How to Publish a Magazine

How to Publish a Magazine

I have often wondered about what goes into self publishing a magazine and how I could start my own little Vagabond press. Perhaps this is a far off, long term goal of mine, but, as the opportunity arose, I conducted the following interview with the managing editor, owner, and co-founder of Cafe Abroad Magazine to find out how he began his publication nearly two years ago.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November20, 2008
Travelogue — Travel Photos
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1. How did you begin Cafe Abroad InPrint? What gave you the idea? How did you take the initial idea and put it into action?

I had dozens of interns writing tons of stories for www.cafeabroad.com, so InPRINT was conceived as a piece to give more visibility and credibility to the website.

To execute the idea, I took the best stories and made a 16-page prototype in Feb, 2007. I then did a bulk mailing to 500 schools and 300 potential advertisers and called and emailed ‘til I figured out who wanted in,

2. How do you publish Cafe Abroad InPrint? Approximately how much does it cost to put out each issue? How large of a circulation does the magazine have?

I publish it using evergreen – a printing company in New Jersey. Each issue costs about $7,000. I print 11.000 copies – 30 issues to each of 325 schools and then some extras for bulk orders.

3. How did you approach the advertisers that place ads in the magazine? In what ways did you market the magazine to them as a potential source of advertising? Is Cafe Abroad run totally on the money made from selling ad space? Approximately how much does Cafe Abroad charge for ads in the print magazine? How much for the website?

I started attending international education conferences like NAFSA and The Forum on Education Abroad. All of the pricing information is available in the media kit in the “Advertise” section of CafÈ Abroad.

4. Do you contract out the graphic design work? Or do you do it yourself or have an employee or intern doing it?

I contract it out to a graphic designer. He’s a friend so he gives me a bit of a deal.

5. How many paid employees does Cafe Abroad have (not including travel journalists)?

Zero (including me).

6. How did you make the initial contact with students and set up the web-based study abroad community? How many students intern with Cafe Abroad each semester?

I created a database of study abroad offices and started making calls. A month later I had 225 applications.

100 interns per semester, though this semester I’ve scaled back operations to just 10 interns.

Related Pages:
Cafe Abroad InPrint
How to Self Publish a Magazine
Writing for Magazines and Newspapers
Article about Portugal Graffiti for Cafe Abroad
Travel Writing

Links to previous travelogue entries:

• How Not to Monetize Blog
• Obama Hope or Delusion
• Studying to be an English Teacher