Making Headlines

Means and Hixson worked tirelessly to keep Turning Point from becoming one of those depressing magazine-industry statistics. To pay for living expenses, Means didn't give up her public relations company until 1995, and Hixson kept up her forays into politics and the public sector. And the partners worked hard to cut costs: For the first issue of Turning Point, they initially worked out of their homes, and they searched for writers, designers and photographers who were willing to work on "speculation"--which meant, possibly...for free?

"If the issue was profitable, we would pay them," Means recalls. "And if it wasn't, they wouldn't bill us. They agreed because they believed in the concept. Fortunately, we did make money on the first issue--until we paid them. [We had just] enough money left over from that to work on the second issue."

And then the two publishers worked on the third issue, and then the fourth. It wasn't long before their Turning Point was being distributed throughout Southern California--a larger area than Means and Hixson had ever envisioned their magazine would reach. Northern California came next.

"You have to grow, or you perish," Means notes. And Means and Hixson were doing everything they could to help Turning Point grow. They launched a local radio show in 1994 called Turning Point Live. In 1995, they put up a Web site, an almost revolutionary move back then. But it was exhausting work, and the long hours eventually led to Hixson's departure in 1996. Turning Point seemed destined to finally become one of those annual three out of four this time.

"I think she was just burned out," Means says. "We were working very hard, 60 to 80 hours a week, and so she decided, given her skills and background, she could make more money and work less hard. And she was right."

This article was originally published in the September 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Making Headlines.