Cleaning Up At Newsstands

Mr. Sam's minions find Mental Floss more newsworthy than Maxim.

By Jess McCuan | 
 

Mental Floss is the rare small magazine to find newsstand distribution easily. That's because magazines that sell a high percentage of the issues they ship get preferential treatment, and Mental Floss's sell-through average is 65%, compared with 23% for most new titles. The bimonthly began as a Duke University newsletter packed with trivia, like the number of kids worldwide who play with Legos (70 million) and the year Pez was invented (1927). Borders and Barnes & Noble carry Mental Floss -- as does Wal-Mart. That's a coup given that the retailer has been dropping magazines from its racks lately because of their racy covers. "The goal now," says founder Will Pearson, "is to keep the buzz growing."