The damage: Quentin Fottrell finds out how much it costs to launch a gl ossy monthly magazine

When it comes to launching an upmarket glossy, image is everything - but money means even more. "We woefully miscalculated the amount needed," confesses Tyler Brule, editorial director of Wallpaper, the scariest glossy of them all that was bought by the US publisher Time Inc on just its fifth issue.

To make your mark at the top end, you must also have the finest production quality from the outset. There is no time to evolve your title - the only way is down. Take the second coming of Punch, the satirical weekly which began as a smart, urbane, New Yorker, but now looks like a Private Eye- Viz hybrid - without the humour. If you can't find a new niche like Brule, you can always scan the newsagents to see what everyone else is doing - which currently means the Loaded/FHM lad-babe format. Front is the newest men's monthly hoping to lure a share of this apparently huge readership. But be warned: latching on to trends doesn't always work. Both GQ Active and Escape woefully misjudged the health and fitness obsession, and have breathed their last as monthlies.

Production Printing and colour reproduction per annum, pounds 1.2m; high-gloss paper per annum, pounds 1.2m; nine computers, pounds 32,000; network installation, pounds 4,000; scanner, pounds 800; printer, pounds 5,000

Annual salaries For three production and seven editorial staff, pounds 215,000; travel, pounds 40,000

Publicity Billboards and print advertising, pounds 1m; television campaign, pounds 2.5m; free cover-mounted health video, pounds 150,000; venue for glittering launch party, pounds 1,500; party food and drink for 60, pounds 720

Office expenses Annual rent for outer London, pounds 18,000; annual courier services, pounds 15,000; furniture and stationery, pounds 8,000; telephone network, pounds 4,776

Total expenditure: pounds 6,394,796