Introduction: My name is Shannon Reinighaus. My husband and I run a magazine called The Grande Life here in Plainfield. We started the magazine in November of 2006. We are responsible for all aspects of the magazine: content, advertising, printing, billing, distribution.

Initial Interest: I taught for 10 years in Florida, and wrote a few unpublished children's stories, as well as doing a monthly newsletter for my classroom and my neighborhood. When we moved to Plainfield, I wanted to provide a publication for the good of the community, adding to the small-town feel of Plainfield, and helping residents, especially those new to the area, as we had
been.

Schooling: I use my background as a teacher to help me with the editing. I use my experience as a new resident to decide what content will be of interest to our readers. Although I did not go to school for Journalism, a journalism background would be quite helpful. Chuck uses his MBA background to help with the financing, marketing and other paperwork.

Salary Information: With this magazine, we donate much of our profits back to the Community. For someone looking to start their own magazine, you'd make what you earn, based on the amount of time you put into it, ad rates and type of magazine, minus your expenses. Expenses vary with type of paper, number of pages, quantity printed, and whether you print in color or black-n-white. Typical Day – A typical day depends on the time of the month. At the beginning of the month, we are preparing the magazine, writing articles, creating ads, laying out the magazine, and answering emails and phone calls. By the
12th, we hit the deadline and have to edit and get the magazine file to the printer. The next week is spent preparing for the next issue (setting up the planning sheet with articles and themes, looking over advertisers, etc.), while we wait for the magazine to be delivered. When the magazine is delivered back to us, we prepare it for distribution. This includes hours of collating inserts, putting them in the magazine, and then bagging each magazine. Following
preparation, the magazines are then hand delivered to each home and business.
Many days we start at 7am and work until late at night.

Personal Skills Needed: You must be willing and able to spend time with your clients, answer calls and emails, work long hours, meet deadlines, and be very motivated and dedicated. You must have initiative and be very thorough. Running a magazine requires you to be a "jack-of-all-trades." The Good and the Bad – We like what we do, but it does get hectic and
deadlines can be stressful. Even if you always do your best, there are many parts
that go into creating a magazine, and things can be forgotten. Everything must be written down, organized, and double checked. Your magazine is only as good as you make it and the number of hours you put into it. At the end of the month, we are happy and proud of all the work that went into each issue. We are blessed to have many fantastic writers, advertisers, and volunteers that help make The Grande Life all that it is.

Closing: Running a magazine is a lot of fun at times and can be very rewarding. It does take a lot of commitment to make it work.

You can see The Grande Life online at http://www.thegrandelife.com
or
email us at: editor@thegrandelife.com
for more information.