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Your client is the CEO of a publishing company that produces a line of educational magazines as well as a line of women’s magazines. Both businesses are profitable but are not growing quickly. He want’s to start a third monthly magazine in the US targeted at 30-50 year old men (eg. GQ Magazine) His stated goal is to generate circulation revenues of $10 million in the first year. He has hired you to figure out whether this is possible.

Your client is the CEO of a publishing company that produces a line of educational magazines as well as a line of women’s magazines. Both businesses are profitable but are not growing quickly. He want’s to start a third monthly magazine in the US targeted at 30-50 year old men (eg. GQ Magazine) His stated goal is to generate circulation revenues of $10 million in the first year. He has hired you to figure out whether this is possible.

Can the CEO's new men's magazine realistically achieve $10M in circulation revenue in its first year of operation, and should the magazine be launched?

Target Customers: The total US population is approximately 240 million. Based on a normal distribution with the average life span of 80 years, approximately 2/3 of the population falls between 30-50 or about 160 million people. Approximately 1/2 are male or 80 million. Of the 80 million 30-50 year old men in the country, assume that at least 1/2 would read a magazine or 40 million. Given the wide range of magazines on the market assume that only 10% of magazine readers would want to read a men’s journal or 4 million target customers. Share: As a new magazine assume that you can generate a 5% share of the men’s magazine market in year one or 240,000 customers. Revenues: Based on what other magazines sell for ($2.50-$5.00) assume a cover price. Let's say $3/magazine at the news stand and $2/magazine for a subscription. Now make some assumptions on how many customers will buy on the news stand versus subscription, lets say 50% subsrcibe (120,000) and 50% buy at the news stand (120,000). This comes out to $360,000 + $240,000 or $600,000. Finally, this is a monthly magazine. For simplicity assume that all target customers buy a magazine every month. This would generate total revenues of $600,000 X 12 or $7.2 million.
1. What assumptions would need to change to reach $10M — higher share, higher pricing, or larger addressable market?
2. What is the competitive landscape in men's magazines?
3. What are the cost economics of launch?

This is an estimation/market sizing case. Structure assumptions top-down (population → segment → share → revenue) and stress-test them. The conclusion — $10M is not achievable in year one — should be stated clearly with a recommendation not to launch unless the business model is adjusted.

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Published October 2, 2025 • 20 views
Firm/University: Australian Graduate School of Management
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