September has been a great month: 71 new magazines, Magazine Innvoation Center appro

September has been a great month: 71 new magazines, Magazine Innvoation Center approved and its first meeting a success? -

September 2009 will go into my history books as a great month. More than 71 new magazines were launched, the IRS, the State of Mississippi and the Institute of Higher Learning (the body that governs the public universities in the State of Mississippi) have approved the Magazine Innovation Center as a charitable, not for profit organization on the campus of The University of Mississippi, and the first meeting at the Magazine Innovation Center took place for the first time last week.

But first news first. September witnessed the birth of 71 new magazines from which 18 are published with a frequency of four times or higher. The total number of magazines that have started in the first nine months in this year of doom and gloom has reached 528 and counting. Compare that to a grand total of 685 new magazines for the entire 2008 calendar year. From the 528 new magazines at least 138 titles have a frequency of four times or more.


The September titles offer a mix of special issues and one-shots celebrating the life of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, President Lincoln and basketball star Michael Jordan. Others included brand extensions such as Cesar’s Way, from the guy who brought us the television program The Dog Whisperer, Dwell’s magazine Make it Yours, and Shooting Times’ Livin’ the Dream (with four separate covers).


However a lot of new and refreshing ideas hit the newsstands for the first times, including but not limited to H+, Toast, WWII Quarterly, Ink Junkie, Evolo, Watch Journal and The Flyfish Journal. Not to be left behind is Marvel’s latest entry in celebration of Fashion Week in New York City: Models Inc. with two separate covers. Take a look at the images of those magazines above and make sure to make a trip to your nearest newsstands to buy a copy or two. Our industry is still well, alive and kicking… Just look at the other side of the coin, for every tail there is a head. Do not dwell on the tail, look at the other side. Be creative, be innovative, be a publisher of a necessary, sufficient and relevant medium and you will see the light at the end of the tunnel that is not the train coming.

As for the rest of the great news of September, the Magazine Innovation Center is now a reality and you will be reading more information about it in the near future. The Internal Revenue Service has approved MIC as a Not for Profit organization under Section 501 (c) (6). In addition the State of Mississippi has approved MIC as a charitable organization and the Institute of Higher Learning for the State of Mississippi has approved MIC as a center in the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi.

In addition, MIC hosted as its first activity the Arthritis Today’s Advisory Board meeting on September 24 and 25. (More on that in a later post).

So, excuse my bragging, but I was told long time ago when I moved to Mississippi, “if it is true, it ain’t braggin’.” So next time you are feeling down and the news is all about doom and gloom, visit a newsstands, pick up a new magazine, sit back, relax and enjoy. Still feeling down, drop me an e mail at samir.husni@gmail.com and we can start the conversation about the three ships that help us cruise our future: ownership, showmanship and membership. All the best for now and best to all. Stop reading and go to your nearest newsstands. Spend some money and stop reading the free stuff…we have to be in the business of selling and buying content. To paraphrase the famous Mississippi saying, “if you don’t eat catfish we will both starve,” if you do not buy a magazine today we will all suffer. A good magazine should not go to waste…go buy one today.




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