By Joel Rippel
Star Tribune Staff Writer
Saturday, March 15, 2003, Star Tribune Business section

bout 18 months ago, Dawn Langfellow, who has worked in the publishing business for 10 years, suggested to her husband that they publish their own magazine.

In the middle of the recession. ?My first thought was, ‘Oh boy,’ ? Wally Langfellow said, thinking his wife would suggest a home and garden publication, one of the few areas of publishing resistant to the economic downturn. ?But she said, ‘Sports. ’ "

Langfellow informally researched the idea and found there was indeed a market for a quarterly sports magazine in Minnesota. After four issues, the Langfellows’ magazine, the Minnesota Score, has a circulation of about 20,000 and appears to be thriving.

The magazine features a wide range of Minnesota sports, with profiles, interviews and commentaries. It focuses on mainstream sports but includes people and topics that don’t get much coverage in other publications. For instance, last fall’s issue had stories on the Timberwolves, Twins and college football, plus Minnesota Vixen women’s football and an 18-year-old woman who races stock cars.

Langfellow concedes there weren’t a lot of people who thought it was a great idea to launch the magazine. According to the Magazine Publishers of America's National Directory of Magazines, the number of periodi calss had dropped from a high of 18,606 in 1998 to 17,321 in 2002.

Still, “I didn’t want to be scared away from trying,” he said, “so after a while I didn’t go seeking advice.”

Besides, three weeks after his wife first suggested the idea of starting a magazine, Langfellow was laid off from his job as a sportscaster for Hubbard Broadcasting’s Conus Communications, where he had worked since 1989.

Langfellow said there were. times early on when the task of starting a publication was challenging. “At several points it was tricky, to say the least,” he said. “But it was not as daunting as it would have been if I didn’t have a llttle business experience.”

Langfellow has a freelance business broadcasting high school hockey games on the radio, and his wife is an editor at Minnesota Monthly magazine.

The Langfellows, who have been married since 1983 and have two sons ages 8 and 5, started the magazine without financial backers or loans.

Langfellow estimated that it cost $20,000 to $25,000 to publish the first edition using equipment in their home office. Langfellow used some of his own income and advertising contacts from his radio business. The first two issues lost money, but the most recent two have paid for themselves.

The magazine’s fourth issue is available at a newsstand price of $3.50. A subscription for six issues is $18.95.

Steve Fox, the publisher of Minnesota Monthly magazine, said the Langfellows’ accomplishment has impressed him.

?The rule of thumb for most publications is that it’s three years before you can see a financial return,? Fox said. ?For them to be in the black by issue No. 3 is extraordinary. It truly is nice to see in today’s era of big budget [magazine] launches with really deep pockets, what they’ve been able to produce on a shoestring budget. I'm envious of how good they've become on as small of investment.?

The economy was of no help when they were producing the first two issues, and “we’re still feeling our way around the business sales end of it,” Langfellow said.

?We wanted to be able to stand on our own two feet. We’re operating it as a mom-and-pop business out of our home. We’ve been able to keep costs down as much as humanly possible. We’ve been using freelancers. We’ve been blessed with a bunch of goodhearted and talented people who have been helping us by working for a song and a dance because they love sports and hope this catches on.?

Contributors include Langfellow’s former Conus colleagues arid friends such as KSTP’s Joe Schmit and former WCC0 sportscaster Eric Nelson.
Fox said the magazine has a ?gorgeous design, is well-packaged and well-produced? but faces the challenge of sustaining editorial relevance for as broad an audience as possible.
The Langfellows are building a base of national and local advertisers, ranging from Pearle Vision center to Bob’s Sports Cafe in Brooklyn Park.

?We’re trying to reach a very broad audience,? Langfellow said. ?From those interested in pro sports to those interested in youth and high school sports. Anyone with a tie to sports. Soccer moms. Some of our advertisers have seen this as an opportunity to reach an audience that wasn’t being served by other outlets.?

Langfellow’s immediate goal for the magazine is to increase the publication schedule to six times a year. Eventually, the Langfellows would like to publish monthly. They have increased the magazine’s visibility by distributing it in 150 stores. ?The key is to build a subscriber base,? Langfellow said.

Dale Decker, the publisher of an advertising trade magazine called Format magazine, knows first-hand what Langfellow is going through. Five or six years ago, he considered starting a local sports magazine before electing not to.

“I wasn’t convinced that we could garner the advertising dollars,” Decker said. “I wasn’t certain that we could reach an unduplicated audience. I’ve seen [Minnesota Score], and I think it’s well done. If you produce a magazine of local interest, one that an audience responds to, you can sell that to advertisers. I think daily newspapers are doing less features because of space issues, and I think that gives a publication like this an opening."