Karen Bates & Miranda Robertson, West Dorset Magazine | Dorset Business Matters Ep 003

Print is “dead”, they said. These two proved everyone wrong. In this episode of Dorset Business Matters, I’m joined by Karen Bates and Miranda Robertson, founders of Bird Media and the team behind West Dorset Magazine, a proper local success story built from scratch after Covid. They launched in January 2022, produced their first magazine a month later, and quickly learned the brutal truth of business. Journalism is the easy bit. Becoming commercially minded, managing people, and building a team you can trust is where it gets real. We talk about what they got wrong early on, including starting without fully costing the business, how they survived the first chaotic years, and why year three is when a business finally starts to feel like a business. They share the numbers behind the magazine, around 20,000 copies distributed monthly across West Dorset, Weymouth, and Portland, with a readership estimated at 70–80,000. They explain why they’ve stayed focused on print, why digital hasn’t paid in the same way, and why advertisers stick with them once they join. We also get into what makes their magazine different: humour, community, practical local news, and giving readers tools to act, not just headlines designed to scare people. If you’re building a business, scaling one, or thinking of going out on your own, this episode is packed with lessons, mistakes, and the kind of truth that only comes from doing it the hard way. Listen on Spotify/Apple: https://www.simonellson.com/podcast Book a free Discovery Call: https://www.simonellson.com/contact 01305 566150