How to Choose a Printing Company for a Magazine

Publishing a new magazine can be exciting and time-consuming, especially when it comes to the endless number of decisions you have to make. One of the biggest decisions is choosing a printing company for your publication. The performance of your printing company has the potential to make or break your magazine when you consider important items such as quality, time frames and reliability.

Instructions

1. Determine the needs of your publication. This information is necessary for the printing companies to decide if they are capable of the job and to give you an estimate of the costs involved. Your decisions do not necessarily have to be final, but you will want to have a pretty good idea of your size dimensions whether it will be in color, black and white, or both; the weight of the paper; the number of magazines you will be printing at a given time; and the number of times you intend to print throughout the year.

2. Contact several printing companies to inquire about printing your publication. Note if a person or machine answers the phone, if you have a long wait time as a potential customer, you will probably have a long wait time as a customer. Inform them of your printing needs, and ask if they have experience printing similar publications. Do not be afraid to ask for their input, especially if this is your first magazine, since they may be able to provide insider tips and information that could affect some of your choices. Request samples of their work to be mailed to you. They should be more than happy to do this, and it will give you a good idea of the type of work they produce. Samples in hand are far more telling about quality than pictures on the Internet.

3. Review the quality of the samples you receive in the mail. Do not work with a company that cannot provide you with samples of their work. You may also want to note how quickly the samples arrive. Did they arrive when promised? This may be an indicator of how efficient the company is.

4. Request project bids from the companies whose samples you are most pleased with. Remember that paper weight and quantity can make a huge difference in costs, so you may want to ask for bids with comparative prices for different weights and quantities.

5. Compare the bids that your receive and make your choice.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not discount out-of-area printing companies since they may offer competitive pricing to offset shipping costs.

• Make sure to call or email the companies you choose not to use; this is a common courtesy, and you never know if you will need their services in the future.