This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I always love hearing different business ideas. Today, a caller wants to start a print publication, like nothing digital, a little bit of, well, I was gonna say it's a reaction to the world of digital, social media, algorithms, AI, et cetera. Maybe I shouldn't ascribe that motivation. We'll hear from them specifically about what they hope to do. But nevertheless, I think it's pretty cool.
We're gonna talk about the business model, though, of this potential business magazine. I think that is really important whenever you're like, hey, this could be cool. Well, okay, is it cool and profitable? Is it cool and there is a market for it? If so, great.
If not, or if you're not sure, maybe let's spend some time on that question first because here on "Side Hustle School," I don't want you to just have cool ideas. I want you to have cool, profitable ideas, and just really important to have that distinction. Anyway, our caller misses the days of print magazines. I read "The New Yorker." That's my only magazine I read these days, at least in print. I read a lot of stuff online, like most people.
I used to get "The Economist" and some others in the mail. Now I really just have "The New Yorker." That's my ritual of like taking that magazine with me on the road and such. But for everything else I'm online, let's see if this listener can nudge me toward another one. We're gonna hear their detailed question and my response right after this. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is Renee.
And I've been following the show for a couple of years now. I'd like to start a magazine, and I don't mean a digital one. I'm thinking old school, print only, with just a very minimal web presence. My topic is advertising and business advice from the 1930s to the 1940s. I know it might sound crazy, but I actually think there's a market for this.
And I definitely want to do it this way. Print only and sell it through the mail. I imagine relationships with distributors and a grassroots network of supporters. My friends say I'm behind the times. Can you settle the bet for us?
Thanks. And looking forward to what you have to say. [Music]
Well, I don't think you're crazy. There actually is kind of a niche indie world of magazines that are active, publishing at least quarterly and have a good size subscriber base, meaning enough to make it sustainable, enough for at least one person to pretty much earn their living from it. Sometimes a few people.
In the original episode where we talked about this question, I mentioned Kinfolk, kinfolk.com. You can check out the digital version or purchase either a subscription or a single copy of a print edition. There's also Serial Magazine, a bi-annual UK-based magazine. It's about travel design art. A lot of these kinds of magazines actually are about travel design and art.
They're again kind of indie, artistic, quirky, earnest journal, describes itself as a publication geared toward inquiring minds. There's one called The Simple Things. There's another one called Suitcase Magazine. That's a travel focused one. But it's much more about creative exploration rather than just tourism.
So what I would do is I would take a look at some of those. I would go and look at the comps and just try to understand how have they been able to build their subscriber base and what was their original vision. Has it changed along the way? For example, Kinfolk has I think 75,000 print subscribers, at least it did at one point. It was sold in 100 countries.
They also published it in different languages. Now they didn't do all that from the beginning, of course. They kind of worked up to that. So I would go and look at any of these magazines or any others that you happen to find. I'm sure there are more.
And kind of track down the origin story and see what you can learn from them. That's like the first step I would take. But in terms of settling the bet, well, I don't think it's the easiest business to be in, to be clear, but is there a path? Of course. So that's where I'm gonna come down on that.
Let us know how it goes. Listeners, what are you working on? What are you up to? sidehustleschool.com. You can access resources, notes pages for every single episode and more.
Of course, the new episodes are out every day, seven days a week, wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for tuning in. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
