Imagine all the readers

Plenty of magazines are rushing to fill the needs of readers with specialized niche interests. Kate Spencer is trying to take her Spokane-based magazine, Imagine, in a different direction.

Instead of finding red-state or blue-state readers and identifying ways to hit their buzzword topics, Spencer wants her publication to reach a middle ground and bring people together, not let them luxuriate in comfy subgroups.

Imagine magazine, carrying the tagline, “Creating a meaningful life,” has tried to give readers a reason to be active and committed.

Spencer, who’s never run a business before, published three 80-page issues of the magazine in 2004. The fourth issue hits the stands in February with a run of close to 9,000 copies.

Spencer, who has worked as a writer and magazine editor in Spokane for more than a dozen years, is convinced the magazine has a bright future. She expects to make the magazine profitable in the next four years. She didn’t disclose how much money it’s losing. She’s financed it largely on her savings and a small bank loan, she said.

The big challenge is helping get the attention of readers, many of whom are already bombarded by information and struggling to keep their lives uncluttered and focused.

“If people are drawn to it, they’ll read it,” Spencer said. “But making people aware of it without spending half our budget is the big challenge for us.”

Dozens of magazines on the market are selling to readers interested in self-growth, health, spirituality and social activism. Spencer acknowledged the challenge for Imagine is finding a way to merge activism with personal growth.

The magazine’s articles have avoided focusing on topics that divide or separate into party partisanship. One article, on families, drew some criticism, Spencer said, because it included a picture of two men. “We got some letters that told us that’s wrong,” Spencer said.

Some readers have told Spencer they see Imagine as a Christian magazine. One reader told her she enjoys its focus on “beauty” tips.

If she could, Spencer would add a descriptive line to the title saying: “It’s not all about you.”

Its goal, she added, is to give people concise and helpful ways to help make changes in the world.

“I want people to sit down, read it, then get up off their butts and do something,” she said.

The magazine relies on a group of about seven writers, most of them spread across the country and overseas. The Spokane part of the magazine involves Spencer working out of her North Spokane home, a page designer, Corey Bippes, and an advertising manager, Heidi Newton.

Spencer said she’s found that nearly three of every four new magazines go out of business in the first year. That Imagine will continue into its second year is due to her good fortune in finding good help from several consultants.

She received useful guidance, starting in 2002, from Stanford Publishing, a division of Stanford University that assists start-ups or young professionals getting into the business of magazine publishing.

Spencer also derived inspiration from research done by Colorado sociologist Paul Ray, who’s studied a population he identifies as the “cultural creatives.” That term covers a group of people who see changing the world positively as a major focus, said Spencer.

Imagine also got strong support from Johnny Humphreys, a Spokane entrepreneur and business consultant. Humphreys contacted Spencer after Imagine’s first issue, back in May, and told her she had hit on a great idea.

“My offer to her is to be a sounding board. What I can do, if she does decide she needs investors, is I know how to introduce her to people who would be interested,” said Humphreys, who is now CEO at Spokane biotech firm, GenPrime.

Spencer said it’s too soon yet to start hunting for investors. That will come over time, as the magazine gains more readers, she added. The magazine is currently reaching readers through 400 bookstores or dealers across the country and another 140 outlets in Canada. Area outlets include Auntie’s Bookstore in downtown Spokane, the Unity Church in Spokane and some Barnes and Nobles stores.

One positive sign that Imagine is finding its audience is the response to the Spencer’s initial mass-market mailing. She sent out 45,000 letters to readers developed off a number of mailing lists. The mailing generated more than 1,300 subscriptions.

“That’s just shy of 3 percent. The average response (for new magazines) is between one-half percent to 1.8 percent,” said Spencer.

She’s hoping to develop at least two new mailings to bring circulation to at least 10,000. That number is critical; many advertisers don’t start showing any interest in a new magazine until it hits that number, she said.

Within a few years, she’s confident the circulation should reach 20,000 readers.

Other plans to boost revenue are to expand the magazine Web site to advertising. The site — www.imaginemagazine.net — showcases the magazine’s current articles and offers links for advertisers and subscribers.

Imagine is still waiting for its first major advertiser to show up. Among the companies that should be advertising in Imagine, said Spencer, are shoe manufacturer New Balance and Working Assets, the San Francisco telecommunications firm that spends portions of its revenue on good causes.

That would start allowing Spencer to move the management of Imagine out of her home, into a separate Spokane office.

“Well always be a virtual company, doing most of our work in a paperless office,” she said.

“But its important to also separate my work from my personal family life. Its too easy, the way it is now, for me to always be working on the magazine.”