My guest on this episode is Preston Holland. Preston is the COO of FLYING Magazine, which was purchased in July 2021 by Craig Fuller and has been going through a broad transformation to a modern media business.

Preston and I became friends over our mutual love of aviation and media, and our conversations are always wide ranging and leave me with a new idea or view of the world. I'm very excited to share today's episode on niche media and publishing.

Over the course of our discussion, we talk all things print publishing, why your favorite magazines aren't what they used to be, why the print is dead narrative is misleading, FLYING’s fly in community plans, how to grow an editorial team, and aviation puns. Enjoy.

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Links:

Preston on LinkedIn

Preston on Twitter

Flying Magazine

Watch: Flying into Oshkosh

Alpine Airpark

Topics:

(5:03) - Preston’s career leading up to Flying Magazine

(7:15) - Are you a pilot now?

(8:51) - What’s the culture like at Flying?

(14:28) - What was the process like of acquiring Flying from Bonnier?

(17:45) - What were some new directions Flying needed to take to become a more modern publication?

(23:31) - Why isn’t print publication dying out?

(30:07) - How did you think about the different products that Flying could offer?

(34:32) - Is there a plan to build more of these fly-in communities?

(41:10) - How did you transform the Flying team since the acquisition?

(44:34) - What have been some challenges or growing pains you’ve experienced?

(46:37) - What college class would you teach if it could be about anything?

(47:48) - What’s a strongly held belief you’ve changed your mind on?

(49:34) - What’s the best business you’ve ever seen?