This is an interesting subject. I wrote a col for T&LGolf (American Express)from its inception until the last issue, when I quit. When AE was thinking about starting the mag, they asked for my advice. I suggested some of the following ideas, all of which assumed a mag aimed at people who take golf seriously.
- emphasize courses and architecture
- good classic golf writing (Wodehouse stories illustrated by New Yorker cartoonists; we did do the James Bond excerpt from Goldfinger).
- limit instruction to the kind of "fixes" one needs on the road - when one is at Dornoch and a hook appears
- "A Round with..." with real achievers (not 2nd-rate movie stars or models) like opera stars, scientists, architects, CEOs. that emphasizes how golf fits into their life
- Great Golf Art
- Equipment - but show irons the way a golfer looks at them - down, from above - and makes a buy-no buy decision
- don't take a tired subject (ie Myrtle Beach) unless you have a new angle
- make each issue a "keeper." Make it stylish. Make it classic.
- And , above all, make it like a great golf course: its readerly lofgic should be apparent from the first page (which should be the first page!)
- There are plenty of golfers out there who are good writers. Use them!
- be smart about seasonality
- overseas and regionally, use local writers who know the territory
Now the thing is, mag business people are fixated on newsstand sales. But even GD only gets 10% of its circ on the newsstand. Which says the mag has to be reader-driven, and driven by the right kind of reader. Above all,a successful golf mag has to be edited by people who care as much about the game as their readers - this is why the two top monthly titles and the two big weeklies dominate the field. I can't beat them at their game any more than I can beat Greg Norman at his.