A message from Welch Publishing and Muscle Insider
Scott Welch is making some bold moves with his new magazine, Muscle Insider. First of all, he’s charging $10/issue. That’s a lot more than people are paying for other bodybuilding magazines, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable if the magazine delivers the kind of content he’s talking about. Look, most people are paying what – $7 an issue anyway? And out of that issue, and I’ll use MD as an example, probably 25-30% of the magazine is actual editorial content. Muscle Insider is talking about reversing that ratio and having 75% of the magazine be articles. Yeah, what a novel concept…actually selling the reader a bunch of articles instead of a bunch of advertisements.
Again, using MD as an example, and I’ve got nothing against MD, but they even sold one of their columns to Muscletech. WTF is that? An advertiser who “writes” their own column? That literally goes against every vestige of credible journalism. A few years ago, Muscle Mag International essentially did the same thing for Muscletech, where they had Greg Zulak writing 3-4 articles for each issue about how great their products were/are, punctuated by “Star Profiles” detailing how their signed athletes could walk on water and bench press 5,000 metric tons. You could watch Greg dying a little bit inside with each article, and several years later, their star athlete came out and said that all of the articles about him were total fabrications. If you look at the industry, the Editor-In-Chiefs of the major magazines still have their heads rapidly bobbing in the laps of the advertisers.
That’s why the really interesting thing about Muscle Insider, is that Scott has publicly announced that he won’t be owned by advertisers. Only time will tell on that front. With 25% of the magazine being advertisements, he can certainly fill those pages pretty easily, whether the big boys come out to play or not. But the interesting thing is that he’s announced that the magazine has a 5 year business plan to stay afloat. I suspected it had a three year plan (quarterly, bi-monthly, then eventually monthly), or something to that effect. And who knows what his five year business plan actually is? Maybe he’s only looking to break even for the first five years. I have no idea. I’ve gone so far as to quote Scott in my upcoming book, Generation S, so clearly the guy has earned a degree of trust from me, and I consider him a credible source.
I’m really hoping the magazine takes off, if only because it seems like he’s got honest intentions. Anyway, here’s what I found posted on his site, regarding the magazine:
Things You May Already Know About MUSCLE INSIDER:
- It has nearly 50% less ads than ANY bodybuilding magazine.
- It’s being distributed in 41 Countries.
- It will debut at The Arnold Classic inside a 40-foot booth space standing 16 feet high! You’ll see us in the front row at the front entrance this Friday.
- It contains 164 pages with 75% editorial – a record in this industry.
- We have the best writers in the industry on board which happen to be some of the most costly too! Writers such as: Dr. Scott Connelly, Dr. Ann De Wees Allen, Dr. Ken Kinakin, Dr. Rick Silverman, Charles Poliquin, Chris Aceto, Will Brink, Vince Andrich, Charles Glass, Michael Mooney, Layne Norton, Dave Palumbo, Rehan Jalali, Mark Gilbert, Nathan Hinks, Johnny G, Lauren Jacobsen, Don Gauvreau, Scott Abel, Bryan Haycock, Larry Pepe, Lonnie Teper, Lyle McDonald, Greg Kovacs, Stuart McRobert, Brian Batcheldor, Milos Sarcev, Nicole McPherson, Scott Welch, Dan Kennedy, AJ Roberts, Maxx Scholz, Stephen Adele, Su Mosebar, Janet Lok, The Informant, and Mario Mavrides.
- MUSCLE INSIDER will be the most expensive magazine on newsstands at $9.99 an issue! Yes, it costs a lot of money to put a magazine together with this much editorial and with writers that are the best in the industry.
- Our pages also feature the very best photographers in the world and the top physiques in the business. Stars like Arnold, Jay Cutler, Dexter Jackson, Phil Heath, Victor Martinez, Branch Warren and many others will keep you glued to every page.
- We do not censor our writer’s opinions. If one of our writers hates something, we let them say so!
- Our interviews with top bodybuilders are not “ghost written” by staff writers to “sound like” the pros themselves. We know this is very common in the industry, but in our books it’s lying to the fans.
- ATTENTION COMPANY OWNERS: We will not be controlled by any advertiser! We’ve set our magazine up with a 5-year business plan and will not censor content just to keep “fat cat” advertisers happy. If you’ve got great products which consumers love, you’re likely already in our good books and we’ll do everything we can to help you. But if you’ve been ripping off bodybuilders with your garbage products, the buck stops here boys…
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