There's a new national magazine coming out this month that's geared toward career and family women who try to cram a little triathlon training, snowboarding and mountain biking into their schedules.
The inaugural March/April issue of Her Sports magazine, a St. Petersburg publication for sports-minded women, will hit specialty shops and bookstores such as Barnes & Noble on Feb. 20. President and publisher Dawna Stone is self-financing the publication through a corporation called Wet Dog Media, which she formed in July.
With a target circulation of 50,000 for the premiere issue, Stone's team is relying on partnerships with organizations such as the Ironman Triathlon and the Active Network that allows the magazine to reach its target audience of active women age 25 to 49. They're offering trial subscriptions, setting up booths at races and events across the nation and marketing subscriptions through hersports.com.
"Unlike a Time or a Conde Nast, we don't have millions of dollars to market the magazine, so we're depending on grass roots marketing," Stone said.
Stone, 35, has watched similar publications such as Women's Sports & Fitness and Sports Illustrated Women fold, but she thinks she has learned from their mistakes. She's taking a vertical approach, limiting overhead and staff while digging toward a modest goal of 100,000 subscribers by next year when the bimonthly magazine increases to 10 issues a year.
Stone, who has worked in finance and marketing for Deloitte Consulting, Morgan Stanley and Clearwater's MarineMax, has had to convince a lot of people, such as her major advertisers Dasani and Kraft, that this time it'll be different.
"The bigger companies are extremely excited about the magazine and they're really supporting it because there just isn't a publication out there like this," Stone said.
