A great magazine founder and publisher died yesterday July 10, 2023. Phyllis Hoffman DePiano died yesterday leaving her publishing company, Hoffman Media (the little engine that could), to her twin sons who loved, adored, and worked with their mom. In 2017 Phyllis and her two sons spoke at one of my magazine conferences and my friend Linda Ruth was able to sum and write up their presentation. What follows is a tribute to a great lady and her story.
Phyllis Hoffman DePiano presents with son’s Brian Hart Hoffman and Eric Hoffman
In publishing, founder Phyllis Hoffman began, there are no rules, no manual on how to be a successful publisher. “When we started in 1983 I was clueless,” she told the audience. “I knew that needlework was huge; I knew there were not magazines. And that was pretty much all I knew.” Hoffman was laughed out of every printer but one. They had no concept of direct mail. “What we did was printed up little brochures for shipowners to put into customer bags, inviting the people to be a charter subscriber. We went to Atlantic Media show with nothing but a single poster. We knew our break-even—it would be 3500 subscribers, paid in full up front, and that’s how many we got for the first issue. So we knew we could go one year.” Additional subscribers began to trickle in, till one day, Phyllis remembered, that she went to the post office with her two-year old sons, and the box was empty. Her heart sank—until the postal clerk invited her to retrieve the sacks of mail in the back, too much to fit into her box. By end of first year they had 100,000 subscribers, a 95% renewal rate—and they were turning down advertisers. That’s right—with a 68 page magazine, 70% content, 30% advertising, there just wasn’t room in the book.
Brian Hoffman, one of the two-year-olds at the post office that day in 1983 and now a co-president of the company, took up the story with Southern Lady magazine, Hoffman’s first magazine to branch out from craft to lifestyle. “Our company’s growth has followed our conversation with our customers,” he explained. “We listen to what they want, what they need, and then we work to give it to them.” An important lesson that Brian shared was to be patient. “Creativity is important, and it’s exciting,” he said. “But don’t change for the sake of change. Readers don’t feel the need for constant change; they are looking to you for consistency, to give them what they need and love. It’s easy to get off course, but listening to your readers will put you back on.” Creativity is important, innovation is important, but Brian emphasized the need for creative constraint as well, and for listening to the readers and acknowledging what they want. “Put your content out there. You’ll soon know if it’s a success,” he said. “The readers will tell you.”
Eric Hoffman—the other twin boy, the other co-president—wound up with advice to the students in the audience. “I asked my young children what they would advise,” he said. “Be patient. Try hard. Work as a team. Help each other figure things out. It’s good advice,” he said. “Here at the ACT Experience, we’re a team, and we’re figuring out some big problems.” The lessons that Hoffman Media can bring include a belief and dedication to quality, in circulation, in editorial, in product, in audience. Hoffman runs each of its revenue streams as stand-alone profit centers—each has to make sense on its own, each must be a strong component of the whole. “The gimmicks built into the magazine business have caused a lot of problems,” he said. “We don’t give stuff away. Not to our subscribers, not to our advertisers. We work with our advertisers and prospects—the ones we believe belong in the mags. Just because they spend money doesn’t mean they belong with us. It keeps our business focused.” It is this focus, this understanding that they cant be all things to all people, that has guided Hoffman Media to a double-digit growth in a down market.
“This is an amazing business,” Eric finished. “All the dot coms are jealous of what we do. This is what we want to be doing 30 years from now.”
“The first issue is always the easiest issue to get out. The second issue is probably the hardest one that you’re ever going to do because it just doesn’t come as easy as the first one did. Then once you hit number three and four, and so on, then I think you get those processes down.”
“You asked something about print earlier. And why I’m still doing print. I still walk into neighborhood houses and see a copy of our magazine on the coffee table or see another magazine on a coffee table. And I was thinking to myself why do people keep this stuff right here? Why are they referencing this stuff on their coffee tables?”
A quarterly print publication that showcases one of the fastest growing cities of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Richardson Life Magazine (RLM) is as unique and interesting as Richardson, Texas itself. The magazine promotes upcoming events and connects people with their local neighbors while educating and informing them.
Mike Obert is a businessman extraordinaire and knew the voice and flavor of Richardson would bring people to the magazine like a pied piper. So along with his wife they decided now was the perfect time to breathe life into the dream. And so RLM was born.
Mr. Magazine™ hopes you enjoy this fascinating read with a man who is still a strong believer in print and proves it every time with his new magazine. The Mr. Magazine™ interview with Mike Obert, Publisher, RLM Magazine.
But first the sound bites:
On why he still believes in print and city/regional magazines in this day and age: I think print still resonates. And for doing city/regional type magazines, I think they’re extremely strong because I believe each city needs some sort of voice or flavor to go to for the information they want and need about some particular city.
On why now was the right time to publish this magazine: I think we’ve had success in some of the community magazines that we’ve done. And we just knew that the city that we were in needed that same sort of voice and there was nothing out there. We looked at it for probably two years and just decided to go ahead and launch this thing. And we’ve had tremendous response and feedback from people saying this is awesome.
On the many hats he wears and which he prefers; being a magazine publisher, ad guy, or outsource person: Probably a magazine publisher. I love that back-of-the-napkin strategy of putting numbers together. And should we do this story or this feature, and can we target these advertisers? So the publishing part to me is very exciting.
On whether it was a walk in a rose garden publishing this magazine or there were some challenges along the way:The launch of the magazine, because of the outsourcing that we do as well, probably made it a little bit easier for us to put it together because the engine was already there to put together a publication and get a website out.
On how an outsourcing company helps when launching a magazine: I think for me, the outsourcing provided us a lot of that back office-admin type stuff. Sending invoices, tracking payments, making sure ad copy was in. All those small little details that in the past for me has kept me up late at night.
On how he overcame any challenges with the magazine: I think it’s all process-oriented. Creating that process, even as you’re going through it, even if it’s an initial launch; when you’re going through that process you make sure that you’re documenting all the steps so that it’s easier for people to walk in. My take on any city/regional community type magazine that I’ve been a part of, is first off having that formula and the formula being what’s going to be my content?
On whether he and his team have ever questioned what was or was not in the magazine: I think you always kind of second guess it. I’m probably not a perfectionist. To me it’s always get it out, we can fix it and correct it. Print it. I’ve had a lot of conversations with my editor about the digital side of things and it doesn’t have to be perfect to get it out, because you can always change the digital side of things. The print side of things, I get it, let’s make sure that we’re not making a huge mistake or doing something that we don’t want to be out there.
On when someone asks him for advice on starting a new magazine, does he encourage or tell them they’ve lost their minds: I normally say, don’t do it. That’s the first thing I say, don’t do it. And then I say, why do you think you should do this? And then it’s what I said earlier. I think there’s been a lot of great editorial and content ideas that have been out there. It all comes down to that salesperson. And how are you going to generate revenue. A lot of people overlook that.
On how important it is to him to be a part of the community his magazine is about: I think it’s pretty important that they have the contacts, that they know the people to go after. I always tell people that I’m changing the world one quarter page at a time. I still sell ads. But I think I’m doing it not in an overbearing way. People know what my product is, and they know who I’m reaching.
On what he hopes to say about the magazine in a year: I would say a year from now that we’ll have a more clear formula for each issue. We’ve got a good blueprint in place. I think we’re still tweaking it a little bit, but as I said we don’t want to reinvent every issue. It doesn’t have to have something about new restaurants in Richardson or what new businesses have been launched around here.
On his busyness and when he sleeps: The outsourcing company has taken a ton of work off my plate. I’ve got my own personal executive assistant that does a lot of tasks for me. Before this call, I was on with her talking about the three things I need to get done today, including putting our digital issue up online and getting the social media plan ready for whenever issue number two drops. So all those kind of things are flowing through other people, which will free up the time that I have.
On any critique he’s had so far on the magazine: If I had any type of critique for issue number one it was the distribution and the circulation. Richardson is a town of 100,000, and we sent it to 15,000 people. Kind of cherry picked some of the different neighborhoods, more affluent neighborhoods. So if I had any kind of critique it was why didn’t you send it to 100,000 people? And that costs a lot of money. (Laughs) But that’s the only feedback that I’ve gotten on what I could have done differently.
On anything he’d like to add: There was one thing I was thinking about. I think you said something about print earlier. And why I’m still doing print. I still walk into neighborhood houses and see a copy of our magazine on the coffee table or see another magazine on a coffee table.
On what keeps him up at night: The price of paper. That keeps me up, though I think it’s kind of stabilized a little bit. From the business perspective there’s some things that I’m working on, such as some acquisitions. And I’m diligently working through a lot of spreadsheets. And it’s dipping my toe in the water versus jumping cannonball style in the deep in and let’s go. So I think that’s the main thing that’s been keeping me up at night right now, how fast do I want to go?
And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Mike Obert, Publisher, RLM Magazine.
Samir Husni: You’re a man of many hats, including now publishing a magazine for the city of Richardson, Texas. What’s the idea behind publishing a new city magazine, and specifically in print in this day and age?
Mike Obert: I think print still resonates. And for doing city/regional type magazines, I think they’re extremely strong because I believe each city needs some sort of voice or flavor to go to for the information they want and need about some particular city. And with the decline, I think of newspapers having the daily news content, that information, there still needs to be something that is going to tell the story of a city or a region. So that’s why I’m a big fan, a huge fan of the city/regional magazines.
Samir Husni: And what about the timing? I take it you and your wife are the engines behind this magazine?
Mike Obert: We are.
Samir Husni: Why did you decide now was the right time for this magazine?
Mike Obert: I think we’ve had success in some of the community magazines that we’ve done. And we just knew that the city that we were in needed that same sort of voice and there was nothing out there. We looked at it for probably two years and just decided to go ahead and launch this thing. And we’ve had tremendous response and feedback from people saying this is awesome.
Samir Husni: From the many hats you wear, which one do you prefer? Being a magazine publisher, ad director, or an outsource guy?
Mike Obert: Probably a magazine publisher. I love that back-of-the-napkin strategy of putting numbers together. And should we do this story or this feature, and can we target these advertisers? So the publishing part to me is very exciting.
Samir Husni: Has this magazine been a walk in a rose garden for you to publish or have you faced some challenges along the way?
Mike Obert: The launch of the magazine, because of the outsourcing that we do as well, probably made it a little bit easier for us to put it together because the engine was already there to put
together a publication and get a website out. I always say when launching any type of magazine, you’ve got to have good content and you’ve got to have a salesperson. Without those two things nothing else is going to work. So just making sure that I had those two things in place, I could plug the rest of it in later.
Samir Husni: What do you surrender from an outsourcing company that helps someone launch a new magazine?
Mike Obert: I think for me, the outsourcing provided us a lot of that back office-admin type stuff. Sending invoices, tracking payments, making sure ad copy was in. All those small little details that in the past for me has kept me up late at night.
The sending out of emails, where people wake up the next morning and ask, what were you doing up till 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. Even little things like charging credit cards after an issue goes out; it’s all just a very time consuming, repetitive task. And so the outsourcing firm that we have provides me the extra time so that I can get other things done for the magazine and keep it going.
Samir Husni: Going back to the rose garden, did you have any challenges along the way and if so how did you overcome them?
Mike Obert: I wouldn’t say it was a thorny Rose Garden. There were roses there and it felt good. But every time you picked a flower you might have had a little bit of a challenge picking that flower because of the thorns on it.
How did we overcome it? I mean, I think it’s all process-oriented. Creating that process, even as you’re going through it, even if it’s an initial launch; when you’re going through that process you make sure that you’re documenting all the steps so that it’s easier for people to walk in. My take on any city/regional community type magazine that I’ve been a part of, is first off having that formula and the formula being what’s going to be my content? I stress with my editors and my content, don’t reinvent the magazine every time we go to press because it’s just going to be too difficult.
The first issue is always the easiest issue to get out. The second issue is probably the hardest one that you’re ever going to do because it just doesn’t come as easy as the first one did. Then once
you hit number three and four, and so on, then I think you get those processes down. You figure out what’s going to be easier, pieces of content to be able to do each month, and you’re not trying
to hit a home run with every issue per se, but you need to have that templated format so that you can generate that content and get that publication to print.
Samir Husni: Did you ever think after the first issue was out that we should not have had this in it or oops we failed to mention this?
Mike Obert: Yes, I think you always kind of second guess it. I’m probably not a perfectionist. To me it’s always get it out, we can fix it and correct it. Print it. I’ve had a lot of conversations with my editor about the digital side of things and it doesn’t have to be perfect to get it out, because you can always change the digital side of things. The print side of things, I get it, let’s make sure that we’re not making a huge mistake or doing something that we don’t want to be out there.
But at the same time let’s not over polish the apple on every issue. Things are going to happen. So I come from that standpoint of let’s just learn from it and move on. Where my editor was stressing all the way up to the last second, asking did I change that? Is that correct?
Samir Husni: If somebody asks you about starting a new city/regional magazine, do you encourage them or tell them they’re out of their minds?
Mike Obert: I normally say, don’t do it. That’s the first thing I say, don’t do it. And then I say, why do you think you should do this? And then it’s what I said earlier. I think there’s been a lot of great editorial and content ideas that have been out there. It all comes down to that salesperson. And how are you going to generate revenue. A lot of people overlook that.
And the ad sales part, it’s not rocket science. But it’s not easy. So just making sure that you’re aligned with that person. A lot of publishers become that salesperson because they are so passionate about their product and their market that they take that part on and people trust them. And so they’re willing to advertise with them.
But I do tell people whenever they come to me to pause for a second. Make sure that you understand the sales part of it before you just jump in.
Samir Husni: In your case, how important is it for the salesperson to be a part of the community or a resident of the community if you’re going to launch a city magazine?
Mike Obert: I think it’s pretty important that they have the contacts, that they know the people to go after. I always tell people that I’m changing the world one quarter page at a time. I still sell ads. But I think I’m doing it not in an overbearing way. People know what my product is, and they know who I’m reaching. So I’ll probably get more people calling in about wanting to reach this audience.
There’s a lot of times you can send out emails or talk to people about getting into the magazine. But I think you need to have somebody that knows the key people and the right people to be able to launch the magazine.
Samir Husni: If you and I are talking a year from now, what would you hope tell me about RLM?
Mike Obert: I would say a year from now that we’ll have a more clear formula for each issue. We’ve got a good blueprint in place. I think we’re still tweaking it a little bit, but as I said we don’t want to reinvent every issue. It doesn’t have to have something about new restaurants in Richardson or what new businesses have been launched around here.
So if you’re coming to me from a year from now, I would say that. I’ve got that formula for the Richardson Life Magazine out. I’ve got a bunch of committed advertisers that are in for a year or two years’ worth of commitments. And we’re getting content that’s coming to us through the front door, and that we’re not having to completely reach out every time.
Samir Husni: You launched this magazine; you still have your outsourcing business; you have your family to take care of; when do you sleep?
Mike Obert: (Laughs) It’s a good question. I’m pretty consistent with going to bed as soon as the kids all go to bed. I’m always the first one up around the house so that I can get some things in before things start moving around here.
And it’s summer here. Things are a little crazier than normal. But the outsourcing company has taken a ton of work off my plate. I’ve got my own personal executive assistant that does a lot of tasks for me. Before this call, I was on with her talking about the three things I need to get done today, including putting our digital issue up online and getting the social media plan ready for whenever issue number two drops. So all those kind of things are flowing through other people, which will free up the time that I have.
Samir Husni: You mentioned that the reaction for the first issue has been very positive. Did
anybody critique anything?
Mike Obert: If I had any type of critique for issue number one it was the distribution and the circulation. Richardson is a town of 100,000, and we sent it to 15,000 people. Kind of cherry picked some of the different neighborhoods, more affluent neighborhoods. So if I had any kind of critique it was why didn’t you send it to 100,000 people? And that costs a lot of money. (Laughs) But that’s the only feedback that I’ve gotten on what I could have done differently.
Samir Husni: When is the second issue coming out?
Mike Obert: The second issue is at the printer right now and it should be out very soon.
Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Mike Obert: There was one thing I was thinking about. I think you asked something about print earlier. And why I’m still doing print. I still walk into neighborhood houses and see a copy of our magazine on the coffee table or see another magazine on a coffee table. And I was thinking to myself why do people keep this stuff right here? Why are they referencing this stuff on their coffee tables?
I’ve had a lot of advertisers that I’ve talked to about the difference between advertising in a city/regional community type of magazine versus just direct mail. And I’m mailing all of our magazines directly to homes. My point always has been when I go to the mailbox and I pick up
everything out of the mailbox, a magazine doesn’t go straight into the trash. It usually sits out and people will flip through it.
Sometimes I don’t know if my wife wanted this magazine or not, so I’m not going to toss it out. If I go and I get those 4X6 direct mail pieces, those are typically, if it doesn’t relate specifically to me, those are going straight into the trash.
So I always think of it of like I’m impacting these local community retailers, businesses and shops by delivering the audience they want to reach. So I’m connecting businesses with consumers. And to me, I think it’s pretty powerful that people hold on to these. They collect them. They know their neighbors, they know the different businesses. So to me, that just gives me a little bit of passion to what I do.
Samir Husni: My typical last question, what keeps you up at night?
Mike Obert: The price of paper. That keeps me up, though I think it’s kind of stabilized a little bit. From the business perspective there’s some things that I’m working on, such as some acquisitions. And I’m diligently working through a lot of spreadsheets. And it’s dipping my toe in the water versus jumping cannonball style in the deep in and let’s go. So I think that’s the main thing that’s been keeping me up at night right now, how fast do I want to go?
Mr. Magazine