Dear ILX, please help me revamp this crummy indie magazine

Shout-outs for a Grimly? A Stevie? A Passantino? A Mannion?

(Get someone with a decent sales technique to) Contact everyone who used to pay for advertising in Manchester City Life and/or any other north-west listings/guides. Tell them about the relaunch and revamp. Give them the first chance to be at the vanguard of this new and exciting venture blah blah.

If it has a reputation as "crummy" you might want to think about changing the name.

When you have a few good writers, promise to start paying them as soon as your circulation reaches X number. Their talents will make or break you, so put a lot of effort into finding and keeping the best you can get. Finagle them any way you kow how to keep them on board.

Good layout is a nice-to-have, but nowhere near as important as good writing. Visuals will catch an eye, but content is the only way to hold attention. Artwork needs content, too. Find obsessive artists. The figure out how to make them meet deadlines. Good luck.

Controversy is often a circulation-builder, but choose your controversy wisely. A gossip/opinion column is a good place for controversy. A good columnist knows how to exploit this.

Take some risks, but only take the risks that are worth it on the payout side or else can be buried quickly and forgotten as soon as possible.

Be the first.

You may go further with writers who want to be scenesters than with scenesters who want to write. Just a thought.

aka "I got my soul patch workin', but it just don't work on you."

Also, look for ways to differentiate yourself - find a niche and fill it. Maybe there's no music magazine in your market that really respects hip-hop alongside rock (as opposed to just paying it a little lip service) for example.

One of the best things you can probably do is get interviews with artists people have heard of and that are hot/becoming hot right now. It's not as hard as you might think. My only real experience with this comes from my days running a college weekly, but we were able to land interviews with Rick Moody, Margaret Cho, John Waters, Mark Leyner, and a bunch of musicians too that I can't remember. And of course we put them huge on the cover so people would pick up the paper.

but if Ian's going for a full redesign, the name might be all that's left! Chenge the name as well as the design and the content, and you've got an entirely new magazine...which may of course be exactly what you want. just sayin'.

also, beth otm re fonts and everything else except maybe "The ones you have to chase down aren't worth it." which is by no means true.

BTW, if you're interested in covering the creative writing / dramatic arts scene in Manc, give me a shout and I'll put the word out. I know a lot of writers. They're mostly wierdo performance poets with funny clothes and no journalistic experience, but you might get something interesting out of them.

i gave up touring with bands after travelling with the pattern, when i realised nothing could top that night in the teutonic techno club in leeds.

trust your on instincts, but be aware of when you mistakes, and rectify them, and aim to not repeat them.

mostly, make something that people will want to read, because that's why people buy magazines (though this is often lost on marketing departments).

and a warning: you will now be working with 'creative' people, so expect insanity from them as standard.

Some really great advice here, thanks Beth, Stevie and Emsk.

Zora, at the moment I have to stick to music but it's true what you say about City Life's death not having a massive effect on music writing so I'll suggest that to the big bosses.

Does anyone have any knowledge about distribution and advertising? This won't be my main focus but it'd be good to hear some ideas about how best to get it out there.