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Call out for interns – we want to love you

Friday, August 21st, 2009

We need help. We have such grand plans and amazing ideas that we are ready to implement but we simply don’t have the people power to get some of it done. We could do some of it ourselves, but we aren’t designers, photographers or all-round super creatives.

Stop complaining and go hire some more folk.

I love it when we have hecklers in our blog posts. Problem is you idiot heckler that we don’t have the dosh to simply go out hiring new people. Generally, people like to eat and they normally ask for lots of money in return for their services so they can eat. Or buy other necessities such as magazines.

What about students and people breaking into their professions – they don’t need to eat!

Great idea Mr Heckler. Completely forgot about students and emerging creatives and their ability to feed themselves on hope, optimism and a sense of adventure.

Ok people that fall into this category. We want you. Three Internships are now ready for the taking. We will pay you in love and you will become better people. Ok, not quite true. We will pay you something token that looks and smells like money but actually can be used as legal tender for magazines at your favourite magazine store. You can also add the work to your already incredibly impressive portfolios; we’ll recognize your herculean efforts on our blog, and do other things that that might be able to catapult you onto the world stage. Or maybe the creative equivalent of the local pub scene.

We are looking for a Designy type, a Photographer, and a Video Admin Assistant. The wonderful folk at iSpyStyle have all the details of what is involved and you can check them out here. You have to be Melbourne based as the stuff you will be photographing and videoing is based here.

We hope this is the beginning of a long and passionate relationship with you. Or maybe just passionate. Or maybe even short and dull as long as we all get off. Beggars can’t be choosers.

Posted in Entrepreneurial, The Inside Story | 9 Comments »

Why we haven’t blogged for a week

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Up until now, we have been pretty good at regularly posting new blog entries on the mag nation blog. This is our first entry in a week, and I run the risk of ignoring your good advice of keeping it constant. There is a good reason why we have been silent, and it raises a dilemma that we will continue to struggle with.

As a young entrepreneurial company, we are in the midst of a capital raise that will help us with our expansion ambitions. I have been up to my ears in legals and other really boring shit. Here is the problem. I just haven’t had the head space to blog.

Most of the sensational blogs are run by people for whom it is a key part of their job description. It is sort of what they do. I am trying to run a business with 40 staff, build a brand, deal with operational issues, create new, never before seen functionality for our website, do the financials, and deal with that one customer who bought a subscription from a local newsagent and remains convinced that mag nation should refund him his money!

I at times find it difficult to deal with all of this, especially when currently dealing with a bunch of lawyers day and night, and blog at the same time.

With this in mind, we considered passing on the blogging role to someone else in the Company. Lots of people can blog but very few can do the other stuff, especially the capital raising. But then, we realized that this would put at risk the unique voice that we are trying to put forward. This blog is meant to be about the mag nation brand from the perspective of one of the two people who founded it and who is responsible for its upbringing.

So, how do we continue to post as close to daily as possible, not outsource it to a non-genuine voice, but do all the other stuff that only the Founders can do to help us build the brand, expand it to new geographies, and survive in these tough times?

While it will ebb and flow, we still hope to be able to blog a few times a week, with the worst case scenario being the occasional once a week.  If we have to make a compromise, we will make it with regards to regularity and volume of posts, but not on authenticity.

Posted in Entrepreneurial, Strategy, The Inside Story | 1 Comment »

Website evolution

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

We are currently in the process of updating our website. The first of the changes in what we have dubbed “Stage 2C” went live last week.

The changes are not massive, but they all feed incrementally into making the site better for users. The most basic change that we made was an obvious one. We simply made the images on our website bigger. Both the listing pages and the main product pages now have larger images than before (about double the size).

Magazine Images in List

Magazine Images in List

BBC Top Gear Magazine Subscription - Larger Image

BBC Top Gear Magazine Subscription - Larger Image

Bit of a no brainer when you come to think of it. Magazines sell more on impulse than on anything else, and for the masses (this discounts the minority who come onto our site knowing exactly what they are looking for), the front cover of the magazine is what entices them to either click through to the product landing page or go elsewhere.

Most thumbnails of magazines are too small to allow any real engagement with the product. So, we have made them larger. The sacrifice is that fewer magazines fit within a single screen, but we think the trade off is an easy one to make. Scrolling down is not the end of the world, but having to strain to see our content is pretty bad.

The other change is the roll over state. When you now roll over a thumbnail, an enlarged floating image pops up. Again, the idea is that we make things more visual. For a company that is so dependent on visual stimuli, our website was until recently quite data heavy. There is still a massive amount of content, but hopefully now, it is easier to digest.

Sports Illustrated magazine subscription - floating image

Sports Illustrated magazine subscription - floating image

Lots more changes are on their way. Our website is still a work in progress for us. We have less than 1% of the online mag market and we need to ramp this up. We therefore have to continue to experiment, adapt and iterate. Stay tuned for product videos, more rewarding review functionality, multiple images per product, and lots more.

Posted in Entrepreneurial, The Inside Story | 3 Comments »

iSpyStyle – its all in the eyes

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

One of the great things about being part of mag nation is that we get to meet with such passionate people. We have already extolled the virtues of the many publishers we deal with. Their commitment and dedication is something that constantly inspires us. However, it is not just publishers that we are in contact with, but lots of small business owners and entrepreneurial sorts trying to build something with their own blood, sweat and tears.

I met just such a person a few months back at a magazine launch. The inevitable what do you do, what do I do conversation ensued, and truth be told, although I couldn’t hear most of what Kate said because the music was way too loud, I didn’t need to. I heard the words “start” and “risk” but more than all else, saw that look in her eyes.

That is why mag nation has watched with interest as iSpyStyle has been conceived, planned, and put in place by Kate Vandermeer. That is why we jumped at the chance to be involved and put our brand name alongside hers. Because of that look.

ispystyle

Kate later pitched to mag nation re a form of partnership. If she is reading this blog, I can now disclose to her that she didn’t need to! I probably would have agreed to align mag nation with her even if she was building a mushroom farm.

We think we can help her as she builds her business. There is real synergy between us. We would go as far as to say that anyone reading this blog will be interested in what iSpyStyle has to offer and is trying to achieve. You should definitely check it out. As a more established brand (and this is relatively speaking – we still have a long way to go), it is not quite clear what we will get in return from a yet to be proven concept. If it goes well, then great for us. If not, then we don’t really lose much.

ispystyle1

However, it is with real excitement that we saw the mag nation link on the newly launched iSpyStyle website. We know what it is like to be trying to build something new. But more than all else, we know that look. Kate’s eyes have it. Somehow, she will succeed and we will be dragged along by her success. If mag nation could bottle that look, we would all be billionaires.

Posted in Entrepreneurial | No Comments »

The Sales Rollercoaster

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Every June sales tank. As regular as clockwork, fewer people come in to buy magazines and the heady sales highs of April and early May fade into memory. Why is this? If anyone should have the answer, it should be me or someone working for mag nation, but it is still a mystery. Ok, so it is cold, but so are July and August, which are not as bad. And it is not just at one store, but across all stores. June is the worst month of the year.

As I go through my fourth June, at least I know what to expect. I don’t feel so depressed. Yet, even after having lived through the ups and downs of retail, I still get affected by the rollercoaster. We have a great day in the stores and I come home elated and pumped. We have a poor day and my mood slumps.

I remember my uncle and business partner telling me one month in that I would need to get over this and learn to detach myself from the daily ups and downs or I would go insane. He must be a stronger man than I am, as I have never, once, been able to do this. He is right of course (as he is with most things – his most annoying habit) because having your very existence contingent on external factors beyond your control is not healthy. To be in a filthy mood because it is raining on a Saturday when people don’t have to go out shopping and questioning why God couldn’t have made it rain on a Friday when people are out and about irrespective… well, this ain’t normal. Not every week for 3 years anyway.

Worse is when there is no rational explanation and sales go down. At least with the weather I have someone to blame.

Granted, there are the unexplained ups as well, which equal the downs, but a rollercoaster is good fun in small doses. Imagine spending 24 hours a day on a rollercoaster. Where would you go to take a pee and how would you eat your soup – it would keep streaming past your face. I digress…

Funny how I can’t detach myself from our daily sales, yet I am Steady Eddie in relation to the big things. About to run out of money – no probs, we’ll find some more. Major overseas supplier goes under –  no worries, we’ll find a replacement. Our trusted financial controller spends months using the company credit card to play online poker – happy to fire his arse and get in someone new. We get named most innovative retailer of the year in 2007 and Best Young Business of the Year in 2008 – no big deal.

Through all the major stresses and external accolades (and these are perhaps some of the milder ones!), we have managed to maintain a level head and a sense of calm. Yet, sales go up by 10% on Thursday and I am skipping home. We have a shocker on Tuesday and I start thinking about a garage sale to sell my kids toys and my wife’s shoes to fund next week’s operations.

The easiest solution to all of this would be for me not to have to change, but for you to change. Yes you, the reader. Everything would be fine, despite me remaining overly sensitive to the daily figures, if they only continued to go up. Imagine that – I would be on a permanent high. And this would be possible if all of you bought even more from us. You might have to coordinate so that not all sales came in on one day, but kept on rising, but it wouldn’t be that hard. So, the likelihood of me bringing up my breakfast is in your hands. Not where I thought this blog post was going to end up when I started it, but we’ll call this creative license.

Posted in Entrepreneurial, Magazine Industry | 2 Comments »

A Beginning

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

There are already plenty of blogs about magazines. Why the hell are we starting a new one? Well we are not. First, let me introduce myself. I am Sahil. Thanks to the three of you who are reading this. Or am I being optimistic?

I am one of the two co-founders of mag nation. My official title is Chief Magazineologist, but that is just us being cute. The other co-founder Ravi, is my uncle. Yes, we are a small family business. Some people think we are a big corporate. We ain’t.

I am somewhat schizophrenic. My dual personality alternates between me and mag nation. At times I find it hard to know with which voice I speak. I tell you this because if you continue to read this blog, I will inevitably alternate between the pro-nouns “we” and “I”. In many ways, they refer to the same thing. The collective mag nation persona.

So, back to my initial question. Why read this blog. I haven’t told you anything interesting so far. Truth be told, don’t know if I ever will. Here is what the mag nation blog will focus on – the journey of creating a magazine retail Brand. Sound wanky? Journey is such an over-used word. Well, as entrepreneurs who have risked everything on a crazy concept which all the industry experts told us was flawed, the mag nation story to date has been nothing but a rollercoaster. It still continues to be so.

We will at times talk purely about an individual magazine, but if you are here to get the latest gossip on Brittney, you are in the wrong place. Nor are we here to replicate what our good friends at magculture.com do with their blog. Well worth a read for all our fans who love the design and creative components of magazines. We love this side of the industry, but we are not designers either.

What we will blog about is the magazine “industry”, and how it translates through to consumers from a retail and Brand perspective. We will talk about supply and distribution, niche publishing, what’s hot, and philosophical crap such as the future of print. However, more than anything else, this Blog will document our story as we try to build a Brand and ultimately a successful business. We still bleed cash. Ravi and I are still on the bread line.

So this is perhaps as much an entrepreneurial blog as it is one about magazines, the live story behind a Brand as it tries to get traction and engage more people. We are faced with massive hurdles. The odds predict we won’t be around in even 2 years time. Last month we had five days of cash left in our accounts until new capital came into the company. I was frequently changing my underwear.

If you decide to keep reading this blog, what you will get is a true account of what it is like to put yourself out there, risk your career and family security, all in pursuit of a dream. Our words will drip of passion. We truly love magazines. We truly love mag nation. We are truly proud of our achievements to date. And we look forward to sharing the enormous challenges that confront us as we look to survive, expand our Brand nationally and internationally, and maintain our sanity through 18-20 hour working days while also raising young families.

Welcome to the mag nation blog.

Posted in Entrepreneurial | 29 Comments »

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