Magazine Business Structure
"You should not try to explain your personal goal to others,
because if they're not intuitively sympathetic to your arduous
enterprise, then they'll criticize every aspect of it; and you'll
divert too many resources in justification, when these need to be
devoted toward advancement. You should not recruit partners or
solicit sponsors, because genuine contributors will be drawn by
common affinity to your heartfelt aspiration. If you ultimately
fail, leaving your endeavor unrealized, your detractors will be
vindicated; but if you succeed, the critics will forget that your
objective was impossible, and they'll be cheering with the rest."
paraphrase of Pete Goss, Close to the Wind
(©1998)
The essential aspects of the COMBAT venture are
imbuing participants with the magazine's mission, being
creatively dedicated, and not foreclosing options or
opportunities. The legal protocols, business organization,
operating modalities, and location are more incidental than
inessential.
Because COMBAT is filling a vacant niche in the
publishing market, the optimal implementation of the mission is
crucial ... and that entails good leadership and good teamwork.
Although the principals do not have extensive publishing
experience, they are well schooled in preparation, and quite
experienced with the subject. Being combat veterans and published
authors, the staff is very sensitive to the elements of accurate
expression. Having met other challenges successfully, from
physical rehabilitation to career transitions, the staff is
exceedingly competent to deal creatively with new and unexpected
trials. It is understood that a good idea needs good people, and
good people need a good execution, but excellence may be
inadequate to counterbalance unpredictable external factors. The
benefits of this publication are an aggregate audience,
interactive networking, psychosocial history, counter-propaganda,
tax and other financial returns to investors.
The projected market share for COMBAT, of 7,000
to 35,000 subscribers, is contingent upon attracting an audience
with the probable reader profile. Psychographically,
COMBAT will appeal to intelligent and mature
adults, with a strong moral foundation, and some personal
interest or connection with the effects of war. These individuals
will be aware of the subtleties and complexities of armed
conflict. Furthermore, they will recognize the necessary mix of
fact and nuance, of humor and pathos, in depicting lifestyles
altered by warfare. Readers of COMBAT will
not be brazenly ignorant brutes indulging
in irresponsible fantasies about careless mayhem! Neither will
the staff and contributors be uninformed or insensitive. The
purpose of COMBAT is not to profile its
components, or to celebrate any causes, not to advocate or
champion, but to preserve expressions, so others may
ultimately know through sharing.
Modern technology enables the magazine to be accommodated
anywhere, so staff and contributors do not need to collocate in
order to function. The magazine can launch with as few as three
staffers (ie: publisher, editor, art director), and will add
positions (eg: proofreader, poetry editor, bookkeeper, etc) with
growth, but assignments are subordinate to organization ...
and organization is subordinate to funding.
Most commercial magazines, from Vogue and
Playboy to Cosmopolitan and
Gentleman's Quarterly, exist chiefly for their
advertising, and their articles are mainly style promotions or
product endorsements. Most general readership magazines of higher
quality, from Atlantic Monthly and New
Yorker to Sun and Harper's
Magazine, are commercial. Most genre magazines, from
American Legion and American
Scholar, are subsidized by a sponsoring organization.
Some non-profit magazines, from American
Prospect to American Literature, accept
advertising. Most literary magazines, from Yale Literary
Magazine to Parnassus Literary Journal,
are not commercial and do not accept advertising. With
sponsorship, COMBAT can organize as
either a commercial or a tax-exempt corporation; and
without sponsorship, COMBAT can be established
as either a sole or partnered proprietorship. An intriguing
option is a corporate symbiosis with an existing veteran's
organization. The tax advantages, from educational deductions to
disabled veteran deferments, for a corporate partner are
substantial.
All magazines must sell twice: first to their
sponsors or advertisers, and then to their readers. Despite this
double-jeopardy, the major portion of most magazine income
derives from subscriptions. Advertising usually constitutes about
17% of a magazine's contents, and major advertisers are normally
disinterested in periodicals circulating less than 100,000
copies, but literary magazines are not generally oriented to
commerce. Literary magazines seek to promulgate their contents,
and as such, COMBAT should distribute full-text
website versions and, if practicable, complementary print
versions to as many associates and repositories as possible, as
soon as finances permit.
New ventures traditionally schedule seed funds to test
market receptivity, which necessitates further capitalization for
launching the next stage of the development. Since
COMBAT is neither creating nor encroaching upon
the extant market by filling a niche with available modes, such
test marketing is superfluous. Under sponsorship, basing
incremental disbursements upon progressive achievements would be
prudent; as would any management or operating lessons tendered by
investors. Risk reduction is also a factor in plotting a
proprietarily launched enterprise. In either case, it is
understood that editorial and artistic direction shall
remain the province of staff discretion,
regardless of fiscal autonomy. Most start-ups do not earn a
profit during the first three years, and most new magazines do
not earn a profit for the first five years. It is crucial that
earnings be retained, and returned to capitalization for
continued growth and stability during this period. It is further
accepted that development will be parallel, instead of
sequential; and that productivity will be geometric, instead of
linear. The potential scaling of COMBAT is a
fundamental consideration; and may be manifested by writing
contests, anthologies, seminars, maps, notecards, occasion cards,
and books (eg: "Combat Cuisine, Great FrontLine
Recipes").
Projecting actual costs is always a dubious proposition, since
price changes are erratic and material availability is
contingent. Fixed costs in publishing are low, and
COMBAT plans to exploit the variable costs by
unconventional subcontracting. The normal overhead in typical
office-based operations, such as rent and utilities, will be
borne by staffers at their own places of work. Further, staff
salaries will need to cover their personal withholdings and
premiums. When established, content contributors to the magazine
will receive either a fixed honorarium or a nominal word fee as
payment. Since newsstand sales are normally low (@30%) and
heavily discounted (@40%) to vendors, COMBAT
will opt for direct subscription of full-text issues at not less
than competitive rates. Distribution of print copies by Second
Class mail [nb: factored by piece, weight, distance, and
advertising content] depends upon the inclusion or exclusion of
advertising, and the approval of a postal permit. Distribution of
electronic copies by a top-level domain website depends upon
consortium registration, and the requisite leasing of adequate
server space on a host computer. Although the average cost of
production for national magazines is low (@$0.53/copy), limited
printing in local shops varies markedly, and quality is not
correlated with price. Despite the fact that unit costs could be
somewhat reduced, it is equally true that growth will incur
greater costs from increased staff and improved styling. These
projections are not unreasonable, and the COMBAT
magazine project is positively feasible.
"A structure becomes architectural, and not sculptural, when its
elements no longer have their justification in nature."
by Guillaume Apollinaire, "New Painters" in The
Cubist Painters (©1913)
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