Bill Fishkin 29, editor-in-chief and publisher of <i>Synthesis Weekly</i> in Chico, California
By Jenny Kee
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Description: a music, popculture and entertainment publication serving the NorthernCalifornia area
Start-up: Less than$2,500
Sales: 40 percent growth in2000; projecting 15 percent growth in 2001
Tuning up: In college,Fishkin realized the local market lacked entertainment publicationsand decided to start a paper chronicling the music scene aroundChico. "People thought I was insane. We were working sevendays a week, putting out 10,000 copies weekly." He puteverything together in a spare bedroom in his apartment, using arun-down computer, a dot matrix printer and a credit card with a$2,500 limit.
Flip side: Fishkin'sother company, Synthesis Network Inc., recently licensed contentfrom rock magazine BAM, making it one of the Net's largestmusic presences. Fishkin is also planning a monthly publicationdistributed throughout the West Coast.
Top of the charts: Afterseven years in publishing, Fishkin is striving for bigger andbetter. "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?' Ididn't have time to fail. Sleeping and failure were two thingsI didn't really think about."
For the love of it:"I've always been the music geek listening to stuff six ornine months before it gets big. And I was obsessed with media andmagazines . . . anything in print. So this is really what I want todo. How cool is that?"
Contact Source
- Synthesis Weekly
(530) 899-7708, www.synthesis.net
