When Nick Palazzo and Chad Zimmerman were athletes at a Cleveland-area high school, they wanted to find publications that would give them advice on healthy, drug-free ways to improve their game, but none were available.
While in college, where Palazzo studied economics and Zimmerman studied chemical engineering, they began to form the concept for a magazine aimed at high school athletes.
“It wasn’t like, ‘No one else has done it so it must not be a good idea,’” Palazzo says. “It was, ‘Hey, if no one else is going to do it, we have to do it.’”
In February 2005 the first issue of Stack magazine was published with Palazzo and Zimmerman as co-founders and co-CEOs. High school athletic directors request the magazine in bulk, then distribute it to their players during the school year.
The magazine features training techniques, nutritional advice and sport-specific skills to enhance athletic performance, as well as articles about getting the proper equipment, developing good study habits and dealing with recruiters.
Not only do Palazzo and Zimmerman publish an innovative magazine, they do it from innovative offices in Cleveland.
“We have an editorial bullpen,” Zimmerman says. “It’s a large room, and everybody’s on folding tables so there aren’t strict desks or cubicles. It’s very free-flowing. People can just be talking to each other, and ideas can be circulating.”
So how can an economics major and a chemical engineering major create a niche in the competitive world of magazine journalism?
“We were learning something that wasn’t our primary focus of education, so we had to be self-taught,” Zimmerman says. “Our experience not being taught by the tried-and-true methods allowed us to think outside of the box.”
Palazzo says CEOs can encourage creative thinking among their employees by sharing their own ideas.
“If you’re open to doing that and asking their opinion, then they’re going to get inspired to come up with their own ideas,” Palazzo says. “It comes from the top down, and you have to be a good example to everyone else within the organization.”
HOW TO REACH: Stack Magazine LLC, (216) 861-7000 or www.stackmag.com
