She had been a stay-at-home mom for the past six years after the birth of her three sons. Irving and her husband thought this would be the right time for her to either find a job or start a business.
With the desire to continue spending the same amount of time with her children, she used the money her family had set aside for business ventures to start her own magazine. Realizing that the Gainesville community lacked a family and parenting publication, she chose to make this the focus of the magazine. Following her passion for parenting, she sought to inform parents about relevant issues in the community, the nation and the world.
It took her eight months to finalize the concept, to come up with a logo and trademark and to find the right staff. The first issue of Giggle Magazine materialized in April 2009.
Giggle publishes mostly features, interviews and editorial pieces about issues that affect the Gainesville community, as its readers are mostly interested in reading about local people.
Most of the citizen stories published in Giggle are editorial pieces from Gainesville residents. However, once a citizen’s work is published, she owns it, and it becomes protected under copyright law.
Although Irving fully supports the idea of community journalism, she tries to limit opinion pieces because she doesn’t want to incite any controversy.
It also bothers her when some citizens try to sneak publicity claims into their stories. Irving said those who write these “advertorials” are not welcome. Instead, they are offered the opportunity to buy an advertisement, which became the sole funding of the magazine after its first issue.
Giggle is free to the public, and now spans throughout 1,000 distribution points in the county, with 12,000 copies being published every two months.
To choose her stories, she sits down with her editor at the beginning of the year and writes an editorial calendar with story ideas, contests and seasonal themes.
Nearly a year after Irving first came up with the concept, the company expanded its media platform to include a Web version. At first, the website was a replica of the magazine.
After doing research and looking at other magazine websites, Irving realized she had to create a goal for the website. She asked herself whether the website’s purpose was to inform the reader, increase sales, replicate the print version or enhance it. She decided that her goal was to enhance the print version with digital contents, issues and a submissions page.
In developing the website, she strived for simplicity. She didn’t want her viewers to get lost in hyperlinks; she wanted information to be easily accessible.
Search engine optimization is important for the website, so Irving’s husband monitors it regularly. In the past, the website has not gotten 100 percent of the staff’s attention because it is complementary to their priority, which is the print magazine. However, within the next six months, Irving hopes to revamp the website. Giggle online will have more contests, articles, blogs, videos, forums, advertising and polls.
As the company and website expand, Irving will also reevaluate having a comment section regarding the magazine content. Irving said she has not allowed forums and comments on the Giggle website because she does not currently have the time or the resources to moderate it. However, the Giggle staff gives serious considerations to the comments readers send them through the submission page on the website, which is directly e-mailed to Irving.
A large amount of comments are also made through the magazine’s Facebook page, which Irving moderates up to 200 times a day.
Giggle readers comment on photographs and content, as well as request corrections.
Irving is more than willing to make alterations based on a suggestion if she is able, and if not, she will call the reader to let them know why it cannot be changed.
Currently, readers can view a digital JavaScript version of the print magazine through the website, which is not supported by smartphones or the iPad.
Her next venture is to create an iPad application for those who do prefer reading on other technological platforms.
She doesn’t think this will distract readers from the print version because she believes her target audience prefers hard copies, which are malleable and convenient.
“Print magazine is here to stay,” she said.
To market the magazine, Irving’s main strategy is branding. Even within her office, one can see the same color scheme as the magazine: orange and green. The logo is also constant throughout everything she does.
She also likes to sponsor events throughout the community in order to gain exposure. She has worked with LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, Puttin' on the Ritz, and the Sebastian Ferrero Foundation, among many. Giggle also hands out flyers at the events.
The magazine also did Facebook ads for a week, which Irving said really helped increase its fans on the site to almost 900 followers.
With so much work, the magazine keeps a core staff of 7 people and another 13 part-time contributors, among which are the interns. Irving offers internships all year round. At the moment, she has one design intern from Santa Fe College.
Giggle also has three exclusive photographers and a photography intern who has been with the company from the beginning. They are given assignments based on talent, skill and availability.
The time invested in Giggle has been a learning experience for Irving who works long hours to ensure that everything goes according to plan. She takes her role very seriously as the blame is on her if anything goes wrong.
On busy weeks, she has gone to bed at 4 a.m. for several days. During the week, she normally works from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. She schedules herself this way, so she can spend time with her children when they get out from school. She also works Saturdays and Sundays.
Irving’s background is in sociology and education. She never saw herself as a publisher, which is a good thing because she said if she had known about the competitive magazine industry, she might not have started the company.
Although Irving never took a journalism class nor learned about design programs, such as InDesign, she said she never felt at a disadvantage. Because of this, it might take her a little longer to produce an issue, but she said still ends up with the same product.
In the future, Irving plans to attend a few conferences, such as New Horizons, so she can learn design programs. She knows that having this knowledge will help her manage her staff better.
For those who want to start their own magazine or website, Irving suggests knowing the what, why and how of what they are going to do. In her case, she was passionate about her family, and she put all of that love into fighting for her company, which she started in the middle of a recession.
Irving believes media entrepreneurs should educate themselves on the industry, brand themselves well, respect their competition and find a nitch.
Although Giggle is the only family and parenting magazine in Gainesville, Irving says it still competes with all other magazines for advertisers. As the publisher, her priority is to move forward and not let outside forces affect her decisions and core values.
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