Publishing software for startup magazines

RunMags will structure your inventory and sales processes

During onboarding, we'll set up your channels, publication schedule, and advertising products, organizing your inventory quickly and efficiently. This structured approach simplifies the ad sales process. You can instantly tweak your offerings based on client feedback and test them with new clients. Proposals are emailed and eSigned easily on any device, making agility your superpower as a startup publisher!

Hire staff as late as possible and have them add value from day 1

As a startup publisher, hiring staff too early can hurt profitability. RunMags allows you to operate efficiently with a small team, delaying the need for more hires. When you're ready to expand, RunMags simplifies onboarding, helping new staff quickly learn to sell ads, manage subscriptions, and produce publications.

Avoid migrating data from spreadsheets and email marketing platforms

A publishing business generates substantial data annually. Initially, managing client lists, ad bookings, and subscriptions with spreadsheets or basic CRM systems may seem adequate. However, this approach is time-consuming and error-prone. Ultimately, significant effort will be needed to clean and migrate data to a robust magazine publishing platform as the business grows.

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Our customers rock. We love to share their stories and are thrilled to introduce you to them.

"Clearly seeing the benefits from operating a publishing company on a digital platform, I signed up immediately with RunMags and have no regrets! There is no way a single person could operate a business of my size without it!" Scarlett Redenius, Publisher of Florida Country Magazine
Florida Country Magazine

Florida Country Magazine

Florida Country Magazine is a beautiful free publication that caters to all of Florida. The magazine has over 250,000 readers and is owned and operated by Scarlett Redenius.

Read more about Florida Country Magazine

Set up the essentials before adding complexity

A new magazine needs a workable commercial process as well as good content. Start with the title, issue schedule, advertising products and the people responsible for sales, production and finance. Decide how an advertiser enquiry becomes an approved agreement and how the team will know what was promised. A small, clear process is easier to maintain than several disconnected records with conflicting information.

RunMags supports advertising sales, contracts with eSign, subscriptions, production and billing. A startup can evaluate those connections using one representative issue and example sale. Size the plan by your legal entities and brands, then check that its user limit suits your actual team. Do not choose solely by the number of magazine titles or assume that a feature absent from a short comparison table is absent from the product.

Use onboarding to establish responsibilities and understand the workflow. Four hours of assistance are included; additional help is billed at EUR 125/hour. Discuss migration or website requirements before assuming their scope. Ask Maggie about the publishing questions you are working through, then bring unresolved setup decisions to the team. Explore plans and onboarding, or start a trial without a credit card.

Write down what a successful first issue workflow should demonstrate before beginning the trial. That might include a clear advertiser agreement, understood artwork deadline and accurate billing handover. This makes the evaluation useful even if you are still refining the magazine's commercial offer.

How much does it cost to start a magazine?

There is no single figure. The cost depends mostly on whether you print, how often you publish and how many copies you print and post. Plan for these cost lines:

  • Printing: the printer charges per copy, and the price depends on the page count, paper, binding and print run.
  • Paper and postage: heavier paper and larger formats cost more to post, and postage is paid on every copy you mail.
  • Distribution: a mail house or distributor to pack and deliver copies to subscribers, and to shops if you sell on newsstands.
  • Design and editorial: writers, editors, photographers and a designer for every issue, on staff or freelance.
  • Website and newsletter: a site for your title, hosting and an email service for your newsletter.
  • Software: tools for advertising sales, subscriptions, production and invoicing, so the business side does not run on spreadsheets.

Printing, postage and distribution come back with every issue; most of the rest is a cost for the year. Work out your own first-year budget and break-even point with the free magazine startup cost calculator. For what RunMags costs, see the plans on the pricing page.

How do I start a magazine subscription business?

Start with the offer: your issue schedule, whether readers get print, digital or both, and the subscription products you sell, for a number of issues or a period of time. Price them so that each subscription covers its printing and postage.

Then give readers a simple way to buy. In RunMags, readers subscribe and renew on your branded subscription page and pay by card into your connected Stripe account, and each subscription lands on a subscriber record your team works from. For each issue, RunMags builds a distribution list from active subscriptions, which you export to Excel for your printer or mail house.

Keep readers subscribed: reminder rules pick subscriptions by days to expiry or issues left and send email or print reminders, and your team runs the renewal batch. Readers update their own address and newsletter choices on a personal preferences page. See magazine subscription management in RunMags and the subscriber portal.