Out to Launch

Whatever your level of experience in the industry, you need all the help you can get when launching a new magazine or other product into the newstrade.

Every year, there are more than 1,000 proposed new magazine launches, of which as few as one in three make it to publication and the newsstand.

Launching a magazine is a highly competitive business and sustaining it, even more so; out of approximately 350 new titles launched every year, only half become established magazines.

COMAG has nearly 30 years’ experience in launching and managing magazines and in more recent years, collectables and partworks, covering almost every conceivable market sector.

If you are planning a launch there are many factors to take into consideration. Here’s a quick checklist of important areas for you to think about and to help you to make your launch a successful one:

•	Target market
•	Comparative publications and how your magazine/other newsstand product will differ
•	What segment of the market are you targeting?
•	How saturated is the market?
•	Cover price
•	Frequency
•	Pagination, format and size
•	Editorial / advertising ratio
•	Colour / mono ratio
•	Seasonality
•	Obtaining a barcode
•	Is the magazine / product time-sensitive?
•	How many copies can you afford to print?
•	How many copies do you need to sell, at launch and ongoing?
•	What above-the-line promotional activity will support the launch?
•	Budget for in-store retail promotions

You should also be aware of the costs involved with newsstand distribution for your product:

Publishers are paid a percentage of the cover price of copies sold net of VAT. The percentage paid varies depending on the amount of retail revenue generated, which is calculated by multiplying the cover price by the frequency by the estimated copy sale per issue.

There are additional costs associated with distribution, the main ones being physical carriage and the cost of in store promotions with retailers. Physical carriage is the cost to deliver copies to supplying wholesalers, which is based on a tonnage rate. You would usually get the cost of delivery from printer to your distributor's delivery points quoted as part of your print deal.

All retail groups charge for stocking new titles and promoting new and existing titles. As part of our discussions, we would take you through the likely costs for your launch, which will vary, depending on both the quantity of copies distributed for the launch and the market sector your title will fall within, as this will affect the key retailers we need to approach for acceptance and promotions.

If you would like more information on launching on to the UK newsstand click here to request a PDF copy of our Guidelines to the Newstrade.