What’s it like to be in magazines today?

Berlin, 1945.

The smart ones have already disappeared. The leadership, out of touch and in denial, clings to outdated policies and spouts nonsensical dogma.

The footsoldiers are doomed and desperate; only those unable to desert remain at their posts. Defeat is certain.

However, I was in Berlin only recently and it’s lovely. Which isn’t a lot of use when you’re eating your own shoes, but I still hope that in a few years we’ll be able to rebuild something different yet recognisably magazine-like.

Now? Not great… Anyone got a tasty rat?

I installed a huge sign on our office staircase wall this week.

It’s a quote that succinctly sums up the attitude you need to work in publishing these days. It simply says… The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way’.

Publishing is moving at pace. The technology we use today wasn’t on our horizon five years ago so we need to constantly question what we do, and whether it is still a good idea. Chances are it hasn’t been for a while.

Adapt. Change. Evolve. Choose your word, but you better be doing something.

Duncan Wood | COO & Publisher, Rapid News Communications Group

* Quote attributed to Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, US Navy

I was going to ask Felix to write 100 words, but he died.

Felix was larger than life, a maverick, an eccentric. He said he knew what you wanted two minutes before you did. Felix was funny, charming, difficult. He shouted at people, then made sure they got home safe and sound. Felix was a millionaire, an entrepreneur, a poet. He knew how to get rich, but gave the wine away for free.

Without Felix, magazines will be a bit more corporate, a bit safer. He went to jail for his.

We should remember that… and Felix… although he couldn’t care less.

Peter Houston | Editor, The Magazine Diaries

Fashion comes and goes. Digital is in vogue, but who’s to say it will last?

The race is on to find the next big thing in digital technology. It’s a daily scramble to invent something to catch the eye of would-be advertisers or readers, stealing a march on the opposition.

We are all in the creative industry now, not the media industry. We fight the opposition from the office, not street-fighting, more suit-fighting.

Perhaps, one day we’ll turn full circle, when a bold Creative Editorial Director decrees their digital magazine will soon launch its first ever printed issue.

Imagine that.

Mal Robinson | Editor-In-Chief, Media73