In the world of magazine publishing, where the rate of change accelerates every year, the rules for launching a magazine or special issue just changed. Again.
 Is it the Wal-Mart bipad cleansing I’m talking about? No—that’s old news.
 The ANCO or News Group cuts? We’ve weathered them already.
 The pending Borders bankruptcy, cash infusion, or re-organization?
 There’s something more current, more relevant, and more immediately urgent than even that.
The Source Interlink Integration Program is something brand new, and it will affect your publishing plans this year.
Source Interlink’s Integration Program is the approach this growing distribution company is taking to blending their mass market (Levy) and specialty distribution (IPD) systems.

It will require you to think carefully through your bipad strategy. You might want to add a special issue or try a launch on a parent bipad in the mass market channel. That will enable you to test a new product on an existing distribution.
In the bookstores, as you no doubt already know, you will have to present a new bipad. The bookstores will not allow a special issue to share an on sale period on the same bipad with a parent title.
And now, you’ll have to add a third bipad to the mix: a Source-only, “unstacked” bipad for the parent title, no specials used on it anywhere.
You shouldn’t be impossible, or even unreasonably difficult. It just requires a plate change and a little more care in planning your bipad strategy and keeping your bipads straight. But it’s something to remember as you plan your product line for the coming year.

We’re starting up the single copy sales blog. Expect lots of new posts soon.