Month / July 2014

by Magdiaries

Paper cuts

Back in a time of backcombing and flexi discs, I used to make a fanzine. Typewriter, Pritt stick, photocopiers, staples, paper cuts.

I was born to make magazines. I did. It was astonishing.

In 2014, I work in mobile. Small press and artisan publishing aside, today’s fanzine writers are making Tumblrs whilst publishers are reinventing publishing.

That original DIY aesthetic now sits in development. Unless we’re careful, writers will end up siloed as ‘content creators’ and lose their relationship with making. Using a platform isn’t the same as starting from scratch.

How do we bring paper cuts back?

Learn to code.

Mike Goldsmith | Head of Content Strategy, Mobile, Future



Grub Street Journal
by Magdiaries

We’ve still got 12 pages to fill…

Don’t talk to me about your deadlines.

Deadlines are the things at the end of the week, they’re the things at the end of next week or next month. At The Drum we do things a little bit differently.

Here at our Drum Live event we’re producing an entire issue in a day. A full 56 page issue in front of an audience of 400. In a day. Sounds like fun? Well, it’s either the biggest rush or the biggest pain in the arse you will ever experience.

And thank God this is only 100 words as we’ve still got 12 pages to fill…

Andy Oakes | Head of Content, The Drum



Grub Street Journal
by Magdiaries

Step into a special world

To work on a magazine is like having a secret key permitting access to a special world.

Hidden in the features, news, letters and ads is all you need to understand a photographer, a gardener, a crafts enthusiast or a biker. And as a publisher, editor, designer or marketer you are trusted to help this community of readers learn more about and enjoy their interest and connect with like-minded souls.

This magic was once tied to printed pages, but now it is spread to laptops, mobiles, live events and shared experiences.

Be grateful for the privilege and use it wisely.

Carolyn Morgan | Media Consultant, Penmaen Media

 

 



Grub Street Journal
by Magdiaries

It matters

It’s the PPA Awards on Thursday night, the big annual magazine Oscars shindig.

I went to my first one in 1987 and went home disappointed, spouting off that this stuff’s rigged and none of it matters.

I won the following year and still remember finding a pay phone on Park Lane to ring my mum. A few weeks later I sent her the official picture of me onstage getting my award.

She died in 2008 and when me and my brother cleared the old house in Belfast we found that picture carefully filed away.

It isn’t rigged, and dear God it matters.

Barry McIlheney | Former Editor, Smash Hits and Empire; CEO, The PPA



Grub Street Journal
by Magdiaries

Scarcity finds a way

Information is ubiquitous: so rang the death-knell of magazines.

It’s a bit like saying watches with hands should have sunk beneath the tide of Casios. But the least a watch does is tell the time, and the least a magazine does is vend information.

Magazines reflect the lives we like to imagine we’re leading, the conversations we’re holding, the company we’re keeping. They keep us part of a community while keeping the fret of the crowd outside the front door.

Amid the feast of information they have more relief work than ever among the famines of identity, time and taste.

Guy Procter | Consulting editor, Bauer Media

 




Grub Street Journal