How Do I Start a Magazine? A magazine is a business, so you need to treat it as such.

Q: I don'treally want to start a business, but I want to start a magazine.Have any advice, like any books I should check out or Websites?

A: The first thingI need to address is your statement "I don't really wantto start a business, but I want to start a magazine." Ifyou're serious about this and you want your magazine to be morethan, say, a community newsletter that you hand out for free, amagazine is a business just like any other, with revenue to be madeand customers to find and retain.

Magazines, whether online or offline, make their money fromadvertisers who pay to reach readers, not from the readersthemselves, even with paid subscriptions. Soliciting advertising isno easy task, especially in today's tough ad market. Therefore,it's imperative that you (or an employee, if you can afford tohave one) be a good salesperson capable of demonstrating topotential advertisers why they should care about the marketyou're targeting with your magazine. If, say, you'restarting a beauty magazine, you would go after hair-care andcosmetics companies, fashion retailers and the like. Not only that,but you need to show these companies how your particular magazineis an effective means of communicating the advertisers'message--you need to show that you have a strong readership or thepotential for a strong readership.