Talk about targeting a narrow audience.
Color of Service, an upstart quarterly magazine billing itself as the “60 Minutes” of military magazines, has hit the streets with its first issue. It’s geared to the 900,000 minority members of the armed forces, who together spent close to $16 billion in 1999 at military exchanges and commissaries.
“It allows us to talk about stories that other magazines won’t (write about),” said co-founder Shawn Lindsey. “It is a concept whose time is overdue.”
The Los Angeles-based publication was started by Lindsey and Leon Thompson Jr., both ex-members of the military. The premier issue has been sent to U.S. military bases around the world, with 10,000 issues printed and distributed by contractors. A press run of 50,000 copies is planned for the upcoming August issue.
The 52-page premier issue has very little advertising, a fact the magazine is trying to remedy by convincing big names like Coca-Cola Co., Nestle and AT & T; Corp. that the minority members of the military not only have spending power but buy their products as well.
Bryce Nelson, chair of graduate studies in journalism at the Annenberg School for Communications at USC, said the concept behind the magazine is not unlike other publications that have found success serving a dedicated niche.
“It certainly seems ingenious to me,” Nelson said. “If they can have high-quality investigative pieces, they can have a real impact.”
Lindsey believes magazines sanctioned by the military wouldn’t touch any of the topics featured in the first issue of his publication, which includes articles titled, “Agent Orange Exposure and My Husband,” and “Marine Convicted in First Contested Anthrax Court-Marshal.”
Added to the content mix are historical pieces, military trivia and profiles.
Currently the founders are exploring possible content-sharing deals with two Internet military portals Military.com and CentralHQ.com and they’re looking for investors.
With distribution in place, their biggest challenge is convincing advertisers and would-be backers that they are not just a publication targeting African-American readers. But that’s a tough sell given that it’s a black-owned business targeting military minorities, where African Americans make up the largest portion.
“That is what we are really fighting,” said Lindsey, who said they originally intended to focus only on African Americans in the armed forces but have broadened the focus to include Hispanics, Asians and even smaller groups like Pacific Islanders.
If the concept takes hold, the founders are planning to go monthly within a year.
