Walking into the Bloom office, I was greeted by bright orange-colored walls (the signature color of the magazine’s name) a smiling face, and the Bloom dog, Sophie. While waiting to speak with Mr. Abrams, I noticed a long shelf, neatly lined, in chronological order with every issue of Bloom. Mr. Abrams soon came out to greet me, telling me to get settled while he made himself some coffee, inevitably trying to gain a second wind, and with good reason; as we began our interview, it was quickly apparent that the work of an editor and publisher of a magazine is never-ending…
EHunter: Besides its appreciation for the arts, what prompted you to start a magazine in Bloomington especially since it is a small community?
Abrams: What I wanted to do was live in Bloomington. That was my first desire. I came here for a visit; I liked it a lot. I wanted to live here. Then when I went back to New York, I started thinking about what could I do to make a living here? It actually wasn’t the first thing I thought of. It probably should’ve been the obvious thing except that I had been involved with start-up magazines in New York and it takes millions of dollars to start a magazine in New York. However, I realized I could start a magazine in a place the size of Bloomington without borrowing any money or getting any investors, because here it’s so much less than in a place like New York. I could do this with just my own resources. And, I think every editor and probably a lot of publishers think about, wouldn’t it be great to have your own magazine?
EHunter: So you used all of your own resources to start this magazine?
Abrams: Yes, there are no investors, no co-owners.
EHunter: How did you decide what type of magazine you wanted to create and who your target audience would be?
Abrams: When you’re doing something—it’s your own, it’s your own money, you’re doing something that you love, you want to do it about what you care about and for an audience you can relate to. So, for me, this was not even really something I had to think about. I knew I wanted to do a culture and lifestyle magazine. I wanted to do something very positive about Bloomington because I felt very positive about it.
EHunter: How do you promote Bloom in the community?
Abrams: For the launch of the magazine, I had posters made. I did barter arrangements with two radio stations; they would get advertising in the magazine, and I would get time on the radio stations. That, sort of, let people know that something was coming. I still continue to do that, on the radio with WFIU and WFHB. We have a lot of spots, and so the week before the magazine comes out, we start promoting what’s in that issue, and then for the two weeks after that, we’re still promoting that issue. I’ve spent almost no money on advertising or really buying promotion. We have a card that stores can put in the window that says, “we proudly carry Bloom magazine.”
That’s valuable to a lot of them because we know a lot people go in there just to pick up the magazine, and it’s good for the store owner because once they get them in the store, they may be able to sell them something else, or the person may see something else in the store that they want. So, it’s beneficial, and I think a lot of store owners have come to recognize that. One of the best things I did, and I actually did it by accident but it turned out to be a strong factor in promoting the magazine right from the beginning, was offer charities free advertising. We offered not for profit arts organizations half prices for ads. Part of the reason for doing that was because I wanted to contribute, but I also knew that many places would be coming to me and asking me to do stories about fundraisers coming up. I knew I would be hearing from many people particularly as the magazine became more and more popular, so by offering the ads I saw an opportunity to do some good, but economically the ads worked better. It was cheaper for me to give them the space than to have to pay to do a story. We became sponsors of many events. We’ve probably sponsored 50 events in the 2 ½ years we’ve published the magazine. What happens is when you go to these events, you see our programs, you see our banner up and we get this kind of recognition for contributing to all of these not for profit events. If we had written the stories, we would not have gotten that. That has turned out to be a positive thing we have done, because there are many worthwhile causes in this town, and we’re seen as supportive and we wouldn’t have gotten that returned favor if we had just written the stories.
Some other ways, without doing the advertising, per se, we try to come up with interesting, unusual events that people can participate. That’s really a positive way to promote a magazine. We sponsor sports teams, and of course, we have t-shirts, hats and those kinds of things as well.
EHunter: So you do a lot of the promotion personally?
Abrams: Well this is all we have, three people here and the dog.
EHunter: Do you promote Bloom outside of this area?
Abrams: Out of the 200 places we distribute, about 195 are in Bloomington, and a handful of places are in Nashville where we distribute. We’re not trying to get the word out any further; However we have about 850 subscribers so even though it’s a free magazine, there are people who are paying for it; and about 300 of those people don’t live in Bloomington. We have subscribers in 37 states. Those people have heard about us from somebody or have visited the area. But my ambition is not to promote it beyond Bloomington. It’s about Bloomington and for the people in Bloomington.
EHunter: What is the best way a new magazine generates interest?
How did you generate interest for Bloom magazine among advertisers and readers?
Abrams: Most importantly, you need to have a quality product and to know what you’re talking about. If you don’t start with that, then I think it’s an upward battle. If you do something good and make it interesting, then readers and advertisers will come. Make the magazine for the reader, not the advertiser. If you make it for the reader, people will talk about your magazine, and people will snatch up your magazines, and advertisers will realize if that’s what people are reading, then that’s where they want their ads.
EHunter: Along with generating interests, how does a magazine develop the reputation of being a credible source of information within a community?
Abrams: If people see the stories are well written, and whatever questions they have in their minds are answered, and in the stories stuff isn’t missing and they see that there’s a fairness to it, then I think they will come to respect it. If there’s a substance to the stories, and the choice, and the presentation then people will come to respect it. It’s the same as with people. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, then people aren’t going to respect you, but if you do know what you’re talking about, then people will respect you. I think people saw, fairly quickly, with the first issue, that there was some substance there. You have to know what you’re doing, and you have to know what you’re talking about.
EHunter: What criteria did you set that would determine the success of Bloom, and how long did it take you to meet those criteria (i.e. what determined success for you, and how long did it take your magazine to become successful?)
Abrams: This is a business, so I had to make a living. I never said , well if I don’t make $200,000 it’s not a success; basically, if I could do this and live in Bloomington and make a living then from a business point of view it would be a success. How I measured success as far as the product is concerned: it really pleases me when so many people like the magazine. I hear it all the time Everywhere I go, people tell me they like the magazine, and that is very gratifying. But, I sort of judge it by the people I’ve worked with and for and by my own standards of what would make a good magazine and what they would think of the magazine.
We made a few dollars with the first issue. It didn’t cover what I put in, but the first issue made money. Every issue the income has been higher than the previous issue.
EHunter: I know you have been in the magazine industry for more than 30 years and you have worked with several different high-end publications. Most of the time, it is hard for magazines to develop a “voice” and presence within the community that is distinctive and important. If I were creating a new magazine, what advice or tactics (that maybe you’ve used) would you give me to help my magazine develop a voice/presence within the community?
Abrams: Well, I would say if you’re going to start a magazine know about your subject matter, and that you’re passionate about your subject matter. How you define a magazine, sort of, right away is determined by who you write about—what you cover. So your voice will sort of emerge in what you pick and what you discard. I have people sending me story ideas all day long; some I choose and some I don’t. So what you choose and what you discard, and what you write about, that starts to define your magazine and starts to give a voice to the magazine.
EHunter: Many “small town” magazines seem to emerge and then disappear after a few issues. What makes Bloom different? What should someone know or understand about the magazine industry to create a magazine that will be around longer than a few months?
Abrams: Some of these magazines don’t offer anything new to the reader that they can’t get somewhere else. It’s like American Idol, everybody want to be a singer. There are a lot of people who want to put out magazines, but A they don’t know anything about it and don’t have any skills, and they don’t have anything that they want to write about. Sometimes people put out things that are pretty good, but they don’t look after the business side of it.
EHunter: What do you think the state of the magazine industry is right now? Do you feel the magazine industry is saturated with news magazines as well as special interest magazines?
Abrams: Special interests magazines and news magazines are really two different things. I think the news magazines are getting because of television and the internet—you can get things instantly. Special interest magazines are probably the ones that have the best chance of surviving because they are so specialized. I think the magazine industry, like television and radio has had to adjust to new media.
EHunter: Is timing important when establishing a magazine? Was there a special timetable you created that you think helped Bloom’s success?
Abrams: Well, there’s timing in different senses. Would the magazine have been successful 15 years ago? I don’t know. I think I got lucky. I think people were ready for a better publication in Bloomington. I launched it in August because that’s when the year really begins in Bloomington. But I don’t think in the long run it would’ve made any difference if I would’ve launched it later in the year
EHunter:When you compare your experience with magazines in a huge market like New York with your experiences with Bloom in Bloomington, do you think it has been harder to establish a successful magazine and develop readership, or do you think it is about the same? (i.e. even though it may be easier to start a magazine in a bigger city, you face a different issue—more competition than smaller places therefore it may be hard to keep readers or even hard to start a magazine because there are so many readers can choose from.)
Abrams: It’s way easier. In New York, you’ve got so many publications and people competing, and so this is a piece of cake here. In New York, you would need 50 times the money to launch a magazine.
EHunter: You must have a passion for magazines. Publishing and editing a magazine is a never-ending, intense job. What drives you to create a magazine and make it thrive?
Abrams: It’s a lot of work but the fact that there are so many different stories in every issue; even the small stories so you’re learning stuff all the time. And, everyone of the feature stories is like a different project so everyone is different. So, that is fun dealing with different people. You’re learning about different stuff and challenges; and then what I love is photography and design. I’m a writer and editor, but I like to see the finished product. So, for me, I’m just always really excited to see the words, headlines, photographs, artwork and design come together. That is really satisfying!
exciting. We started our day off at 9 a.m. and took two different subway trains and a bus to get to the Digital Pavilion! (I’m assuming they changed the name from Ubiquitous Dreams). The Digital Pavilion was so much fun and very exciting. There were four floors of futuristic machines, games and gadgets.
