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Magazine Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Magazine Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their magazine companies. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a magazine business plan step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your business plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan

If you’re looking to start a new magazine business, or grow your existing magazine publishing company, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the revenue growth of your business in order to improve your chances of success. Your business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Magazine Companies

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a magazine business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financial projections are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

Personal savings is the other most common form of funding for a new magazine business. Venture capitalists will usually not fund a magazine business, but they might consider funding a one with a national presence, but never an individual location. This is because most venture capitalists are looking for millions of dollars in return when they make an investment, and an individual location could never achieve such results.  With that said, using a savings account and bank loans are the most common funding paths for magazine businesses.

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How to write an effective business plan for a magazine business.

If you want to start a magazine business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Each of the key components of a magazine publishing business plan are detailed below:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a digital magazine business that you would like to grow, or are you starting an online magazine business?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the magazine industry. Discuss the type of business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target audience. Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types of magazine businesses:

• Entertainment magazine : this type of magazine business focuses on topics such as arts, culture, fashion and leisure
• Academic and professional magazine: this type of magazine business focuses on subjects like finance, health, or science
• Home and living magazine: this type of magazine is devoted to cooking, home decorating, etc.
• Business magazine: this type of magazine typically focuses on business people, companies, emerging business or technology trends, etc.
• Digital magazine: this type of magazine is accessible via an electronic device, whether it be a smartphone, tablet, or computer. An internet connection is required to access or download the content, but once downloaded, it is available for viewing offline.
• Online magazine: this type of electronic magazine is similar to a digital magazine, but typically comes with fewer features. An internet connection is required to access the content.

In addition to explaining the type of magazine startup you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to question such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of customers served, number of positive reviews, number of annual subscriptions, etc.
• Your legal business structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the magazine industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the magazine industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section:

• How big is the magazine industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your magazine business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: advertisers, consumers of varying ages and with varying interests, and authors.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of magazine business you operate. Clearly, business people would respond to different marketing promotions than teens, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most magazine businesses primarily serve customers living in their same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other magazine businesses.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes social media platforms, other reading material, or alternative leisure activities. You need to mention such competition as well.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other magazine businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be house flippers located very close to your location.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What interest or niche do they specialize in?
• What formats are their publications available in?
• How often is the magazine published?
• What is their pricing strategy (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide better articles, features, and/or photos?
• Will you provide more opportunities for guest authors?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a magazine business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of magazine company that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to printed magazines, will you offer a digital version?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your magazine company. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your magazine business located near a distribution center, or in an area known as a “hub” for the content you specialize in, etc. Discuss how your location might be ideal for attracting and retaining customers.

Promotions : The final part of your magazine marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Reaching out to local websites
• Social media marketing
• Local radio advertising

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your magazine business, including selling ad space, creating quality content, finding contributors, designing each issue, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to land your 10 th major magazine advertising account, or when you expect to have 5,000 subscribers, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your magazine distribution to a new city.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your magazine business’ ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing magazine businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in publication or marketing or successfully running small businesses.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you publish one issue per month or four? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your magazine business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a magazine business:

• Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
• Cost of equipment and supplies
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or the wireframe for your digital publication.  

Putting together a business plan for your magazine business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the magazine industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful magazine business.  

Magazine Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my magazine business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your Magazine Business Plan.

What is the Goal of a Business Plan's Executive Summary?

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of magazine business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a magazine business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of magazine businesses?

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Magazine business plan?

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Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

Magazine Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Magazine Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Magazine business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their Magazine businesses.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Magazine business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

Happy Trails Magazine is a startup magazine company located in New York City, New York. The company is founded by Lawrence MacGuire, who has experience in traveling and offering podcasts from around the world. Now, with the expertise of knowledge and business acumen, he has determined he can confidently start and effectively grow a successful magazine company. He believes his experience of strategic planning, marketing skills, financial capabilities, and wide and deep knowledge of traveling practices will provide everything needed for long-term growth and profitability.

Happy Trails Magazine will provide a comprehensive array of articles of interest for a wide variety of travel-loving customers. The Happy Trails Magazine will be the premiere travel magazine, providing services and products to each customer, while supporting the strategic goals of the company. Happy Trails Magazine will be the ultimate choice in tourist travel for customers to ensure that every need and desire of all travelers is fully and completely met.

Product Offering

The following are the services and products that Happy Trails Magazine will provide:

• Unique and exclusive content creation
• Experienced writers who provide superior journalism and reporting
• Photography from around the world
• Art and illustrations that support the travel articles
• Special offers of travel and related products for publication subscribers
• Online magazine offered in addition to hard copy publication
• Fun quiz and explorer’s facts for readers
• On-time delivery every month

Customer Focus

Adults within the New York City region. Customers who love to travel. Global customers who want to read about travel and enjoy excellent magazine articles. Advertisers who will purchase space and positions in the monthly magazine release. Collaborators who partner with Happy Trails Magazine to effectively market products and services.

Management Team

Happy Trails Magazine is owned and operated by Lawrence MacGuire. He recruited managers from his former place of employment at a nationally-known magazine company, including Derek Flanagan, as his Operations Manager, and Sherry Culver, as the Senior Administrative Manager.

Lawrence MacGuire is a graduate of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, where he earned a degree in the Art of Hospitality and Travel. He has been employed by a global resort chain with over 500 hotels for the past ten years.

Tracey Newthorn is a graduate of University of Ohio, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in business in the hospitality industry. She has spent the past two summer sessions in international travel and is an accomplished photographer. She will be the Artistic & Photographic Manager of Happy Trails Magazine.

Alex Hawkins, an experienced magazine editor, will be the Executive Manager & Senior Editor of the Happy Trails Magazine. His former position was as the Senior Manager of Horizons Over Hawaii Magazine for over 20 years. His experience with travel and journalism leads to the new position of executive management.

Success Factors

Happy Trails Magazine will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly-qualified team of Happy Trails Magazine
• Comprehensive menu of accurate and complete travel-related stories, as well as multiple photographic demonstrations of places to visit and things to see.
• Additional value added with each subscription via a number of special offers found in Happy Trails Magazine labeled, “For Subscribers Only!”
• Outstanding photography and illustrations that highlight the beauty of world travel
• Happy Trails Magazine offers the best pricing in town. Their pricing structure is the most cost effective compared to the competition.

Financial Highlights

Happy Trails Magazine is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its magazine. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the office space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the print ads and marketing costs. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Office space build-out: $20,000
• Office equipment, supplies, and materials: $10,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $150,000
• Marketing costs: $10,000
• Working capital: $10,000

The following graph outlines the financial projections for Happy Trails Magazine.

Company Overview

Who is happy trails magazine.

Happy Trails Magazine is a newly established, full-service consumer magazine published in New York City, New York. Happy Trails Magazine will be the most beautiful, consumer-relatable, and cost-effective choice for a global reading and subscribing community. Happy Trails Magazine will provide a comprehensive menu of editorial articles, In-Style pictorials, Go-To suggestions for hotel/travel bargains and special discounts for any reader to enjoy. Their full-service approach includes a comprehensive website with multiple gateways to information and related services.

  Happy Trails Magazine will be the premier travel magazine in the publications industry. Led by the team of experienced professionals, the magazine will entice travelers to explore the world, while advertisers and interested parties will enjoy purchasing ads, placing click through ads and offering specials throughout the hard copy and digital magazine. Happy Trails Magazine removes all headaches and issues of traveling globally and ensures all travel negatives are addressed and diminished, while delivering the best customer service.

Happy Trails Magazine History

Lawrence MacGuire is a graduate of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, where he earned a degree in the Art of Hospitality and Travel. He has been employed by a global resort chain with over 500 hotels for the past ten years. During his prior employment, he recognized that many of the world’s finest destinations have been passed over in favor of traditional, favored locations. After much research and industry information-gathering, he started the Happy Trails Magazine to appeal to youthful travelers and old alike as they traveled the world.

Since incorporation, Happy Trails Magazine has achieved the following milestones:

• Registered magazine, Happy Trails Magazine, LLC to transact business in the state of New York.
• Has a contract in place for a 10,000 square foot office at one of the midtown buildings
• Reached out to numerous contacts to include Happy Trails as a source for advertising.
• Began recruiting a staff of 3 and 2 office personnel to work at Happy Trails Magazine.

Happy Trails Magazine Services

The following will be the services and products the Happy Trails Magazine will provide:

Industry Analysis

The travel magazine industry is expected to grow over the next five years to over $24684 billion. The growth will be driven by an exponential interest in travel exhibited during the recent pandemic years, as most consumers were sequestered with no ability to travel. The industry is also expected to grow now as people begin to explore once again, looking for places off the beaten path. While travel costs remain high due to shipping and supply line issues and the economy, consumers find delight in exploring travel magazines and the pleasure of escape they offer.

Costs will likely be reduced as the process of production and print continue to fall due to technology advancements. The software that drives the consumer-provider relationships will also change, as most redundant or fairly simple administrative tasks will be given software solutions rather than handed over to a live publication agent.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market, customer segmentation.

Happy Trails Magazine will primarily target those young adults and adults who live within the New York City region. They will also target customers who love to travel, including global customers who want to read about travel and enjoy excellent magazine articles. Advertisers who will purchase space and positions in the monthly magazine release will be welcomed. Collaborators who partner with Happy Trails Magazine to effectively market products and services.

• Young adults through seniors
• Those who love to travel
• Those who want to travel to exotic, almost unknown destinations
• Those who enjoy viewing beautiful photography
• Those who like to read magazine articles about travel
• Advertisers and interested parties who want to sell through or collaborate with Happy Trails Magazine

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

Happy Trails Magazine will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Sunset Magazine

Sunset Magazine, started in 1953 by a married couple, Ernest and Columbine Trentom, who were experienced global travelers. They began the magazine in a home office and quickly built their subscriber base to over fifteen million at the height of popularity. In recent years, the popularity of Sunset Magazine has waned, due to the loss of advertisers and poor construction of the magazine during production. The subscriber base has moved to new, more trendy, travel accommodations and travel styles.

Sports Illuminated

Sports Illuminated was founded by Cissy Travers, an ardent sportswoman and enthusiast of global sports events. With distribution to over 10 million readers, Ms Travers maintains complete control of the magazine and related ventures, which include sporting goods sales, sports apparel sales and global sports items.

The magazine was founded in 2001, when Cissy Travers took a medium-grade local magazine in upstate New York, and began to manage the content within. During the following five years, she single handedly engaged sports writers of the highest caliber and photographers who traveled the world on behalf of the magazine to shoot pivotal sporting events. Since that time, the magazine has continued to grow as new sporting events are added globally every year.

Taft & Hanson

Taft & Hanson Magazine was established in 2003 by Rogert Taft and Renee Hanson, a couple who traveled throughout the United States in their luxury recreational vehicle. The magazine is dedicated to the ultra-expensive and luxurious recreational vehicles manufactured and on the roads of America, with each monthly edition highlighting both the features of the vehicles and the features of traveler’s retreats around the nation.

The magazine is published once each quarter and is available by subscription only. Each edition is priced at $125 per copy. Designed to entice readers to purchase new recreational vehicles as they are released from manufacturing, the magazine makes it’s return on investment by selling to manufacturers and consumers alike.

Rogert Taft and Renee Hanson travel extensively throughout the nation, each reporting and writing about various aspects of living the “luxurious recreational vehicle life,” and the accommodations in which they choose to stay, which is used by the magazine publishers as another form of revenue in advertising. The magazine has earned a five-star rating by the Travelers Trailers International and has a following of over 100,000 subscribers.

Competitive Advantage

Happy Trails Magazine will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Happy Trails Magazine will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

• Highly-qualified team of skilled employees who are able to provide a comprehensive travel experience via the magazine and website.
• Additional value added with each subscription via a number of special offers found in Happy Trails Magazine labeled, “For Subscribers Only!”
• Unbeatable pricing for customers; subscribers are offered the lowest pricing of any travel magazine on the market.

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for magazine is as follows:

Word of Mouth/Referrals

Happy Trails Magazine has built up an extensive list of contacts over the years by providing exceptional service and expertise to hospitality and lodging clients. The contacts and clients will follow them to this new company and help spread the word of Happy Trails Magazine.

Professional Associations and Networking

Trade Associations for travel and travel accommodations will be joined and actively pursued by the Happy Trails Magazine staff. Professional Networking in the New York City region will also be conducted to increase visibility and engage additional subscribers and advertisers.

Print Advertising

Limited print advertising will be offered within travel magazines and news periodicals. The bulk of the advertising will be found on the internet within various social network channels.

Website/SEO Marketing

Happy Trails Magazine will fully utilize their website. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all the services and products that the magazine provides. The website will also list their contact information and list their top-rated travel spots and special discounts for subscribers. The website will engage in SEO marketing tactics so that anytime someone types in the Google or Bing search engine “travel magazine” or “travel reading near me,” magazine will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of the magazine will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive excellent value when purchasing their services.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for the Happy Trails Magazine. Operation Functions:

• Happy Trails Magazine is owned and operated by Lawrence MacGuire. He recruited managers from his former place of employment at a nationally-known magazine company.
• Lawrence MacGuire is a graduate of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, where he earned a degree in the Art of Hospitality and Travel. He has been employed by a global resort travel magazine affiliated with over 500 hotels for the past ten years.
• Derek Flanagan will take on the position of Operations Manager, with a professional background of several years in management within the travel magazine world.
• Tracey Newthorn is the Artistic & Photographic Manager of Happy Trails Magazine. She is a graduate of University of Ohio, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in business in the hospitality industry. She has spent the past two summer sessions in international travel and is an accomplished photographer.

Milestones:

Happy Trails Magazine will have the following milestones completed in the next six months.

• 5/1/202X – Finalize contract to lease office space
• 5/15/202X – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts for the magazine
• 6/1/202X – Finalize contracts for magazine advertisers
• 6/15/202X – Begin networking at industry events
• 6/22/202X – Begin moving into magazine office
• 7/1/202X – magazine opens its doors for business

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for Happy Trails Magazine are the fees they will charge to subscribers for their services, in addition to charges they solicit from advertisers who place ads in their publications. .

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to staff the magazine. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, office supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Happy Trails Magazine is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its travel magazine. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the office space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the print ads and association memberships. The breakout of the funding is below:

Key Assumptions

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

• Number of Subscribers Per Month: 750
• Number of Advertising Accounts Per Month: 50
• Average Revenue per Month: $550,000
• Office Lease per Year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, magazine business plan faqs, what is a magazine business plan.

A magazine business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your magazine business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections. You can easily complete your Magazine business plan using our Magazine Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Magazine Businesses?

There are a number of different kinds of magazine businesses, some examples include: Entertainment magazine, Home and living magazine, Business magazine, Digital magazine, and Online magazine.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Magazine Business Plan?

Magazine businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a Magazine Business?

Starting a magazine business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster. 1. Develop A Magazine Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed magazine business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast. 2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your magazine business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your magazine business is in compliance with local laws. 3. Register Your Magazine Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your magazine business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your magazine business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 7. Acquire Necessary Magazine Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your magazine business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your magazine business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

Learn more about how to start a successful magazine business:

• How to Start a Magazine Company

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Magazine Business Plan

Free Business Plan Template

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How to Write A Magazine Business Plan?

Writing a magazine business plan is a crucial step toward the success of your business. Here are the key steps to consider when writing a business plan:

1. Executive Summary

An executive summary is the first section planned to offer an overview of the entire business plan. However, it is written after the entire business plan is ready and summarizes each section of your plan.

Here are a few key components to include in your executive summary:

Introduce your Business:

Start your executive summary by briefly introducing your business to your readers.

Market Opportunity:

Products and services:.

Highlight the magazine services you offer your clients. The USPs and differentiators you offer are always a plus.

Marketing & Sales Strategies:

Financial highlights:, call to action:.

Ensure your executive summary is clear, concise, easy to understand, and jargon-free.

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2. Business Overview

The business overview section of your business plan offers detailed information about your company. The details you add will depend on how important they are to your business. Yet, business name, location, business history, and future goals are some of the foundational elements you must consider adding to this section:

Business Description:

Describe your business in this section by providing all the basic information. Describe what kind of magazine business you run and the name of it. You may specialize in one of the following magazine businesses:

• Online magazine business
• Print magazine business
• Lifestyle magazine business
• Fashion magazine business
• Business and Finance magazine
• Travel magazine business
• Sports magazine business
• Health and wellness magazine business
• Technology magazine business
• Describe the legal structure of your magazine business, whether it is a sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or others.Explain where your business is located and why you selected the place.

Mission Statement:

Business history:.

If you’re an established magazine service provider, briefly describe your business history, like—when it was founded, how it evolved over time, etc.

Future Goals:

This section should provide a thorough understanding of your business, its history, and its future plans. Keep this section engaging, precise, and to the point.

3. Market Analysis

The market analysis section of your business plan should offer a thorough understanding of the industry with the target market, competitors, and growth opportunities. You should include the following components in this section.

Target market:

Start this section by describing your target market. Define your ideal customer and explain what types of services they prefer. Creating a buyer persona will help you easily define your target market to your readers.

For instance, individuals with hobbies or interests or professionals would be an ideal target audience for a magazine business.

Market size and growth potential

Competitive analysis:, market trends:.

Analyze emerging trends in the industry, such as changes in customer behavior or preferences, etc. Explain how your business will cope with all the trends.

Regulatory Environment:

Here are a few tips for writing the market analysis section of your magazine business plan:

• Conduct market research, industry reports, and surveys to gather data.
• Provide specific and detailed information whenever possible.
• Illustrate your points with charts and graphs.
• Write your business plan keeping your target audience in mind.

4. Products And Services

The product and services section should describe the specific services and products that will be offered to customers. To write this section should include the following:

Describe your content:

Mention the magazine content your business will offer. This list may include content like,

• Opinion pieces
• Other formats of content

Any interactive features:

Frequency & distribution:, additional services:.

In short, this section of your magazine plan must be informative, precise, and client-focused. By providing a clear and compelling description of your offerings, you can help potential investors and readers understand the value of your business.

5. Sales And Marketing Strategies

Writing the sales and marketing strategies section means a list of strategies you will use to attract and retain your clients. Here are some key elements to include in your sales & marketing plan:

Unique Selling Proposition (USP):

Define your business’s USPs depending on the market you serve, the equipment you use, and the unique services you provide. Identifying USPs will help you plan your marketing strategies.

For example, exclusive content, high-quality visuals, or customization could be some of the great USPs for a professional magazine business.

Pricing Strategy

Marketing strategies:, sales strategies:, customer retention:.

Overall, this section of your magazine publisher business plan should focus on customer acquisition and retention.

Have a specific, realistic, and data-driven approach while planning sales and marketing strategies for your magazine business, and be prepared to adapt or make strategic changes in your strategies based on feedback and results.

6. Operations Plan

The operations plan section of your business plan should outline the processes and procedures involved in your business operations, such as staffing requirements and operational processes. Here are a few components to add to your operations plan:

Staffing & Training:

Operational process:, equipment & software:.

Include the list of equipment and software required for the magazine business, such as computers, print production equipment, videography equipment & software, online publishing & digital equipment, etc.

Adding these components to your operations plan will help you lay out your business operations, which will eventually help you manage your business effectively..

7. Management Team

The management team section provides an overview of your magazine business’s management team. This section should provide a detailed description of each manager’s experience and qualifications, as well as their responsibilities and roles.

Founders/CEO:

Key managers:.

Introduce your management and key members of your team, and explain their roles and responsibilities.

Organizational structure:

Compensation plan:, advisors/consultants:.

Mentioning advisors or consultants in your business plans adds credibility to your business idea.

This section should describe the key personnel for your magazine business, highlighting how you have the perfect team to succeed.

8. Financial Plan

Your financial plan section should provide a summary of your business’s financial projections for the first few years. Here are some key elements to include in your financial plan:

Profit & loss statement:

Cash flow statement:, balance sheet:, break-even point:.

Determine and mention your business’s break-even point—the point at which your business costs and revenue will be equal.

Financing Needs:

Be realistic with your financial projections, and make sure you offer relevant information and evidence to support your estimates.

9. Appendix

The appendix section of your plan should include any additional information supporting your business plan’s main content, such as market research, legal documentation, financial statements, and other relevant information.

• Add a table of contents for the appendix section to help readers easily find specific information or sections.
• In addition to your financial statements, provide additional financial documents like tax returns, a list of assets within the business, credit history, and more. These statements must be the latest and offer financial projections for at least the first three or five years of business operations
• Provide data derived from market research, including stats about the industry, user demographics, and industry trends.
• Include any legal documents such as permits, licenses, and contracts.
• Include any additional documentation related to your business plan, such as product brochures, marketing materials, operational procedures, etc.

Use clear headings and labels for each section of the appendix so that readers can easily find the necessary information.

Remember, the appendix section of your magazine business plan should only include relevant and important information supporting your plan’s main content.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

This sample magazine business plan will provide an idea for writing a successful magazine plan, including all the essential components of your business.

After this, if you still need clarification about writing an investment-ready business plan to impress your audience, download our magazine business plan pdf .

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Frequently asked questions, why do you need a magazine business plan.

A business plan is an essential tool for anyone looking to start or run a successful magazine business. It helps to get clarity in your business, secures funding, and identifies potential challenges while starting and growing your business.

Overall, a well-written plan can help you make informed decisions, which can contribute to the long-term success of your magazine business.

How to get funding for your magazine business?

There are several ways to get funding for your magazine business, but self-funding is one of the most efficient and speedy funding options. Other options for funding are:

Small Business Administration (SBA) loan

Crowdfunding, angel investors.

Apart from all these options, there are small business grants available, check for the same in your location and you can apply for it.

Where to find business plan writers for your magazine business?

There are many business plan writers available, but no one knows your business and ideas better than you, so we recommend you write your magazine business plan and outline your vision as you have in your mind.

What is the easiest way to write your magazine business plan?

A lot of research is necessary for writing a business plan, but you can write your plan most efficiently with the help of any magazine business plan example and edit it as per your need. You can also quickly finish your plan in just a few hours or less with the help of our business plan software .

About the Author

Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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Magazine Publishing Business Plan Sample

MAY.08, 2018

Do you want to start magazine publishing business?

Do you want to start a magazine publishing business? Although this business requires a lot of initial capital, the rate of return which it yields on investment is extremely high. Magazine companies generate incomes from various sources such as from the advertisements which are featured in them, from the people who sign in online, and of course, from their sales in newsstands. But starting a magazine isn’t an easy job and you will have to effectively plan everything. In the United States, 9 out of 10 magazine businesses fail due to poor planning. That’s why before you consider how to start your own magazine , you will have to prepare a comprehensive business plan. If you are wondering how to write one, here we are providing you the business plan of a magazine publishing business startup named ‘The Reader Monthly’.

Executive Summary

2.1 the business.

The Reader Monthly will be a lifestyle magazine owned by Martha Martin, a passionate writer. The company’s main office will be located in Dallas.

2.2 Management

The success of a startup heavily depends on its staff and management that’s why Martha planned it before considering how to start a magazine business on your own . The main management of the company will comprise of sales executives, graphic artists, and journalists. The staff will be hired one month before the launch of startup and will be trained by Martha.

2.3 Customers

We will target the young adults, adults and senior citizens of the United States. Our readers can read our magazine either in printed form or in digital form on any device.

2.4 Business Target

Our business targets, as outlined by our publishing company business plan , are as follows:

Company Summary

3.1 company owner.

The Reader Monthly will be owned by Martha Martin, a passionate writer. Martha has been associated with some of the biggest international magazines including TIME and PEOPLE for more than 13 years.

3.2 Why the Business is being started

The business is being started due to two reasons. The first one is to make profits in this industry. The second one is Martha’s passion for writing and her desire to add something better to the society. Martha herself described the reason for starting her venture in the book launch ceremony of her latest book The Dying Angel as, “ starting my own magazine is something I am born for.”

3.3 How the Business will be started

The company will be started in an abandoned press office in Dallas which ceased to function a few months before. The company will initially procure following things for the startup.

• Office furniture including filing cabinets, work desks, roundtables, couches and chairs for the meeting area
• Computers with color printers and scanners
• Press machines
• Graphic designing software including Illustrator, Freehand, and Photoshop
• A strong internet connection and office telecom systems
• Assorted office stationary and brochures

The financial experts have forecasted following costs for the startup:

The detailed startup requirements are given below:

Services for customers

Before you start a publishing business or even think about how to start a publishing business , you must decide what type of magazine will you be publishing and which niches will it cover. You must also plan what other services for business will you offer, for instance, sending magazines to subscribers by mail. The Reader Monthly will be a lifestyle magazine but it will also contain a few sections featuring health, entertainment, and technology. We will offer following services to our customers/readers:

• Magazine Retail Sales: Our readers can get our latest magazines from any newsstand or bookshops located across the United States. Retail sales will be the biggest generator of our revenue in our annual sales from the magazine readers.
• Magazine Subscription: Our readers can also subscribe us to get the latest magazine delivered to their doorstep in printed form.
• Magazine Online Subscription: Our readers can also subscribe us to get a copy of the electronic magazine which can be read on any electronic device.
• Advertisements: We will offer advertisement services to the various companies and businesses located across the United States. Advertisements will be our biggest source of revenue.

Marketing Analysis of magazine publishing business

The most important component of successful magazines business plan is its accurate marketing analysis that’s why Martha acquired the services of marketing experts to help her through this phase. It is only after this stage that a good magazine business plan could have been developed. If you are starting a magazine on a smaller scale, say an online magazine, you can just take help from this magazine business plan sample or the other magazine business plans available online. Marketing analysis is an extremely important component of all publishing business plans , therefore, it must be considered before starting a magazine business plan .

5.1 Market Trends

The American magazine industry contributes $28 billion in revenue every year and the magazine advertising are alone responsible for generating more than $15.2 billion. There are more than 21,000 publishing businesses in the United States that employ more than 117,000 people across the country. However, the magazine industry declined rapidly with the increasing popularity of the internet and the smartphones which completely eliminated the need for printed magazines. The industry nowadays is truly struggling for surviving in America as well as in other countries. A 2012 survey revealed that only 3 percent of Americans read magazines on a regular basis. Statistics has it that in 1985, there were more than 1,676 dailies in America but in 2011, the number dropped to below 1,400 and is still dropping. While the popularity of printed magazines keeps falling, people are paying more attention to electronic magazines which can be read on any device like laptops, mobile phones, kindles. You also need to create a magazine in a mobile application that will allow users to quickly learn about the release of new materials, but for this, you will have to write a business plan for mobile applications . After identifying these trends, it is clearly evident that it is not easy for a startup to survive in the magazine industry unless it is properly planned and adds value to its readers.

5.2 Marketing Segmentation

It is very important to analyze the market segmentation of the readers which will be buying your magazine because a successful and efficient magazine marketing plan can only be developed after we completely know our potential customers. Our experts have identified the following type of audience which we will be targeting:

The detailed marketing segmentation of our target audience is as follows:

5.2.1 Young Adults:

Our first target group will be the young adults in the United States who are between 18 to 25 years of age. This group mostly comprises of college or university students who like to read magazines in their free time. According to a recent survey by Statista, young adults read more magazines than any other age group in the United States that’s why this group will have the biggest contribution in our revenue from the magazine’s sales.

5.2.2 Adults:

Our second target group comprises of adults from 25 to 60 years of age. These people lead a busy life due to their employment and other engagements that’s why they don’t read as many magazines as the young adults or the senior citizens.

5.2.3 Senior Citizens:

Our third group comprises of senior citizens aged above 60. These people are usually retired and have a lot of spare time that’s why they also read magazines. The detailed market analysis of our potential customers is given in the following table:

5.3 Business Target

We aim to see ourselves among the top ten lifestyle magazines of the United States within next six years of our launch. Our main business targets to be achieved as milestones over the course of next three years are as follows:

• To achieve the net profit margin of $10k per month by the end of the first year, $15k per month by the end of the second year, and $25k per month by the end of the third year
• To balance the initial cost of the startup with earned profits by the end of the first year
• To have around 99,000 subscribers through direct sampling and marketing by the end of the first year

5.4 Product Pricing

Our pricing strategy is as follows:

• Single issue: $0.65 per issue
• Yearly print subscription: $7.0 per 12 issues
• Yearly e-magazine subscription: $1.49 per 12 e-issues

We have strategically priced our e-magazines in extremely cheaper range due to two reasons. Most of the people prefer electronic magazines to print magazines, and it is costlier to send print magazines to the readers as compared to providing them the digital ones.

Sales strategy is also an important component of an effective magazine business plan so make sure to plan it before you consider how to start a magazine business .

6.1 Competitive Analysis

We have a really tough competition because we will be competing with magazines some of which have been around for decades. Our biggest competitors are US Weekly, The New Yorker, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Harper’s BAZAAR and GQ. Our competitive advantage will be our lower prices combined with quality content which will be no less than that of the top magazines.

6.2 Sales Strategy

After carrying out a detailed analysis, our experts came up with the following brilliant ideas to advertise and sell ourselves.

• Google search ranking is one of the most important factors in deciding the success of online magazines, that’s why we will put special emphasis on it. We would do our best to get higher rankings in Google search results.
• We will give away 3 free magazines copies to our readers upon subscription.
• We will carry out a large-scale social media campaign and will interact with our readers to promote their interest.

6.3 Sales Monthly

6.4 Sales Yearly

6.5 Sales Forecast

Our forecasted sales on a yearly basis are summarized in the following column charts:

The detailed information about sales forecast is given in the following table:

Personnel plan

Personnel plan, like all other plans, is an important component of an effective business plan so it must be planned before you think about how to start my own magazine .

7.1 Company Staff

Martha will act as the Chief Editor of the magazine and will initially hire following people:

• 1 Accountant for maintaining financial and other records
• 2 Sales Executives responsible for marketing and discovering new ventures
• 6 Graphic Artists for designing the magazines
• 10 Journalists for creating the content for the magazines
• 4 Technical Assistants for handling the company’s web and social media pages
• 20 Print Press Workers for publishing the magazine
• 10 Distributors for distributing the magazines to various outlets across the United States

7.2 Average Salary of Employees

Financial plan.

As the last step for preparing a magazine publishing business plan , you have to prepare a detailed financial plan. The financial plan should craft a detailed map of all the expenses needed for the startup and how these expenses will be met by the earned profits. It is recommended that you hire a financial expert for guiding you through all financial aspects needed for starting a magazine business .

8.1 Important Assumptions

8.2 brake-even analysis.

8.3 Projected Profit and Loss

8.3.1 profit monthly.

8.3.2 Profit Yearly

8.3.3 Gross Margin Monthly

8.3.4 Gross Margin Yearly

8.4 Projected Cash Flow

8.5 Projected Balance Sheet

8.6 business ratios.

Download Magazine Publishing Business Plan Sample in pdf

Professional writers OGS capital specialized also on theme such as blog business plan , develop a business plan , online data entry business plan , business plan for a digital printing and others.

OGSCapital’s team has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs with top-rate business plan development, consultancy and analysis. They’ve helped thousands of SME owners secure more than $1.5 billion in funding, and they can do the same for you.

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Online Business | How To

How to Create and Launch a Digital Magazine in 7 Steps

Published August 22, 2019

Published Aug 22, 2019

WRITTEN BY: Janette Novak

With today’s digital magazine development software and digital design tools, you can start a new online magazine in a matter of weeks. Even better, depending on your skills and experience, you could launch a digital magazine for less than $200. This guide teaches you how to create a digital magazine and launch it with ease.

Here are the seven steps you need to master to create and launch a digital magazine successfully.

1. Develop Your Digital Magazine Business Plan

The first step in creating a digital magazine is to develop a business plan. You need to decide who your publication will serve, how you plan to make money, and establish a budget for magazine launch and management costs.

Selecting a Niche for Your Digital Magazine

If you take a look at any newsstand for traditional print magazines, you’ll notice that there are many different types of magazines on the market. Since digital magazines don’t incur the high printing costs of their physical counterparts, there are even more categories and subcategories for digital magazines. These subcategories are known as niches, which is the group of people with shared interests to which your magazine will appeal.

When selecting your niche, it’s essential to do your research. Look for both traditional and digital magazines on the market that serve the audience you’re targeting. Review competing magazines for what you like and don’t like about them, as this information will prove invaluable as you develop your magazine.

If you can’t find magazines in the niche you intend to pursue, then look for websites, books, or other sources that appeal to the niche. If you find plenty of evidence that others are successfully reaching your niche in various ways, then you may have a viable niche to pursue. If online content directed to your niche is sparse, there may not be a sufficient audience to support your selected niche. If that happens, it’s best to either change or expand the audience you intend to target.

Selecting a viable niche that’s relevant to a small yet adequate group is a key to launching a successful digital magazine. If your magazine’s audience is too broad, you run the risk of no one feeling like the magazine speaks to them. If your niche is too narrow, you’ll have a hard time getting enough readers for your magazine to make it profitable.

Wander digital magazine published by Springfed Creative Inc. targets the travel niche

Decide How Your Digital Publication Will Make Money

If your goal is to make money with your magazine, then you have many different monetization models available to you. Many digital magazine publishers use multiple sales channels to generate income from their magazines.

Here are a few of the ways you can sell your digital magazine:

• Sell your digital magazine on your website using a popular ecommerce plugin such as WooCommerce
• Generate sales for your magazine through mobile app stores, including Apple’s App Store and Google Play
• Create an online store through Shopify and sell single copies or subscriptions to your magazine
• List your digital magazine on online magazine newsstands and apps, such as Issuu and Magzter, Zinnio

You can also make money by selling advertisements on your digital magazine. Another way to monetize your online magazine is through sponsored posts, where you are paid to create content that features a certain product, brand, or person.

More than 15,000 digital publications are downloaded daily on Issuu

Digital Magazine Costs

You can create a digital magazine on a shoestring budget, or you can invest hundreds of thousands in developing and launching an online magazine. The choice is yours. No matter what type of magazine you’re creating, you’ll need to understand the types of activities required to develop and market an online magazine.

If you were to hire full-time employees for your magazine, including editors, writers, proofreaders, photographers, circulation managers, and more, you could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars easily to launch your digital magazine. Most new magazine publishers perform multiple roles themselves so that they do not have to incur these high staffing expenses.

You can reduce or even eliminate employee costs in other ways. You can find guest writers and photographers who are willing to provide content for free in exchange for publicity for their work. Also, nearly all digital magazines work with freelancers for their content development needs. You can find low-cost, high-quality freelancers for most of your magazine needs on sites like Fiverr and Upwork.

Non-staffing Costs Related to Launching a Digital Publication

If you’re on a shoestring budget, you can rely on the computers and technical devices you already own to create your first digital magazine. There are also several free online tools you can use. For example, Canva and PicMonkey offer free plans for image editing. You can get free photos for your magazine by taking them yourself or using free stock photos from sites like Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay.

Most magazine publishers create a website to promote their digital publications. You can launch a WordPress website with DreamHost for only $2.59 a month.

The more tasks you can do yourself or affordably outsource, the more you’ll save. If you’re diligent about securing free and low-cost resources to produce your magazine, you could launch the first issue of your magazine for $200 or less.

“My best advice for anyone who wants to start a digital magazine is to make sure you are fully capitalized, such as at least six months of expenses in the bank. It’s a marathon and not a sprint, and it’s hard to monetize a magazine based off of [Google Ads] and sponsored posts. The six-month runway will allow you to get your bearings while working out the kinks as you grow your audience.” ―Tom La Vecchia, Founder, X Factor Media and New Theory Magazine and Podcast

2. Build Your Digital Magazine Team

Very few successful magazines are started and sustained by a single person; you need a team that can help you create compelling, visually appealing content. As discussed above, that team can consist of full-time staff, volunteers, or freelancers.

Here are typical roles that you’ll see in the digital magazine world.

Typical Magazine Staff and What They Do

While new magazine owners typically take on several roles when first starting out, it’s unwise to do everything yourself. Unlike a blog, magazine readers expect to hear from different contributors in each issue. That’s why it’s smart to have many writers on your editorial team, even if most or all are volunteers.

3. Select Your Digital Magazine Software

In deciding how to create a digital magazine, you’ll probably want to use a software platform to make creating your magazine a whole lot easier. It pays to take your time in selecting the right software for your needs.

Digital magazine software programs perform a variety of functions, including helping you set up your magazine, turn PDFs into magazine-style flipbooks or apps, embed interactive features into your magazines, and much more.

Below is a list of top magazine software along with related costs.

• Joomag : This is an all-in-one digital publishing platform that helps you create interactive content, distribute your magazine on multiple channels, track magazine performance, and helps you monetize your magazine through subscriptions. Plans range from $79 to $149 per month. Enterprise plans are also available and come with custom features and pricing.
• Pub HTML5 : Create media-rich flipbook magazines with this easy-to-use tool. Plans range from free to $25 per month. Enterprise plans are available for $999.

Turn your PDFs into interactive magazine-style flipbooks with Pub HTML5

• Issuu : You can create your digital magazine and start selling single issues or subscriptions using the Issuu digital publishing and Issue sales tools. Plans range from free to $35 per month.
• MagLoft : This software builds mobile apps for digital magazine publishers. You can upload your own PDFs or ePUBs and then use MagLoft’s drag-and-drop editor to create interactive content for your magazine. Best of all, your digital magazine is responsive, which means it adjusts to the device the reader is using, and that makes for an optimal reader experience. That means no excessive pinching and frustrating left-to-right scrolling to read your magazine. Plans range from free to $499 per month.
• Flipsnack : You can develop, share, and embed online magazines into your website and social media channels with Flipsnack. The professional plan also allows you to sell your magazine directly on the Flipsnack platform. Plans range from free to $79 per month.
• PressPad/Magz : Using your PDFs, this software creates mobile magazine apps for iOS and Android devices. Plans range from $84.99 to $299 per month

The Style to the Aisle digital magazine app was created using PressPad/Magz

Each of the software platforms listed above come with a free trial. As the features among the various digital magazine software vary greatly, it is highly recommended that you take full advantage of the trial period to test out the software before making a purchase decision.

4. How to Sell Your Digital Magazine

Where you can sell your magazine depends on your magazine’s format. Digital magazines can be created as simple PDFs, electronic publications―also known as an ePUBs, which is the format e-readers like iBooks and Kindle Reader use―or as HTML5 documents using software like Pub HTML5.

You can sell your digital magazine on your website, on a Shopify store, through GumRoad, SendOwl, or any other site that allows you to sell digital downloads.

Some digital magazine software platforms like FlipSnack also allow you to host and sell your magazine on their platform. You can also publish your magazine on online newsstand sites, including:

• Magzter : This site boasts having more than 12,000 online magazines for buyers to purchase.
• Zinio : Featuring more than 6,000 digital magazines, your digital magazine will be in good company with top magazines like Time, Sports Illustrated, and Better Fast Company.
• Readly : This site offers a unique selling model. Subscribers get unlimited access to more than 4,000 magazines on its website for $9 per month.

Another way to create your digital magazine is to develop an app. If you create an app for your magazine, you can sell your digital magazine on popular app sites like the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store .

The beauty of selling your magazine directly on popular app stores is that you have access to huge audiences where your digital magazine can be discovered. The downside is the app-developing magazine software tends to cost more than epub magazine software. For example, for a web and mobile app plan from MagLoft, plans start at $299 per month. Professional custom app developers charge well into the thousands.

Create a magazine app and sell your digital magazine on popular app sites, such as Apple’s App Store

5. Design Your Online Magazine

A digital magazine has many of the same characteristics as a traditional magazine. You’ll need to design a masthead, which includes the title of your magazine along with any other information that you want to recur on each issue. Your magazine’s cover design will change from issue to issue, but certain elements such as typography, size of fonts, borders, colors, and so on will remain the same for continuity.

Your magazine will also need a logical and yet imaginative page layout that will also be partially modified and still show consistency across all issues. Last but certainly not least, the photography for your magazine needs to be powerful and compelling. The best print magazines on the planet are known for stunning photography. Magazine readers have come to expect amazing photographs from digital magazines too.

These Time covers illustrate how a magazine can vary cover elements while still maintaining a recognizable look and feel from issue to issue

Digital Publication Layout and Graphic Design

There are many graphic tools that you can use to design a stunning layout for your magazine. Adobe InDesign is the most popular layout software among graphic designers. If you’re looking for an easy-to-use design program, you can access Canva’s magazine cover templates with Canva’s paid plan, which costs $9.95 per month when paid annually. Additionally, many of the magazine software programs mentioned in Step 3 offer magazine layout and design tools to make sure your magazine is sharp.

Another popular resource for design help for do-it-yourself magazine publishers is Creative Market. There, you’ll find dozens of different magazine cover and layout templates you can purchase to create your own design.

Example of a wedding magazine template designed by Bellenity Design as advertised on Creative Market

If there’s one area of your site not to skimp on it is on your magazine’s basic design. If you’re not a design professional, make sure you acquire professional design help to create the look and feel of your magazine. If you can’t afford a designer, you can purchase a ready-made magazine template to help you develop your digital magazine. Poorly designed magazines seldom turn into huge financial successes.

Digital Magazine Photography

There are many great sources for exceptional photography for your digital magazine. When paying for images or using free photos, make sure you understand the usage rights for those images. Also, double-check that the photos you choose can be placed on a magazine that’s being sold either by subscription or single issue, provided you’re charging for your magazine, and be transparent regarding any photo attribution notations that are required.

To protect yourself from costly legal nightmares, also verify that the images you’re using come from a source that has the rights to grant you usage privileges for the images you use. Sites like Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash have thousands of free images that might be perfect for your magazine. There have been instances reported where photos on free sites were posted without the owners’ consent. As a magazine publisher, you could be held liable for using any photo you did not have the right to publish.

If you need some help with the legal aspects of publishing a digital magazine, you may want to explore LegalZoom’s intellectual property services. LegalZoom can help you with magazine trademarks, copyright registration, and more. You can also speak with an attorney anytime you want through LegalZoom’s prepaid legal plans.

National Geographic magazine is known for its stunning photography

If your budget allows, consider purchasing royalty-free images from stock houses, such as BigStock, 123rf, Shutterstock, and Getty Images. These sites often have considerably higher quality images than you’ll find on free sites and usually have far more extensive photo collections. Also, when you purchase images on these sites, you have a third-party record that you paid for the right to use the images you are buying for publication.

Finally, if you have access to an exceptional photographer or if you are one, then original photos can set your digital magazine apart from others on the market. If you can’t find a local photographer that you want to work with, you can find photographers on freelance sites like Upwork and Fiverr. Another source for finding a photographer is Scoopshot, which is an online portal that matches photographers with clients needing photography services.

Example of a typical magazine page layout and common page elements from OutSource2India

Digital Publication Typography

Be selective when choosing typography for your magazine. Typography is an important design element that contributes significantly to the vibe your digital magazine exudes. If you’re not sure what to use, do some research. Review all types of magazines for the different fonts that are used as well as how type is used in headers, subheaders, call-out quotes, and so on. Choosing the right type combinations for your magazine should not be underestimated; typography has more influence on overall design look and feel of a magazine than most people understand.

Example of creative use of typography in Solitaire magazine designed by Natalie Shau

6. Create Content for Your Digital Magazine

The content for your magazine is what keeps readers coming back issue after issue. That’s why it’s important to be strategic with your content plan.

Most magazines include both in-depth featured content and shorter recurring content, such as a table of contents, letters to the editor, message from editor-in-chief, and various short-form columns targeting the magazine readers’ top interests. Note that for recurring content, magazines typically use a semi-standardized page design so that readers get familiar with these regular columns. Advertisements are generally spread throughout the magazine, though are less prevalent among the featured articles.

You need to create a plan for what content pieces you’ll add and where they’ll go in your magazine. For example, “front of the book” content is typically filled with short-form content, while the middle of the magazine, or “the feature well,” is where featured content for the issue is placed. The “back of the book” contains all the remaining information that a magazine publisher wants to include, but that is not considered top content. Advertisements here are typically cheaper and, hence, you’ll often see multiple small ads toward the back of the magazine.

Attracting Exceptional Writers for Your Online Magazine

If you’re thinking of launching a new magazine, you may already have access to some great writers in the niche you intend to pursue. If you’d like to expand your network of magazine writers, there are a handful of ways to do this.

Start following forums, blogs, and online articles by people who are addressing the types of issues you want to cover in your magazine. Reach out to anyone who you feel conveys the sentiments and perspectives you want to be shared in your magazine and invite these people to become either paid or guest contributors to your magazine.

You can also find terrific writers and editors on freelance sites like Upwork, Freelancer.com, and Fiverr. You can direct freelancers on the topics you want to be covered, the tone you want, and any other specifics you feel are needed to ensure the freelancer’s writing aligns with your magazine’s voice. Best of all, when working with freelancers, you don’t have to enter into long-term agreements. You can test writers’ skills and decide if you want to continue working with them for future issues.

Fiverr gives you access to hundreds of freelance writers, editors, proofreaders, and more

Landing Interviews for Your Digital Magazine

You’ve probably noticed that many magazines feature famous people on their magazine covers. Big names sell magazines. While you might not be able to land interviews with Oprah Winfrey or Elon Musk when you’re just starting out, that doesn’t mean you can’t go after an interview with a recognizable name for your audience.

Any person who has a new book or business venture to promote is a prime prospect for an interview. When approaching people for interviews, offer several different interview formats from which to choose. For example, you could do a live interview via Zoom, or chat on the telephone, or even conduct an email interview where you send the interviewee a dozen or so questions to answer at his or her leisure. Make it easy for people to say yes to you.

Another significant advantage of landing interviews with famous-to-your-niche people is that the people you interview typically have sizeable followings. When someone with a big audience mentions that he or she interviewed with you, that’s free publicity for your magazine.

The more great interviews that you land, the more people will seek you out to be interviewed. Interviews are a terrific way to gain credibility and grow interest in your digital magazine.

This issue of The City Magazine features an interview with Leonardo DiCaprio to gain interest for its magazine

7. Market Your Digital Magazine

As the publisher for your magazine, the responsibility for its success rests squarely on your shoulders. Don’t assume “if you build it, they will come.” You must market your magazine proactively and be relentless when it comes to attracting readers.

Building an Audience

You’re reading this article because you wanted to know how to create a digital magazine. This post has already walked through the how to’s of creating a magazine, but the seventh step, marketing your digital magazine, is perhaps the most critical step of all. After all, if no one’s reading your magazine, your publication will not be successful.

Here are the top ways most magazines build and sustain a following:

• Offer free samples : Create a premiere edition of your magazine and offer it for free on every channel possible like social media, ads, on your website, and so on. In exchange for receiving the free issue, request an email address so you can follow up with readers and invite them to become regular subscribers.
• Create a website : Most successful digital magazines have a website where people can explore what the magazine is all about as well as subscribe to the magazine. When you do a great job of search engine optimization (SEO) on your website, more people will discover your publication through Google. You can launch a magazine website on WordPress with DreamHost as your hosting provider for only $2.59 per month
• Do a social media blitz : Be unwavering in your commitment to creating and posting compelling social media content that promotes your magazine and introduces people to the new content in each edition.
• Guest blogging and guest podcast appearances : As a magazine publisher, you have a unique perspective to share with the world. Offer to write guest posts on popular blogs or appear as a guest on podcasts that have big audiences. This will help you to get the word out about your new magazine.
• Press releases : New magazine startups are news, so announce your magazine launch through press releases. Use a service like Newswire to get your releases out to as many outlets as possible.
• Advertising : Create niche-targeted advertisements for your magazine on Google Ads or appropriate social media sites.
• Create share-worthy content : The best way to get the word out about your new magazine is to create share-worthy content that has the potential to go viral. Remember that the most-shared content is often visual or interactive, so be sure to create infographics, illustrations, and quizzes that share-worthy.
• Invite readers to engage : Getting people to read all or part of an issue of your magazine is only half the battle. You want them to come back again and again, and even better, tell their friends about the magazine. The best way to make this happen is to engage them through interactive chats and participation pieces within your magazine.

The more you get people to interact with you on multiple channels, the more committed they will be to your magazine. Building an audience takes time, but your magazine will not thrive unless you devote adequate attention to this critical task.

“Build an authentic relationship with your readership. Reply to emails, ask for suggestions, and feature their comments in your social media. Your first readers need to feel like they are part of the family so that they can become your ambassadors.” ―Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Founder, Maker Mag

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About How to Create a Digital Magazine

If you still have questions about how to create a digital magazine, take a glimpse at the questions below to see if your top questions are represented.

How do digital magazines make money?

The three most common ways digital magazines make money is through subscription sales, advertising, and sponsored posts. In most instances, the larger the subscriber base, the more money a digital magazine can make.

How can I make a magazine at home?

You can create a digital magazine from home using any of the magazine software tools discussed in Step 3 . The most budget-friendly are Pub HTML5, Issuu, and FlipSnack. In most cases, you will start with a PDF, then upload it to the software platform of your choice to add interactivity, videos, and more.

How many pages should a digital publication have?

Unlike print magazines, digital magazines have greater latitude when it comes to length because they don’t have print dimension and print cost restraints. Most magazines range from 30 to 120 pages. Your digital magazine should be as long as you feel it needs to be to achieve your goals.

Do I need to trademark my digital magazine?

It’s essential to make sure you’re not violating anyone else’s trademark when naming and designing your magazine. You can search the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) trademark database for free. If your goal is to monetize your magazine, getting a trademark for your magazine is a wise move. LegalZoom makes it easy to trademark your magazine.

Bottom Line

There are just seven steps to creating a digital magazine for less than $200. You start with a clear business plan and a talented team. Then, choose your publishing format and magazine software. Next, you’ll create your sales, design, and content strategies. The final step is building a loyal audience through smart marketing tactics.

This guide explained how to create a digital magazine but, as mentioned throughout the article, you’ll need help. Fiverr offers all types of freelance services that can help you with magazine design, photography, article writing, advertising, copyediting, and more.

Visit Fiverr

About the Author

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Janette Novak

Janette Novak is a business journalist who primarily writes about starting, marketing, and growing online businesses. As a seasoned business consultant, she helps entrepreneurs and business leaders develop winning marketing and business growth strategies. She previously served as the Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer for an international leader in professional development and business training.

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How to write a business plan for a magazine publisher?

Writing a business plan for a magazine publisher can be an intimidating task, especially for those just starting.

This in-depth guide is designed to help entrepreneurs like you understand how to create a comprehensive business plan so that you can approach the exercise with method and confidence.

We'll cover: why writing a magazine publisher business plan is so important - both when starting up, and when running and growing the business - what information you need to include in your plan, how it should be structured, and what tools you can use to get the job done efficiently.

Let's get started!

In this guide:

Why write a business plan for a magazine publisher?

What information is needed to create a business plan for a magazine publisher.

• What goes in the financial forecast for a magazine publisher?
• What goes in the written part of a magazine publisher business plan?
• What tool can I use to write my magazine publisher business plan?

Having a clear understanding of why you want to write a business plan for your magazine publisher will make it simpler for you to grasp the rationale behind its structure and content. So before delving into the plan's actual details, let's take a moment to remind ourselves of the primary reasons why you'd want to create a magazine publisher business plan.

To have a clear roadmap to grow the business

It's rarely business as usual for small businesses. The economy follows cycles where years of growth are followed by recessions, and the business environment is always changing with new technologies, new regulations, new competitors, and new consumer behaviours appearing all the time...

In this context, running a business without a clear roadmap is like driving blindfolded: it's dangerous at best. That's why writing a business plan for a magazine publisher is essential to create successful and sustainable businesses.

To write an effective business plan, you will need to take stock of where you are (if you are already in business) and where you want the business to go in the next three to five years.

Once you know where you want your magazine publisher to be, you'll have to identify:

• what resources (human, equipment, and capital) are needed to get there,
• at what pace the business needs to progress to get there in time,
• and what risks you'll face along the way.

Going through this process regularly is beneficial, both for startups and existing companies, as it helps make informed decisions about how best to allocate resources to ensure the long-term success of the business.

To get visibility on future cash flows

If your small magazine publisher runs out of cash: it's game over. That's why we often say "cash is king", and it's crucial to have a clear view of your magazine publisher's future cash flows.

So, how can you achieve this? It's simple - you need to have an up-to-date financial forecast.

The good news is that your magazine publisher business plan already includes a financial forecast (which we'll discuss further in this guide). Your task is to ensure it stays current.

To accomplish this, it's essential to regularly compare your actual financial performance with what was planned in your financial forecast. Based on your business's current trajectory, you can make adjustments to the forecast.

By diligently monitoring your magazine publisher's financial health, you'll be able to spot potential financial issues, like unexpected cash shortfalls, early on and take corrective actions. Moreover, this practice will enable you to recognize and capitalize on growth opportunities, such as excess cash flow enabling you to expand to new locations.

To secure financing

Whether you are a startup or an existing business, writing a detailed magazine publisher business plan is essential when seeking financing from banks or investors.

This makes sense given what we've just seen: financiers want to ensure you have a clear roadmap and visibility on your future cash flows.

Banks will use the information included in the plan to assess your borrowing capacity (how much debt your business can support) and your ability to repay the loan before deciding whether they will extend credit to your business and on what terms.

Similarly, investors will review your plan carefully to assess if their investment can generate an attractive return on investment.

To do so, they will be looking for evidence that your magazine publisher has the potential for healthy growth, profitability, and cash flow generation over time.

Now that you understand why it is important to create a business plan for a magazine publisher, let's take a look at what information is needed to create one.

Writing a magazine publisher business plan requires research so that you can project sales, investments and cost accurately in your financial forecast.

In this section, we cover three key pieces of information you should gather before drafting your business plan!

Carrying out market research for a magazine publisher

As you consider writing your business plan for a magazine publisher, conducting market research becomes a vital step to ensure accurate and realistic financial projections.

Market research provides valuable insights into your target customer base, competitors, pricing strategies, and other key factors that can significantly impact the commercial success of your business.

Through this research, you may uncover trends that could influence your magazine publisher.

Your market research may reveal that readers may be interested in stories related to health and wellness, as well as content related to personal finance. It could also indicate that readers may prefer content that is presented through multimedia formats, such as videos and interactive graphics.

Such market trends play a significant role in forecasting revenue, as they offer valuable data about potential customers' spending habits and preferences.

By incorporating these findings into your financial projections, you can present investors with more accurate information, helping them make informed decisions about investing in your magazine publisher.

Developing the sales and marketing plan for a magazine publisher

Budgeting sales and marketing expenses is essential before creating a magazine publisher business plan.

A comprehensive sales and marketing plan should provide an accurate projection of what actions need to be implemented to acquire and retain customers, how many people are needed to carry out these initiatives, and how much needs to be spent on promotions, advertising, and other aspects.

This helps ensure that the right amount of resources is allocated to these activities in order to hit the sales and growth objectives forecasted in your business plan.

The staffing and equipment needs of a magazine publisher

As you embark on starting or expanding your magazine publisher, having a clear plan for recruitment and capital expenditures (investment in equipment and real estate) is essential for ensuring your business's success.

Both the recruitment and investment plans must align with the timing and level of growth projected in your forecast, and they require appropriate funding.

A magazine publisher might incur staffing costs such as salaries for editors, writers, graphic designers, and other personnel. They might also incur costs for equipment such as computers, printers, and other office supplies. Additionally, the publisher might need to pay for subscriptions to software programs and other tools used to create the magazine, as well as for printing services and distribution costs.

To create a realistic financial forecast, you also need to consider other operating expenses associated with the day-to-day running of your business, such as insurance and bookkeeping.

With all the necessary information at hand, you are ready to begin crafting your business plan and developing your financial forecast.

What goes into your magazine publisher's financial forecast?

The financial forecast of your magazine publisher's business plan will enable you to assess the growth, profitability, funding requirements, and cash generation potential of your business in the coming years.

The four key outputs of a financial forecast for a magazine publisher are:

• The profit and loss (P&L) statement ,
• The projected balance sheet ,
• The cash flow forecast ,
• And the sources and uses table .

Let's look at each of these in a bit more detail.

The projected P&L statement

The projected P&L statement for a magazine publisher shows how much revenue and profit your business is expected to make in the future.

A healthy magazine publisher's P&L statement should show:

• Sales growing at (minimum) or above (better) inflation
• Stable (minimum) or expanding (better) profit margins
• A healthy level of net profitability

This will of course depend on the stage of your business: numbers for a startup will look different than for an established magazine publisher.

The forecasted balance sheet of your magazine publisher

The projected balance sheet of your magazine publisher will enable the reader of your business plan to assess the overall financial health of your business.

It shows three elements: assets, liabilities and equity:

• Assets: are productive resources owned by the business, such as equipment, cash, and accounts receivable (money owed by clients).
• Liabilities: are debts owed to creditors, lenders, and other entities, such as accounts payable (money owed to suppliers).
• Equity: includes the sums invested by the shareholders or business owners and the profits and losses accumulated by the business to date (which are called retained earnings). It is a proxy for the value of the owner's stake in the business.

Analysing your magazine publisher projected balance sheet provides an understanding of your magazine publisher's working capital structure, investment and financing policies.

In particular, the readers of your plan can compare the level of financial debt on the balance sheet to the equity value to measure the level of financial risk (equity doesn't need to be reimbursed, while financial debt must be repaid, making it riskier).

They can also use your balance sheet to assess your magazine publisher's liquidity and solvency:

• A liquidity analysis: focuses on whether or not your business has sufficient cash and short-term assets to cover its liabilities due in the next 12 months.
• A solvency analysis: takes and longer view to assess whether or not your business has the capacity to repay its debts over the medium-term.

The cash flow forecast

As we've seen earlier in this guide, monitoring future cash flows is the key to success and the only way of ensuring that your magazine publisher has enough cash to operate.

As you can expect showing future cash flows is the main role of the cash flow forecast in your magazine publisher business plan.

It is best practice to organise the cash flow statement by nature in order to show the cash impact of the following areas:

• Cash flow generated from operations: the operating cash flow shows how much cash is generated or consumed by the business's commercial activities
• Cash flow from investing activities: the investing cash flow shows how much cash is being invested in capital expenditure (equipment, real estate, etc.) either to maintain the business's equipment or to expand its capabilities
• Cash flow from financing activities: the financing cash flow shows how much cash is raised or distributed to financiers

Looking at the cash flow forecast helps you to make sure that your business has enough cash to keep running, and can help you anticipate potential cash shortfalls.

Your magazine publisher business plan will normally include both yearly and monthly cash flow forecasts so that the readers can view the impact of seasonality on your business cash position and generation.

The initial financing plan

The initial financing plan, also known as a sources and uses table, is a valuable resource to have in your business plan when starting your magazine publisher as it reveals the origins of the money needed to establish the business (sources) and how it will be allocated (uses).

Having this table helps show what costs are involved in setting up your magazine publisher, how risks are shared between founders, investors and lenders, and what the starting cash position will be. This cash position needs to be sufficient to sustain operations until the business reaches a break-even point.

Now that you have a clear understanding of what goes into the financial forecast of your magazine publisher business plan, let's shift our focus to the written part of the plan.

The written part of a magazine publisher business plan

The written part of a magazine publisher business plan is composed of 7 main sections:

• The executive summary
• The presentation of the company
• The products and services
• The market analysis
• The strategy
• The operations
• The financial plan

Throughout these sections, you will seek to provide the reader with the details and context needed for them to form a view on whether or not your business plan is achievable and your forecast a realistic possibility.

Let's go through the content of each section in more detail!

1. The executive summary

In your magazine publisher's business plan, the first section is the executive summary — a captivating overview of your plan that aims to pique the reader's interest and leave them eager to learn more about your business.

When crafting the executive summary, start with an introduction to your business, including its name, concept, location, how long it has been running, and what sets it apart. Briefly mention the products and services you plan to offer and your target customer profile.

Following that, provide an overview of the addressable market for your magazine publisher, current trends, and potential growth opportunities.

Next, include a summary of key financial figures like projected revenues, profits, and cash flows.

Finally, in the "ask" section, detail any funding requirements you may have.

2. The presentation of the company

The second section in your magazine publisher's business plan should focus on the structure and ownership, location, and management team of the company.

The structure and ownership part provides an overview of the legal structure of the business, who the owners are and how much each has invested and owns. If you are seeking financing it is important that the reader gets a clear picture of which legal entity is receiving the funds, and who controls the business.

The location part should give an overview of the premises from which the company is operating, and why that location is of particular interest (catchment area, accessibility, amenities nearby, etc.).

When describing the location of your magazine publisher, you could emphasize the potential for growth in the region. It may be situated in an area with an expanding population and a growing economy. This could make it attractive to potential investors, as it may offer the opportunity for increased sales and a larger customer base. Additionally, the area may be known for having a strong workforce and other resources that could be beneficial to a magazine publisher. By highlighting these potential advantages, you could make a compelling case for why the location of your magazine publisher is the perfect choice for a third party financier.

Finally, you should introduce the management team. Explain each member's role, background, and experience.

It is also important to emphasize any past successes that the members of the management team have achieved, and how long they've been working together, as this will help potential lenders or investors understand why they should trust in their leadership.

3. The products and services section

The products and services section of your business plan should include a detailed description of the offerings that your company provides to its customers. 

For example, your magazine publisher might offer subscription services to customers, providing them with access to all their publications at a discounted rate. They could also offer personalized content, allowing customers to tailor their magazine experience to their interests. They might also provide editorial services to their customers, allowing them to write articles for the magazine and giving them the chance to have their work published.

When drafting this section, you should be precise about the categories of products or services you sell, the types of customers you are targeting and how customers can buy them.

4. The market analysis

When outlining your market analysis in the magazine publisher business plan, it's essential to include comprehensive details about customers' demographics and segmentation, target market, competition, barriers to entry, and relevant regulations.

The primary aim of this section is to give the reader an understanding of the market size and appeal while demonstrating your expertise in the industry.

To begin, delve into the demographics and segmentation subsection, providing an overview of the addressable market for your magazine publisher, key marketplace trends, and introducing various customer segments and their preferences in terms of purchasing habits and budgets.

Next, shift your focus to the target market subsection, where you can zoom in on the specific customer segments your magazine publisher targets. Explain how your products and services are tailored to meet the unique needs of these customers.

For example, your target market might include young professionals. This demographic might be interested in magazines that cover topics such as business, lifestyle, and travel. They may be busy, but look for interesting articles to read while commuting or in their spare time.

In the competition subsection, introduce your main competitors and explain what sets your magazine publisher apart from them.

Finally, round off your market analysis by providing an overview of the main regulations that apply to your magazine publisher.

5. The strategy section

When writing the strategy section of a business plan for your magazine publisher, it is essential to include information about your competitive edge, pricing strategy, sales & marketing plan, milestones, and risks and mitigants.

The competitive edge subsection should explain what sets your company apart from its competitors. This part is especially key if you are writing the business plan of a startup, as you have to make a name for yourself in the marketplace against established players.

The pricing strategy subsection should demonstrate how you intend to remain profitable while still offering competitive prices to your customers.

The sales & marketing plan should outline how you intend to reach out and acquire new customers, as well as retain existing ones with loyalty programs or special offers. 

The milestones subsection should outline what your company has achieved to date, and its main objectives for the years to come - along with dates so that everyone involved has clear expectations of when progress can be expected.

The risks and mitigants subsection should list the main risks that jeopardize the execution of your plan and explain what measures you have taken to minimize these. This is essential in order for investors or lenders to feel secure in investing in your venture.

Your magazine publisher could face the risk of a decrease in readership. As readers' interests shift, they may not be as interested in the content your magazine provides. Additionally, your magazine publisher could face the risk of competition in the market. New magazines may emerge that could offer readers content that is more appealing than yours.

6. The operations section

The operations of your magazine publisher must be presented in detail in your business plan.

Begin by addressing your staff, specifying the main roles and your recruitment plan to support the anticipated growth. Outline the qualifications and experience needed for each role and discuss your recruitment strategies, which may involve using job boards, referrals, or headhunters.

Next, clearly state your magazine publisher's operating hours, allowing the reader to gauge the adequacy of your staffing levels. Additionally, mention any considerations for varying opening times during peak seasons and your approach to handling customer queries outside regular operating hours.

The key assets and intellectual property (IP) required to run your business should also be highlighted. If you rely on licenses, trademarks, physical structures like equipment or property, or lease agreements, ensure they are well-documented in this section.

You could have a library of magazine articles, written by freelancers or staff writers. These could be a key asset and form of intellectual property, as they have value that can be reused, repurposed, or republished. You may also have a database of subscribers, which could be a valuable asset that helps to drive revenue. This database could also be considered intellectual property, as it contains information that could be used to target specific demographics.

Finally, provide a comprehensive list of suppliers you intend to collaborate with, along with a breakdown of their services and main commercial terms, such as price, payment terms, break clauses and contract duration. Investors often seek insight into the reasons behind your supplier choices, which may include a preference for higher-quality products or established relationships from past ventures.

7. The presentation of the financial plan

The financial plan section is where we will include the financial forecast we talked about earlier in this guide.

Now that you have a clear idea of the content of a magazine publisher business plan, let's look at some of the tools you can use to create yours.

What tool should I use to write my magazine publisher's business plan?

There are two main ways of creating your magazine publisher business plan:

• Using specialized business planning software,
• Hiring a business plan writer.

Using an online business plan software for your magazine publisher's business plan

Using online business planning software is the most efficient and modern way to create a magazine publisher business plan.

There are several advantages to using specialized software:

• You can easily create your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
• You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan
• You can access a library of dozens of complete business plan samples and templates for inspiration
• You get a professional business plan, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank or investors
• You can easily track your actual financial performance against your financial forecast
• You can create scenarios to stress test your forecast's main assumptions
• You can easily update your forecast as time goes by to maintain visibility on future cash flows
• You have a friendly support team on standby to assist you when you are stuck

If you're interested in using this type of solution, you can try The Business Plan Shop for free by signing up here .

Hiring a business plan writer to write your magazine publisher's business plan

Outsourcing your magazine publisher business plan to a business plan writer can also be a viable option.

Business plan writers are experienced in writing business plans and adept at creating financial forecasts without errors. Furthermore, hiring a consultant can save you time and allow you to focus on the day-to-day operations of your business.

However, hiring business plan writers is expensive as you are paying for the software used by the consultant, plus their time, and their profit margin of course.

From experience, you need to budget at least £1.5k ($2.0k) excluding tax for a complete business plan, more if you need to make changes after the initial version (which happens frequently after the initial meetings with lenders or investors).

You also need to be careful when seeking investment. Investors want their money to be used to grow the business, not spent on consulting fees. Therefore, the amount you spend on business plan writing services (and other consulting services such as legal services) needs to be negligible relative to the amount raised.

The other drawback is that you usually don't own the business plan itself: you just get the output, while the actual document is saved in the consultant's business plan software - which makes it difficult to maintain the document up to date without hiring the consultant on a retainer.

For these reasons, outsourcing the magazine publisher business plan to a business plan writer should be considered carefully, weighing both the advantages and disadvantages of hiring outside help.

Ultimately, it may be the right decision for some businesses, while others may find it beneficial to write their business plan using online software.

Why not create your magazine publisher's business plan using Word or Excel?

Using Microsoft Excel and Word (or their Google, Apple, or open-source equivalents) to write a magazine publisher business plan is not advisable. Allow me to explain the reasons.

Firstly, creating an accurate and error-free financial forecast on Excel or any spreadsheet demands technical expertise in accounting principles and financial modelling. Without a degree in finance and accounting and significant financial modelling experience, it's unlikely that the reader will fully trust your numbers.

Secondly, relying on spreadsheets is inefficient. While it may have been the go-to option in the past, technology has evolved, and software now performs such tasks much faster and more accurately.

The second reason is that it is inefficient. Building forecasts on spreadsheets was the only option in the early 2000s, nowadays technology has advanced and software can do it much faster and much more accurately.

And with the rise of AI, software is also becoming smarter at helping us detect mistakes in our forecasts and helping us analyse the numbers to make better decisions.

Moreover, software offers ease in comparing actuals versus forecasts and maintaining up-to-date forecasts for clear visibility on future cash flows, as we discussed earlier in this guide. Such tasks are cumbersome when using spreadsheets.

Now, let's address the written part of your magazine publisher business plan. While it may be less prone to errors, using software can significantly boost productivity. Word processors lack instructions and examples for each section of your business plan. They also won't automatically update your numbers when changes occur in your forecast, and they lack automated formatting capabilities.

In summary, while some entrepreneurs may consider Word or Excel for their business plan, it's far from the best or most efficient solution when compared to specialized software.

• A business plan has 2 complementary parts: a financial forecast showcasing the expected growth, profits and cash flows of the business; and a written part which provides the context needed to judge if the forecast is realistic and relevant.
• Having an up-to-date business plan is the only way to keep visibility on your magazine publisher's future cash flows.
• Using business plan software is the modern way of writing and maintaining business plans.

We hope that this practical guide gave you insights on how to write the business plan for your magazine publisher. Do not hesitate to get in touch with our team if you still have questions.

Also on The Business Plan Shop

• In-depth business plan structure
• Key steps to write a business plan?
• Free business plan template

Know someone who owns or wants to start a magazine publisher? Share this article with them!

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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Magazine Business Plan Template [Updated 2024]

Magazine Business Plan Template

If you want to start a Magazine business or expand your current Magazine business, you need a business plan.

The following Magazine business plan template gives you the key elements to include in a winning Magazine business plan.

You can download our business plan template (including a full, customizable financial model) to your computer here.

Below are links to each of the key sections of your Magazine business plan: I. Executive Summary II. Company Overview III. Industry Analysis IV. Customer Analysis V. Competitive Analysis VI. Marketing Plan VII. Operations Plan VIII. Management Team IX. Financial Plan

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Magazine Business Plan Home I. Executive Summary II. Company Overview III. Industry Analysis IV. Customer Analysis V. Competitive Analysis VI. Marketing Plan VII. Operations Plan VIII. Management Team IX. Financial Plan

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Online Magazine Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans » Media Sector

Are you about starting a magazine publishing company ? If YES, here is a complete sample online magazine business plan template & feasibility study you can use for FREE .

There are several niches and loads of well – known magazines that are sold all over the world. Magazines are generally published on a regular schedule; it can be weekly or monthly or even quarterly and they usually contain a variety of content based on the market the magazine is designed for.

When it comes to generating incomes, magazine companies exploit the sale of their magazines in newsstands, from advertisement from stakeholders and of course from those who sign – on to prepaid subscriptions and when it comes to distributing magazines, most magazines publisher make use of the mailing system, bookshops, strategic news – stands, through registered vendors and selected pick – up locations et al.

There is no restriction to the numbers of publications house that can engage in magazines publications, sales and distribution. As a matter of fact, students can start their own magazines publications right from their campuses and distribute it within the campus community.

A Sample Online Magazine Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

In the united states of America, a total number of 152 magazines closed shop In 2011 and also a total number of 82 magazines ceased operations in 2012 due to inability to make profits and of course generate enough money to continue publications.

In 2013, statistics has it that subscription levels for 22 out of the top 25 magazines in the United States of America dropped from 2012 to 2013. As a matter of fact, the only few magazines that experienced increase within the said period are Time magazine, Glamour magazine and ESPN magazine.

The United States’ magazine industry generates combined revenue of over 27.29 Billion U.S. dollars with magazine advertising alone generating over 15.2 Billion U.S. dollars.

History has it that a U.K. publication; The Gentleman’s Magazine which was first published in 1731, in London was the first ever general interest magazine to be published. It is on record that the oldest consumer magazine which was first published in 1739; The Scots Magazine is still in print till this days.

The print industry is currently experiencing some challenges; investment in magazines is experiencing decline. It is on record that there is a steady decline in total numbers of magazines that are sold in the United States daily. Statistics has it that in 1985, there were about 1,676 dailies in the United States but in 2011, the number dropped to 1,382 and of course it is still dropping.

It has been projected by market experts that the magazine industry will generate combined revenue of 16.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, which is over 4 billion U.S. dollars less than the combined revenue generated in 2011. It is also projected that corporate organizations who advertise in magazines will also cut their magazine advertising spending much less than their newspaper advertising spending.

The magazine industry is truly struggling to survive in the United States of America and in other countries of the world. A survey that was conducted revealed that in 2012, only about 3 percent of Americans stated that they regularly read magazines; and 9 percent stated that they read magazines sometimes.

It is good enough that the magazine industry is extremely well-organized in its data collection and presentation; which is why new publication firms who are interested in coming into the industry choose niche groups that attracts a wide range of readership.

Despite the fact that the magazine industry appears to be saturated in the United States, there is still a positive outlook for the industry especially when it comes to leveraging on the internet. People are encouraged to go into magazine publications because it is now easier to gain wider readership with the aid of the internet and couple with the fact that it will cost little or nothing to launch an online magazine publication.

2. Executive Summary

Boston Weekly®, Inc. is a new but standard magazine publishing and distribution company that will be based in Boston – Massachusetts, USA. Our niche as a magazine publishing company covers News, Entertainment, Business and Sport.

Our state of the art in – house printing press is located in a standard corner piece facility that is centrally located in the heart of Boston and few minutes drive to Harvard University Community.

We have put plans and robust distribution network in place to enable us effectively distribute our weekly magazine to key cities throughout the United States of America and also to the rest part of the world via our online platform and mobile apps.

Boston Weekly®, Inc. is established by the Massachusetts awarding winning journalist – Dr. Campbell Washington and other like mind investors. Dr. Washington has B.A. in English Language, Advance Diploma in Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School.

He has robust experience in print journalism having worked for over 15 years with some of the leading magazine publishing companies in the United States of America prior to starting his own business. We are in the Magazine Publication and Distribution Industry to favorably compete with other leading brands in the industry such as Time Magazine, ESPN Magazine and New York Times et al.

Our corporate business goal is to be among the top 10 magazine publishing and distribution brand in the United States of America. As a company, we are willing to go the extra mile to invest in some of the finest professionals we can find and also we have set plans in place to setup a standard and start of the art printing press and distribution network.

Boston Weekly®, Inc. will at all times demonstrate her commitment to sustainability, both individually and as a firm, by actively participating in our communities and integrating sustainable business practices wherever possible.

We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our customers’ needs precisely and completely whenever they patronize our magazine either hardcopies or subscribing on our online portal. We will cultivate a working environment that provides a human, sustainable approach to earning a living, and living in our world, for our partners, employees and for our customers.

Our plan is to position Boston Weekly®, Inc. to become the leading brand in the magazine publishing and distribution industry in the whole of Massachusetts, and also to be amongst the top 10 magazine brand in the United States of America within the first 10 years of starting our business.

This might look too tall a dream but we are optimistic that this will surely come to pass because we have done our research and feasibility studies and we are enthusiastic and confident that Boston – Massachusetts is the right place to launch this type of business before spreading to other cities all across The United States of America.

3. Our Products and Services

At Boston Weekly®, Inc. we will ensure that we maximize all the services and products that are associated with a magazine publishing and distribution business. As part our strategy to create multiple sources of income in line with our core business concept, we will encourage our clients to subscribe to our magazines as against buying from the newsstands.

This is so because we are aware that it is easier to get huge discount from post office services as against transporting your magazines to newsstands that are scattered all around the United States. Another key factor that we will leverage on is to create a strong online presence and also to push our electronic magazine far and wide within the online community.

If we can successful gain appreciable numbers of online subscription and adverts, then we are likely not going to struggle to manage and finance your magazine publication company. Here are some of our products and services;

• Distribution of Hardcopies Magazines Nationwide
• Availability of online subscription for our e – Magazine
• Create Large Platforms for Publicity and Advertising for both individual and corporate clients
• Operate a standard printing press open to the general public
• Run a consultancy and Advisory services as it relates to magazine publications and journalism.

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• To be amongst the top 10leading magazine publishing and distribution companies in the United States of America before our 10 th anniversary.
• Our mission is to build a world – class magazine publishing and distribution business whose magazines can be find in all nooks and crannies of the United States of America; a magazine company with a very strong online presence with active subscribers from all over the world.

Our Business Structure

As part of our plan to build a standard Magazine Publishing and Distribution Company in Boston – Massachusetts, we have perfected plans to get it right from the beginning which is why we are going the extra mile to ensure that we have competent and hardworking employees to occupy all the available positions in our company.

The picture of the kind of Magazine Publishing and Distribution Company we intend building and the business goals we want to achieve is what informed the amount we are ready to pay for the best hands available in the Magazine Publishing and Distribution industry as long as they are willing and ready to work with us to achieve our business goals and objectives.

Below is the business structure that we will build Boston Weekly®, Inc.;

• Chief Executive Officer / Editor in Chief

Human Resources and Admin Manager

• Journalist / Content Creators / Photo Journalist

Graphic Artist

• Sales and Marketing Officer
• Accountants / Cashiers
• Printing Press Workers (Printing Machine Operators)
• Dispatch Riders and Van Drivers
• Customer Service Executives

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer / Editor in Chief:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information and opinions; providing educational opportunities.
• Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of the magazine production and distribution process
• Evaluates the success of the organization
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
• Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations.
• Enhances department and organization reputation by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests; exploring opportunities to add value to job accomplishments.
• Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carrying out staff induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Oversee the smooth running of the daily office and shop activities.

Journalist / Content Creator / PhotoJournalist

• Conduct research, determine the number of pages, screen the content, stories, photographs, features, Ads, the style of the magazine in the magazine and the design and layout of Magazine et al.
• Responsible for creating contents for our magazine
• Assist the editorial team in editing contents
• Responsible for conducting interviews.
• Liaising with management to determine their requirement and budget
• Responsible for developing concepts, graphics and layouts for product illustrations, company logos, and websites
• Responsible for managing the magazine production process from typesetting through to design, print and production
• Responsible for reviewing final layout and suggesting improvement if necessary
• Determine size and arrangement of illustrative material and copy, and font style and size
• Responsible for liaising with external printers on a regular basis to ensure deadlines are met and material is printed to the highest quality
• Responsible for preparing drafts or material based on an agreement brief.
• Research and advice the organization on style, genre and other trendy info as it relates to graphic design.

Sales and Marketing Manager

• Manage external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
• Model demographic information and analyze the volumes of transactional data generated by customer purchases
• Identify, prioritize, and reach out to new partners, and business opportunities et al
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Develop, execute and evaluate new plans for expanding increase sales and distribution network
• Document all customer contact and information
• Represent the company in strategic meetings
• Help increase sales and growth for the company

Print Press Workers (Printing Machine Operators)

• Operate the printing machines
• Responsible for carrying out all casual or unskilled jobs in the printing press
• Responsible for packaging magazines meant for delivery
• Handles any other duty as assigned by the line manager / supervisor

Accountant / Cashier

• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyzes financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for the organization
• Serves as internal auditor for the organization

Distribution Van Drivers/ Dispatch Riders:

• Responsible for distributing magazines across our distribution network and news stands
• Delivers customer’s orders promptly (customers on subscription plans)
• Runs errand for the organization
• Any other duty as assigned by the sales and marketing executive

Client Service Executive

• Responsible for taking orders from clients when the call or email the organization
• Ensures that all contacts with customer (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with customers on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the shop manager in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on Papilloma House of Pizzas products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to customers when they make enquiries
• Responsible for cleaning the entire printing press facility at all times
• Ensure that toiletries and supplies don’t run out of stock
• Any other duty as assigned by the Human Resource and Admin manager.

6. SWOT Analysis

Due to our desire and drive for excellence when it comes to running a magazine publication and distribution company, we were able to engage some of the finest business consultants in Boston – Massachusetts to look through our business concept and together we were able to critically examine the prospect of the business to be sure we have what it takes to run a standard magazine publication and distribution company that can compete favorably compete with other leading brands in the industry such.

In view of that, we were able to take stock of our strengths, our weakness, the opportunities available to us and also the threats that we are likely going to be exposed to if we launch our magazine publication and distribution business in Boston – Massachusetts and even in the United States of America as a whole.

Here is a of what we got from the critically conducted SWOT Analysis for Boston Weekly®, Inc.;

Our core strength lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team of creative and highly proficient, editors, journalist, and graphic designers; a team with excellent qualifications and experience various niche areas in the magazine and printing press industry.

Aside from the synergy that exist in our carefully selected team; the contents in our magazine and the quality of the magazine will be guided by best practices in the industry.

As a new magazine publishing and distribution company in Boston – Massachusetts, it might take some time for our organization to break into the market and gain acceptance in the already saturated and highly competitive magazine publishing and distribution industry; that is perhaps our major weakness. Another weakness is that we may not have the required cash to promote our business the way we would want to.

• Opportunities:

The opportunities available to us are unlimited. Loads of people consume buys, subscribe and read magazine on a daily basis and all what we are going to do all we can to push our magazine to our target market. So also, there are loads of organizations and individual who would want to place paid adverts in magazines to promote their brands.

The possible threat and challenges that we are likely going to face when we start our own magazine publication business are the ability to consistently attract adverts from corporate organizations.

The truth is that there are several options when it comes to choosing advertising platforms hence most corporate organizations would rather go with trusted and tested platforms as against trying out new magazine that they aren’t sure can break into the market and gain prominence.

Another threat and challenges that we are likely going to be confronted with when we start our magazine publication business is to be able to effectively find a cheaper distribution options. Most magazine publications companies spend more when it comes to transporting their magazines to different newsstands scattered within the locations they intend selling their magazines.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

In setting up a magazine publication company, you have two options; you either run a full magazine publication company with a printing press or you can contract the printing of your magazines to a standard and reliable printing press.

If you choose to choose to run the whole publication process within the same facility, it means that you would have to set – up a printing press with standard printing machines, binders, cutting machines et al. If you are considering starting a magazine publication company, then your concern should not be limited to the cost of setting up the business and gaining readership but also on your distribution network.

The truth is that most magazines companies run into loss simply because they spend more in distributing their magazines to various newsstands across the country. It will pay you if you encourage your clients to subscribe to your magazines as against buying from the newsstands.

It is easier to get huge discount from post office services as against transporting your magazines to newsstands that are scattered all around the United States. Another key factor that you can leverage on is to create a strong online presence and also to push your electronic magazine far and wide within the online community.

As a magazine publisher, if you can successfully gain appreciable numbers of online subscription and adverts, then you are likely not going to struggle to manage and finance your magazine publication company and that is exactly what we plan to do.

8. Our Target Market

When it comes to news, entertainment and sports magazine, there is indeed a wide range of available customers (readership). In essence, our target market can’t be restricted to just a group of people, but all those who love to get the latest updates on news, entertainment and sports et al.

In view of that, we have conducted our market research and we have ideas of what our target market would be expecting from us. These are the groups of people we intend marketing our magazines to;

• Corporate Executives
• Government Officials
• Business People
• Celebrities
• Military Men and Women
• Sports Men and Women
• Everyone who resides in our target locations.

Our Competitive Advantage

Beyond every reasonable doubt, the competition in the magazine industry is high but one thing is certain, if you are able to set a standard in the industry, you are sure going to get committed and faithful readers who would not mind paying annual subscription fee upfront.

Although you can experience less competitions if you choose to carve a niche for yourself and also exploit the internet and perhaps a book / reader’s club.

We are quite aware that to be highly competitive in the magazine publishing and distribution industry means that you are not only expected to be able to deliver consistent and robust contents at all time, but you must be able to meet set targets.

No one would want to continue to subscribe to your magazine if they are not sure they are likely going to get the magazines deliver to them as at when due.

Our competitive advantage lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team of creative and highly proficient, editors, journalist, and graphic designers; a team with excellent qualifications and experience various niche areas in the magazine and printing press industry.

Lastly, all our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category (startups magazine publishing and distribution businesses in the United States) in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our business aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Boston Weekly®, Inc. is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the magazine publishing and distribution industry in the United States of America and we are going to go all the way to ensure that we do all it takes to achieve our corporate goal of generating enough income to run the business and pay our staff members as at when due.

Boston Weekly®, Inc. will generate income by offering the following products and services;

10. Sales Forecast

It is important to state that our sales forecast is based on the data gathered during our feasibility studies, market survey and also some of the assumptions readily available on the field. Below are the sales projections that we were able to come up with for the first three years of operations;

• First Year-: $250,000
• Second Year-: $450,000
• Third Year-: $800,000

N.B : This projection is done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and the arrival of a competitor in same location as ours within the period stated above. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

We are mindful of the fact that there are stiffer competition in the magazine publishing and distribution industry; hence we have been able to hire some of the best marketing experts to handle our sales and marketing.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the magazine publishing and distribution industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall business goal of Boston Weekly®, Inc.

Our goal is to grow Boston Weekly®, Inc. to become one of the top 10 magazine publishing and distribution company in the United States of America which is why we have mapped out strategy that will help us take advantage of the available market and grow to become a major force to reckon with not only in the United States of America but also in other parts of the world (online magazine).

Boston Weekly®, Inc. is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our magazine publishing and distribution company by sending introductory letters alongside copy of our magazine to corporate organizations, advertising agencies and key stake holders.
• Promptness in bidding for advert contracts from the government and other cooperate organizations
• Advertise our business cum magazine in relevant business TV stations, and radio station.
• List our business cum magazine on yellow pages ads (local directories)
• Attend relevant international and local expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
• Create different subscription packages for different category of clients in order to work with their budgets and still supply them with copies of our magazine
• Leverage on the internet to promote the sale and distribution of our magazine
• Engage direct marketing approach
• Encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with our in house brand and publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the heart of our target market.

We are set to become the number one choice for both corporate clients and individual clients in the whole of the United States and beyond which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our magazine publishing and distribution company. Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote and advertise Boston Weekly®, Inc.;

• Place adverts on both print (newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community based events / programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our services
• Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around key cities in the United States of America
• Engage in road show from time to time in targeted neighborhoods
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
• Contact corporate organizations by calling them up and informing them of Boston Weekly®, Inc. and how they can subscribe
• List our magazine publishing and distribution company in local directories / yellow pages
• Advertise our magazine publishing and distribution company in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site.
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles and bikes are well branded with our company logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

When it comes to pricing for products such as magazine, there are no hard and fast rules; the price depends on the size and packaging. Generally, the prices for magazine and similar products like pamphlets, newspapers and journals et al are affordable hence there is no need to employ any detailed strategies when it comes to pricing.

In view of that, our prices will conform to what is obtainable in the industry but will ensure that within the first 6 to 12 months our magazine are sold a little bit below the average prices of various magazine brands in the United States of America.

We have put in place business strategies that will help us run on low profit margin for a period of 6 months; it is a way of encouraging people to buy into our brands.

• Payment Options

At Boston Weekly®, Inc., our payment policy is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different people prefer different payment options as it suits them. Here are the payment options that will be available in every of our outlets;

• Payment by cash
• Payment via Point of Sale (POS) Machine
• Payment via online bank transfer (online payment portal)
• Payment via Mobile money

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will help us achieve our payment plans without any itches.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

When it comes to starting a standard magazine publishing and distribution business, one is expected to spend the bulk of the start – up capital on building a standard and well – equipped printing press. Aside from that, you are not expected to spend much except for purchasing distribution vans, paying of your employees and utility bills.

This is the key areas where we will spend our start – up capital;

• The Total Fee for Registering the Business in Boston – Massachusetts – $750.
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits as well as the accounting services (software, P.O.S machines and other software) – $1,300.
• Cost for hiring Business Consultant – $2,500.
• Insurance (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $2,400.
• Cost for payment of rent for 12 month at $1.76 per square feet in the total amount of $105,600.
• Other start-up expenses including stationery ($500) and phone and utility deposits ($2,500).
• The cost of printing the first set of your magazines – $50,000
• The cost for distributing the magazines – $10,000
• Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) – $100,000
• Cost for store equipment (cash register, security, ventilation, signage) – $13,750
• Cost of purchase of distribution vans – $50,000
• The cost for the purchase of furniture and gadgets (Computers, Printers, Telephone, TVs, Sound System, tables and chairs et al) – $4,000.
• The cost of Launching a Website – $600
• The cost for our opening party – $10,000
• Miscellaneous – $10,000

We would need an estimate of $500,000 to successfully set up our magazine publishing and distribution company in Boston – Massachusetts. Please note that this amount includes the salaries of the entire staff member for the first month of operation.

Generating Funding / Startup Capital for Boston Weekly®, Inc.

Boston Weekly®, Inc. is a business that is owned and financed by Dr. Campbell Washington and other like mind investors. They do not intend to welcome any external business partner, which is why he has decided to restrict the sourcing of the start – up capital to 3 major sources.

These are the areas we intend generating our start – up capital;

• Generate part of the start – up capital from personal savings and sell of stocks
• Source for soft loans from family members and friends
• Apply for loan from my Bank

N.B: We have been able to generate about $100,000 (Personal savings $80,000 and soft loan from family members $20,000) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $400,000 from our bank. All the papers and document have been signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited with the amount.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the numbers of loyal customers that they have the capacity and competence of the employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business close shop.

One of our major goals of starting Boston Weekly®, Inc. is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running. We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to sell our magazine a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are well prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Boston Weekly®, Inc. will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and re – training of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more as determined by the board of the organization. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List / Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check:>Completed
• Business Registration: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
• Securing Point of Sales (POS) Machines: Completed
• Opening Mobile Money Accounts: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Leasing of facility and construction of standard Bakery: In Progress
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating capital from business partners: Completed
• Applications for Loan from the bank: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents and other relevant Legal Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: In Progress
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the Needed furniture, racks, shelves, computers, electronic appliances, office appliances and CCTV: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business both online and around the community: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement (License): Secured
• Opening party / launching party planning: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with vendors – wholesale suppliers / merchants (papers, and inks et al): In Progress
• Purchase of delivery vans and bikes: Completed

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• Informed Decision-Making: A well-prepared business plan offers valuable insights into your market, competition, and potential challenges. This information is vital for making informed decisions, from day-to-day operations to long-term strategic shifts.
• Market Analysis and Strategy: It allows you to conduct an in-depth analysis of your target market, understand customer needs, and position your product or service effectively. The marketing strategy outlined in your business plan helps in identifying the best channels and tactics to reach your audience and achieve market penetration.
• Financial Planning: One of the most critical components of a business plan is the financial forecast. It outlines your funding requirements, expected revenue, profit margins, and cash flow projections. This section is essential for budgeting, financial management, and ensuring the financial viability of your business.
• Goal Setting and Performance Measurement: A business plan sets clear, measurable goals and objectives. It provides a framework for monitoring performance, measuring success, and making necessary adjustments to stay on track.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
• There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

• Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
• Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
• Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

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Sprouts of Hope in a Gloomy Media Landscape

A handful of digital start-ups are finding success — so far, at least — by learning lessons from their troubled predecessors.

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By Katie Robertson and Benjamin Mullin

• March 12, 2024

This year is looking grim for the news business.

Facing a set of harsh financial realities — resulting from a mix of news fatigue, an unsteady advertising market and a precipitous fall in traffic from tech giants — many outlets have been forced to fold or make significant cuts in recent months.

But there are some signs of hope. A small cohort of for-profit digital media companies that sprang up during the pandemic have found success — at least for the moment — by taking the opposite approach of many predecessors, such as BuzzFeed and Vice, which fatefully relied on huge amounts of investor money to prioritize growth.

The new class of news start-ups — Puck , Punchbowl News , The Ankler and Semafor are among the most prominent — have kept spending down and hired carefully. They are all centered on newsletters covering specific niches with broad appeal. They have attracted top journalists by putting them at the heart of the enterprise, sometimes as part owners in the companies.

“There was possibly a mismatch 10 or 15 years ago between funding structures and media companies,” said Jon Kelly, the co-founder and editor in chief of Puck, whose 14 reporters write about topics including politics, finance and media. “And I think that the entire industry has learned from that.”

These start-ups exemplify a shift in the conventional wisdom about how to make money in digital publishing. A decade or so ago, many venture capitalists and top media executives thought the then-rising class of digital start-ups might eventually dominate the industry. The big influx of investor money was put toward chasing the biggest audience possible.

But traffic from social media giants like Facebook and Twitter dropped, and the economics of digital ads didn’t add up. Predictions of supplanting traditional TV networks or sprawling print empires never came to pass. The most recent outlet to try this playbook, The Messenger, folded in January, fewer than nine months after it launched.

The formula embraced by the new start-ups is instead sustainable growth built on a mix of revenue sources, including ads, paid subscriptions and sponsored events. Instead of trying to reach everybody on the internet, they have kept more narrow lanes of coverage and targeted high-income readers, following a path more similar to the 10-year-old tech website The Information or the politics outlet Politico.

“What all of them have in common is this intense need to serve specific audiences rather than to serve everybody,” said Jacob Cohen Donnelly, the founder of A Media Operator , a newsletter about the media business.

Some of the other new companies finding early traction include publications on the newsletter platform Substack, such as The Free Press and The Bulwark , which have attracted tens of thousands of paid subscribers. Several worker-owned publications, like Defector and Hell Gate , are showing promise. And some older digital outlets, like Vox Media , have survived by expanding into businesses such as podcasting, and cutting costs.

Punchbowl News, started in 2021 by three former Politico reporters, aggressively covers Congress and has become “the hometown newspaper of Capitol Hill in a lot of ways,” said Anna Palmer, a founder and the chief executive. Now with 30 employees, Punchbowl publishes three newsletters a day and has added coverage of the financial services industry. It is looking to expand into other policy areas.

“What we have really focused on is not being something that people might find interesting, but that they actually need to be able to do their job,” she said.

Punchbowl offers its morning newsletter for free, while a subscription to its other newsletters is $350 a year. Access to Punchbowl’s policy reporting starts at $1,200 a year. The model is akin to Politico Pro (which starts at the low five-figures per year), Axios Pro ($599 a year) and The Information Pro ($999 a year), the premium offerings from those websites.

Ms. Palmer said Punchbowl had been profitable since its first year and generated $20 million in revenue in 2023, though she declined to discuss subscription figures. A person with knowledge of Punchbowl’s finances said that in the first two months of this year, the company had already booked 90 percent of its annual newsletter sponsorship goal.

The Ankler, a paid newsletter focused on Hollywood, is anchored by Richard Rushfield, an entertainment journalist who has emerged as Hollywood’s unsparing gadfly, narrating the industry’s unending chaos and skewering the actors, agents and executives responsible for creating it.

Ankler Media has raised $1.3 million at a valuation of $20 million and has been profitable for more than a year, said Janice Min , the company’s chief executive and founder, who previously helmed The Hollywood Reporter and Us Weekly. The Ankler now has seven employees and publishes several newsletters, including Wake Up, a Hollywood news digest.

“If we want to make a Hollywood analogy, it’s like these growing franchises are multiverses,” Ms. Min said. “People like what we do and see our newsletters as an extension of the voice that might have drawn them in in the beginning.”

Semafor is the largest of the group, with about 75 employees and ambitions to provide global news. But the company is charting a careful path, said Justin Smith, one of the founders and its chief executive.

Semafor launched in late 2022, with 30 to 40 percent fewer employees than its original business plan had called for, Mr. Smith said. The company decided to start smaller as interest rates were creeping up and the economic outlook was darkening.

“The pandemic really marked the transition from the social media era to what we call the post-social media era,” Mr. Smith said, noting that outlets must now focus on direct relationships with their audience.

For Semafor, that has meant committing to newsletters centered on a handful of topics, as well as the geographic areas of the United States and sub-Saharan Africa. Semafor now has more than 650,000 unpaid newsletter subscriptions, according to a spokeswoman. The outlet is hiring for an editor in the Middle East and plans to add a newsletter focused on the region.

The company generates revenue from advertising and events, and has a sponsorship deal with Microsoft for a global elections tracker and a news feed aided by generative artificial intelligence. Mr. Smith declined to share specific financial figures for the company but said it had a couple of profitable months in the last six months of 2023.

Of course, nothing in media lasts forever — particularly in the fast-changing digital world. So there’s no guarantee that the early success of these companies will translate into sustained growth.

Many of these start-ups are also taking a somewhat risky bet on talent.

At Puck, the start-up that covers topics including entertainment and finance, early hires such as Matt Belloni, who is a definitive chronicler of modern Hollywood, and Julia Ioffe, who has established herself as a must-read on Russian politics, are “founding partners.” In addition to a salary, they receive bonuses based on the number of people who subscribe to their email newsletters and how many of them stick around. New employees also get a small ownership stake in the company.

Puck, which has about 40 employees, now has roughly 40,000 paid subscribers. Shortly after the company launched, Mr. Belloni accounted for about 30 percent of paid subscribers, according to a person with knowledge of the figures.

If one or more of the star journalists leave the publication, would Puck’s subscribers follow?

Mr. Kelly said he didn’t “want to even contemplate a world” in which one of Puck’s journalists exited.

“We made a promise to everyone: You will do the best work of your career here, and we will find a way to make sure that you are valued for it,” Mr. Kelly said. “And I really think that our model is actually becoming one of the moats of our business.”

Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email:  [email protected]   More about Katie Robertson

Benjamin Mullin reports on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact Ben securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or email at [email protected]. More about Benjamin Mullin

Advertisement

Why the big winner in the Reddit IPO is ... a magazine publisher

• Reddit's upcoming public offering could value the company at $6.4 billion.
• Advance, the parent company of Condé Nast, owns about a third of Reddit
• That means Advance's initial investment of about $10 million could now be worth close to $2 billion.

It's easy to write gloomy stories about the state of the media business. The media business is often pretty gloomy!

So let's try to break the mold with an upbeat take. This one is about a very Old World Media Company that has struck gold in digital media — one of the very few times that has ever happened.

Here goes: When Reddit goes public this week, it will ask investors to value it at $6.4 billion. And if that happens, one of the chief beneficiaries will be Advance, the privately held company that owns magazine giant Condé Nast — the people who bring you titles like Vogue and The New Yorker. Advance, which isn't selling any shares in the offering, will end up owning 26.5% of Reddit after the IPO .

So if the pricing pans out the way Reddit and its bankers are hoping, Advance's stake will be worth $1.7 billion — and even more if the stock "pops," as Wall Street still expects out of public offerings.

Even better for Advance: That $1.7 billion was generated by an initial investment of around $10 million, which is what it paid to buy Reddit back in 2006.

Related stories

That's an amazing return! And one that's very welcome at Advance — which, like many other traditional media companies, has been dealing with long-term systemic challenges . And even more impressive when you compare it to the track record of other Big Media companies who have bought or invested in digital properties, and almost always live to regret it.

A very incomplete list of those: News Corp.'s purchase of MySpace; Disney's acquisitions of gaming company Club Penguin and YouTube network Maker Studios; the hundreds of millions that Disney, Fox, Time Warner, and Comcast/NBC put into digital media startups like BuzzFeed, Vice, Vox Media, and others during the Facebook boom of the last decade. Almost all of those deals ended up as write-offs and shut-downs. (Vox Media, my previous employer, is still motoring along — but at half the valuation it was at its peak.)

(While we're in disclosure mode, I should note that Business Insider itself is a digital media company acquired by German media conglomerate Axel Springer in 2015. And we're still around.)

Reddit's success has been anything but an up-and-to-the-right line, and if you want to know more about the ups and downs of the company there are plenty of places to learn more.

And while we're at it, it's worth noting that Advance's success comes with some caveats as well: In 2021, for instance, it invested an additional $26 million in Reddit in a funding round that valued the company at a reported $10 billion. So for the moment, those shares are underwater.

But it appears that the most important thing Advance's managers did at Reddit, other than buying it, was spinning it out as a stand-alone company in 2011.

That did at least two things: It meant that when Reddit was undergoing one of its many controversies and challenges, very few people wondered about the connection between the site and the publisher behind publications like Vogue and The New Yorker. And it meant that Reddit could succeed, or stumble, without much meddling from its owners.

Maybe a worthwhile playbook the next time — and there will be a next time — a big media company opens its wallet for a digital upstart again.

Watch: How Twitter panic took down Silicon Valley Bank

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Michigan Workforce Development Board Releases Statewide Plan

The Michigan Workforce Development Board on Monday unanimously approved the Michigan Statewide Workforce Plan, which marks the first time the state of Michigan has released a formal vision to create jobs, support workers, and employers.

Several state departments developed the plan with input from leaders from labor, business, community, and other economic and workforce development leaders.

According to the development board, the plan is a comprehensive, all-access roadmap laying out strategies and data-driven actions needed to build on Michigan’s success and ensure all Michiganders have the skills, opportunities, and support they need.

Michigan’s workforce system is number one in the country for credential attainment for adults, number two in helping adults get employed, and number six in the nation for registered apprenticeships, says Susan Corbin, director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Michigan serves more workforce participants than any other state in the Midwest.

The Michigan Statewide Workforce Plan has three core pillars with corresponding goals and strategies that will help the state address key workforce challenges, including a lack of skilled talent due to the changing economy and barriers Michiganders face when trying to access job opportunities, says Corbin.

These three pillars include:

• Help more Michiganders earn a skills certificate or degree. Increase the number of Michiganders with the skills needed for the jobs of today and tomorrow by creating a nimble and responsive education and talent pipeline. The goal is to increase the number of working-age adults with a skill certificate or college degree from 51.1 percent today to 60 percent by 2030.
• Increase access to opportunities that grow the middle class. Build Michigan’s middle class by removing barriers to education, employment, and quality of life so that by the end of 2027, 75,000 households have moved into the middle class, improving Michigan’s middle-class ranking from 28th to top 10 in the nation.
• Support business and entrepreneurial growth through talent solutions.   Grow good-paying jobs by connecting businesses with the talent they need to thrive in Michigan with the end goal of making Michigan a top 10 state for labor force participation rate growth by the end of 2027.

“The state’s transition to clean energy, in addition to the federal dollars Michigan is bringing home to support transformative projects, is creating new and exciting opportunities for businesses and workers across our state,” says Corbin. “Every Michigander should have access to the skills and opportunities they need to build brighter futures. By working collaboratively across state departments and communities to provide the tools and resources businesses and workers need to thrive, we can provide a roadmap that enables them to seize the jobs and economic opportunities on the horizon.”

The Michigan Statewide Workforce Plan ties into Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s (LEO) new  All-Access Michigan  approach, highlighting LEO’s role in the development and implementation of broad-stroke strategies to drive individual economic success and growth for the state, says Corbin.

Using unique strategies and programs and innovative partnerships, LEO is working to address structural challenges that have historically prevented people and businesses from achieving their full potential. Programs that fall under All-Access Michigan include the Going PRO Talent Fund, EV Jobs Academy, Registered Apprenticeships, and many others.

The plan notes in order for Michigan to achieve quality job growth benefiting all residents, it’s crucial to prioritize support for business competitiveness, expansion, and talent development, says Corbin. According to a 2022 MEDC survey , hiring and locating talent was the top concern for Michigan small businesses.

“As we implement the Make it in Michigan strategy focused on people, places, and projects, the MEDC is pleased to continue our work alongside Gov. Whitmer, LEO, and legislative partners on this responsive solution that personifies the Team Michigan approach of being an efficient, one-stop shop for businesses of all sizes to succeed,” says Quentin L. Messer Jr., CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

“Every day, we work hard to ensure we’re not only attracting and retaining businesses, but also providing the greatest asset for any company – skilled talent, whether through progress toward a certificate, training, or degree – and giving talented Michiganders a great place to call home.”

View the full plan, visit here .

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Business | Kathy Cargill speaks up on controversial Park…

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Business | Kathy Cargill speaks up on controversial Park Point home purchases in Duluth

Calling duluth a ‘small-minded community,’ the minnesota billionaire told the wall street journal she would not follow through with her plans to ‘beautify’ the neighborhood.

DULUTH, Minn. — Billionaire Kathy Cargill has broken her months of silence on her intentions regarding approximately 20 properties she recently purchased on Duluth’s Park Point at above-market value.

Cargill spoke to the Wall Street Journal in a Saturday article about the acquisitions on the 7-mile-long sandbar on the far western tip of Lake Superior.

She told the New York newspaper that she had plans for building homes for some family members and otherwise “beautifying” the environmentally sensitive strip, which is subject to erosion from pounding Lake Superior waves. But though she still intends to occupy the $2.5 million vacation home she recently purchased and renovated, she turned sour on her other improvement ideas after reading a letter from Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert, as well as news coverage and online comments from Duluthians.

“I think an expression that we all know — don’t pee in your Cheerios — well, he kind of peed in his Cheerios right there, and definitely I’m not going to do anything to benefit that community,” she told the Journal.

“There’s another community out there with more welcoming people than that small-minded community,” she added, saying she had considered putting in a coffee shop and building a complex for pickleball, basketball and street hockey, as well as improving and adding parkland.

Duluth native Corey Lehman told the News Tribune on Sunday that Cargill’s comments in the Journal had “such an air of hostility.” To respond to questions about her plans through a national publication as opposed to discussing it with the mayor or the community is reactionary and out of touch, he continued.

Lehman said the nature of the Minnetonka-based Cargill’s global food and agricultural business adds environmental tension and concern to the prospect of the family’s plan for Park Point, which is also known as Minnesota Point. Kathy Cargill has emphasized that the properties belong to her and her entity, North Shore LS LLC, not the Cargill family at large.

“It’s not over for sure. She’s not going anywhere,” he said.

In a  December News Tribune story , Cargill declined to comment on what she had planned and threatened legal action if anything ended up in the newspaper. She characterized the homes, many of which had been bulldozed, as “pieces of crap.”

She doubled down on that statement in the Wall Street Journal, indicating that mice and garter snakes were found in one of the homes.

Cargill told the Journal that, as far as her vacation home is concerned, she will “make it even more private than it is.”

Attempts to reach her Sunday were unsuccessful.

Cargill is listed as the North Shore LS manager on business filings available through the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State. According to public records, she is married to James R. Cargill II, who Forbes said is one of 12 billionaire heirs to Cargill, the country’s largest private company by revenue. The global food and agricultural company was started by James Cargill’s great-grandfather William Wallace Cargill, and the family still owns approximately 90% of the company.

The magazine said James Cargill had a wealth of $5 billion in 2023, ranking him 223rd on its list of wealthiest Americans.

City concerns

Residents raised concerns about the millions of dollars in purchases by Cargill, including the prospect of increasing property values — and taxes — in the neighborhood of mostly modest beach homes. St. Louis County Commissioner Annie Harala said earlier this month that she shared that concern, as the county has limited latitude regarding sales prices. “Because after a while, one-offs become a trend,” she said.

Dawn Buck, president of the Park Point Community Club, said at the time that some Park Point homes sold for nearly double their assessed value, and that there are concerns about the potential tax implications for other property owners as well as larger concerns in a city struggling with a limited housing supply.

Last month, Reinert sent a letter to Cargill requesting a private meeting at City Hall and a public meeting at the Park Point Community Club to share her plans.

“I want to be clear that I understand and respect your right to make these purchases through the private real property market,” Reinert wrote. He received no response.

Reinert, a former Park Point resident, enlisted the help of city councilors at a March 11 meeting in another attempt at communication while, in the meantime, encouraging residents to avoid the billionaire’s large offers.

“I know it’s tempting, given the prices that are floating around out there. But step No. 1 is: Don’t sell. Then, step No. 2 is to get Ms. Cargill, or her representatives, to share what her plans and intentions are, because in the absence of that, people make up their own stories.”

He said that no matter what, the city will protect public access to the area.

For the record . . . I'm more of a pancakes guy. #IYKYK Fueling up to get out with our plow drivers for a 3AM ride-along. Heaviest snowfall overnight, then lighter tomorrow, then heavy again Tuesday am. PS: Help our plow drivers out and move those cars by 8pm tonight! pic.twitter.com/VRPUFEQxfq — Roger Reinert (@RogerForDuluth) March 24, 2024

On Sunday morning, Reinert posted a sly retort to Cargill’s profane Cheerios remark, posting a photo of a plates of pancakes to his account on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“For the record … I’m more of a pancakes guy. #IYKYK,” he said, adding the hashtag meaning “if you know, you know.”

He otherwise declined to comment to the News Tribune, saying he was “100% focused on the (winter) storm” affecting the Duluth area.

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FCA sets out its business plan for the year ahead: reaction

by Brandon Russell | Mar 19, 2024

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In its Business Plan for 2024-25 , the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today set out an ambitious programme of work for the final year of its 3-year strategy to achieve better outcomes for consumers and markets.

Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive of the FCA, said:   “We’ve already made significant progress in delivering against the bold vision we set out in our strategy two years ago, including the game-changing introduction of the Consumer Duty and proposing the most far-reaching reforms to wholesale market regulation and the listing regime in decades. 

“We remain resolute in supporting the vital role the financial sector plays in the UK’s long-term economic growth, embracing the potential benefits that technology presents both for us and the firms we regulate, while also continuing to protect consumers and ensure market integrity.”

The FCA will continue to deliver the 13 commitments in its strategy, which focuses on preventing serious harm, setting higher standards and promoting competition. Specific issues it will prioritise include:

• Protecting consumers by testing if firms are meeting the high standards set by the Consumer Duty, supporting people’s long term financial wellbeing through the Advice Guidance Boundary Review and making sure pension products deliver value for money.
• Contributing to UK competitiveness and growth by improving the attractiveness and reach of UK wholesale markets, supporting firms to invest, innovate and expand through our innovation services and continuing to make it quicker and easier for firms to apply for authorisation.
• Building on the significant progress already made to become a world-class data-led regulator by automating more of its analytics tools to help detect and respond to consumer harms faster and working with firms on the safe deployment of artificial intelligence.

The planned programme of work builds on the progress made over recent years to become a more outcomes-based, assertive and data-led regulator. 

The introduction of the Consumer Duty marked a major shift by setting higher and clearer standards of consumer protection and has already led to firms making changes to savings rates and fees. 

The FCA is making better use of data to spot and stop harm faster and is being tougher on the firms that could cause harm. It removed over 10,000 potentially misleading adverts in 2023 and sent out 2,243 warnings about unauthorised firms and individuals. It also more than doubled the number of firm permissions cancelled, compared to the previous year, for failing to meet its minimum standards.

It has adapted its rules and improved its processes to ensure the UK remains an attractive place to invest. This includes proposing the most far-reaching package of reforms to the listing regime for decades to encourage a greater range of companies to list in the UK and compete on the global stage.

Simon Turner, UK Financial Services Regulation Partner at EY, comments on the FCA Business Plan, saying: “Now in the final year of its three-year strategy, the FCA’s new Business Plan has today very succinctly reinforced its continued commitment to safeguarding the UK’s financial services sector, supporting and protecting consumers, and delivering on its set objectives. What is reinforced this year is the heightened focus on holding firms across all sectors to account.

“A focus on multi-firm work, cross-market studies and supervisory interactions with individual firms – alongside the recently announced strategic approach to enforcement – highlights the FCA’s intention to use data and the principle of the Consumer Duty to better identify, understand and take action in response to key issues facing the industry.

“ The annual funding requirement is set to increase 10.7% year-on-year, and it is positive to see £11.3m is earmarked to continue implementation of the Treasury’s Smarter Regulatory Framework (SRF). Despite the second and final implementation deadline being just four months away, a further £5.3m for the Consumer Duty is also planned, suggesting ongoing multi-firm work and enforcement action will be a priority.

“This year’s Business Plan sends a clear message; the FCA will be a data-led and action-focused regulator in the year ahead, and now more than ever, firms should be aware there is no leeway for non-compliance.”

Commenting on the FCA’s business plan, Imogen Makin , counsel at WilmerHale , said:

“The FCA’s continued focus on reducing and preventing financial crime, together with putting consumers’ needs first (with a specific focus on pensions) means that we’re likely to see a continuing stream of assertive supervision and enforcement cases featuring these topics.

“In terms of the fight against financial crime, the FCA has explicitly stated that it will increase investment in its systems in 2024/25 “to use intelligence and data more effectively within our financial crime work” and we may see an increase in the volume of early interventions through variations of permission, or the use of supervisory notices, for example, as a result.

“Further, the FCA’s stated intention to take assertive action on market abuse will likely mean that we see an increase in the use of the FCA’s supervisory and enforcement powers in this area specifically. As firms are aware, they should proactively review and stress-test their anti-financial crime systems and controls on a regular basis such that they identify any issues at any early stage, enhance and update their systems and controls accordingly, and implement any amendments necessary to take regulatory and legal developments into account.

“Finally, the Prime Minister when he was Chancellor said that he wanted to make the UK a crypto hub and it’s good to see that the FCA is trying to deliver a proportionate market abuse regime for crypto assets.”

Also commenting on the plan, David Brooks, Head of Policy at leading independent consultancy Broadstone, said:

“ The FCA’s focus is quite rightly on outcomes for savers and ensuring they get good value from their financial services providers.

“ We’re really pleased to see scrutiny on attacking the scourge of rogue advisers and adverts which mislead and scam people out of their hard-earned pensions savings. The Trustees that we work with want their members to be able to enter the world of financial advice with confidence when preparing for their futures and that these professionals will give them the best possible care.”

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Executives plan to invest more in AI for sustainability: IBM study

Two-thirds of top executives believe that AI is important for their sustainability

Nearly two-thirds of top executives surveyed believe that generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be important in their sustainability efforts while 76 per cent of executives plan to increase their investment in this emerging technology for sustainability, a study by IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) said.

Generative AI can be a game changer for data-driven sustainability, enabling organisations to turn trade-offs into win-wins, identify improvement opportunities, and drive innovation at speed and scale, the study said.

While 63 per cent of executives surveyed agree that generative AI will be important for their sustainability efforts, 76 per cent say they plan to increase their investment in generative AI for sustainability.

"With AI reshaping industries, integrating sustainability into core business practices add to the long-term value creation. The commitment of businesses to invest in Gen AI for sustainability signals a promising move towards a greener, more prosperous future, said Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India Private Limited.

Based on a survey of 5,000 C-suite executives across 22 industries and 22 countries including US, UK, and Japan, the study, Beyond Checking the Box, said if organisations flip the way they operationalise sustainability, they can significantly increase business value. The key is to embed sustainability throughout the business, truly bake it into operations, rather than treat it as an add-on, it said.

Organisations that embed sustainability spend slightly less on dedicated sustainability efforts as a share of their revenue compared to organisations that don't embed.

"Organisations in India that embed sustainability are 41 per cent more likely to attribute great improvement in revenue from their sustainability efforts and are 90 per cent more likely to outperform their peers on profitability".

It added that many organisations are approaching sustainability as an accounting or reporting exercise rather than a transformation play.

"Spending on sustainability reporting exceeds spending on sustainability innovation by 38 per cent in India."

In India, 78 per cent of executives surveyed agree that sustainability drives better business results, and 68 per cent agree that sustainability is central to their business strategy. However, almost half (47 per cent) of Indian organisations still struggle to fund sustainability investments, the study noted.  

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What Is BCDR? How Health Systems Navigate Crises Using the Cloud

Brian T. Horowitz is a writer covering enterprise IT, innovation and the intersection of technology and healthcare.

When a cyberattack or a natural disaster such as a tornado strikes, healthcare organizations are often unprepared for extended downtime.

“When a healthcare facility experiences data loss or other disasters, the downtime affects more than just the business. It also affects the patients,” says Nataraj Nagaratnam, IBM fellow and CTO for cloud security.

In fact, the average healthcare organization’s downtime following a cybersecurity attack such as ransomware is a little over two weeks, according to Statista.

When health systems go down, the organization stops accepting patients via ambulance or helicopter and reschedules procedures, notes Seth Johnson, industry director for healthcare at Lexmark .

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“It's a cascading effect, and that is a large hit to the bottom line for hospitals running on razor-thin margins,” he says. 

Even if healthcare organizations have not migrated their operations fully to the cloud, business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) is one area where the cloud can help.

For example, the Microsoft Azure cloud platform allowed Mount Sinai Health System to be better prepared for outage recovery through cloud-based geographic diversity and failover features. Meanwhile, Cook Children’s Health Care System in Fort Worth, Texas, migrated its electronic health records (EHRs) to the public cloud to gain more resiliency and be prepared for disasters or cyberattacks.

What Is BCDR?

“Business continuity and disaster recovery refers broadly to the process and steps organizations take to return to normal business operations in the event of a disaster or disruption. It is a key part of crisis management,” Nagaratnam says.

Business continuity plans are much broader and more proactive than disaster recovery plans, he adds. Disaster recovery plans are reactive and allow health systems to resume normal activity with systems intact after an outage.

In addition to downtime, failure to craft a strong BCDR plan can lead to data loss, financial penalties and reputational damage, Nagaratnam says.

While business continuity is the process of maintaining operations during a disaster, disaster recovery is the technical process of restoring connectivity after an outage, explains Al Berman, president of the DRI Foundation, a charitable arm of the Disaster Recovery Institute (DRI) International .

“The world does survive without technology for periods of time,” Berman adds. “We’ve seen that in hospitals, where hospitals continue to function despite the fact that they’re under ransomware.”

DISCOVER: How can healthcare organizations grow with a smarter backup strategy?

How to Craft a BCDR Plan for Healthcare

Health systems should come up with a BCDR plan for what to do at 12 hours, 48 hours and one week post-attack, Johnson advises. He adds that health systems need a plan that documents how to operate without their usual systems in addition to how to get back to a normal state. They can take lessons from aviation: Pilots are good at checklists, and they can deal with both a blown fuse and a loss of engines. Healthcare teams need a similar checklist in the event of a disaster, he says.

In addition, health systems should keep checklists for every department, workflow and critical area — including IT — to maintain processes, Johnson says.

Rajesh Sheth, vice president of AWS Elastic Block Store and backup at Amazon Web Services , advises that healthcare organizations incorporate a recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives in its BCDR plan. An RTO defines the maximum delay acceptable between service interruption and restoration, while an RPO describes how much data loss is acceptable between a service outage and the most recent recovery point. Healthcare organizations must decide on acceptable RTO and RPO thresholds for the organization.

Health systems should also analyze what it would cost to back up to a BCDR cloud, Berman advises, compared with a process like air gapping, which involves isolating a device from outside networks.

Nataraj Nagaratnam IBM Fellow, CTO for Cloud Security, IBM

“It depends on how secure you want to be,” he says.

HER vendors and large tech companies such as AWS and Microsoft have multiple data centers throughout the country, which helps with redundancy during a disaster.

“The key is you have to have that connection,” Johnson says.

Crisis management teams should meet regularly to go through desktop scenarios and determine what happens at each decision point, Johnson recommends. Drill down and make the plans specific, especially for worst-case scenarios, he suggests.

Experts say stress testing is another key aspect of preparing for disasters and the recovery that follows.

“Restoration testing is the way to ensure processes will work when they are needed,” Sheth says. “By using services such as AWS Endpoint Detection and Response , customers can set up continuous, near real-time data replication to a staging environment in AWS.”

In addition, automation through Infrastructure as Code provides another way to reduce the time required to recover from a disaster, according to Sheth.

LEARN MORE: Backup as a Service can boost data protection.  

How Health Systems Use BCDR Solutions

As health systems get IT operations running again after a disaster, the cloud will be critical to helping them share information electronically. Services such as IBM Cloud Cyber Recovery provide cyber risk mitigation and an isolated, cyber-resilient infrastructure to prepare for ransomware and advanced cyberattacks. Meanwhile, the AWS Well-Architected Framework  allows organizations to establish business continuity and disaster recovery objectives.

After a disaster or a cybersecurity incident, hospitals might find themselves back on paper. Lexmark’s Downtime Assistant lets health systems store medical records and forms in an encrypted storage device to prepare for massive downtime , Johnson says.

“If you do have to go back to pen and paper, we can store clinical information and downtime medical record documents on a device that can be a kiosk in the middle of a chaotic situation,” Johnson says.

A tornado occurred years ago at a health system Johnson was working at in East Tennessee. When a billboard came down and slashed the hospital’s fiber line, the organization used the Lexmark Downtime Assistant to print a checklist and documentation.

“Even if Downtime Assistant is plugged into a generator or on an uninterruptible power supply that machines can still work on, providers can print on demand everything they need to create a downtime record and keep taking care of their patients,” Johnson says.

UP NEXT: Discover how to increase your ransomware recovery capability.

• Backup and Recovery
• Business Continuity
• Disaster Recovery

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