Statement

Questions with Publisher and Creative Director Richard Bleiweiss

1. What do you consider the single most important achievement your magazine has accomplished in today’s marketplace?

Having an original mission to publish a regional title that felt like a national title and having it turn into a national editorial package that has made celebrities, studios and publicists look to us for editorial inclusion.

2. Looking back, what was the most important hurdle you were able to overcome?

Being a self-funded regional start-up, the most important hurdle was to be taken seriously by the entertainment and publishing industries. Because without that fact, the quality and content of the editorial and advertising would severely suffer.

3. What was the biggest pleasant surprise?

Seeing the magazine quoted on network television and in well-known national publications with multi-million circulation numbers.

4. What is the biggest challenge you are facing today?
Keeping up with the marketing and promotion dollars being spent by over-funded, start-up regional publications.

It seems like every other day there are magazines launching by people that might not necessarily have a new idea, but have very deep pockets and can spend the promotion dollars to put their image and name everywhere and who try to make their title grow faster than it should when it’s not ready to do so, which then brings you to have to explain the question when you introduce your magazine to someone who is not familiar with it...”Oh, you’re just another regional magazine like the ones that are popping up every day.”  

5. Imagine you have a magic wand and you can strike the magazine and make it human/Describe that human being.

Statement as a human would be someone who on the one hand, enjoys the better things in life, but who in his heart was a real philanthropist. He’d love to travel, eat at fine restaurants, drive a nice car, wear hip fashion, but at the same time he would be very concerned with sharing his wealth and free time with the less fortunate and look to give something back to those in need. He’d be just as comfortable going to an A-List Hollywood event, as to helping the less fortunate in whatever way he could.

6. The number of new magazine launches has been on a steady increase. What advice do you offer to someone wanting to start a new magazine?

Make sure that you have a minimum of 18 months worth of funding in place before you start to publish. Thinking that you’re going to make money from advertising and sales right away is not necessarily going to happen. Deals will need to be made, or most potential advertisers will want to take a wait-and-see approach. If you don’t expect to make one cent in the first 18 months and you can make all of your decisions based on what’s in your heart as opposed to what’s in your wallet, then you’ll have the best possible chance of succeeding.

7. Finish this sentence: In 2011, your magazine will be...

A national network of regional advertising packages both in print and on the web with additional supporting local publications in each market we’ve expanded into.