Trying to sell an idea to companies/business's -, My own student newspaper!

[melanie.oconnell]

I've been having a mind blank recently and I've posted on here recently in the hardware section and because are so many different people I thought I'd give a shot here to see what people think!

Ok so basically I go to university and I am starting a little student magazine in my university....that in a way will compete with the university student newspaper that is already there.

No one reads the student newspaper and I've come up with something I think could be fun and definetely alot more people interested.

My university publishes 3000 copies of their newspaper every month. They get advertising in it also from companies.

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My magazine will be just like a newspaper too - A4 size, same as the university one and I plan to print 6000 copies a month. I have a kind of mockup already done.

I want to see if I can fund sponsorship or advertising for it to cover my printing costs. I have various content in it. Like interviews with girls, articles on student life, articles from "popular" students etc

I plan to print 3000 more copies then them and I plan to go to some of the pubs, shops, places that students go near to my university and go to them and say look - this is a sample of my own student magazine, put an add in it and students will see this and come to you and you give me £££ for putting it there.

So my question is - how do I sell it effectively...how do I make them feel, yes this will be good advertising - they will get the students they want etc etc

Any tips to marketing/selling ideas/selling adspace?

I don't have any proven track record so it's harder I guess as it's the first year/time I'm doing this but I know mine will be 60x more interesting then the uni's version

[integreatmedia]

Initially this could be tricky, as you have no proven track record of distribution or popularity of your alternative magazine. I'm guessing the official magazine was easier to get advertising for as it was the 'official' one affiliated to the university and has more standing.

Do you have electronic copies of both the official and your mock-up to perhaps send me, as I may be able to generate some more ideas based on seeing a sample of each publication?

[go4it]

advertisers will pay to go in the student newspaper because they know that the money will go back to the Union. It's a 2 way advertiser thing - they get student exposure plus they get acknowledged by the local community for supporting a student union. would they advertise with someone running it as a business?

[peoplepassionplanetdotcom]

There are loads of magazines out there that do this VERY successfully in a student based environment, one of the most successful is Twenty4 Seven magazine: http://www.247magazine.co.uk/

I would certainly follow their lead in changing to an A6 magazine to start with....

With these guys they have built up a very successful culture surrounding their magazine. Hope this helps.

[melanie.oconnell]

That's really cool peoplepassion

I took a look at their digital versions and the type of companies they have got advertising in it and it's similar type of brands I'd like to target and go for - stuff you know students would take a look at if they saw an ad like that

I think I'm just going to have to print a couple of samples and go around in my area and do the door to door thing

But what if I want to contact a big company and over email? I can't show it to them directly...

[max99]

i'd be interested in advertising in it if you get it running !

[Incepto]

Remember to keep your price extremely reasonable at first! Advertisers will be taking a risk by giving an unproven publication money, so they're going to be wary about splashing out.

How much do you plan on charging for adverts at first? and how much once the newpaper/mag is established?