I have done a little research into the cost of printing a magazine. I used a simple quote form on Mixam Printing website to estimate that a 20-page, A4, Full-Colour magazine printed 90GSM coated paper with silk finish and a 150GSM cover would cost less than £1.
The cost of printing depends largely on number of copies printed:
£872.70 for 1,000 copies (£0.87 per magazine)£1692.10 for 5,000 copies (£0.34 per magazine)£2312.20 for 10,000 copies (£0.23 per magazine)
Taking into consideration that many supermarkets already developed the policy of Corporate Social Responsibility and have schemes in place aiming to support local community initiatives, an expense of this sort might be well within their budget. Each larger Waitrose store, for example, spends £1,000 monthly for local community projects and/or charities. Wouldn't they be able to afford printing a 20-page magazine once a month?
There are obviously other expenses involved, such as labour cost. I believe that it could be paid for from the revenue the publication would make on advertising.
I have looked at Sheengate Publishing, which produces 7 advertisement-sponsored local magazines in Surrey (Kingston, Richmond, Guildford, Woking, Surrey Downs, Elmbridge and Business West).
I analised the content of the Kingston magazine and realised that this 80-page glossy contains less than 17 pages of editorial content, which is only 21% of the total magazine content. There were over 34 pages of advertisements (42,5%), another 5 pages of classified ads (6,25%) and further 24 pages of property advertisement (30%). No wonder noone ever reads that magazine if there is nothing to be read in it!
Despite it, the publication charges a lot of its advertising space. Here are the rates:
1 Insertion | 4 Insertions | 7 Insertions | 12 Insertions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Full page colour | £1,155 | £1,039 | £982 | £924 |
Half page colour | £660 | £594 | £561 | £528 |
Quarter page colour | £410 | £369 | £349 | £328 |
Eighth page colour | £230 | £207 | £196 | £184 |
Therefore, selling advertising space is not only the mean of promoting local businesses but also an important source of revenue for the publication. If the new magazine was to sell 4 pages (20%) for ads, would it be enough to cover the cost of labour? Would it be enough pay wages of the permanent editor and designer who could coordinate work of students and other voluntary contributors?
