Wants to Start a Magazine

Dear Rich: I want to publish a magazine. Do I need to get a copyright? I haven’t written one article, yet. How much does it cost? Where do I start? Your magazine will be protected by copyright law automatically but you can acquire additional rights by registering issues of the magazine with the Copyright Office. This circular explains the basics for magazines (serialized publications). Copyright fees change and depend on whether you are registering electronically or with paper. Nolo used to publish a good book on starting and running a magazine and you can still get copies of the last edition (2006) at Amazon. You may also want to consider trademark issues when naming your magazine. Generally you want to avoid similar magazine titles (although Nolo, our employer need not be concerned with this zine). We talked about magazine trademarks in a previous entry.