Second, magazines need to be more efficient and use the web for what it is good for. As you suggested, there is a really good opportunity for magazines to gather and serve their community online. Both of our titles start online, with the community submitting and voting on everything that get published. Not only does this make it a lot easier to produce a magazine, but having hundreds of thousands of contributors produces a better magazine.

In countries with greater population densities like the UK, it’s much easier to start a magazine - and new magazines are born (and fold) all the time here. Magazines remain very powerful attention-grabbers compared to online, and can be serious money makers where the geographical conditions are right.

One area to watch for, too, is contract publishing - effectively, magazines sponsored by single companies. Contract publishing is growing hugely in the UK and the quality of titles is getting very high. Many are even sold - and in the case of titles from the likes of Sainsburys, Waitrose, and Marks and Spencer, sell a lot of copies.

(Disclosure - I work for Redwood, which is one of the UK’s biggest contract publishers).

The biggest problem that I see for anyone who is trying to start a new magazine, apart from the cost, as getting attention space from an already overloaded human brain. I’m guessing that a well written and attractive “niche” magazine could work if it was focused, relevant, and could bring content to the reader that they wouldn’t find somewhere else. Distribution would also be a major factor that adds to the cost.

But your question was: “who will have the balls to start a new magazine today”? The only answer that I can come up with is: a person with a healthy ego, unmatched determination, and star power. And deep, deep pockets.

Great blog, Jeff.