Publisher describes ups and downs of magazine biz

How did Margaret Andersen decide to found and publish Maggie Mae Magazine, “the only regional magazine by women, for women, about women serving the heart of Florida?” Simple. In 2005 she experienced what she now calls “a two week lapse of sanity.” At the May meeting of FWA Orlando, with her hot-off-the-presses tenth issue in hand, Andersen claimed that if she had it to do over again, she would probably choose not to publish a magazine. “It’s a very, very difficult thing to do,” she says. Yet, she persists. One only has to spend a few minutes listening to her talk about her magazine to understand why. It may be a lot of hard work, but for Andersen, it’s a labor of love.

Actor/playwright/Manhattanite Margaret Andersen moved to artsy Mount Dora after the terrorist attack of 9/11 took several of her friends and a good deal of her beloved city’s luster. With two grown children living in Central Florida, this seemed like the logical place for her to settle, but after making herself a new home, she realized that something was missing. “I’d always been very creative,” she says. “And it just didn’t seem like I was doing anything.”

Enter the muse in the form of a magazine called Pink, picked up in Hilton Head, South Carolina by a vacationing friend. Andersen liked what she saw and realized she could do something similar. She went to Hilton Head and spent several hours talking with Pink’s publisher. Then she dove into the deep end.

In the beginning, she found herself swimming in pretty rough seas. The two-person partnership she formed was intended to allow her to focus on writing, while her counterpart handled the business. But when it looked like the arrangement wasn’t working out, Andersen’s so-called partner bowed out ungracefully, cleaning out the office in the process. Discouraged, but still committed to making her dream work, Andersen forged ahead.

Working without a partner means that the publisher now does double duty. She sells ads in the daytime, interviews and writes at night. The demands of the job make for an eighteen-hour day and a seven-day work week. It’s a grueling schedule by any standard, but the result is that, once a month, she gets to publish a beautiful magazine.

The beauty of the magazine is important to her. So much so that most of the ads that appear in it are not camera ready, but designed by Andersen and a small handful of freelance graphic designers. She’s even been known to throw in the design work for free, not just to sell ad space, but to ensure that the pages of her magazine are picture perfect.

A concern for aesthetics also has Andersen sticking to her guns on the somewhat unconventional size of the magazine.  Some outlets won’t carry the sixteen and a half by ten and a half inch magazine because they feel it’s awkward to display. But Andersen’s readers love the larger format and so does she. For one thing, it suits the striking photography and artwork that graces the cover each month.

Advertisers like the size too. A larger page means they get more visual impact for their ad dollar, and since the magazine is free, ad sales are the bottom line.

Andersen hasn’t reached all of her goals yet. The magazine started with twenty pages.  She’d like it to be forty-eight to sixty pages. Circulation began at about 10,000 and is now at 15,000. Andersen has her sights set on 50,000 in the near future. Beyond that? Who knows? The magazine is still young and has a lot of growing to do, but what Andersen has achieved so far is remarkable. Her mentor, whom she identifies only as someone with thirty-five years of experience in publishing, told her that it’s unheard of for a magazine to be self-sufficient after only six months. Yet that’s exactly the position Maggie Mae Magazine found itself in a few months ago.

For more insight into what makes Andersen and her magazine successful, visit them on the web at www.maggiezine.com