The original five Mental Floss staffers had no journalistic experience, except for one kid who’d worked on his high-school newspaper. Now they run a bimonthly with 10,000 subscribers and a newsstand presence of 50,000 copies. Sixty percent of those get sold, an almost unheard-of statistic for new magazines. Recently the staff has inked deals for a book series, a board game, radio spots and a syndicated column. “We haven’t spent a dime on marketing,” says cofounder Will Pearson. “We still don’t know why it’s worked so well.” Maybe it has something to do with the magazine’s breezy, Maxim-style blurbs, or its advisory board, stocked with influential journalists who have spread the word. Or it could be the gimmicks, like that title (“God, we thought of some awful names at first,” says Pearson) or the tag line: “Feel smart again.” Either way, it’s clear the Mental Floss folks have been reading their own magazine.
