InnovationME, the locally published magazine aimed at Maine’s entrepreneurial community, is ceasing publication.

The monthly magazine was launched in November 2013 and survived an 11-issue run. The September issue recently hit the streets, but there will not be an October issue.

David Flood, the magazine’s Biddeford-based publisher, confirmed that he’s pushed the pause button on the project, but said it’s not necessarily the end of the effort.

“We’re looking into a couple things, but I’m not coming out with one in October,” Flood said Thursday.

The goal of the publication, which was free and distributed to coffee shops, doctors’ offices and shopping centers in southern Maine, was to encourage the state’s creative economy, said Flood, who is not new to publishing. He was for 18 years the owner of Mainely Newspapers, which published a number of weekly community newspapers in communities such as Biddeford, Old Orchard Beach and Cape Elizabeth. He sold that business in 2007.

Despite dedicating his publication to innovation, Flood took a less-than-entrepreneurial approach to questions about why he was stopping publication.

Me: Why are you not publishing an October issue?

Flood: “Because I decided not to.”

Me: Can you share any specific reasons for shutting down?

Flood: “No, I don’t think I’m going to tell you anything else.”

Me: Why are you acting so defensive?

Flood: “I feel like I don’t have to tell you things. It is a private company and I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

That is true, I told him. He wanted to know how I’d like it if he asked how much money MaineToday Media made last week. I told him it was my job to ask such questions. We moved on, but it was clear he didn’t want to speak with me.

In his inaugural publisher’s letter published in November, Flood wrote that 15,000 magazines would be distributed a month and that the business would make “almost all” of its money from advertising.

“If we can reach 15,000 energetic, optimistic people in Southern Maine … then it’s likely that business-related businesses will consider advertising along with other, more general businesses,” he wrote at the time.

Judging by his decision to stop publishing the magazine, that prediction did not come true. But that’s OK. Part of innovation is experimentation and failure. Publishing is a tough business these days and many of us are trying to figure out a model that works.

 

 

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