BONÈ Magazine | Everything You Need to Know About Starting a Magazine

Ever thought of starting your own magazine? Today we collaborate with Sandy Gibbes, owner of Bonè Agency and Editor-in-Chief of Bonè Magazine, a lifestyle magazine based in our sister island Bonaire. This blog post is essential for those who are thinking of starting their journey in the world of publication.

Where to start?
You may think, “oh I need to have a journalism degree or background to start a magazine”. Well we’re here to tell you that this is not the case. Sandy did study communications at the Vrije Universiteit in The Netherlands but she explains that this didn’t help much when she first launched Bonè. When it comes to running your own magazine, it’s all about the experience, writing skills, creativity and most importantly, your mindset. Sandy’s perseverance and “never give up” attitude are what pushes her to keep going and it’s why Bonè will be celebrating its 3rd year anniversary next year.

Building a Magazine
Now that you’ve decided that it’s time to start the magazine, where do you begin? You have to start by deciding what your niche will be. Will you cover business, fashion, sports, lifestyle? In Bonè’s case, the magazine is all about showcasing Bonaire’s culture and its talents. After deciding what your niche will be, you’ll have to do lots of planning as you’ll always be working ahead. This is exactly how the Bonè team works. As soon as the current edition goes out for printing, the team will start with the planning of the next edition. The content comes easy to the team seeing as Bonaire is filled with history and is rich in culture and its talented people. For Sandy, content creation is her most favorite part of the job.

Traditional media or digital? 
Once you have established your planning, it’s time to decide how the magazine will be distributed. Will you go the traditional way and sell hardcopies? Will you be online-based only, or both? In the last 5 years, we’ve noticed a lot of publications step away from traditional media and cross over to digital, but Sandy explains that to this day, people still prefer hardcopies. Bonè magazine is distributed both online and in hardcopy. “There are people that collect copies of Bonè magazine, and that is just awesome!” says Sandy. Naturally, the preferred choice these days is digital seeing as printing (especially top quality printing) can be very costly, especially when you’re first starting out.

Know your market
If you’re planning to launch a magazine, it’s important to research and understand your target market, not only on the consumer side but to get advertisers on board as well. In Bonaire for example, the market can be very challenging. When Bonè first launched in 2018, it was being published monthly, but in 2019, they decided to release editions every 2 months because it was a bit challenging to get advertisers on board for monthly editions. The market in Bonaire also prefers to advertise in newspapers and on the radio rather than magazines. This did not discourage Sandy though. Because of the magazine’s consistency, fresh content, and quality, they now get approached by companies to advertise in the magazine.

#FunBonèFact: Bonè is the only local magazine to be distributed aboard the Divi Divi Airline. This is something the team is extremely grateful and proud of because it helps them reach a wider audience as well.

The rewards are greater than the challenges
Bonè has grown immensely since its launch and is now a very well-know magazine in Bonaire. There is a sense of pride amongst the locals as well seeing as it’s a Bonaire based magazine. One of the many great achievements Bonè has accomplished is that they have expanded to having their own successful clothing line which consists of caps and T-shirts. It’s so rewarding  when they spot people on the island wearing Bonè gear, including tourists as well. Sandy is very proud to be able to showcase Bonaire and its people internationally through the magazine. It shows that Bonaire has a lot more to offer than its beautiful marine environment.

To conclude, we leave you with some insightful tips from Sandy. Whether you are still playing around with the idea or are ready to start your journey in publication. “You must have a passion for magazines and for the content you will be publishing”, says Sandy. If you don’t have a passion for it, you will not enjoy the process and the industry can be very challenging so choose wisely. Additionally, be sure to strengthen your sales skills as this will come in handy when pitching to advertisers. Do your research and make sure that there is a need for the niche or product you want to bring on the market. Be sure to gather a strong team, it’s essential that you and your team are all on the same page when it comes to the vision and mission of the magazine. Consistency is also key!

Lastly, do not give up! Regardless of how challenging it can become, always stand behind your goal, your product, and never stop believing in it.

About Sandy
Sandy is a mom of two and owner of Bonè Agency and Editor-in-Chief of Bonè magazine. Ever since she could read, Sandy always had a passion for fashion and magazines. Sandy landed her first work experience in the publication world back in The Netherlands when she was hired as a Grazia Insider  for Grazia magazine, which was a dream come true.

After Grazia magazine, Sandy received an opportunity to create the content for Curacao’s Precious magazine and as she started to get more knowledgeable and gain more experience she was hired by Fresku Magazine as their Beauty Director and Editor and later on for GO Weekly magazine as well. GO Weekly magazine is based in Curacao but was also being distributed in Bonaire, and during her time working with GO Weekly she started noticing that the magazine wasn’t being picked up by the locals in Bonaire, so it was at that moment that she realized that Bonaire needed its own magazine focusing on its culture and locals.

In November 2017, Sandy started to focus actively on creating a magazine, the name Bonè popped up when she was browsing through Snapchat and it immediately stuck with her. The name is short, catchy and rhymed with the word Bonaire as well so it was a no-brainer! Now that she had a name, it was time to gather a team which consisted of her friend Esther who was a graphic designer and Roëlton, a well known photographer based in Bonaire. In March 2018, Sandy presented a mock-up of magazine to stakeholders and after they liked her concept, Bonè magazine was launched on April 6th 2018.

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Read the latest issue of Bonè magazine here