Publishing Entrepreneur

Christine Frank, who designs and publishes custom magazines and books for businesses and organizations (see details at http://www.christinefrank.com/) is planning a monthly niche market, free circulation magazine. She asks about the duties of each staff member, editor-in-chief, editor, managing editor, etc.

The answer to this question depends on the kind of magazine one is publishing, the ratio of editorial to advertising, print run, circulation, frequency of publication, etc. A magazine that is ten to one advertising to editorial can be done with a much smaller editorial staff but with an expanded graphics and sales staff. A monthly magazine that is fifty-fifty or even sixty-forty editorial to advertising requires a much larger editorial staff, especially when published on a monthly basis (when two or three issues are being worked on simultaneously).

There are four functions to assign to staff: editorial, production sales, and circulation. These can be broken up into smaller segments as needed and a job description created for each one.

But be careful. A magazine can be crushed under the burden of multiple salaries. The owner/publisher should assume the major management function and, insofar as possible, use freelancers for other functions. An editorial and physical template can be developed to facilitate this. The exception is the publisher that is already bringing out other publications and so has a cash flow that can support a larger staff, essentially using the same overhead to underlie and support an additional project.