Almost every second person would like to open his own business today. To work for yourself, to receive not only profit, but also pleasure from your efforts - is this not the ultimate dream? Another question: "What kind of business will it be?" Is a newspaper an entrepreneurial object - is this a good idea?
Who needs it?
This question can often be heard today. Indeed, all information has moved to the Internet, and all the media are trying to replace radio and television. Nobody seems to be reading newspapers. But here is the paradox - this source of information not only does not die, but is also gaining momentum. Every day, periodicals collapse replenished with new names.
This means that the newspaper is still needed, if not by the reader, then by the publisher, who is going to establish his newspaper business. Either a journalist who considers himself capable of releasing his own product, or an entrepreneur who is impressed with the idea of becoming not the usual owner of a store or taxi park, but also a media magnate, is thinking about his publication. And both have little idea how troublesome this business is the newspaper.
Where to start
You need to start with the concept of the newspaper: what direction it will have - departmental, entertaining, socio-political or advertising, what audience it is intended for, what is the expected circulation. Having decided on these points, you need to send registration documents to the regional branch of Rossvyazokhrankultura. If there are no claims to paperwork, the contents of the charter and the title of the publication, a license will be obtained within a month.
Waiting for an answer from the ROCA, many problems can be solved: draw up a business plan for the newspaper, find and equip the editorial office, recruit staff, prepare materials for the first issue, study the conditions of all geographically accessible printing houses and choose the one with which it is best to work. By the way, a circulation of up to 999 copies is allowed to be issued without registration, so that a trial number can be started without problems, at the same time, demand can be studied and advertisements made.
How to fill a newspaper
This is a question of questions. In undertaking the publication of a newspaper, many make the same mistake. Even a professional journalist who thinks to write all the materials on his own will run out of steam very soon. And the entrepreneur naively believes that it’s very easy to find and recruit talented newspaper people, in fact there are very few good writers. And therefore, one of the most difficult moments is the selection of employees.
I will have to say that most of the new newspapers do not live to be one year old and close. The main reason for bankruptcy is the inability of publishers to decide on their target audience and related topics. In order for the newspaper to arouse interest, it should not work for everyone, but for a certain category of readers — the intelligentsia, youth, peasantry, housewives, and so on. It is much easier to determine the content of the advertising publication.
Hope and Reality
Most newspapers are focused on advertising content. Moreover, inexperienced owners of print media and editors-in-chief are confident that advertising revenue will cover all expenses, and even make a profit. Unfortunately, such bright hopes are rarely justified.
A newspaper as a business can only generate income if it is already well-promoted, and a line of advertisers is being built in its office.But a freshly baked publication has to go a difficult way from obscurity to fame and at the same time suffer losses, continuing to issue number by number only thanks to the obstinacy of the founders, their indestructible ambition, and maybe the availability of free money.
From the experience of those who swung a glossy magazine, it is known that the very first issue can succeed - the buyers' curiosity will work, then an inevitable recession is coming, and the first 18 issues will have to be released at a loss. If you survive this period, then you can count on the rise. The situation with the newspaper is approximately the same, only the bill here will go not for the number of issues, but for a while, and it will be at least a year. During this period, many simply close, but there are those who overcome the dangerous threshold, and further, in fact, the media business begins.
Newspaper advertising: how to do it
It is a mistake to assume that you can indiscriminately put everything in a commercial newspaper. In this case, you can get a banal message board. And for a full-fledged print publication, a meaningful and clear business plan of the newspaper is required, in which:
- circulation;
- number of stripes;
- sections;
- thematic pages;
- prices for all types of advertising - banner and photo advertising, announcements, etc .;
- periodicity;
- printing and other expenses, including office maintenance and staff salaries.
Even such a wide area as advertising has its own priorities. And with great competition, several main topics will always be in demand: the sale and exchange of real estate, work, car sales. A separate newspaper has the right to exist in each direction. But you can place them in one newspaper under separate headings - this will help to attract the attention of buyers and promote the business.
A newspaper can be considered completed only when advertisers do not need to be “promoted”, and they themselves will collaborate with the publication. However, this is already from the realm of fantasy: advertising agents of even the most serious publications are forced to work tirelessly.
How to promote a newspaper
This is the number one task. Nobody wants to work for nothing, every publisher and editor, in addition to his own ambitions, thinks about how to make money on a newspaper. And for this you need to shape the face of the publication, its reputation. An advertising newspaper also needs advertising in all known ways: outdoor advertising, TV, the Internet, business cards, presentations.
Efforts will not be in vain if the newspaper has a high level - substantive and printing. It is unlikely that the business owner will want to pay for advertising in a gray and inconspicuous publication in two bands. This means that format, appearance and competent marketing are everything.
Once, one great poet advised a novice fellow writer: "If you can’t write, don’t write." This may be a warning to an inexperienced publisher: this path is too thorny and unpredictable. And if the warning did not take effect - well, maybe this is called a vocation?
