The founders of GSG WorldMedia looked around the landscape of business-to-business magazines and noticed something missing: a title focused on using one of the top social-networking channels to build business.

But that wasn't the only big opportunity the Tampa, Florida-based publisher identified. Its founders also spotted an untapped distribution channel: Office Depot.

In September, GSG WorldMedia will introduce four magazines to serve as social-media tour guides for small businesses and entrepreneurs: fb & Business (on Facebook); Tweeting & Business (on Twitter); LI & Business (on LinkedIn); and The Big G & Business (about Google, which gets some prelaunch oomph via the recent Google+ debut).

“We’re in a time where this type of information is in its infancy,” said Eric Yaverbaum, one of the cofounders and the author of Public Relations for Dummies. “Small businesses in particular have to watch their marketing budgets, and if they know about social media, it’s an incredibly cost-efficient way for their businesses to prosper today.”

The two other cofounders of the four-magazine initiative are GSG CEO Larry Genkin, a serial entrepreneur, and marketing guru Jay Abraham, who will be executive editor of The Big G & Business.

Social media coverage is a space that others are rushing into as well. GSG announced its initiative in July, but just last week, Washington, D.C.-based technology group, The Cool Blue Company LLC, began distributing its print magazine, The Social Media Monthly nationally at Barnes & Noble, with a digital e-zine, a downloadable app in iTunes and international distribution.

Yaverbaum says the GSG World Media-produced magazines will be sent to five million business readers, an enviable circulation base achieved through the partnership with Office Depot, which will email the freebie publications to its list of customers who opted in for such information. Business owners can also subscribe via SocialMediaMags.com.

David Renard, a media analyst with mediaIdeas, says such retail-publisher partnerships are not new, but they vary in format.

“Both here in the U.S. and in Europe, publishers and retailers will team up to do a custom publication,” he said. For instance, Wal-Mart has its own print magazine—targeted at women—which is called All You, published by Time Inc., and crystal retailer Swarovski and H&M also have their own titles.

Publishers like such alliances because custom publications command higher ad rates since the circulation (essentially the retailer's customer list) can be sizable. Retailers usually get a cut of the ad revenues, plus brand exposure.

Office Depot says the magazines will give its small-business clients a needed boost. Monica Luechtefeld, the company's executive vice president of global e-commerce, said in a release about the venture, that it is designed to help its core customers—small businesses—find "both the products and the tools they need to grow their businesses" during a tough economic time.

By offering a series of custom publications with its branding all over it—none of its competitors will be advertisers—Office Depot surely hopes to boost its own business. Last month, the company reported its second-quarter sales were flat at $2.7 billion, and it had a quarterly loss of $29 million.

At launch, the titles will be available in a choice of eight formats: for iPhone, iPad, Android phones, tablets, BlackBerry, Kindle, multimedia, and print. Print subscriptions will cost $179 per year, and Yaverbaum expects only 5 percent of subscribers will go the print route.