MAKE UP TO 20K A YEAR RUNNING YOUR OWN TOURIST/TRAVEL MAGAZINE

 

Inside the Mani magazine is a full-colour, annual magazine that is now in its 7th year. Even in these difficult economic times it continues to attract new advertisers and is a firmly established and respected publication in this part of the southern Peloponnese. As sole publisher, I am now looking for franchise publishers to replicate this profitable and successful model in other parts of Greece.

Still interested? Here are the answers to some questions you may have:

What does being a franchise publisher entail?
Basically everything! You will have to oversee the three elements essential to any magazine- advertising, editorial and distribution.

How much money can I make?
This depends on another 3 factors: your print run, your distribution strategy (free distribution versus cover sales) and advertising revenue i.e. revenue minus costs. To give you an idea from my own experience, my first magazine in 2004 brought in 20,000 euros of advertising. I spent 7,000 on printing, 1.500 on a designer and 300 euros to have the magazines shipped down from Athens.. During that season I sold 1,500 copies to local shops at 2 euros each (the cover price was and still is 3.50 euros), bringing in another 3,000 euros of revenue. Therefore total revenue was 23,000 minus the total costs of 8,800, giving me a gross profit of 14,200 euros. Since then advertising revenue has fluctuated and I have tweaked my print run accordingly.

How many pages does my magazine have to have?
Up to you. I have consistently had 100 pages. What should be fixed here is the ratio of pages given to editorial versus advertising. I have stuck to the industry norm of 70:30. If the ratio of advertising pages were higher you would run the risk of nobody reading it! The most economic number of pages in terms of printing are in blocks of 16- mine has 96 pages (6 blocks of 16) plus 4 pages for the cover.

So, you have 70 pages of editorial in each year’s magazine. Where do you get the material from?
The first magazine was quite tough in this respect. I had to write a lot of the articles myself as well as asking knowledgeable friends to contribute a piece on their area of expertise. What surprised me subsequently was the number of people who contacted me, asking to contribute (for free). These people could be local residents or tourists who have read the magazine. These days I do very little editorially. My job here is now to coordinate each article and to make sure there is a variety in subject matter- who wants to read a magazine comprising 10 different articles on wild flowers? I have not had to repeat an article in seven years. As franchise manager, you will be sent all seven issues, which will give you plenty of ideas for subject matter.

What do you charge for the 30 pages of advertising?
It is up to you what prices you charge- my prices are just a guide. I have been too soft in not putting my prices up since 2004. I should be making more money! I would suggest doing a little local research before fixing your prices. I would also suggest not offering anything smaller than a ¼ page advert as this would make designing the magazine too difficult as well as giving advertisers too much choice.

When do you sell the adverts?
Tourism is very seasonal where I live. Therefore by the end of October nearly all shops/tavernas/bars/travel agencies have closed, making it difficult to find the people concerned. So September is a key month for me. I visit all current advertisers to see if they want to be in the following year’s magazine and to agree on any changes they want to make. This is also when I find new business- people have money in their tills and so are more likely to agree to advertise. This is also the time I collect deposits to ensure commitment.
However, for the first magazine I would suggest you start selling adverts earlier to give you enough time.

Who designs the adverts?
My answer to this question would be the same as to the question “What is the worst thing about running your own magazine?” Adverts and advertisers! I made the mistake from day 1 of allowing advertisers to believe that they weren’t just buying space in the magazine but also buying the use of my graphic design skills. This resulted in a lot of extra work for me; taking photos, printing off mocks, making changes etc. I strongly recommend that, unless you are an expert in Photoshop, you team up with someone who is and leave the design work to them at an additional cost to the client. Alternatively, if you do have design skills, you need to be paid extra for doing this job.

Tell me more about distribution.
With the first magazine I had no product- just an idea. So, I promised advertisers blanket distribution by printing enough copies to be given away free through tour company reps at welcome meetings, throughout the summer. Despite this, I still sold 1,500 copies in that first year. Now the magazine is so well established, I no longer give it away for free. How you address this issue is entirely up to you. I would suggest a balance; after all the more you can sell through shops, the more profit you make. Plus you will have the 7 issues of Inside the Mani to prove that the concept really works.

Will I be employed by you?
No. You will be self-employed. This means using an accountant to register the business and get a receipt book, pay your 3-monthly VAT accounts as well as paying your own insurance. Consult a local accountant for the costs involved here.

How much time is involved in running the magazine?
Starting from scratch is always hard and I can’t stress enough how committed you need to be to get it off the ground. At this stage it really is a full time job. Once issue 1 is out and applauded, subsequent issues will inevitably require less time. I certainly do not work 8 hours day throughout the summer! Once the magazine is out in May, my job is to collect advertising money and make sure all the shops are fully stocked. I could easily do another job but I choose not to. The beach is too tempting! The busy periods are in September dealing with adverts and in January/February, putting the whole magazine together. I like to get some of the articles finished in the late summer too, to avoid a panic later on.

How much does it cost to be a franchise publisher?
2,000 euros a year.

What do I get for this fee?
Firstly and foremostly the brand. OK, you won’t have heard of it but having the 7 copies of Inside the Mani as proof that the idea works and that advertisers regularly re-advertise will make getting started so much easier. Granted, you don’t need the brand, nor do you necessarily need me. You could simply take the idea and some of the advice given here and do it yourself (under a different title). But, on a much smaller scale, it’s a bit like the difference between opening a burger bar using the McDonald’s franchise and doing the same thing under a different name. It would have been so much easier for me to have had a finished product in 2004. Instead, advertisers had to take a huge leap of faith with me (and I was very touched that they did).
But the fee entails much more than that. In pure financial terms, you save on paying a designer to put the magazine together as I will do this for you (so each magazine has the same look). You simply send a CD with folders containing text and images for each article along with a folder containing finished adverts and I will design the magazine for you. We will regularly communicate (via email) as the magazine develops- I will  email pdf spreads as each article is completed. Ask a graphic designer what they would charge to put together a 100-page magazine in Quark or In-Design.
Finally, you will get support from someone who has experience in publishing here over the last seven years. I will take away all the hassles of liaising with printers in Athens (not fun, believe me) and give advice as and when required.

Does the magazine have to be in English?
Not necessarily. It could be in any language. In fact it could be in 2 languages- we would have to negotiate an additional fee for extra design work.

How big an area should my magazine cover?
The smaller, the better as this is the Unique Sales Point of my magazine. In fact last year I tried to extend the distribution to the western “finger” of the Peloponnese (Pylia) and it just didn’t work and so I have reverted this year to just the Mani. So to use Crete as an example, clearly Inside Crete would be a crazy venture to embark on. Inside Chania (the prefecture) could be done- it would require a lot of driving but the potential there would be massive. If you know the Mani, there is really only one reasonably sized resort: Stoupa. At least 75% of my advertisers are based here. How I would love it if there was just one more Stoupa-sized resort in the Mani- my cover sales and advertising revenue would double. So, going back to Crete, though Inside Chania (the town) would be possible, the potential involved in covering the whole county, to me, is mouth-watering. And yet it is still localised enough for the editorial to be of real interest to the reader.

Do you enjoy publishing your magazine?
Generally, very much. I have got to know local business folk a lot better and I get great satisfaction when someone contacts me, wanting to write on a subject they feel passionate about. Feedback is nearly always positive, whether it’s a comment from a taverna owner or an email from a visiting tourist.
Plus it gives me a lot of free time to follow other interests.

What’s the next step?
If you have read as far as this, I hope you are still interested. The next step is to drop me an email to say hello and ask any questions I haven’t covered here.

info@insidemani.gr

I look forward to hearing from you!

Matthew Dean