Neesh is rethinking magazine distribution
Early on in my conversation with Gem Nwannem, founder of magazine distribution startup Neesh, I pointed out that she’s an unusual guest for our podcast. Almost everybody I speak to is involved in editing or designing magazines to some degree. Even if they’ve found themselves sucked into the admin, so that these days they spend more time in Excel than InDesign, they have a background in making magazines.
And that could be one reason why independent magazine distribution has been so slow to change over the years: If everybody has roughly the same skills and expertise, it follows that everybody will keep on doing things in roughly the same way. But Gem’s experience is different. She has spent years working in logistics, and, she says, she wants to revolutionise the way that independent magazines reach readers.
One part of that is the marketplace she is building to help publishers speak directly with retailers, making it easier to find new stockists, manage orders, and get paid. The other part is her mission to broaden the market for magazines:
“We’re hyper focused on rebuilding the shelves,” she explains. “When newsstands went down, we lost millions of shelves around the world, right? Like where magazines actually sit. And newsstands aren’t coming back. But what we can do is create new shelves and start to build new demand. And so Neesh sells into spas, and members clubs, and barbershops, and the spaces where magazines belong, but they’re not the traditional purchasers of magazines, right? Your traditional distributor wouldn’t go to the barbershop in your community. Neesh will go there.”
I love her energy and ambition, and I think it’s brilliant that she’s rolling up her sleeves and trying to make a difference. You can hear our full conversation in the podcast episode above, or watch us on the video below. And if you like what you hear, please search for “Stack Magazines” wherever you get your podcasts and follow us so we can deliver all our new episodes to you as soon as they’re ready.
