Shaken, and stirred SSU grad hopes print magazine will be a hit with peers

By Nicolas Grizzle
June 19, 2009
On the surface, it can seem like Ed Troxell is a lightning bolt shot into a metal room with no outlet. The 24-year-old just finished his communications degree at Sonoma State and already has published the second issue of his full color, glossy young-adult magazine Mix It Up.

Troxell’s energy seems relentless, working each day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. at jobs and internships, he hasn’t even had time to set up a proper office from which to publish his magazine. Where does he get it done? “My kitchen table, my living room, sometimes it’s wherever I am with an Internet connection,” he said after checking his Blackberry at SSU’s Charlie Brown Café.

Troxell is passionate about health and fitness, which might be a key to his ability to manage so much at once. The first issue of the magazine, which came out in March, focused largely on incorporating health into a young person’s everyday life. Alternative music, interview tops, interviews with fashion industry experts, sex tips, break dancing lessons and more fill the second issue of the bi-monthly publication.

But the magazine is almost entirely feature stories and editorial content. Any magazine these days is at least 60 percent advertising (save for art and political ‘zines like Adbusters or Mother Jones), and those carry a sticker price. Mix It Up is free, and Troxell hopes to keep it that way. But the realities of paying big bucks to 10,000 copies of a magazine with thick, glossy pages in full color and distribute it from San Jose to Chico is catching up with him.

“This month is pivotal,” he said. The magazine does have a complimentary online edition at www.mixitupmagazine.com, but it was launched in conjunction with the print edition, not as a supplement or a precursor.

“Young and driven,” “Get it out,” “Get into it,” and other sections divide the magazine, each still holding true to the overall theme of that issue. The idea, says Troxell, is to give young people a venue to display their work, to bond with their peers and to gain career-building experience. His team of contributors in issue two are from the Bay Area and beyond, as far away as Calgary, Canada.

However sleek the design or interesting the stories, every publication still needs advertising to keep it afloat. Right now, house ads - that is, ads for the magazine in the magazine - dominate that arena in Mix It Up. Only one ad in the second issue isn’t a house ad, and Troxell admits that has to change.

“Right now, that’s the hardest part, is selling advertising,” he said. In a down economy, often times the first expense to be cut from any business is advertising. But Troxell is positive, with a belief that his magazine fills a void that has long gone unattended to, the 18-34-year-old young professional demographic.

In the works are events like concerts, mixers and promotions through local media, including fellow SSU alum’s Web site www.Barspace.tv, a social networking and live Webcam site with ties to bars in Sonoma County. The future, though, will depend on funding.

“I’ve been able to float the cost of the first two (magazines) on my own. But now, I’ve got to find some advertising to support the printing,” said Troxell.

It may come down to a temporary hiatus, or a quarterly publication, but he remains optimistic. “People have been telling me how much they like the magazine,” he said. “People I don’t know, even.” In an age when print media is on a steep and slippery decline, Troxell stresses the importance of a physical product. “It’s just nice to hold something in your hands.”