In 1991, I launched a publication that was a monthly “news review” using editorial cartoons, humor columns, and a “fake news” section, ala The onion, to entertain and amuse people who were a little fed up with the bad news. The newspaper is a fun way to see the world, through the eyes of some very talented and funny writers and artists. The genesis of the newspaper was a version that was distributed free of charge and relied on local advertising in the Sacramento, California area, where it all began. (I would name the post, but I can’t, according to this site’s writing rules, but see the info at the end of the article.)
The first issue came out, appropriately enough, on April Fool’s Day. However, the joke was not the newspaper itself, but rather the real-life politics that the publication satirises. I had just left another small post I co-edited in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about an hour’s drive northeast of Sacramento, and was inspired by the Santa Cruz Comic Newsanother editorial cartoon newspaper from Santa Cruz, California to start this one.
Sacramento seemed like a good home for a political humor paper, since it is the state capital and a political city. The first issue, which hit the streets just after the first Gulf War, contained a brief “history” of that war, told in editorial cartoons, with accompanying “teasers” to form a narrative. It caused quite a stir and was an immediate hit with lovers of political satire in Sacramento.
I launched my little “rag” with some minimal loans from some friends, which gave me enough for the first impression and some expenses. I opened a small office in the basement of a bookstore whose manager appreciated the paper, and they even traded a newspaper ad for rent. I had to sign up for food stamps for the first year or so to make ends meet, so as you can imagine it was a very limited operation. But I worked hard, pounding the pavement to sell ads, working the phone and putting the newspaper together on a nightstand, cutting and pasting the old-fashioned way. I still couldn’t afford to hire help, but friends gave me a hand here and there and somehow I managed.
Month to month, ad sales increased and the feedback I received from readers was inspiring. I was getting calls like a woman saying, “I don’t smile or laugh much these days, with what’s going on in the world. But after reading your paper, it made me roar!” Those kinds of calls and letters kept me going. In fact, the paper was making quite a splash, a unique addition to the city’s culture, and it even got good press in the other monthly and weekly publications.
Becoming a financial success was another matter, as competition among the many small local publications was fierce. What I like to call the Great Newspaper Decline had not yet begun in earnest, but the road was still difficult. Startup articles seemed to be appearing every week, as publishing programs became widely available for personal computers, making it easy to design any small magazine an aspiring publisher could conceive of. However, it was much more difficult to support them financially.
Eventually, after a few years, it became apparent that the readership was much stronger than the advertising support. This may have to do with political content, as many companies avoid anything remotely “controversial.” This situation prompted me to try to promote the newspaper by subscription. After all, if readers are so excited about it, maybe many of them would be willing to pay a subscription. It would also place the publication nationally, making it available anywhere in the country for the same price.
However, it seemed clear to me that the people of Vermont, Florida, or Texas would have no interest in local Sacramento advertising. So, I decided to create a new title, which would include the same content as the original, but with more cartoons and features, to fill the gap left by the advertising. I released this new version in mid 2000 and obtained a national trademark for the name to protect my investment of time and energy, not to mention money.
I published both titles at the same time until the 16th Anniversary Edition in April 2008, when I renamed the original to match the newer version. The content of each remained the same, the Sacramento version still being ad-based and the other subscription-based. I still included the old logo prominently on the cover of the Sacramento edition, so readers wouldn’t get too confused. Still, as you can imagine, I got a lot of questions, mostly of the “Why did you do that?” variety.
I did it for several reasons. First, since I had registered the name of the national edition, I felt that it represented the future of the publication. And he wanted to build that title as much as possible, so why not make the 100,000 local readers familiar with it? In addition, advertising revenue had been in decline, along with the economy, for about a year, as the small businesses the paper relied on began cutting back on their advertising budgets. And I figured the name change would get a lot of local press, since the paper had become a local institution in those 16 years. In fact, the change got a lot of local media attention, including a big article in the local newspaper. sacramento beeas well as articles in many smaller newspapers, an interview on a popular radio show, and an appearance on the local cable TV station.
The idea was that the media attention would increase readership and help prop up publicity. I’m sure it must have brought in some new readers, but local businesses continued to be very strict with their ad dollars. Finally, after a few more months of financial bleeding due to falling ad revenue, I decided to pull the plug on the free edition. On the front page of the last four free issues, I made it very clear how many were left and invited longtime fans of the paper to subscribe at reduced rates. Many did, but not as many as I had hoped. I guess it’s hard for most people to shell out money for something they’ve enjoyed for free for so long, even if they professed their love for it, and even if it was only $17.95 a year!
However, I am doing my best to stay in the public eye in Sacramento, setting up tables and booths at as many events as I can, and have now become an advertiser in the other local periodicals. When people see me at these events and pick up the free back issues I put out, many of them tell me they didn’t know what happened, but they missed the paper. I don’t know if they hadn’t seen the four issues that loudly declared the end of the free edition, or just ignored that information. But it’s clear that people are missing out on the paper, so I’m having quite a bit of success signing up these old readers for subscriptions. The newspaper is on a solid, if humble, financial footing and is here to stay.
Slowly but surely, the post continues to grow, as people from all over the world discover it and old friends renew their friendship. Obviously, the newspaper could grow much faster if I could afford a large national marketing campaign. I am looking for investors to fund such a campaign, and my goal is to eventually match the subscription level of my only direct competition, a similar newspaper in Ohio called The fun times. It was launched as a subscription publication from the beginning, a few years before the mine, with a large sum obtained in an inheritance. I think there’s a lot of room in the market for another magazine of this type, and that role is living proof that it can be done, and quite successfully.
So for now, patience and hard work is the name of the game, trying my best to promote it on a small budget. Curious readers are invited to visit our website (link below), which includes a free PDF download of a previous issue to peruse. You can even request a free sample copy for a limited time.
This election season, we’re looking at some of the best political satire in years. If you’re a fan of political humor, I hope you’ll give it a try!
