Bill Fishkin
29, editor-in-chief and publisher of
Synthesis Weekly in Chico, California
Description: a music, pop
culture and entertainment publication serving the Northern
California area
Start-up: Less than
$2,500
Sales: 40 percent growth in
2000; projecting 15 percent growth in 2001
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Tuning up: In college,
Fishkin realized the local market lacked entertainment publications
and decided to start a paper chronicling the music scene around
Chico. "People thought I was insane. We were working seven
days a week, putting out 10,000 copies weekly." He put
everything together in a spare bedroom in his apartment, using a
run-down computer, a dot matrix printer and a credit card with a
$2,500 limit.
Flip side: Fishkin's
other company, Synthesis Network Inc., recently licensed content
from rock magazine BAM, making it one of the Net's largest
music presences. Fishkin is also planning a monthly publication
distributed throughout the West Coast.
Top of the charts: After
seven years in publishing, Fishkin is striving for bigger and
better. "We've always been fighting an uphill battle,
because we aren't in L.A. or New York," he says.
"People are always like, 'Where the hell is Chico?' I
didn't have time to fail. Sleeping and failure were two things
I didn't really think about."
For the love of it:
"I've always been the music geek listening to stuff six or
nine months before it gets big. And I was obsessed with media and
magazines . . . anything in print. So this is really what I want to
do. How cool is that?"
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