Le Roux admits to media update’s Darren Gilbert that she wasn’t naïve about the situation of the magazine. While magazines, in general, are facing a tough time, particularly when it comes to selling advertising, it’s even harder for a niche magazine, she says. However, this didn’t stop her from forging ahead.

Ideas magazine recently published its first issue as an independent title. How did the process of creating this first issue go?

It was a challenge.

I don’t have a staff around me all the time anymore. Everyone is now working on a freelance basis from home. 

So, we did our food shoot on a Sunday. We did most of our other shoots on a Saturday. It was literally whenever there was time, we had to do it. There was also so much admin inbetween.

Before I could start negotiations with printers and distributors, I also needed to register IdeesFabriek (IdeasFactory) as a company. By the time we got stuck into the pages of the magazine, we had three weeks left, which is shorter than normal.

We also made the first issue a bit bigger than normal. That was because we wanted to give the magazine a fresh look. We also wanted our regular readers to recognise the magazine when they picked it up, knowing that their old friend was still around.

The reaction on social media to Ideas closing played a significant role in resurrecting the magazine. So did a Thundafund campaign that you ran on the back of the reaction. Can you tell us more?

Yes. The fact that we had such a massive reaction on Facebook and Instagram to the news that we were closing, I thought, ‘why can’t we harness that and why not have something that is on a digital platform where people can donate?’

If they really wanted to help us, this is where they could help. We also told them what they would be contributing towards and what they would get out of it.

The beautiful thing about something like Thundafund, apart from crowdfunding, is if you put the message out there and nobody responds, then you know it’s maybe not a good idea.

If I had ever doubted that I was on the right track [in bringing the magazine back], I just had to look at the extent of the outpouring on social media and what people were donating through Thundafund. People didn’t just want to give us money. They asked us what they could do to help, saying they could contribute this and that.

That alone has allowed me to sleep well at night.

In order for the magazine to be sustainable as an independent title, it needed a new business model. What does the business model look like today?

To make the business model more sustainable, we based the strategy for the new edition on the way the team published special editions in the past.

One of the standalone magazines we had was Creative Ideas. For that magazine, we only put out a print run of 15 000 and we’d end up selling over 16 000. So our business model will incorporate that: a lower print order with a higher cover price. It’s R80 for the print edition and we publish bi-monthly.

I’m not naïve and I know that a lot of people simply can’t afford to pay that for a magazine. That is why we decided to be very careful in terms of how much we print.

We are also publishing digitally on MySubs and Zinio. A digital copy will cost R50.

What challenges have you faced on your journey so far?

The challenges are mainly around decisions on who we work with. All of a sudden, we have the choice to decide who our service provider is. Who you think will do the best job.

Working as a little start-up is also a little daunting. This is an industry that I’ve worked in for a long time but, suddenly, going into massive contracts is intimidating.

It’s also difficult for me to get out there and speak to advertisers while putting together a magazine. I am still a very hands-on editor and, suddenly, with very little budget, I’m the sales person, the marketing person and everything else.

It’s not bad though. It’s just different. It’s a wonderful challenge and it’s not one I would take on if I didn’t think that we could make it work.

What is your vision for the magazine?

For year one, it would be to do well, circulation-wise. The big game-changer for us will be the digital sales as we are fairly limited in print.

Looking ahead, a brand like Ideas, which is very interactive, can be so much more than a magazine, and it should be so much more. Eventually, I’d like us to be out there in a space where we can invites readers in for workshops and the like.

The first issue of Ideas magazine as an independent title went on sale on Monday, 6 March.

For more information, connect with them on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.

There are plenty of great magazine on the market, including Ja. magazine. Read more about the publication in our article, Free e-zine, Ja. magazine, exhibits South African talent.