Tag / Future

by Magdiaries

Expert voices

I head up creation of 100s of magazines a year, but am also an avid consumer.

The Face, Grand Royal and Jack Magazine produced highly emotive content that had cult followings, rarely seen in magazine publishing today.

I now only buy the NME. Having tried the web site for several months I returned to buying the curated form, putting my trust in a small editorial team to enthuse me through their content selection.

Content that requires an expert voice and that’s delivered to engage and entertain will live on in “paid for” curated form, whether that’s digital, print or otherwise.

Ian Robson | Head of T3, Science Uncovered and Computing Group, Future



Grub Street Journal
by Magdiaries

It’s worth the effort

Working in magazines feels like fighting a tide of assumptions.

Assumptions that it’s only a matter of time before digital sweeps everything away.

Assumptions that decline is inevitable.

Assumptions that doing something new is madness.

Assumptions that are wrong.

It’s hard to keep your chin up sometimes against the flow of doom.

It’s hard to persuade people that new magazines can make money.

It’s hard to sell the future of print in a digital world.

But when we succeed, and we make something new, something readers love, something which we are proud of – it’s worth the effort.

Stuart Anderton | Former Chief Information Officer, Future

 



Grub Street Journal
by Magdiaries

Don’t forget the basics

What makes a magazine great will make a digital magazine great.

In my role as marketing manager for digital editions it is clear that in this period of disruption the quality of content produced will continue to make you stand out from the rest, whether that content’s in a PDF replica or in a fully interactive product.

If you keep changing your approach too much it becomes impractical to market, as the value proposition for the customer keeps shifting, ultimately becoming incredibly confusing.

It’s a cliché but listen to what your customers old and new are saying at all times.

Iain Russell | App Marketing Manager, Future



Grub Street Journal
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