A former OppenheimerFunds wholesaler has thrown his hat into the magazine publishing business. Rob Shore, who spent several years on OppenheimerFunds' sales team in the '90s and later created his own consulting firm, launched a magazine called I Carry the Bag, aimed at the wholesaling community.

The quarterly mag, which sports the tagline "the official magazine of wholesaling," published its debut issue this month. The issue carries articles on topics such as sales skills, work/life balance, and "fat and happy" wholesalers, and also includes views from "the anonymous internal wholesaler." An $89.99 subcription includes four print issues plus access to the digital edition.

"I had an 'Aha!' moment 90 days ago," said Shore, who worked at OppenheimerFunds for seven years and later became president of Allstate Distributors before starting his own consulting firm specializing in sales management and coaching in 2007.

Originally, he thought of writing a book and turned to a LinkedIn group to gather wholesaler tales. He then read about MagCloud, a self-publishing Web service from Hewlett-Packard, and realized that he wanted to publish a magazine instead.

Shore said he considered no other name for the magazine. "In the wholesaling community, for both senior-level executives and whosalers, the badge of honor is the fact that you've carried the bag," he said.

While Shore sees individual wholesalers making up a large percentage of the mag's subscriber base, he is reaching out to divisonal and national sales managers to accelerate market penetration.

Shore declined to say how many subscribers have signed up so far, but said the number is "ahead of plan."

He is unfazed by the troubles that have befallen some print publications.

"Wholesalers have pockets or extended periods of downtime -- at reps' offices, airports, hotel rooms. You don't always have an Internet connection or access to a smart phone. Wholesalers are the perfect audience to give something printed to," he said. 

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