

19

Has your baked bean consumption increased, decreased or stayed the same, since arriving in Taiwan?[/quote]

I have my beans shipped. Nothing gets between a man and his beans. I would gladly pay extra to have my beans on tap.

Lady, to answer your question: My bean intake has remained consistent though there are forces at work behind the scenes. Now if some joker would pipe wheatgerm loaves to this island I could log on to the internet with much more perspicacity.

Madam, the poster [color=#0000FF]ecaps[/color] is facing a moral dilemma. It is prudent of me to speak for the readership during this crisis. The magazine is good, way beyond the turd that 24/7 is or was.

20

Hehehe, you said ‘log’.

Scuse for my off topicing.