I used to work in magazine publishing as Editor of a computer magazine that targetted data processing managers. The book was never on the news stands of W H Smith, but was supplied FoC to registered users. In the late 80s it was the most successful title in its field, but five years later it was closed (folded).
Controlled Circulation is the name of this type of publishing and it was big, big, BIG, in the late 70s and all through the 80s.
The key is to find a list of possible subscribers - like working with a society or similar - where you kickstart your circulation. You attract advertising off the back of reaching this circulation with your magazine. The costs are not simply the print and paper, but the creation of a credible editorial platform, so your subscribers keep opening up the magazine and seeing the adverts and the upkeep of the IT system to ensure your circulation list is kept fresh.
The costs for publishing used to be low and although the publishing business eroded costs for the production and maintenance of magazines, such as introducing desktop publishing systems in the mid 80s, eventually the cost base was too high to maintain business. Higher print and workforce costs were exacerbated by globalisaton (that was definately a factor in closing the two magazines I worked as Editor of during the 1990s). Even before the popularisation of the Internet with its special interest groups (like this one) and the growth in direct mail, publishing houses were amalgamated, sold off titles or simply went to the wall.
I left publishing in 1994 to go into marketing comms. At that time, there were more than 10,000 paper-based special interest and controlled circultation magazines and only a handful of electronic ones on either the Internet or bulletin boards. If you want the exact figures on paper magazines that survive, contact PR Planner and ask them. I don't know what percentage of controlled circulation magazines have folded over the last five years, but I would bet that it is close to 70 percent.
If you do decide to take the risk and launch a paper based magazine, be prepared to have very deep pockets and treat the enterprise as a labour of love, rather than a money making one.
Pete B
