Category / 100 Words

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
by Magdiaries

Being a dickhead’s cool

Here is my favourite line from the song, Being a Dickhead’s Cool:

“I’m currently running my own magazine and it’s all about my balls”.

We started The Alarmist in the delusion of making new writing more accessible to the public by drawing people in with brilliant design and more immediate, amusing and candid pieces. We’d then offer those same people the pieces with more depth of content, and they would be pleasantly surprised that this was something of infinitely more value to them than they otherwise would have thought.

In hindsight, we should’ve made a magazine all about our balls.

Mansour Chow | Co-editor, the Alarmist



Grub Street Journal
by Magdiaries

The rapid death of the Old Boys’ club

The magazine business model remained largely unchanged from the launch of The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1731, until the launch of the iPhone.  Maybe there have been a few subtle changes along the way, but not many.

But we have seen a literal revolution recently. Everything got turned upside down and shaken around, not by the publishers but by the readers.

Some of us have been re-invigorated by this and kept up.

I still love the feel of a printed magazine, but nostalgia can’t stop progress. Those days are gone and it’s a great time for fresh young minds to take over.

Rob Grainger | CEO, Stonewash



Grub Street Journal
by Magdiaries

Scratching an itch

The desire to make a magazine is like having an itch you can’t scratch; the only relief is to actually make one.

With no funds or experience, it was only bloody-mindedness and Kickstarter that made this a possibility. The crowd funding process was a mixture of fear and elation, putting something I felt passionately about up for scrutiny kept me awake at night.

However, technology can socially connect us to like-minded people, the people who ‘get it’ and seeing the sweat and tears transform to ink on the printed page will be a wonderful moment.

Until the next itch comes along.

Danielle Gilbert | Publisher and ‘Kickstarter’, Stand & Deliver Magazine



Grub Street Journal
by Magdiaries

Real products

One contributor to my magazine, whose name ended up on the cover, bought extra copies for his family and friends. When he handed one to his mum, she started crying.

This guy’s a successful web entrepreneur. He’s got a large online following, gives talks around the globe, employs many people. The big house and the beautiful car must give away his success, even to his less internet-savvy mum.

But only when she saw her son’s name on a magazine cover, his success became real.

It’s this emotional power that emanates from real products that keeps me excited about making magazines.

Kai Brach | Publisher, Offscreen Magazine



Grub Street Journal