The Difference Between Inc. Magazine & Entrepreneur

Among traditional media like newspapers and magazines, there is a tendency to focus on large businesses, which represents a challenge for small businesses and the agencies that work with them. Making it more challenging is the demise of Fortune Small Business (RIP 2009) and Businessweek SmallBiz (RIP 2008)

The good news is that there are a lot of media focused on small businesses.

Most cities of a certain size have a weekly paper devoted primarily to small businesses. And in terms of national publications, while there are others, the two main magazines are Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur.

There are a lot of similarities between Inc. and Entrepreneur but I thought it might be useful to take a quick look at where they are different -- just as I did with a prior blog post, "The difference between Forbes & Fortune."

Interestingly, both updated the designs of their publications recently. Those makeovers also affected the sort of articles they publish. It's also interesting to note that the changes for both were not always dramatic and that key features continued even after the makeover. It's also interesting that though they cover the same sort of businesses, including franchises, the two publications cover things differently.

As background, here's a description (from Cision) of Entrerepenur: "Established in 1977 and published for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs worldwide to start and grow successful companies. Written for busy entrepreneurs who want practical, not theoretical, information."

Here's a description of Inc.: Established in 1979, Inc. positions itself as "the magazine for growing companies, delivering real solutions for today’s innovative business builders. With information and advice covering virtually every business and management task, including marketing, sales, finding capital and managing people, Inc. helps business owners and CEOs start, run and grow their businesses."

Inc. is published 10 times a year (with double issues for July/Aug. and Dec./Jan.) while Entrepreneur is published 12 times a year.

So both publications have been competing against each other for four decades. Inc. used to be based in Boston but moved to NYC a few years ago while Entrepreneur is based in California. I'm not sure their locations make a difference in terms of the type of businesses they cover.

So that's a basic overview of the two leading small business national magazines. I'll post the follow-up, with more insight, later this week. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or comments.