Should a local newsletter launch a print magazine?
Short answer
Not first. Print only works advertiser-funded, and it's expensive and hard. The reason to consider it is that business owners love it: a free magazine mailed to the most affluent zip codes lets you sell ads against a specific audience. I'd rank it after newsletter and short-form social, and I'm thinking about it, not doing it yet.
I'm thinking a lot about launching a print product. It's probably going to be hard, and I'm not doing it yet. At the start I wrote print off completely. Now I keep it in the back of my mind.
Why would a digital brand add print at all?
Because it's what business owners want. Many local advertisers are still slow to value digital. A consultant's advice I passed to an operator was to go all in on three things: newsletter, short-form social, and print. The reason for print isn't that tons of people will read it.
"The reason for print is specifically because it's what business owners want."
How does targeted print work?
You choose who gets it. One publisher mails 5,000 magazines only to four zip codes, and only to the houses in the wealthy part of town. Advertisers say: I want to be in front of those people. You're selling a specific audience, not a circulation number.
From what guests on my show have described, print works when it's advertiser-funded: saturation mail into chosen routes, or a magazine that features the advertisers. Never reader-paid.
What does the money look like?
- A legacy publisher on my show still gets over 70% of his revenue from print, even while saying daily print has no future.
- A two-person real estate magazine operation reportedly does about $10 million a year.
- A magazine company with about 40 titles was said to make about $10 million a year.
- A Texas local media company that mails papers to homes unrequested reportedly does about $35 million a year.
Those are other people's numbers, secondhand. The cost side is real too: about $7 per copy to print and mail in one franchisee's case. See print magazine franchise costs.
Is there a cheaper way to test print?
Yes. Meet businesses where they are. A postcard or mini magazine can be an add-on for advertisers who still want print, without committing to a full magazine. For my senior brand I found a vendor selling a fully written 60-page white-label seniors magazine with ad slots and a custom cover, priced at about print cost.
Where does print rank?
- Newsletter.
- Short-form social.
- Print, once the first two work and advertisers ask for it.
For a national senior brand I'd flip part of that: website first, magazine second, newsletter third. For a regular local brand, it stays third.
Answered by TJ Larkin. From Local Media HQ podcast conversations and strategy calls in 2025 and 2026. Last updated .