His market is too big for a niche

By PAUL PANCKHURST

Be warned: do not ask the publishers of MyMobile why the crowded New Zealand magazine market needs yet another niche title.

"Why do you call it a niche?" journalist and publisher David McNickel asks.

"Everybody's got a mobile phone. Something like 80,000 people buy a new phone every month. It's huge."

McNickel launched the title on July 26 with Marty Verry and Tony McDrury, founders of an e-commerce website called iStart. This week they published the second issue of the monthly magazine about mobile phones which includes product reviews and user tips.

McNickel said 10,000 copies of each issue were being distributed by Independent Magazine Distributors through supermarkets, magazine stores, bookstores, stationers and petrol stations.

He did not have sales figures for the first issue. It retails for $3.95.