About Full Circle Magazine

From their early days in an uninsulated garage when no-one gave them a chance of success, Dales Nesbit and Sean Houghton have fought the odds, done the hard yards and put everything into Full Circle magazine. Summer days were sauna-like beneath the corrugated iron sheets. Winter nights were spent huddled in blankets and beanies and working with mittened hands.

With no finance and no corporate backing from any large business or publisher, Dales and Sean believed absolutely in their vision and threw everything they had into the project – hard work, time and what little money the magazine brought in. Between them they did everything: layout, design, editorial, sales, marketing, administration… everything. The first issue consisted of 5 000 12-page, black-and-white copies distributed in the Fish Hoek area.

Now into its seventh year, Full Circle magazine has grown into a full-colour publication, as high as an 80-page (Dec 2009) magazine with a distribution of 25 000 copies and a readership in excess of 200 000.

Brief History

Sean Houghton had worked for two publishing companies that had been liquidated in two years leaving him financially stretched. Although Sean had vast experience in the publishing industry and had been an Editor for a number of national titles he could not find a new position with his age and other factors counting against him.

Dales had recently moved to Cape Town from Port Elizabeth and had continued to run his business called Faith Advertising. Faith Advertising specialised in graphic design, brokering in print, and silk-screening. He found it was very difficult breaking into the Cape Town market so thought, why not run with an idea that was formulated in Port Elizabeth? ... a magazine that was positive and put value back into the community.

While working as a handyman to make ends meet, Sean Houghton was putting together his own new magazine. When he saw the first edition of Full Circle he decided to advertise his handyman services in it while continuing to put together his own magazine. When Sean met Dales about advertising they discussed the magazine and that Sean was also in the process of trying to do the same. Dales asked Sean for his feedback on Full Circle as Sean had extensive experience in this field. It turned out that both had very similar ideas about what they wanted 'their' magazine to be. Dales then decided to ask Sean to join him as an equal partner to work together for a common goal instead of working separately. Sean readily accepted the offer as it made equal sense to him.

This partnership proved an inspired one because, although they had never met before, the combined experience of Dales' design and advertising background and Sean's editorial and publishing background formed an excellent and well-rounded skills-based team that covered most aspects of the publishing business. The next month was spent conducting creative brain-storming sessions to fully extract and utilise the skills, experience and vision of both partners to create the best possible magazine that would fulfil their needs and vision.

The Magazine

From inception Dales and Sean decided Full Circle would be different. Firstly, it would be of the highest possible standards in terms of production and content. Secondly, it would be a positive publication that would inspire its readers and community to celebrate life, the environment in which we all live and the people with whom we share it. Thirdly, the editorial would all be locally relevant – about the area and people in it – or of use to the readers.

This novel approach in the face of the sensational and negative media in South Africa at the time drew raised eyebrows from media players but proved instantly popular with readers, who responded to the well-designed and -written magazine.

They also created a strategy whereby they would make the magazine affordable for local businesses, and slowly grow the magazine in terms of page-number and printed copies to the point where they could approach advertising agencies and corporate advertisers which would be interested in readership due to the geographically-targeted nature of the distribution. They knew this would mean margins would be tight for several years but it was the only realistic way of starting and growing a new magazine.

Both men are humble and rather reserved individuals and they have never used the magazine to promote their own egos but have rather focused on good, honest and uplifting editorial that would make a connection with readers.

The Connection

And connect the readers did. In fact, readers did not merely connect to the magazine, they responded to it. Thanks to its low-key but positive style readers trusted the magazine and what it reported, and responded to it with confidence.

For example: the first restaurant review published garnered such a response the restaurant could not cope with the number of readers who pitched up on the first night the magazine hit the streets. All the reviews are unannounced and the meals paid for in full so the restaurant had no idea the review was done until people started arriving. Since then, virtually every published restaurant review has filled the establishment for the month of publication and often beyond that.

In an early edition of Full Circle an article on SARDA (SA Riding for the Disabled Association) was published. As each disabled person needs three trained assistants to be led on a horse they were always short of volunteers. So many readers responded to an appeal published with the article that SARDA found all the volunteers they could handle.

In addition to this, and as an example of how local community magazines spread across the world, one day several months later the phone rang and a broad Texas accent enquired about the magazine and the SARDA article. The man said he lived in New York and was looking at a copy of the article as he spoke and he would like to set up a similar programme in the city for disabled people if Full Circle could put him in touch with SARDA!

This was the first time it became apparent that not only did people like the magazine, many, many readers collected them. So much so that, due to demand Full Circle offered a binding service to allow people to collect each monthly issue in an annual volume!

Another example of reader-response was when, after an editorial discussing death and encouraging readers to make the most of every day and tell their loved ones they love them every single day, a man phoned up to say that he had been inspired by the article to put his life right and had mended his estranged relationship with his children after 20 years! He was in tears while he spoke and said Full Circle had changed his life!

Full Circle has always been about putting back into the community and encouraging everyone else to do the same. A crèche in Ocean View needed volunteers and an appeal in Full Circle saw more than 400 people offer their time to the crèche!

Full Circle is a founding member of the E-T-E (Empowerment Through Education) trust in partnership with Herbie Eichel of The Galley Restaurant on Fish Hoek Beach and the Rotary Club of the Cape of Good Hope. The E-T-E trust was established in May 2009 to pay for the full education of selected children from crèches in Ocean View and Masiphumelele.

It is a measure of Full Circle's relationship with the community that Mrs Elizabeth Greenwood of Fish Hoek left Full Circle R10 000 in her will to use for educational purposes, and in consultation with her husband Derek, it was decided to put the money into the E-T-E trust. Words simply can't describe the humility felt that someone so loves what we do that they not only spoke about giving money but they actually had a lawyer officially write it into their will.

Advertisers too have reported how successful Full Circle has proved to be for them. Several only advertise in Full Circle and say that the magazine has put them on the map! And keeps them there.

Full Circle has to compete with the huge national publishers and we therefore have always had to be smart and innovative about what we do. In addition many people send their copies of Full Circle overseas to friends and relatives who have emigrated.

Under the guidance of Dales, we have developed a terrific website and are perhaps one of the few magazines in the world which publishes the entire contents of each issue online to allow people all over the world to read it.

The Future

Our online reader survey reveals that an average of five visitors from outside of the area read each copy of Full Circle. This has resulted in a constant flow of requests to launch locally-relevant editions of Full Circle in other areas of the Cape and South Africa. Many readers say they love the magazine and can't wait to have "their" Full Circle in "their" area.

Business-owners also contact us and say they will advertise in Full Circle when it launches in their area.

Due to the huge interest in Full Circle in other areas and to the recovering economy, Full Circle has decided to launch a new Northern Suburbs edition. This move was planned for 2009 but due to the worldwide recession the plans were put on hold but hope to achieve this in 2010.