CVMD Magazine

Presented by:
Haley Licciardello, Samantha Murphy,
Lucca Petrucci & Alexa Ude
 Needs Assessment
● Use other successful community and veterans magazines to act
as a guide
● Developed a market research survey
a. Gain insight of veterans and community members
● Researched and estimated costs for
a. Copywriting
b. Printing
c. Distributing

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 Project Parameters
Project Objectives:
● Provide CVMD with necessary tools and research to produce
quarterly magazine
Magazine Objectives:
● Increase community involvement with CVMD
● Raise awareness of all that CVMD offers

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 Copywriters
There are three primary options to create content for the CVMD magazine
varying by price, experience, and credibility.

● Fresno State Students

● Professional Writers
● Book Excerpts

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 Option 1: Fresno State Students
Professor Daniels has agreed to creating a writing
assignment for her journalism students personally
designed for the CVMD magazine.

● Free magazine articles

● Community involvement

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 Option 2: Pay Professional Writers
Hiring a freelance writer is definitely more costly, but could result in articles
that are better-written.

● Pay Scale averages $28/hr for freelance writers

● Each magazine issue would cost $600-$2,000
● Possible websites to hire writers include Upwork and Outsource

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 Option 3: Include Book Excerpts

Relevant book excerpts:

● Use a few pages of a book

as magazine content
● Creates exposure for the
author and the book
● Generally free or low cost

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 Potential Advertisements & Sponsorships
● Casinos
○ Chukchansi
○ Table Mountain
○ Tachi Palace
● Healthcare Offices
○ Fox, Maxwell & Lanier
○ EYE-Q Vision Care
● Life and Homeowner Insurance
○ New York Life Insurance
● Memorabilia
○ Coins
○ Eagle status
● Jewelry
○ Watches
● Clovis and Fresno Companies
○ Kuppa Joy Coffee House
○ Central Valley Window Cleaning
○ Clovis Glass
● Real Estate Agencies
○ London Properties
○ Clovis Real Estate
● Vendors who have done business with
CVMD
○ Event and Banquet companies
○ Photography companies
○ Table Top Design companies
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Examples of Ads

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More Examples of Ads

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Our Primary Research

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Magazine Title

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 Magazine Title

Option 1: Clovis Veterans and Community

● Second most popular choice from our survey results
● Includes CVMD in the title

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 Magazine Title
Option 2: Veterans Community
● Graphic Designer, Tom Redemer, consulted with us and suggested the
title “Veterans Community” because it is more inclusive due to the fact that
it does not have a city or any location in the title

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Promotional Activities
● Fresno State
● Speaking Events
● Community Events

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 Fresno State
● Reach out to organizations on campus
○ ROTC
○ Flying Bulldogs

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● Sporting Events
○ Basketball & baseball games

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 Speaking Events
● Veteran keynotes at local club and veteran organizations
● Tell their story and promote the magazine

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 Veterans Fundraiser

● “Kid’s Day” type of fund

raising event
● Sell CVMD Magazines for $1
● Money would go to veteran’s
fund
● Positive publicity & increased
readership

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 Community Events
● Promoting magazine at local
community events
○ Veteran’s Day Parade
○ Cheers with a Veteran at Peeve’s

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 Clovis Farmer’s Market
● Interactive Booth
○ Located at Farmer’s Market
○ Children & teenager section
○ Cooking area
○ CVMD facility highlights

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 Magazine Showcase

● Biannual or annual
● Highlight writers, photographers, editors, etc.
● Limited edition of the magazine

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Magazine Distribution
● Clovis Veterans Memorial District
● Grocery store stands
● Breakfast restaurants
● Doctors offices
● Casual coffee & tea locations

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 Magazine Format
● After reviewing a multitude of veterans magazines and Central Valley lifestyle
magazines, we selected types of sections from those magazines that think would
work best in the magazine.

● Letter from CEO Lorenzo Rios

○ Most magazines have a letter from an Editor

● Calendar of Community Events

● Local Veteran’s Story from CVMD’s collection

○ Each magazine issue will feature a different story

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 Magazine Format
● Valley Veteran Spotlight
○ Local veteran showing two stories: his or
her life in the service, and his or her life
and job now after serving
● Photo Series
○ The majority of our respondents would
like a photo series inside the magazine.
Many other veteran magazines also had
a few consecutive pages of photos that
told a story
● Quotes that Highlight our Military

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 Magazine Format
● Excerpt from Veterans books
○ Free well written content option
● Local Community Event Article
○ Designate an article space for one written
about a local community event
● Veteran Owned Business Spotlight
● Local Sports Highlight Page
● Comic and/or Word Search
○ Some veteran magazines include a comic
○ We would like to include a fun section in
the magazine with possibly a comic strip or
a word search or a spot the difference
photo game.
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 Magazine Format
● Youth Community Project Article
○ Section might not always be in the magazine
○ If there is a project that local students are involved in and it
deserves to be highlighted, then we advise you include this section
● Veteran Travel Diary
○ Almost 40% of the survey respondents wanted to see a travel
diary inside the magazine
○ Reach out to local soldiers or veterans and ask if they would
like to share any journal entries they have collected over the
years
● Community Entrepreneur Spotlight
● Historical Article
○ According to our survey respondents, many people like to read
historical articles, therefore we would like to add one at the end
of the magazine
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Magazine Costs

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 Magazine Revenue

● Ad rates are an estimate based on 2,500 printed magazine copies and an expected print readership
of 11,250 (2,500 copies x 4.5 readers per copy= 11,250). Online copy could increase reach.
● May be able to secure more advertisement income if businesses are willing to pay more or you add
more advertising space.
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 Distribution Cost

● Federal rate from the USPS

● Cheaper distribution cost
● Specific price varies due to
content, size, etc.

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 Advice from Fresno State Magazine
● Nonprofits save a lot of money on mailing distribution
● Ads for nonprofit magazines can’t have a direct call to action
● Nonprofits are required to have annual bidding process

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 Magazine Viability
● Bad News: Traditional media, including newspapers and magazines, have been declining over the
years
● Good News: Magazines have been declining at a slower rate than newspapers

● Producing a magazine is a large investment and the average magazine can take years to become
profitable; be prepared to have plenty of financial resources to cover the costs during the startup
period of building the magazine to profitability.

● Successful magazines have a specific niche

○ CVMD magazine would have niche since it’s for veterans and the community in the Clovis
and Fresno area

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 Competitive Analysis
Community Magazines:

● 70% of the respondents said they read Central Valley Magazine

○ Published once a month and it’s goal is to take their readers on
a journey that explores the people, places, history, and charm
on the area. Complimentary issue with The Fresno Bee.
● 25% of the respondents read Central California Life Magazine
○ Published every other month and costs $15 for an annual
subscription ($2.50 an issue)
● 25% of the respondents read the Fresno State Magazine
○ Sent out to about 60,000 subscribers twice a year- once during
the Fall semester and once during the Spring semester

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 Competitive Analysis
Veteran Magazines:

● Some of the survey respondents read:

○ DAV
○ The American Legion
○ Airman Magazine
○ VFW Magazine
○ Marine Club Monthly
○ AUSA Army Magazine
● Top Competitors:
○ U.S. Veterans Magazine
○ American Veteran: Official magazine of AMVETS and it has a total circulation of
about 187,000. Publishes 4 times a year.

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 Market Analysis
○ Questions to ask:
■ Is this magazine going to satisfy a market need?
● Already a lot of community magazines on the market, but no
Veterans magazines in the local area
● Mixed reviews- some veterans at the Monday class said they
would like to read it, others said there are too many magazines
on the market

■ Who are my potential readers, and where can they be found?

● Veterans and non veterans in the Fresno and Clovis area. If
you place the magazines at the locations we suggested,
CVMD will be able to reach the readers
● Printing about 2,500 copies would reach about 11,250 people
(2,500 copies x 4.5 readers per copy= 11,250) in the local area
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 Market Analysis
○ Questions to ask:
■ At what prices are consumers prepared to buy my magazine, and can
we make any profit at any stage?
● Since many veterans are already subscribing to magazines, we feel
that it might be difficult to have them pay for a brand new
magazine
● To start out, we recommend having free copies because then the
community members will be more likely to read this magazine
about veterans
● It will be profitable if CVMD recruits Fresno State journalism
students for free to write the articles, but it will not be profitable if
they have to hire outside freelance writers for the articles
● To increase profits dramatically, CVMD will have to add more
advertising pages in the magazine and/or increase the amount of
copies being printed. 44
 SWOT Analysis
Strengths
● Only veteran & community magazine in the
Clovis and Fresno area
● Promotes CVMD’s mission and services
● Revamps and creates a new and positive
brand image
Opportunities
● Promote CVMD and become more
community involved
● Partnership with other businesses for
advertising and promotional activities
● Showcase younger veterans to attract
them to CVMD
Weaknesses
● Physical magazines aren’t as popular; Not
comparable to other forms of media-
website and social media revitalization
● Attracts a very specific demographic
● Publishing magazine may be unprofitable
due to hiring a magazine team
Threats
● Competition of other magazines and
publications (Clovis Roundup, Central
Valley Magazine)
● Magazines becoming obsolete
● Already a lot of Veterans magazines on the
market
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 Top Recommendations
1. Current employee or hire a new employee designated to be the head of the magazine
2. Utilizing Fresno State Mass Communications and Journalism to write the majority of the
articles in the publication
3. Request book excerpts from published authors
a. Stories of Service - Janice Stevens
4. Graphic Design and Photography
a. Tom Redemer
5. Hire an experienced editor
a. LinkedIn Profinder

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 More Top Recommendations
6. CVMD magazine professional presents the magazine proof to local businesses to get them
to purchase ad space

7. Printing can be done locally by Tom Redemer or Shweiki Media located in Texas

8. For the first year of distribution, we believe the magazine should be free of cost

9. Distribute to local restaurants, grocery stores, and doctor’s offices

10. Distribute an e-magazine online through CVMD website with free version of JooMag.com or
Issuu.com

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Thank You!

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