«It feels really good, but it's tough times to launch a new journal. Our research department has helped us to do interviews and people are very positive. We have great faith in the journal and we also have strong support from the publisher,» says Magnus Bergsten. He is both the responsible publisher for Släkthistoria, and also the editor of its sister publication Popular History.
Släkthistoria has mainly been marketed through LRF Media's own magazines. Magnus Bergsten does not want to reveal exactly how many subscribers the magazine already has, but he says that they received almost twice as many subscribers as expected for the first three issues. «It's very difficult to predict how many copies we can sell. If we look at our other publications, sales go up and down from month to month. But I hope that we can soon be at a total circulation, both subscription and loose sales, of 10,000 copies. The long-term goal is to sell around 20,000 copies within two years.» Six issues of Släkthistoria will be published in 2014. In addition, subscribers will receive a digital newsletter.
The editor-in-chief of the magazine Svenska Öden & Äventyr says he is not afraid of competition from LRF Media. «I feel that our magazine is significantly broader. Their magazine is focused on genealogy and that's only part of what we intend to write about. Of course it's a competitor, but it feels narrower. Svenska Öden & Äventyr will have about 90 percent editorial content, the rest will be from the readers themselves and there won't be as much advertising.
The magazine is also collaborating with genealogy website Ancestry, an expert will answer questions about genealogy and a genealogy school will be produced for the magazine.
