|
| Melanie Dellas, president of Dellas Publications LLC, divides her time between Dance San Diego magazine and Native American Casino magazine. |
Just as a winter’s rain can turn the dry hillsides of the American West to green, American Indian casinos have caused an entire class of vendors to proliferate.
Manufacturers and service businesses have flourished with the growth of the gaming industry. So have a few niche publications, including a San Diego magazine with a goal to be, in Melanie Dellas’ words, “the Inc. magazine for the tribal gaming industry.”
Dellas is editor and publisher of Native American Casino magazine and president of its parent company, Dellas Publications LLC of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. While it may not have 200 pages, big-bucks advertisers or a coveted list of 500 fast-growing companies, her 6-year-old magazine has glossy paper, color printing, national distribution and a place in tribal offices.
And it’s profitable.
“We didn’t start making money really until three years ago,” said Dellas. The 33-year-old entrepreneur is sitting in her office, one flight up from Front Street.
By now she is comfortable enough to embark on a side project: a magazine called Dance San Diego, which made its debut this spring.
Business for her flagship casino magazine “goes in spurts,” Dellas reported. 2003 was “amazing,” she said, but 2004 brought a slump.
Native American Casino generated sales of $414,000 in 2005 and $500,000 in 2006. Dellas said she hopes to achieve revenue of $900,000 in 2007, and is on track to do so. The magazine has two full-time employees, one full-time contractor and seven part-time contractors.
Dellas said she went to college to learn the magazine business, and one of her goals at graduation was to become editor of Cosmopolitan.
Getting Her Foot In The Door
With that in mind, she got work with a sister publication under the Hearst Corp. umbrella, though one with slightly less cachet than Cosmo. For two years, she edited Floor Covering Weekly.
Then she went to work for Indian Gaming magazine in the Seattle area, staying there about a year. It was there that Dellas met her future husband, Bill Woodworth, who is part of the gaming and tribal services practice at the RSM McGladrey accounting firm.
Armed with her magazine experience and some background on the American Indian gaming scene, plus a $180,000 loan from her parents, Dellas set out to create her own magazine in 2000.
