They’re always a problem for old dogs. But new magazine publishers better learn them pronto or be mercilessly put down. That was certainly the case for Connie Wilson, who “knew nothing about the publishing industry” in 2002, when she first published Modern Dog magazine from her Kitsilano townhouse. The glossy quarterly’s print run has since risen from 15,000 to 70,000, and a full-time staff of 11 is readying a record Winter 2009 edition of 148 pages.
Still, starting the magazine was “the scariest thing I ever did,” said Wilson, who had to pick up speed quicker than the West Coast Express trains that shake the windows of the 2,700-square-foot second-floor Railtown office she rents for $5,000 or so monthly. “There was so much to know,” she recalled: “Advertising sales, accounting, printing. . . . My first day on the job took two years. But now I know everybody in the pet industry in North America. There’s a level of comfort in that, and it is fun being part of the group of people who set trends.”
A CBC broadcaster identified Modern Dog’s trend at its debut party by calling it “the Vogue magazine for dogs.” Still, it wasn’t supposed to be a magazine at all.
By 2001, Wilson, who had previously worked in legal offices, helped import industrial machinery, and developed Okanagan residential subdivisions, saw her future in websites and online marketing. With “high-maintenance” Weimaraner-pointer Kayla, now 16, to look after, she planned to make money from “a hub for dog-training, dog events and things like that.” A free-circulation digest of some kind “would direct back at my website,” Wilson figured
Two things changed that. She couldn’t foresee interest in a digest like publications aimed at breeders and other pet professionals. And the dot-com bubble burst, sending paper millionaires to the doghouse.
Wilson had learned about dogs as social catalyst in 1997, when a spent relationship saw her quit Kelowna for Vancouver. “I left all my tennis friends, all my boating friends behind. I took Kayla for the first time to Kits beach, and I met all these people who became friends. I’d left one social circle, but another opened, and the ticket of admittance was my dog.”
Sparked by a Toward Excellence business course, Wilson’s entrepreneurial light flashed. “I realized there was a niche waiting to be filled,” she said. “I’m a dog lover, there’s all these people — a lot of them professionals — like me. I thought they’d enjoy reading about the lifestyle relationship we have with dogs. So I launched Modern Dog.”
Halle — woof-woof — lujah! It succeeded right out of the kennel. Wilson won’t disclose her private firm’s revenue. But the magazine ran some 290 revenue pages this year at an estimated return of $4,200 per. That’s $1,218,000. Add circulation and newsstand revenue (including Britain now), plus income from newsletter sponsorships, polls, videos, photo competitions, blogs, etc. related to its www.moderndogmagazine.com website’s reported 300,000 monthly page views, and Modern Dog is clearly sitting up but hardly begging.
It’s had plenty of copydogs, some of which tried to duplicate its format and media kits. But Wilson’s daughters Jennifer and Jessica Nosek, who are editor and creative director respectively, set the bar too high for wannabes to reach. Among other things, they had dog-lover celebs like former Playboy centrefold Pamela Anderson, Ellen DeGeneres and Twilight star Rachelle Lefevre volunteer as cover subjects.
Such glamour aside, Modern Dog’s centrefold subjects are always shelter dogs. “People look up to us as trend-setters,” Wilson said. “We promote making a rescue dog your first choice when you become an owner. We want to make a dent in all those dogs who are waiting for their forever homes.”
Source
Vancouver Sun
Surfing USA for dogs hit Imperial Beach again in San Diego over the weekend. Many of the dogs we introduced to readers in this surfing story attended the 5th annual Loews Coronado Bay Surf Dog competition Saturday.