Confessions of a Magazine Newbie #1

It all started a bit more then a month ago. We had a meeting where we were looking back at a national publication our association had published in November 2007. It was the 12th edition of this specific publication and ad revenue was down and so was the quality of the texts and images. Things weren't going too well.

During that meeting, I suggested we try something new, something that wasn't out there for the target market we wanted to reach (and had so miserably failed to do with the previous publication). So I laid down the idea of a magazine. No more crappy cheapo paper and bad pictures - let's get glossy ! Let's a more solid cover, hotter pictures, texts that actually speak out to our potential readers, let's change it all ! ... They accepted it, and that's how it all started.

In the past month I was named from project manager to Editor, which is still a project manager type position but with a fancier title. I've been contacting printers and designers all month just asking around for prices, ideas, paper samples, anything !!!

Oh but wait... Added to the job of Editor is my responsibilities towards developing a new Website for this new magazine. Because, when I suggested my idea I also included a Website (of course why not ?), so I also have to pilot that project.

Estimated date for distribution is February 2009...it seems far but I know it isn't and quite honestly, it scares the crap out of me.