Magazine for Baltimore dog lovers is all set for debut

Listen to this article

Baltimore Dog Magazine Editor and Publisher Denise Iannatuono sits with her 9-year-old dog, Tyson. The niche publication hits the streets next week and will be published quarterly.

Baltimore Dog Magazine, a new niche publication from the Chess Communications Group, will debut next week to educate area dog lovers about local attractions, health issues and new products for their furry friends.

The demand for Baltimore-area dog news is immense, said Editor and Publisher Denise Iannatuono. Numerous people have ordered the magazine since it was announced in April, she said, though Iannatuono could not provide specific numbers.

Launching a magazine is treacherous territory because poor business plans and inadequate funding derail more than 60 percent of new publications within the first year of circulation, said Samir Husni, a magazine consultant and author on the subject who is known as “Mr. Magazine.”

“[Publishers] think based on these marvelous business plans that money will start coming in as soon as it’s out the door,” Husni said. “It can be six months before you see a penny.”

Jerry Guttman, the president of the California-based Lexicon Group, offered similarly grim statistics, but said the magazines don’t necessarily flop because consumers aren’t interested.

“The common denominator is not because it was a lousy idea or there wasn’t interest or whatever,” Guttman said of failed magazines. “It just took more than whatever the entrepreneur who started it thought possible.”

Chess Communications Group, the magazine’s sole investor, is comprised of multiple companies that specialize in marketing, advertising and producing print media, a combination that Iannatuono said gives Baltimore Dog Magazine strong backing.

“If they don’t know about the parent company, [people] think it’s a little magazine started in someone’s garage,” she said.

Baltimore Dog Magazine has a staff of 10 and cost roughly $50,000 to start, but production costs should drop to about half that amount for subsequent issues, said Bruce Iannatuono, Denise’s husband and chairman of Chess Communications Group.

The magazine’s revenue comes entirely from advertising, and ads range in price from about $265 to $2,900 depending on size, Denise Iannatuono said.

Both Guttman and Husni said the survival of a new magazine hinges on an ability to attract readers that advertisers aren’t reaching through other publications. This requires editors to offer readers something different, perhaps groundbreaking content or a unique angle on already available information.

So, will Baltimore Dog Magazine offer its readers something different? Denise Iannatuono — and perhaps more important, some of her advertisers — say yes.

“People will respond to it,” said David Crowther, the owner of Charm City Dogs, a doggie-day care service in Old Town, who will advertise in the magazine. “It will give [readers] more local information.”

The magazine will publish quarterly until 2008, when Denise Iannatuono said she hopes the magazine can be printed bimonthly. Each issue will contain four articles, a calendar of events, question-and-answer sections on health and training and a memorial page for deceased pets, among other features, she added.

Denise Iannatuono said the magazine’s focus on activities in the Greater Baltimore area and emphasis on educating dog owners will set her magazine apart from higher-end, national publications, like New York Dog Magazine or Dog Fancy, and reach an untapped market — Baltimoreans and their four-legged friends.

National spending on pets is estimated to reach $40.8 billion in 2007, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association Inc., a trade association.

Items ranging from customized furniture to organic food for pets have burst onto the market in recent years and caught the eye of consumers, primarily young professionals without children and baby-boomers with newly empty nests, said Virginia Byrnes, co-owner of Dogma for Pets, a pet boutique in Canton.

“What people are really loving now is that they can kind of accessorize their dog’s life in the same taste as their own,” said Byrnes, who will also advertise in the first Baltimore Dog Magazine.

“It’s such a big hobby,” Denise Iannatuono said. “It’s not even a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. People love their dogs almost as much as, if not more than, their children.”

The magazine will be available free at local pet stores, veterinary offices, animal shelters, rescue services and libraries. Subscribers can have Baltimore Dog Magazine mailed to their home for $15.95 per year, a dollar of which is donated to local animal shelters.