my brother is starting a magazine, revolving around beer, spirits, wine, and culture. here is the "what" from their about page.

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The Mutineer Magazine is a magazine and website devoted to beverage writing and ideas. Rather than have our content pass through the pen of a traditional beverage journalist, our content comes straight from the hearts and minds of industry professionals who's years of experience and passion give them a unique and compelling vantage point over any third party observer. By taking our content and putting in into the context of a relatable ideas, the Mutineer Magazine will revolutionize the way wine and other libations are presented to young adults and readers in general. The beverage content is presented within the context of other subjects more familiar to the mainstream including music, film, fashion, and modern popular culture.

and this is their "where" section:

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The Mutineer Magazine is based out of Los Angeles, CA and focuses its' efforts on the United States West Coast with our primary markets being Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and the wine regions of CA, OR, and WA. The magazine is distributed to nearly every winery, brewery, distillery, and beverage shop on the West Coast. You can also find our magazine on college campuses, coffee shops, book stores, record shops, gyms, and skate shops.

The business as of right now has 4 people. My brother, who is a Sommelier who is a wine professional, his roommate who is the king when it comes to beers, my good friend Jeff who is a web guru and keeps the site running among various other things, and then our other friend who writes and comes up with ideas (along with everyone else).

The first issue looks amazing and it's going to print now anyday and will be sent to nearly 4000 wineries, distilleries, breweries, etc, etc on the west coast, who they hope to secure advertising from. I have a chance to buy 20 percent at a pretty decent price. It's an amount that i obviously wouldn't want to lose, but i can afford to and i really think it will do well once they get some advertising on board. My brother is VERY well connected in the trade he works in and amazing at networking and has worked at some very prominent places in Hollywood.

So .. what do you guys think? I'm in the army now, so right now my contribution would be just about all monetarily. I would obviously have say in the company, but i wouldn't be contributing articles or anything like that, and then when i get out of the army i'll move down here where i can have a more predominant roll.

so, i'm just looking for suggestions. what do you guys think about the magazine industry? they're well connected and have a good business model and there aren't any other magazines with their same idea.

Modified by Odiedogcx at 10:57 PM 6/26/2008

Cool thing about it is Location so much is involed in the wine business out here in Cali so im sure it will prosper and never get old. As for your stake in the company its not a bad idea yor brother probaly needs some investors and you obvioulsy have the money from your recient tour to help him out so I say go for it. It looks like these guys haev their ducks in a row and have a really good thing going..

I know of a guy that I want to attain as my client who owns a winery in Napa, if i can get in good with this business owner I can see my revenue go up as well as make more off of referrals, the Wine industry is booming out here....

With that said, wine people usually have a lot of disposal income. What's another $XX for a magazine subsciption? What's another $XX toward their hobby? To impress their friends and to better entertain. When you can discuss "wine," you moved up.

I don't know enough about the business, or the competition. So with that said, I think this will be a great idea because it covers everything from beer to wine, etc. Sort of like a bridge the generation gap.

it looks like i'll be buying into to once i get back home and get my finances in order. they have an amazing amount of knowledge and great contacts and are in the perfect place for it.

For the time being until i get out of the military, my contribution will be strictly financial and then of course my opinions on everything. But when i get out, hopefully it will be booming and i'll slip right on in!

This thing is either going to go huge or it's going to flop, but i think it will do pretty well. They were able to get *some* advertising, but it's hard to get people to pay for advertising when you don't have an actual product (finished magazine) to show them .. but it just went to print and it will be sent out to virtually every brewery, winery, distillery, bar, etc on the west coast and i'm sure they'll get some advertisers. Advertisements = $$$

I'm working on my 2 year degree right now in business, and then i'll move down to california and probably finish my bachelors at UCLA or something like that. It will be an adventure for sure. Thanks for the feedback!

While i think that your brother (and you) having the drive to get this of the ground is great, i think the wider industry (the magazine industry) is suffering from blogging and subject specific sites. Your brother might look into launching a website with articles from the magazine and a user subscription system, which could be done using Wordpress for basically the cost of a computer and internet connection, while also doing the physical print magazine, for the subset of readers who prefer a physical medium delivered every month.

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I've heard that as well. I'm sure it causes problems a lot of the time, but it probably works out pretty well a lot of the time as well.

thanks again for the advice.