Expanding Wisely

For the past year and a half, Tim Regan-Porter has served as the publisher/president of Paste, a music and entertainment title he helped co-found five years ago with several friends. With virtually zero magazine publishing experience prior to launch, Regan-Porter, 37, says he and his fellow Paste Media Group team members quickly gained an education in the business.“None of us had magazine experience coming into Paste, and we made many mistakes, even on the basics––not understanding things like appropriate ad/edit percentages,” he says.Today, the independently published, award-winning title, which has a rate base of 180,000, has quickly grown into the fourth-highest-selling consumer rock title, with distribution in more than a dozen countries, according to Regan-Porter. “While we’re growing rapidly, we face many of the same challenges almost every other consumer title faces,” he says. “The newsstand environment is tough. We’ve had good success, but expanding wisely is a challenge.”How do you think the decision to tailor Paste’s editorial content to a specific demographic of a more sophisticated readership has helped to separate the title from the other entertainment magazines?Tim Regan-Porter: When we started, radio had consolidated, the music television networks no longer played music, and the large music magazines were all rotating covers between Christina [Aguilera], Britney [Spears] and Justin [Timberlake]. Major media were only concerned with hormone-fueled 17-year-old boys, and while the niche titles were doing a good job, their focus on narrow genres left us wanting. We responded as fans and started Paste. There were no market studies or well-defined demographic targets––for better or worse. We just wanted to cover the kind of thoughtful, engaging music that we’d sought out since high school in a thoughtful, substantive manner. We wanted to be the kind of voice Rolling Stone was in the 1970s and early 1980s. And our approach has resonated with a wide range of people. We have a nearly equal number of subscribers in their 20s, 30s, 40s and even into their mid-50s.How has your position changed since the magazine’s launch? Regan-Porter: When we launched, my primary focus was editorial. However, with my three partners, we ran the company as a foursome, and we were familiar with all aspects of the business. As the magazine has grown––and particularly since I took on full publishing duties––we’ve had to become a little more specialized. There’s simply too much going on …. I don’t have time to argue that a certain album should have a higher or lower rating. What new challenges do you face in the industry?Regan-Porter: Getting in front of new potential subscribers is always tough. We’ve never done direct mail, and we’re trying to access that. We have a good idea of what we want to do on the Web, but need more resources. And getting the sales team––and buyers––to move from print pages plus added value to a truly integrated sales platform is a slow process.What is the key to your rapidly growing readership?Regan-Porter: The key components have been a focus on editorial, hiring enthusiasts throughout the organization and creating an open, collaborative environment that unleashes their potential. From our bookkeeper and IT staff to our editors, Paste is filled with music and film fanatics. … And that passion and commitment translates to readers. Paste incorporates multimedia into the magazine via CD and DVD samplers. How important has this been?Regan-Porter: We’ve had the CD since Issue 1, and––along with the DVD––it’s the key reason why we’ve risen above the many niche music publications to compete with the big players. It’s outrageously expensive and hard to justify from an accounting perspective. But [the CDs/DVDs] are an integral part of our brand and the reader experience. It just makes sense to allow and encourage readers to listen and watch the content we’re writing about. … There’s still something valuable about having a physical CD to move from work to car to home. We treat our CDs as mix tapes we’re making for close friends, and readers respond. It’s a key differentiator. (According to Regan-Porter, a third-party subscriber study revealed that 98 percent of subscribers listened to every sampler CD, and the average reader listened 4.5 times, with one in four listening 10-plus times. Sixty-seven percent bought at least one CD from each sampler.)What part has international publishing played in Paste’s success? Regan-Porter: We have newsstand distribution … in over 12 countries. … [We have] subscribers in 57 countries. It’s a minor part of our revenue, but those readers are passionate. We routinely get letters and tips from overseas, and even hear from Americans who discover the magazine abroad.What is your personal theory on the value of making content available on other platforms beyond print––and how important will it be to expand your title further into these other realms?Regan-Porter: Platforms beyond print are critical and will only become more so. This is true for consumer magazines in general, but especially for entertainment titles. Music and film live natively in live venues, on TV and the radio, at theaters and online. Our audience experiences it there, and if we want to be an authority, we must engage them there. This is also crucial for our advertising partners; they want to engage our audience at their points of passion with an integrated mix of platforms. Peter Beisser is a regular contributor to Publishing Executive. He previously was the managing editor of several North American Publishing Co. titles.

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Expanding Wisely

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