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A year old and Lifestyle Monthly bucks publishing trends |
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Friday, 24 April 2009 |
Liverpool’s Lifestyle Monthly magazine is celebrating its first birthday as it sees advertising revenues increase and looks to expand.
As its twelfth issue hits the stands, How-Do caught up with editor Amanda Moss, to find out how the last year has been.
 A year older
“I stand my ground though, to keep up the respectability of the magazine. While I have come down in prices I am not going to sell pages for next to nothing, the magazine has a 2 week shelf life, I have high printing and distribution costs and am not going to flog a page for, say, £200 which is what some other magazines have done... That has been their downfall I think.”
The 37-year-old journalist wrote for the tabloids and women’s weeklies before getting a job producing trailers for ITV.
Moving to Liverpool to work on Hollyoaks and Brookside in post production, she was made redundant in 2006:
“With 4 children, I didn't think I would find a job in the media that would suit the hours I could work. I looked into buying a magazine franchise but didn't like the restrictions they imposed and didn't like the magazines that were available freely and I thought I could do it better - not just slap a load of adverts in and some wispy editorial around it.”
The publication typically features a celebrity interview in each issue, along with fashion, local news and events.
 Lifestlye Monthly
“I am looking at increasing it by a further 3000 copies to go door-to-door to the apartment blocks along the Albert Dock within the next 3 months. It is also published online every month and I get a lot of national and international interest through Facebook,” she added.
The issues are free, with subscriptions available “to cover the postage and envelope.”
At the moment 4 staff work alongside Moss on the publication - 2 freelance sales people, a part time deputy editor and designer.
But with expansion plans (and a fifth child on the way), she’s looking at more options:
“I would like to increase the number of pages but this can only be done through more advertising revenue. I would also like to set up a separate Southport edition, we do cover that area already but they would benefit by having their own edition.
“Long term plans are to franchise out the magazine nationally, whereby I provide editorial and advertising support and take a percentage of their advertising revenue. I actually fancy launching a magazine abroad, either in Cyprus or Dubai so I have an excuse to go out there all the time.”
As the news is filled with closures, redundancies and profit-warnings, How-Do was keen to find out why Moss believed her magazine was doing well.
“I think my success is down to 2 things - 1) a quality product with actually something to read that's not overloaded with adverts and 2) my commitment to helping other businesses. I don't just take advertising money from companies and slap a crap advert in the magazine, I take the time to design it and tailor it to their market. I have refused to print ads in the past saying to my customers that they won't work and they need to rewrite/style it, and I think that attention to details makes them have faith in the magazine.” Something to add? Then leave a comment below or email us now.
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