INDEPENDENT MAGAZINES

1. Why celebrate independent magazines?
Mike Koedinger: Independent magazines are at the heart of innovation in print media. Their unusual use of freedom of expression promotes excellence in writing, editorial design and visual arts. It’s where the future trends of print media are made.
Jeremy Leslie: Independent magazines are celebrations in their own right, celebrations of the passions and obsessions of their creators. They are creatively- rather than financially-led projects and at their best represent the desire to experiment and develop the magazine form in a way the mainstream is unable to risk.
Andrew Losowsky: An explosion of independent publishing has emerged in recent years. A result of advances in desktop publishing and printing technology, coupled with a fall in the costs of producing a magazine, have led to an unprecedented emergence of independent media all over the world. This emergence of media includes many magazines that are more original, imaginative and serving their audiences better than many mainstream titles. While many people predict the end of magazines, thousands of people around the world are proving otherwise.
Secondly, creating an independent magazine can be a very lonely pursuit. It’s about time that some of the leaders in the field were recognised, and that an event allowed the people behind these magazines to meet, share ideas and cross-pollinate some of their creativity.

2. What is the difference between an independent magazine and a mainstream magazine?
MK: Mainstream media are mostly 100% marketing products, aiming to produce the highest return for investors. Independent magazines are published and produced by the owners themselves. Their motivation is a passion for quality and the expression of their own voice.

3. Where do all these independent magazines come from? Are they a new phenomenon?
MK: Today independent magazines come from all over the world although mature media markets produce more independent publications than, say, African markets. Andy Warhol’s Interview certainly was amongst the pioneers in 1969, but it was only after the influence of British i-D, The Face and Blitz in the eighties, and the revolution of DTP in the early nineties, that the “independent magazine” became a phenomenon.
JL: They are an age-old phenomenon. They are how magazines first began, an experimental new form of media inspired by individual passion. They come from people’s desire to communicate, to have a voice. Many now develop from their creators online presence.
AL: Yes and no – although the desktop publishing phenomenon is a more recent one, the energy behind these magazines is the same as that which brought us fanzines and brings us blogs – a desire to put a distinct voice out there, to be imaginative and creative, and to find an audience. And they come from anywhere and everywhere that someone has a story they want to tell, through the medium of magazines.

4. Who makes independent magazines and why?
MK: Creatives with as many different backgrounds and motivations as there are different magazines. Designers publish magazines as a showcase for their work, mainstream editors and journalists publish independent magazines in search for self-expression, illustrators publish zines to find an audience… for a few it’s a way to get on the guestlists of exclusive cocktail parties, and finally some intend to make a profit from their venture and become fulltime magazine publishers. All good reasons, don’t you think?
JL: Anyone could make a magazine, but they tend to come from people with an element of media experience/engagement: designers, writers, photographers, artists. People who want to promote their passions for a particular subject. For the individuals concerned a magazine is often first made as a trial, an experiment. And they fall in love with the process.

5. Who reads independent magazines, and why?
MK: People looking for inspiration who know where to find it.
JL: To an extent it is a closed world of magazine lovers/collectors. The Colophon crowd – us! Most titles can never hope to reach beyond this small international group of city-based creative types. Magazines have always been ideal for recording and reflecting new creative trends and now the mainstream has become an extension of the PR business the independents provide that under the radar detail.
AL: The same people who consume any other media – that is, anybody who is interested in something in particular. Independent magazine themes range from the economy to fashion, art to saving the planet. Independent magazines often provide a different, original take on the same issues that affect everyone – love, life, money, death.

6. How do independent magazines make enough money to survive?
MK: Most often, they don’t.
JL: They rarely do. That’s the conundrum. Get successful and the pressure to maintain and grow that success can suffocate the original idea as you begin to rely on distributors and their advice. Its not an issue of selling out, its an issue of being directed down the mainstream path. Few have managed to make the balance between creative idea and success work. Unless they’re very lucky, they don’t make money.
AL: Many don’t. Others aren’t profitable, but continue anyway as a hobby. And still others do make money from advertising, sales, distribution, sideline projects – the same as any big media company.

MAGAZINE INDUSTRY

7. Are magazines only ink and paper?
MK: CMYK and RGB have become friends.
JL: In the truest sense, yes magazines can only be a physical item. The language of magazines can be transferred elsewhere but I haven’t yet seen a really successful transfer. I’m sure there is a way of applying the editorial and physical language of the magazine to a digital environment and am excited about some recent developments. But I don’t know if we’ll call them magazines.
AL: No – they’re an edited collection around a theme, appearing in a series of numbered editions. That could be online, downloaded, could be a poster, could be graffitied onto a wall.

8. How much longer do print magazines have left?
MK: Maybe not as long as the human race, but longer than most of us would expect.
JL: Magazines will always exist but the magazine industry as we know it may never be quite the same again. The massive broadening of niche markets over the past decade will contract. There will be fewer publishing companies as the simple quick buck – catch a trend, sell the ads, make a mag – proves no longer viable. But high end and small-run magazines will always exist.
AL: As a medium, I’d say an indefinite amount of time. However, in ten, twenty, fifty years’ time, there will be far fewer than there are now.

9. How is the current financial crisis affecting magazines?
MK: Magazines that depended on advertising will have a difficult time, but many independent magazines are published as bi-annuals or quarterlies, and so might survive a 12-18 months crisis easier than, say, mainstream weeklies.
JL: Mainstream magazines are now suffering very badly as the advertising revenue dries up post credit crunch. Weaker titles are already struggling and the closures have begun. It is the perfect storm scenario: less ad revenue, fewer sales, internet usage soaring, paper prices rising, concerns about the environmental effect of production and recycling being unviable…
AL: Badly. Advertising is down, and as a result, many titles are closing or being put on ice. Others that were once profitable, or close to being so, aren’t any longer. Some say that this is only hurrying the inevitable move to digital; I don’t think we’ve seen the last big magazine launch yet, though.

COLOPHON

10. Who is Colophon aimed at?
MK: Creative people from around the world. Magazine professionals, students and of course magazine-loving readers.
JL: Creative people who enjoy/value the independent magazine.
AL: Everybody who is interested in creativity, imagination and an independent voice.

11. Choose five words to describe Colophon.
MK: Celebrating the independent magazine.
JL: Independent. Enthusiastic. Positive. Social. Sharing.
AL: Creative. Inspiring. Surprising. Networking. Magazines!

12. What did you learn from the first Colophon in 2007?
MK: Among many things, that for the duration of a weekend, the Colophon-crowd can party all night long and still attend about 10 hours of talks a day. Amazing.
JL: I learnt we are not alone – many other people love magazines too.
AL: That creativity breeds more creativity.

13. Why is Colophon different from other graphic design/print industry events?
MK: It’s the mix of the audience. Of course many designers attend the symposium, but you’ll also find publishers, editors, writers, photographers, illustrators, advertisers, professionals from cultural institutions, teachers, students and, last but not least, passionate readers.
JL: Its not a trade show. Exhibitors aren’t trying to sell you digital repro services. Colophon is to mainstream events what the magazines are to their mainstream – the alternative. The people behind it share a love of independent magazines and not a professional conference company. We started it because we wanted to attend it.
The event encompasses design but also covers content.
AL: Because it isn’t set in a giant anonymous hall, filled with paying stands. Because it doesn’t have sponsors leaping over each other to hand you the best freebie. Because it’s created by magazine makers, not professional exhibition organisers. Because it sets its attendees creative challenges. Because it’s all about the magazines. Because of the atmosphere and the people.

PERSONAL

14. What do you look for in a good magazine?
MK: I want it all, but first I want to be surprised. I expect very strong visuals, well-written good stories and interviews, as well as an individual, fresh concept. I like the use of carefully selected paper and of course I do appreciate high-end production, both in printing and binding.
JL: I want a magazine to surprise and engage me, to bridge the gap between familiarity and uniqueness.
AL: A unified purpose in design and content. Thoughtfulness, appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of the medium. Something that makes me smile, something that shocks me, something that makes me think. Something that forces me to keep that issue in my cupboard, and not add it to the recycling pile. Imagination.

15. Do you have a large collection of magazines? If so, which are your favourites in your collection?
MK: I’ve loved and collected magazines since the eighties, but I’m not a huge collector. I guess I have about 3,000 magazines, including some eighties classics (i-D, The Face, Blitz, Interview, Details, Tempo, Wiener) and of course a large range of today’s best mags. Although I’m a visual person, in the end it’s the magazines that I read that I spend most time with and finally prefer – for example, the Paris-based “Magazine” from Angelo Cirimele and the German “brand eins”.
JL: I have a largish collection. Favourites include a piece of wood called Nice magazine, Econy, early issues of The Face, a copy of Brodovitch’s Portfolio magazine, early Grazia, Fantastic Man, Carls Cars, …
AL: Yes! My favourites vary depending on what’s on my mind at any one time… I love my old Nests and Flairs for their ambition, Portfolio for what it represents, Eros for what it was and what it did, and I have a tube filled with glorious IS/NOTs that will one day wallpaper my toilet.

16. Which current magazines do you enjoy?
JL: Kasino A4, OK Collections, Carl*s Cars, Wired, Fantastic Man, Monocle,
AL: All of the Colophon ten from this year and from 2007! Also, some editions of: Monocle, Wallpaper*, Creative Review, New Yorker, Portfolio, Foto8, UK Esquire, the Economist, Esopus, Fantastic Man, New York, Below the Fold, McSweeney’s, The Believer, Dumbofeather, Lemon, Russia!

17. In no more than 20 words, write what you think will be the future of magazines.
MK: Magazines will always be a source of pleasure and inspiration.
JL: Magazines will continue to be published but the focus will shift from quantity to quality.
AL: It will involve digital, print, ink, paper, hitherto uninvented devices and amazing creativity. Beyond that, I don’t want to know.

February 2009, © Colophon 2009 – International Magazine Symposium