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Comics! The Magazine: A Dream Come True And An Indispensable Guide To Everything Comics: The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Joe Keatinge, Editor-in-Chief & Atom! Freeman, Publisher.

July 12, 2026

Those who know me, they know that my entire career and profession started at age 10 when the first issue of the Arabic Superman was published in my original home country Lebanon in February of 1964.  It was the beginning of a love affair with storytelling, heroes and villains, ink on paper, comics and magazines. 63 years later that love affair continues with no let down or a break.

This love affair left a soft spot in my heart for comics until this day. So, when I heard about the launch of Comics! The Magazine I felt that all my dreams have come true, comics, magazines, and ink on paper.  Mr. Magazine™ could not ask for any better.  I acquired every issue since its launch earlier this year and three of the secret variant covers of issues 1, 2, and 4 at a price that will go unmentioned for fear in getting in trouble with the family.

My affair did not end there, I needed to know the folks behind the magazine and why someone will publish such a great magazine in this digital age?  I reached out to Joe Keatinge, the editor-in-chief of the magazine and Atom! Freeman, the publisher and had one of most delightful interviews in my career.  It brought back memories of a pleasant childhood and a firm belief in the future of magazines, as in ink on paper.

So, without any further ado, please enjoy those two lightly edited interviews with the editor-in-chief and the publisher of Comics! The Magazine:

But first the soundbites of the interview with Joe Keatinge, editor-in-chief, Comics! The Magazine:

On the need for Comics! The Magazine: “It’s time that there’s a platform for comics that speaks to that level of enthusiasm is the operative word, but also confidence too.”

On the intended audience: “The younger generation is tired of the Internet. I don’t know how close you follow print sales in the comics industry, stores are reporting up to 30 to 40 percent year over year. And that last year was 20 to 30 percent. The people coming in are like 20 years old.”

On the secret variant covers: “There’s a secret cover program and we don’t do it every issue. We like to keep people on their toes.”

On his mission for the magazine: “My mission, personally, with the magazine, again, is what I said earlier: Is to get people enthusiastic about comics. And so with the variant covers, it’s great. They’re selling high.”

On the connectivity between human and paper: “So when you’re a kid and you’re reading Superman, and it’s on paper, and it’s yours, and it’s in your hand, and you’re reading the story, I would assume that there’s a higher level of connection there.”

On the magazine’s goal: “To be of greater service to this industry and become an essential part about how people learn about comics.”

On his future vision for the magazine: “Is that we help inspire people to make great comics. And read great comics, of course. I want people to read it and think, I could do that. Then, they think they can do that and they work really hard and talk about the fight we mentioned earlier. It doesn’t work out. And then it does work out. They keep going and they keep getting better and better and better. And one day, they’re so good, they’re so undeniable, we profile them on the cover.”

On how people decide to buy a comic book: “Atom! (the publisher) did some research a while ago and found that 82% of customers, at comic bookstores, made decisions of what to buy in the store.”

And now the soundbites of the interview with Atom! Freeman, publisher, Comics! The Magazine:

On the magazines mission: “From a business standpoint, it is a platform. From a consumer standpoint, it is just a celebration and a guide for the world of comics.”

On a major challenge: “But print advertising budgets are not something they’ve been doing for a while. Convincing them to make that room or to take away from something else in order to get involved early, that was a challenge early on.”

On another major challenge: “But as a result of that, really our biggest challenge right now is what do we do next? How do we keep the magazine itself exciting? How do we build off of the success of the magazine? Those are the bigger questions that Joe and I spend a lot of time talking about.”

On the high selling price of variant covers: “It takes a lot to really surprise me. I was pleasantly taken aback by the values.”

On the magazine’s digital future: “While we’ve discussed what it would look like to make Comics! The Magazine digital, I think that so far, everything we’ve heard would just be diminishing of the print version.”

On the value of print: “We’re able to have more complex conversations because you’re going to sit and digest it in a way that you don’t, anything that’s on a screen.”

On the future of magazines: “I do think that magazines are going to have a comeback. What we’re seeing in print in comics and magazine right now, I expect to see all over the place.”

More on the value of print: “One of the things that happens in our world is any comic that is on a digital platform ends up on a piracy site. And Comics! The Magazine is on no piracy sites right now.”

And now for the lightly edited interviews with Joe Keatinge, editor-in-chief and Atom! Freeman, publisher, Comics! The Magazine:

Samir Husni: My first question to you is, you said in your last editorial, I love fighters. I love people with vision. Tell me about your fight and your vision with Comics! the Magazine.

Joe Keatinge: Sure. I really appreciate that. I would say the fight or the mission with the magazine is really simple. It’s just to get people genuinely enthusiastic about comics, and that can be genuinely enthusiastic about reading comics.

There’s enough in the world about how everything’s horrible, and that’s just not what we do here.

We are celebrating this art form to the highest degree. Bringing in people that have same sort of mentality, different voices, of course. It’s to spread that genuine enthusiasm for the art form.

Art form that’s fueling not just comics, but television and film and video games. It’s time that there’s a platform for comics that speaks to that level of enthusiasm is the operative word, but also confidence too.

Samir Husni: Why did you decide to do it in print in this digital age?

Joe Keatinge: That’s a great question. It’s something we talked about a lot. It’s because there’s so much digital’s gotten through so much noise. If I live a busy life and I have 10 minutes to determine what comics are out there, you go online and you search comics, there’s a lot of different sources.

A lot of them are skewing negative. So there’s that. The other aspect of it is there’s a new generation coming in and they want physical media.

The younger generation is tired of the Internet. I don’t know how close you follow print sales in the comics industry, stores are reporting up to 30 to 40 percent year over year. And that last year was 20 to 30 percent.

The people coming in are like 20 years old. And it’s two things. One is they’re raised on comics.

They were raised on comics by people like Raina Telgemeier or Jeff Smith or Dave Pelkey. They went in their teen years and they got manga from libraries. Now thanks to there’s a book called Absolute Batman, which is The Book.

It’s the top book in the industry by a huge margin. That’s the new readership. These people who were kids 10 years ago, but now they’re 20 and they have disposable income are interested in this. So they have that education with comics, but also they saw the fruit of the generation that is so digitally focused and living lives online and consuming digital media.

I’m not against the Internet. I mean, that’s how you and I are talking.

There’s a huge great net benefit to it. But you got to be careful in terms of how much you like moderation, essentially.

So I think people really want things like this is 32 pages. It’s now going to be 40 pages. We’re increasing the page count by signature.

You can read it in 10, 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes, maybe a little longer, depending on the issue. You can know everything you need to know to go to the comic bookstore.

Samir Husni: I noticed that with some issues, you have two different covers. You have a regular cover and you have a variant cover, which is selling for up to like 150 dollars on eBay.

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Joe Keatinge:  We’re experimenting a lot because it’s been a while since there’s been a comics magazine. We’re not the only one. There are other ones.

There’s one called Dummy and there’s one called American Nature. There’s one kind of a comic staple. So, we’re not the only one, but we’re the only one doing it our way.

Part of that is what can we do in print? That’s fun and unexpected. You can’t do in digital.

We were at a comic book trade show, Comics Pro, and coincidentally, it was when we got our first issue comps. We did an early edition of the first issue. An Absolute Batman cover.

I was sitting there and I knew that we did bundles of about 25. And I was thinking you could put anything in these bundles. Because, when the stores receive the bundles, they just have to scan in the initial receiving the UPC of the bundle itself. And then the individual UPCs of the covers so that we can sneak in something really cool. And so I contacted Skybound, the company that created Invincible and The Walking Dead. They do surprise better than anybody else in the industry right now. I knew they would get it. I contacted them and said you got this great book called Terminal coming out. Robert Kirkman, Joe Casey, Art Adams, Dave Finch, Andy Kubert, like all- star team. I was like, what if because we were already planning to do a Battle Beast cover with them, what if we did a secret Terminal cover? We don’t announce it. And it gets in there. And then that sold really well. Then we just did a cover. So, we did a feature in the new issue with Mark Spears, the artist behind a series called Monster Monsters. He is doing a new Spawn book.  Spawn, one of the most popular comics in the last 30 years. He actually suggested it.  I’ll give Mark full credit.

He suggested what if we do a secret Spawn cover? I thought that would light the world on fire. If Todd McFarlane would approve it, that’d be great. And he did.

There’s a secret cover program and we don’t do it every issue. We like to keep people on their toes.

We also do variant covers with different partners. Sometimes it’s a store. We’ll want to do a variant cover with an artist whom we have relationship with.

With number five, we’re doing covers with Alex Ross. So we have an Alex Ross interview in there. The opportunity came because of that interview. To do a variant cover with him that he will be given out at his booth at San Diego Comic Con. Mad Cave Studios, another publisher. They’re doing a similar thing.

They have a book coming out with John Cusack, the actor. And again, they thought, hey, can we do a variant cover of this? We don’t do pay to play. As the editor, I don’t care what advertisers we have.

It doesn’t affect in terms of content. Obviously, we love our advertisers, and they make the magazine possible. But in terms of content, it’s what’s interesting, period.

If it’s not interesting, they can’t pay enough money to be in there. But it just worked out. Alex Ross is one of the greatest artists of all time.

I’d want to talk to him. And then this opportunity came to do the cover. Great. Same with John Cusack. That’s interesting. He wants to make comics.

Why? If there was a compelling story there, and there was, great. So any opportunity to do something interesting in print.

I think you’ll appreciate this. It feels like there is a re-education going on. Which is funny, because we work in a print industry.

But in terms of having a promotional venture in print, there’s a lot of re-education. And a lot of like, you can do things differently than you were doing them digitally. Actually, I will even go further and say, a level of freedom.

This is going off on a tangent here. We serialized a comic book called Chew. Chew was by Rob Guillory and John Layman.

One of the major hits of the 2010s. And we were talking with them about doing a new comic. And they agreed to do a new Chew, which is a big deal.

And at first, it starts off as, from the get-go, now that I think about it. They have been doing things you really can only do, storytelling-wise. Because it’s a single page every issue, is Chew.

Just one page. The things that they were storytelling are so interesting. Like the first ever edition looked like it was just an ad.

Then in the second issue, well it turns out that ad is part of the story. Why is it? What’s going on there? And then John Layman, the writer, just sent me scripts for issues 9 and 10. And he is doing, again, it only makes sense in print.

The advertisers really get it. We work with a company, one of their advertisers is a company called Oni Press. And they run ads for, it looks like it’s an ad for another product.

Like a liquor ad that takes place in the world of the comic. It only makes sense. It only makes sense in print. If you ran it online, it wouldn’t work as well. They really understood how we can utilize print to tell a different story than we would be able to if it was just like an Instagram ad even.

Samir Husni: What do you think about those variant covers demanding high prices on eBay and are selling much, much more than the regular $2.99 cover price of the magazine?

Joe Keatinge: Well, you have to understand the perspective of the person you’re asking.

Because I’m the editor-in-chief, right? And so, you might get a different answer from our publisher. You might get a different answer from the ad sales guy. My mission, personally, with the magazine, again, is what I said earlier.

Is to get people enthusiastic about comics. And so with the variant covers, it’s great. They’re selling high. It seems like higher every time we do it. But to me, what that metric really… Because that’s data, right? And the data, to me, says people are excited about this. People want… We put the variant covers out in the marketplace and the marketplace dictated the value of it.

And the value of especially that Spawn cover is, again, upwards of $130.  We did a giveaway. We gave it away for free at a convention. A number zero issue. That was something we handed out. And now it goes for $80 to $100. You know what I mean?

What I love about your story is you were a kid when you first saw that Superman. It was this relationship between reader and the magazine. There was nothing else in that world. There was nothing else distracting you. But I assume that there’s ads in there, you know. But otherwise, it’s the experience between reader and story. There’s no other noise.

There’s a lot of great digital ventures. I’m not discounting them. Like, obviously, Webtoon. Webcomics in general have been going strong.

A lot of the comics I cited earlier, like Raina Telgemeier’s work and a lot of her contemporaries had webcomics. But there’s just something about the relationship between the reader and print.

It may be biological as well. I read a report a long time ago about the data retention you have reading print versus digital. This is purely hypothetical. I don’t know this for sure. But I wonder, too, when you’re reading a fictional story, if there’s a level of empathy you have when you read print versus digital. So, when you’re a kid and you’re reading Superman, and it’s on paper, and it’s yours, and it’s in your hand, and you’re reading the story, I would assume that there’s a higher level of connection there.

Samir Husni: I noticed in some of the issues you have DC on the cover, and some issues you don’t have DC on the cover. So how do you that?

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Joe Keatinge: That’s part of the arrangement we have when we utilize their covers and characters. You know, DC is not the publisher of the magazine.

But it’s just how they protect their copyright of their characters. As simple as that. It’s just like other licenses they do; it’s the same arrangement.

Samir Husni: If you and I are having this discussion a year from now, what would you tell me Joe accomplished in this year, in 26 – 27?

Joe Keatinge: That’s an excellent question. I just want to be of service to this industry, you know, and I think I can speak for myself and my business partners, Atom! Freeman, Rico Renzi, and Gabe Yocum.

We’ve got a good team. And I do feel that we’re all unified. Atom! did some research a while ago and found that 82% of customers, at comic bookstores, made decisions of what to buy in the store. Not influenced by the internet, not influenced by anything else. And that’s why Comics! The Magazine, at this current state, is exclusively through comic bookstores. Because it’s there. and that’s where you’re making your decisions, we want to be there. To me, if you ask the publisher the question, his answer may be different. But for me, it is just to be of greater service to this industry and become an essential part about how people learn about comics. It’s not just reading comics. It’s not just sales to me. That’s an aspect that’s important.

But my real dream with this magazine, beyond 2027, is that somebody reads it and they read about whoever we’re profiling. Che Grayson, Scott Snyder, Mark Spears, or Alex Ross and they read it and he and she are like, you know what? I can make comics.  This is just a person. That’s one thing that’s really important to me with the magazine, is the how and the why.  Who, what, where, when, why.

All those questions. How and why interests me the most. In part, because I want people to read it and think, I could do that.

Then, they think they can do that and they work really hard and talk about the fight we mentioned earlier. It doesn’t work out. And then it does work out.

They keep going and they keep getting better and better and better. And one day, they’re so good, they’re so undeniable, we profile them on the cover. That’s the dream for me. Is that we help inspire people to make great comics. And read great comics, of course.

Samir Husni: Before I ask you my typical questions at the end, is there any question that I failed to ask you I should ask you about Comics! The Magazine?

Joe Keatinge: I mean, honestly, you’re doing great. Your insight is wonderful. So, I’m really grateful for the opportunity.

Samir Husni: Joe, tell me how did you get involved with comics in general?

Joe Keatinge: Oh, boy. Nobody really knows. Comics have just always been around. I am a child of the 80s. And comics were at 7-Eleven. Comics were at Toys R Us. Comics were everywhere. Comics were at newsstands. I think it was probably pack-ins with action figures. There was the Masters of the Universe had comics.

I believe Transformers had comics as well. G.I. Joe, maybe. But Masters of the Universe definitely did.

I had those toys around. So, I would guess that that’s how I was first exposed. However, I will say what made me really love comics were comic bookstores.

I was blessed enough to be surrounded by some of the greatest stores of all time. Like, Santa Monica, California, where I was frequently at. There was a store, unfortunately, no longer there. There was a store called Hi De Ho Comics. If you research the history of Hi De Ho, and I really hope someone writes an extensive history of Hi De Ho, I’d run it in the magazine. You know, it was a comic store where so many people came through.

And they had everything. And it was kind of a mess from what I remember. It wasn’t very, in terms of the organization, Rob Liefeld comics were next to Mobius, which was next to Hugo Pratt, which was next to Manga, which was next to Underground Comics. It was all just there. I remember the first time I ever saw Wizard was there.

I was just like, what is this? Why is Spider-Man wearing a, like a wizard hat? What is this? Everything was so wonderful and strange. Because it was just like Matt Groening, I discovered around the same time, pre-Simpsons, when it was Life and Hell ran in the newspapers. And then they had the Pantheon reprints there.

And it was just this wonderful assortment of work. And that’s really influenced my brain.

It also really influences the magazine. Because I don’t distinguish, people are like are you going to cover Manga at all? Are you going to cover Webtoons? You’re going to cover, it’s all comics. It’s all lines on paper.

A lot of the early issues obviously are influenced by what I’m, what I’m aware of and everything. But, again, talk about what I want in 26 – 27. I want there to be a larger scope to what we cover. I know I have blinders on. And I know there’s so much, I was talking to one of our frequent contributors. Well, he did the thing in number one.

He’s doing another thing in number 10. He’s interviewed in number six. It’s Jim Rugg.

And, you know, great guy. He wrote, he was one of the guys behind Cartoonist Kayfabe, which is really instrumental in building an audience. And he was saying after that Comics Pro conference I mentioned earlier, he realized there are more channels than ever to sell comics in.

Atom! Freeman, the publisher, joins our conversation…

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Joe Keatimge: We’re just talking comics here. I was going to say what Jim Rugg was mentioning that there’s more channels than ever. And he also estimates that there are more creators working in comics right now than there ever has been, including the golden age, so to speak. I’m assuming there’s stuff I’m not aware of.

Samir Husni: My typical last questions are, one, if I come to visit you one evening at your house unannounced, what do I catch you doing? Reading a comic? Watching TV? On your computer having a glass of wine?

Joe Keatinge: I live a very private life. I’ll say that. I don’t talk about my personal life openly. But I may be fly fishing. I may not be home.

Samir Husni: And what keeps you up at night?

Joe Keatinge: That’s an excellent question. That might be my favorite question you’ve asked. Providing for my family.

And now for the lightly edited interview with Atom! Freeman, publisher of Comic! The Magazine:

Samir Husni: Tell me, from a business point of view, what’s the mission of Comics! The Magazine?

Atom! Freeman: Comics! The Magazine is designed to celebrate the world of comics. It’s designed to give somebody who is new to comics, maybe they just picked up their first Superman comic and they are trying to figure out what this world is.

It’s an entree into a world that Joe and I speak natively. I would say that from a marketing business side, it is a platform upon which marketers and advertisers and promoters can use to launch new properties into the world of comics. The world of comics is very open to new ideas.

It’s a wonderful place to build IP. We’re seeing companies that do multiple TV series, multiple video games. They have tons and tons of properties and projects that are going in other multimedia and making tens of millions of dollars there still launch all of their properties inside a world of comics.

The problem that we saw as marketers was how do we get in front of that audience? Because nothing that was happening on the internet was doing it in this way that magazines used to. There were many of us behind the scenes who were thinking, boy, we really just need a magazine. Eventually, Joe and I ran out of excuses for why not to make one.

We had to do it. I think from a business standpoint, it is a platform. From a consumer standpoint, it is just a celebration and a guide for the world of comics.

Samir Husni: Since issue Zero, has it been a walk in a rose garden or did you have some challenges? How did you overcome them?

Atom! Freeman: Wide open field, Samir. Wide open. We’re just one step in front of the next.

I will say the biggest challenge from a business side was convincing companies that really do need a platform like Comics! The Magazine, that a print advertising budget is something they needed to make room for. They all have advertising budgets. They all have marketing budgets.

But print advertising budgets are not something they’ve been doing for a while. Convincing them to make that room or to take away from something else in order to get involved early, that was a challenge early on. Now I will say that our challenge really is just where do we grow to? We are the best-selling magazine about comics in our space.

There are a few others. They are with different focuses and different mission statements.

But as a result of that, really our biggest challenge right now is what do we do next? How do we keep the magazine itself exciting? How do we build off of the success of the magazine? Those are the bigger questions that Joe and I spend a lot of time talking about.

Samir Husni: Were you surprised when you saw the value of the variant covers selling on eBay for $150 and $80?

Atom! Freeman: Listen, it takes a lot. I’ve been at this now for, I don’t know, 30 years, Samir.

I’ve been in this industry. It takes a lot to really surprise me. I was pleasantly taken aback by the values.

But we know the value of a secret, the value of a surprise. That’s the real challenge. That’s why we come to fiction.

That’s why we come to story, is we want to be surprised. And so we know now occasionally do, like I will say, the Spawn one I really thought was going to, I didn’t know if it was going to do as well as it did. And we have a couple more that are coming up, a couple other surprises that are coming up that I think are going to have a similar effect.

But you never know. Where the market decides those values land, that’s always a surprise, no matter what you do.

Samir Husni: Do you think this can only be done in print?

Atom! Freeman:  So far, yeah, so far.

Magazines, books and movies, TV, all of them really did lend themselves to the shift to digital. I don’t know about you, but I don’t even have cable TV or broadcast TV in my home anymore. I only stream.

I do still buy physical books, but I’m just as likely to read them as a Kindle app on my phone, right? Audiobooks are more likely what I consume the most. I will say that of those other platforms, comics really has not made the shift to digital in the way that the others have. And so while we’ve discussed what it would look like to make Comics! The Magazine digital, I think that so far, everything we’ve heard would just be diminishing of the print version.

And I will say that there’s a focus that comes with reading in print that we’re not getting from anything digital. If you’re reading the pages of a magazine, you’re never going to be caught off guard by an alert popping up on the screen, on the page. You’re never going to have anything reminding you of a calendar invite that you agreed to six months ago, which is not exactly what’s going on here, maybe a little.

But it’s never going to happen that way. It’s going to be you are able to sit and focus. And so as a result, there’s this really interesting thing where websites, even social media posts, they could go 10,000 words.

They could go 1,000 words, but they don’t. They go 10, 20, maybe 50 words. We, in a magazine, we have your attention.

So in that having of your attention, we are able to tell more complex stories. We’re able to have more complex conversations because you’re going to sit and digest it in a way that you don’t, anything that’s on a screen.

Everything about the experience. I love the fact that you have Mr. Magazine because I do think that magazines are going to have a comeback. What we’re seeing in print in comics and magazine right now, I expect to see all over the place. People want that community that comes from sitting and consuming something on a monthly schedule, and they want the ability to reclaim their attention.

They want those things, and all of that comes with print, and all of that comes with magazines. I also want to focus. I’m already seeing it in my other interests that I have.

I just picked up two new jujitsu magazines. Field and Stream is back, and it’s a huge, beautiful format.

I think people are ready to unplug and to focus. Unplug and refocus.

It’s a good time to be Mr. Magazine.

I can tell you it’s going to be a good time for that.

Samir Husni: Allow me to ask some personal questions. First, I have to ask, why the exclamation mark after your first name?

Atom! Freeman: That was a social media, or early, it wasn’t even social media. It was an early Internet joke that kind of got out of hand, and it just made it easier to get myself. I’m a marketer by trade, so it just made it easier to get people to talk about me and to quote me and, you know, ask for interviews.

And also, it’s fun listening to British people pronounce it. That’s always fun, too.

Samir Husni: If I come to visit you one evening unannounced, what do I catch you doing? Reading a book, watching TV, fly fishing?

Atom! Freeman: I’m trying to get everyone in comics to fly fish, but we’ll see.

I’m not nearly as private as Joe, but I will tell you that I, in the evenings especially, sometimes I’m gardening. I spend a lot of time, I’m very lucky in that we moved into a property with a big garden. I do spend a lot of time in that, you know, might be a dip in the pool, might be whatever.

But a lot of times it is just sitting and reading. I’ve learned that if I don’t sit and read, my 11-year-old doesn’t sit and read, and I want that for him more than anything else. And, you know, otherwise it’s just cooking, spending time with family.

I will say, the more often than I like, I’m working. Because, you know, trying to build a career inside of comics, it means you do a lot of different, you wear a lot of different hats.

Samir Husni: And what keeps you up at night these days?

Atom! Freeman: Keeps me up at night these days. That’s an excellent question. Very little.

I sleep really good. I work real hard, Samir. I wake up early.

I’m already on, I was up at like 4 or 5 a.m. and outbuilding bamboo garden beds and then working for several hours. And then I’ll spend some time with family. So, by the time my head hits the pillow, it takes a lot to keep me awake.

But when it does, it’s usually these businesses that we run, that Joe and I are involved in, they’re here because people have forgotten how. They’re viable because there’s not as much competition for what we do because people have forgotten these skills. And so a lot of times we will come up with an idea or a solution, and it doesn’t feel like it fits right. Or if we just had more experience, we might be able to find somebody who knew how to solve this problem.

Those are the things that will wake me up is, that’s not how we should have done that? It’s that stuff. So, running businesses in this environment that are not AI data centers, it’ll keep you up at night, that’s for sure.

Samir Husni: Well, see the nice thing about AI, I didn’t ask you about AI, but the nice thing about if it’s print, AI cannot steal it.

Atom! Freeman: That’s very true. You know, Samir, one of the things that happens in our world is any comic that is on a digital platform ends up on a piracy site. And Comics! The Magazine is on no piracy sites right now.

Samir Husni:  Thank you and best of luck.

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“A Deleterious Magazine,” Art Lovers’ Magazine & The Vice Society Of New York 1925 – 1927. A Mr. Magazine™ Book-in-a-Blog. Chapter 3, Part 1

July 6, 2026

A century ago, we were more culturally and artistically advanced. Magazines in the 1920s shined a very bright light on art and culture. One such magazine, albeit short lived, Art Lovers’ Magazine, is but one example of a cultural and artistic publication from 100 years ago when magazines ruled the media world. Here is its story:

“ART LOVERS’ MAGAZINE has a definite mission, as we have indicated in previous issues, and that is to popularize art and culture for readers who have no inclination to delve into technical publications.” Thus opens the editorial of issue 4 of the magazine.

The editors continue to differentiate Art Lovers’ magazine from the tens of titles that are out there on the marketplace, including their own sister magazine American Art Student and Commercial Artist “and other purely art periodicals, but in ART LOVERS’ MAGAZINE we offer the general public a high grade of fiction, a department of Health and Beauty for Milady and a few jokes, in addition to strictly art material.”

Art material that they started to count and include in the table of contents starting with issue 3. More than 60 illustrations issue 4 claims to contain as did issue 3.

Trying to stay one step ahead from the competition and curving a niche for itself separate from the many magazines out there (see chapter 1) the editors present their mission statement one more time stating, “Our purpose is to present cultural material in an attractive and entertaining form; but first, last and all the time we wish to emphasize the importance of captivating appreciation for the best in art, literature and drama.”

In addition to the mission statement, the editors justify the need of Art Lovers’ magazine.  They write, “There was a definite demand for a magazine of this character, and the healthy growth of our subscription list and newsstand sales indicates that our influence is being felt. We are always glad to get suggestions and constructive criticism from our readers.”

To Courts We Go

However the magazine was not immune from the long hand of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.  John S. Sumner, secretary of the society took Art Lovers’ newsstand distributors to court claiming that it was indecent.  An article  in The New York Times on May 30, 1925 under the headline “Magazine Sales Attacked In Court; Action Opens on Distribution of “Artists and Models” and “Art Lovers’ Magazine.” Indecent, Sumner says. Publications Defended as Giving Cheap Reproductions of Famous Paintings in Museums.”

The article in The Times went on to report, “Mr. Sumner admitted that the magazines presented reproductions of art from the Metropolitan and other museums and of life from Broadway revues. He asserted, however that exhibition in theatre or museum conferred no certificate of good character or any kind of legal approval on the thing exhibited. He argued that the concentration in cheap magazines of nudes from the stage and the gallery was prima facie evidence of the purpose of the publishers to cater to primitive impulses rather than to highly civilized ones.”

Mr. Sumner “charged that the art business had looked up so suddenly when the new methods were now putting out three different magazines, each entitled “Artists and Models.”

The defense lawyer “asked for time in which to prepare a brief. Magistrate Ryttenberg granted the motion and adjourned all the cases until he had time to consider the brief.”

“The lawyer said that the hanging of a picture in a museum did not give it any legal approval, but gave it a standing as art.”

The June 1925 issue of Hubbard Publications’ Cartoons and Movies magazine had this headline on page 18: “Art Lovers’ Magazine Wins Fight For the Freedom of the Press.” 

John S. Sumner was not happy with the decision of the courts, so this time he decided to sue the magazine itself.  Again the results were not to the likings of Mr. Sumner. An editorial in issue 8, dated August 1925, of the magazine said, “ART LOVERS’ MAGAZINE has just won another battle in the war for freedom of the press and decency in art, in opposition to unofficial censors who confuse nudity with lewdity.”

The editorial went on stating, “Charges that this publication violated Penal Code No. 1141 (i.e. contained so-called indecent and objectionable matter in text and illustrations) were filed by John S. Sumner, secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.

“The case went on trial before judges Herbert, Salmon and Herman in Court of Special Sessions, New York City, July 3. Mr. Sumner offered as evidence copies of the May number of ART LOVERS’ MAGAZINE, in which material he regarded as objectionable was carefully marked.  The magazine, although officially accepted by the Post Office as mailable, and indorsed by leading artists and other notables, was regarded by the vice society as deleterious.”

And the story continues…stay tuned.

Posted in From the Vault, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views, Nude Vs. Lewd | Leave a Comment »

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Like The Wind Magazine: A Phenomenal Publication Crosses The Atlantic To Launch A USA Edition.  The Mr. Magazine™ Interview with Simon Freeman, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief.

June 29, 2026

Once in a blue moon you receive a magazine that you can’t put down until every page, every picture, every illustration is looked at, time after time, and it gives you the feeling of satisfaction, relief, and an emotional energy to continue enjoying life, the good life. 

Like the Wind USA

Last month I received the first issue of the USA edition of the British magazine Like The Wind, and it was exactly what I wrote about in my first paragraph of this blog: beautiful, comforting, soothing, and all encompassing with every page I turned, and I did turn every single page from cover to cover. Mind you, I am not a runner…

I loved the magazine so much that I reached out to its co-founder Simon Freeman in the United Kingdom and requested an interview about this phenomenal magazine that just launched an American edition after launching a Japanese one two years ago, and are ready to launch a French and German editions later this year.

Simon was as passionate about the magazine, ink on paper, running and the human spirit that goes with it, and all things “Like The Wind,” as the magazine itself.

Simon Freeman

So please enjoy my interview with Simon and read all about the launch story of Like The Wind in the UK, Japan, and the USA. 

But first the soundbites:

On what is Like The Wind selling: “what we are selling is 20 minutes with a cup of coffee, reading something not on a screen. That’s actually what we’re selling, is just a moment of calm, sitting with a print magazine, just taking a moment to relax and enjoy yourself.”

On the goal of the magazine: “We want to continue to create that sense of calm around the experience of reading the magazine.”

On the uniqueness of the USA edition: “The US edition now uses US spelling. And some of the stories that are in the US edition are unique only to that North American edition.”

On expending into global markets: “It’s about trying to kind of create a magazine that is as high quality and as enjoyable a reading experience as possible for a local audience.”

On his love for the magazine format: “I just love the format of a magazine. I love the fact you read a story. It’s done. You put it down. You don’t have to remember where you are. You pick it up the next time you read another story. I love the long form journalism. I love the way they feel in my hand.”

On the decision to launch the magazine: “Very famously in my world, (my wife Julie) said, we should give it a go. How hard can it be? And that was honestly how it started.”

On choosing the name Like The Wind: “We need a magazine that is evocative, and sort of inspirational. And I just remember we were just sat thinking about it, and Julie said, Like The Wind.”

On why the word run is not in any article title: “We work hard to not include the word run or running in the titles of any of the stories. So when people go to the contents, we don’t have the word run or running in the titles of any of the stories.”

On the usage of social media to advertise: “It’s ironic and interesting. The world that we live in today, outside of social media, it’s hard to imagine how you can reach people with a new title. It’s difficult to know.”

On the status of magazines today: “They’re not the center of culture anymore. They’re very peripheral. And people don’t go looking for them.”

On their unique selling point: “We are selling a product that encourages people to spend half an hour a week or an hour a week off their screens.”

On the difference between ink on paper and digital screens: “The screen is so flat, whatever screen you’re on, whether it’s a laptop or a phone or whatever, it’s just this two-dimensional surface, right? There’s no texture. I love the idea of embossing the cover or foil blocking or like trying to put in rougher paper or smoother paper, because what you’re doing is you’re activating a whole another sense, which is the feel of the thing in your hands.”

On using different types of paper in the magazine: “We put different types of paper in because we can, because it’s something that print allows you to do that digital doesn’t.”

On AI when it comes to content: “I don’t believe that AI has the capacity to be truly creative. So, when it comes to the art, the imagery, the words in the magazine, the editing, the sub editing, I feel that that’s got to be a human, because they bring a creative sensibility that a machine, at least currently, can’t replicate.

I want to read something that’s come from somebody’s heart. I want something that has come from their soul. And I need to know, I need to feel that it’s come from that.”

On going for a run: “It’s amazing, the feeling in your lungs when you finish and the fact that your legs are burning a little bit. It’s all very visceral and analogue. There’s no digital version of that.”

On the importance of diversity in the magazine: “I think there is a continual need and drive to diversify the voices that are telling stories about running.”

On what keeps him up at night these days: “We are pushing our business to the limits and that is causing a lot of financial stress.”

And now for the lightly edited Mr. Magazine™ Interview with Simon Freeman, Publisher and Editor in Chief, Like The Wind magazine:

Practicing what he preaches

Samir Husni: Congratulations first on the launch of the US edition of Like the Wind. I know that you’ve launched an edition in Japan and you’re getting ready to launch one in France and one in Germany, and you’ve been publishing the magazine in England for 12 years or so. Why this global expansion in print in a digital age?

Simon Freeman: Oh, that’s such a good question. It’s a two-part answer. The first part is that three years ago, my wife and I (Julie and I are the co-founders of Like The Wind), were approached by, by a book publisher to work on a book with them.

We said, yeah, absolutely. We love working on it. It was a great book.

It was good fun. What we didn’t understand is that with book publishing, the publisher will then sell the rights to different language versions of the book. We didn’t know that.

So there’s a German edition and a French edition. There’s an Italian edition of this book that we wrote, which is cool. Then, one day the publisher rang us and said, we are selling the rights to a Japanese publisher, but the Japanese publisher has asked whether he can be put in touch with you directly because he wants to talk to you about the magazine.

We were like, sure, sounds cool. So, we got on a call with this guy Mr. Kiyo Fujishiro. He said, I have this business where I translate English language running books into Japanese, which is fine, but I love the idea of a magazine because a magazine is a regular thing you do three, four times a year.

How many copies do you sell in Japan? he asked. We said, none, like 20 copies or something. It was like nothing. He said, could we talk about me buying the license to publish the magazine in Japanese? And in the end, the way things worked out, instead of paying us for the license, why don’t we go into a joint venture? So Kiyo basically takes the English language version, the PDF, and he picks the stories that he wants, he translates them.

Obviously, he’s got, when he started, 46 editions to go back through, none of which had been seen in Japan because we weren’t selling any copies. So, he just picks the stories that he wants, translates them into Japanese, and then he adds probably about 20-25% Japanese stories. That was how Japan started.

What the Japanese edition explained to us was that what we are selling is 20 minutes with a cup of coffee, reading something not on a screen. That’s what we’re selling, is just a moment of calm, sitting with a print magazine, just taking a moment to relax and enjoy yourself. So, the French and German editions that we’re launching this year are based on the same principle, which is, if you’re a native French-speaking person, reading a magazine in English is not as relaxing as reading the stories in French.

We want to continue to create that sense of calm around the experience of reading the magazine. The US edition is slightly different. Basically, it became apparent that printing all of the editions in the UK and then shipping to the US as our US audience was growing fast was, from a sustainability point of view, not great, and from a cost point of view, not great.

We reached a point where we were able to go to a printer in the US and say, well, can we afford to print the copies that we require for the US audience in the US? It will reduce our transport costs, it reduces the amount of time, it’s much better for the environment. So we’ve hit a number that’s allowed us to start working with a US printer. There is an element of the same idea, which is, because we’re doing two different PDFs, they don’t have to be the same.

The US edition now uses US spelling. And some of the stories that are in the US edition are unique only to that North American edition.And I’ll give you an example of why I think that’s important.

There’s a thing in US sport called NIL, Name Image Licensing. Outside of the US, no one knows what that is. It makes no sense at all.

So, if we’re writing a story about NIL, for everyone else in the world, we must explain what NIL is in the story. But the US audience, we don’t need to do that. So, it means that we can now slightly tailor the reading experience to the local audience.

And it’s the same the other way around, right? There might be, a concept that is commonly understood in France. But for the US audience, we need to just explain what it is a little bit because it’s foreign. It’s about trying to kind of create a magazine that is as high quality and as enjoyable a reading experience as possible for a local audience.

That’s why we’re doing it.

Samir Husni: What is the genesis of Like the Wind?

Simon Freeman:  When we launched the magazine 12 years ago, I was much more a runner than I am now.

The media options in the UK at the time were very, what I would call, functional. So, the magazines that you could buy were full of training tips and nutrition articles and stuff like that. I already had a coach.

I was trying to break two and a half hours for the marathon. I was running 80, 90 miles a week. So, I felt like I didn’t need the advice in terms of how to run.

But there were this whole bunch of magazines. Rouleur is a good example in cycling. There was another cycling magazine called The Ride Journal, which doesn’t exist anymore.

The Surfer’s Journal. And I was buying these magazines. And so my wife and I were running a route around the Mont Blanc called the TMB over three days.

One of the things we were talking about was Julie was saying to me, I see that you’re buying these surfing magazines and these cycling magazines, but you don’t cycle and you don’t surf. So why are you buying them? And I said, well, I just love the format of a magazine. I love the fact you read a story. It’s done. You put it down. You don’t have to remember where you are. You pick it up the next time you read another story. I love the long form journalism. I love the way they feel in my hand.

I was already at that point spending, goodness knows, 12, 13, 14 hours a day on a screen for work. So, I love the idea that when I wasn’t at work, I could just sit and read something in ink on paper. And Julie said to me, well, why does this magazine not exist in running? And I said, I don’t know.

Julie said, well, we should give it a go. Very famously in my world, she said, we should give it a go. How hard can it be? And that was honestly how it started.

We were doing that run around the Mont Blanc in the September, and we launched issue one the following February. We had no idea what we were doing. I remember Julie going on to Google and saying, how do you design a magazine? We quickly got support.

The team at Rouleur were amazing. They’re based in London. They invited us as soon as they saw what we were doing. They invited us down and said, how can we help? Is there any advice that you need? Other people helped quickly that we emailed them and said, we’re trying to launch this running magazine. How do we do it? So, it’s a nice community of people that are happy to support, especially if you’re making a magazine not in their sector. You know, I’m sure if we’ve been launching a cycling magazine, Rouleur might not have been quite as helpful.

Samir Husni:  How did you choose the name Like The Wind?

Simon Freeman: We came up with the name, and again, all credit to Julie, she was the person that came up with the name. The reason we came up with the name was that we didn’t want it to have the word run or running in it. Because all the other magazines were Men’s Running, Women’s Running, Runner’s World, Running Fitness.

We’re like, we need a magazine that is evocative, and sort of inspirational. And I just remember we were just sat thinking about it, and Julie said, Like the Wind. Interestingly, we do sometimes get people who will send us a message and they say, I’ve just discovered Run Like The Wind magazine.

It’s not Run Like The Wind, it’s just Like the Wind.  We work hard to not include the word run or running in the titles of any of the stories. So, when people go to the contents, we don’t have the word run or running in the titles of any of the stories.

Samir Husni: How was the reaction for the launch of the USA edition?

Simon Freeman: It’s been amazing. It’s been really, positive. We’re fortunate in that we’ve been selling the magazine in the US almost since issue one, so 12 and a half years ago.

We already had an audience. What’s been interesting is that launching a US specific edition has given us a good reason to talk about the magazine beyond there’s another edition coming out. We can explain why we’re doing it.

It feels as though we reached far beyond our existing audience of subscribers. It’s good. There’s also, which I think is true, an element of collecting.

You mentioned earlier that you had a collection of magazines with first editions. There’s lots of people who’ve discovered Like The Wind at issue 37. And you know that there’s an element in many of their minds that they’re like I want the full collection.

So, launching Like The Wind USA issue one has again given us this opportunity to say, you can start from issue one, you can build this collection with us over the next decade or whatever.

Samir Husni: I’ve noticed you’ve been using social media to advertise the magazine.

Simon Freeman: Yes, it’s ironic and interesting. The world that we live in today, outside of social media, it’s hard to imagine how you can reach people with a new title. It’s difficult to know.

Sometimes I think to myself, well, how did people advertise magazines before social media? I think what’s happened, and I love learning about magazines, I love all sources of information about magazines. I think people would discover magazines on newsstands, right? And that doesn’t really exist anymore, or not in any meaningful sense. So that source of reaching people doesn’t exist.

Magazines, they’re not the center of culture anymore. They’re very peripheral. And people don’t go looking for them.

So, it’s not like people, when I was younger, magazines meant so much to me that I would go and seek them out. I really want a magazine about whatever this topic that I’m interested in. That doesn’t seem to happen so much anymore.

So, unfortunately, well, not unfortunately, the reality is that what people do is they go online and they look for, they search for running stories. We need to make sure that when they look for running stories alongside YouTube videos and books and whatever else, Like The Wind magazine is featured.  We are selling a product that encourages people to spend half an hour a week or an hour a week off their screens. And we’re using those screens to advertise the product. What can you do?

Samir Husni: I noticed in the first issue, you use two different types of paper, the matte and the glossy. The reason behind that?

Simon Freeman: Well, again, there’s two reasons, really. One is because the photos fit beautifully on gloss paper. But I think the matte paper has a nice feel. So, it’s like, it’s nice to just have the photos really ping. It gives you that wow, they look sharp on gloss paper. It feels nice to hold a magazine that’s got lots of matte material in it.

Maybe, the other side of it, is because we can, because the screen is so flat, whatever screen you’re on, whether it’s a laptop or a phone or whatever, it’s just this two-dimensional surface, right? There’s no texture. I love the idea of embossing the cover or foil blocking or like trying to put in rougher paper or smoother paper, because what you’re doing is you’re activating a whole another sense, which is the feel of the thing in your hands, which the screen just removes all of that. We put different types of paper in because we can, because it’s something that print allows you to do that digital doesn’t.

Samir Husni: Speaking of digital, do you ever use AI?

Simon Freeman: We do. We are judicious in our use of it. When I’m doing an interview, I’ll sometimes use an AI tool to transcribe the audio file. There are certain things that we’re using it for in the kind of operational side, the backend, like managing subscriptions and things like that.

There are ways that we can use AI to ensure that we are using the data that we need to ship people’s copies in a way that is secure, but faster than us going through a spreadsheet.  AI is a phenomenal tool to do something where there are very clear rules and structures to follow. It does it fast.

So, if you say I need you to transcribe this piece of audio, there’s not a lot of art in that. You’re looking for as accurate a representation of that audio file as possible in words. And if you can do it in 60 seconds while you make a cup of tea, and then you come back and it’s ready, rather than spending four hours with it in your ears, trying to transcribe it.

That’s an efficiency. I don’t believe that AI has the capacity to be truly creative. So, when it comes to the art, the imagery, the words in the magazine, the editing, the sub editing, I feel that that’s got to be a human, because they bring a creative sensibility that a machine, at least currently, can’t replicate.

I want to read something that’s come from somebody’s heart. I want something that has come from their soul. And I need to know, I need to feel that it’s come from that.

The other thing, of course, is that what we are publishing stories about is an inherently analogue activity. You can’t AI going for a run. I went out with my brother-in-law this morning for a run along the lakeshore here in Switzerland, with the wind in our hair.

It’s amazing, the feeling in your lungs when you finish and the fact that your legs are burning a little bit. It’s all very visceral and analogue. There’s no digital version of that.

It makes sense then that as far as possible, the storytelling bit should be from humans. If you think about publishing in the broader sense, I think information and maybe news is more under threat because an AI agent can pull information together quickly, more efficiently, potentially, than a human writer. But if you’re publishing what we’re writing, what we’re publishing, which is not informational, it’s inspiration, it’s entertainment, it’s ideas and concepts. That’s got to be a person, in my opinion.

Samir Husni: If it’s not on the web, if it’s print only, AI cannot touch or steal it, or come close to it.

Simon Freeman: I totally agree. It’s part of the joy. There’s a joy and a frustration in things that are not ubiquitous. You can’t have it. I’m sorry. You have to literally buy a physical copy and wait for it to arrive.

It’s amazing, the feeling in your lungs when you finish and the fact that your legs are burning a little bit. It’s all very visceral and analogue. There’s no digital version of that.

We will always publish stories that are written by people, honestly. I think that’s entertainment. People don’t want to go to an art gallery to look at art that’s been created by a robot. People don’t want to go to a rock concert to listen to music that’s been created by these robots.

Art forms, writing, art, fine art, music, you want to know that there’s been a sweaty, fallible human being kind of behind it, because I think that’s why we indulge in it.

Samir Husni: Before I ask you my typical last questions, is there any question that I should ask you that I failed not to ask you?

Simon Freeman: I love asking that question. The question I would ask is, if I was asking myself this question is, how do we improve the storytelling that we’re doing in Like The Wind magazine? And to answer my own question, I think there is a continual need and drive to diversify the voices that are telling stories about running.

There’s this myth that running is this easily accessible, you just need a pair of shoes, and you can go for a run, and it’s not true. It’s really not true. I remember when we started, when I started gathering momentum, when we started the magazine, I was the editor originally, and it’s a complete joke because I didn’t know what I was doing, but I would be gathering stories, and you suddenly realize that if you are not an able-bodied, relatively wealthy white man, running is not universally accessible.

What we’re able to do with Like The Wind is to try and tell some of the stories of people for whom running is important, but it’s not ubiquitous. It’s not this easy thing. I remember there was a young man called Ahmed Arbery who was murdered whilst out on a run by some people who decided that he was running in the wrong place, and we had to respond to that, we had to do something about that. I was phoning friends of mine who are black and asking them about this sort of thing, and they were, the universality of their response, which is, it’s not safe for me to go running at night, or in this part of town, or whatever.

I was horrified, I mean, horrified. I was like, what are you talking about? Going out for a run? Surely, it’s just this universal human right. Or I remember talking to women, friends of mine, who would say, it’s annoying when the clocks change.

I remember saying to one of these women why? What’s the problem with the clocks changing? She said, well, I don’t feel safe running on my own after dark. I was like, that’s potentially half the human population. So, I think, the question I like being asked is, how do we make the magazine better? The answer is more diverse voices, more people who can share their experience of running.

I’ll tell you another quick story. We published 40 editions in 10 years, and the 41st edition, the first edition of our second decade, we decided that we would make it a women’s edition. So, we hired a woman called Amory Rowe, and she was the editor for that one edition. It was a fully female team, only female writers, only female illustrators, only female characters within the magazine.

We published this edition, and somebody wrote to us and said, I see that you’ve published this women’s only edition. Should I assume that there’ll be a men’s only edition in the future? And I was like, if we published only women’s stories for the next 500 editions, we would not even come close to rebalancing the lack of coverage that women’s sport gets in the media.

So, in our own tiny little way, I think that giving voice to, to be blunt, giving voice to not me is important. And it’s something that we’ve really focused on. It’s part of the editorial.

Samir Husni: My typical two last questions, if I come to visit you at your flat or your house one evening unannounced, what do I catch Simon doing? Reading a book, watching TV, having a glass of wine? How do you rewind the day?

Simon Freeman: I stopped drinking at the beginning of this year.

The best decision I ever made. I work too late. I’ll often at 9:30 or 10 o’clock, I’ll have to remind myself to switch off. I love reading books.

I’m currently reading Robert Caro’s autobiography of President Lyndon Johnson.  That’s probably how I relax towards the end of the day. Political history is exciting.

I love reading about political history or I’ve always got a magazine. There’s always a magazine on the go, whatever different topics. That’s hopefully what you’d catch me doing. We don’t own a TV, so it wouldn’t be watching TV.

Samir Husni: What keeps Simon up at night these days?

Simon Freeman: We are pushing our business to the limits and that is causing a lot of financial stress. And it’s intentional, but it does mean that I will often wake up at two o’clock in the morning and pay for the next print bill or the next salary run or whatever else. It’s hard, making sure that the magazine or the business is financially secure.

It’s the thing that keeps me awake at night.

Samir Husni: Thank you and all the best.

Posted in A Launch Story..., Across the Pond, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, New Launches, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

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Beautiful Vs. Salacious: The History Of Art Lovers’ Magazine 1925-1927. A Book-in-a-Blog, by Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni. Chapter 2, Part 3

June 26, 2026

A century ago, we were more culturally and artistically advanced. Magazines in the 1920s shined a very bright light on art and culture. One such magazine, albeit short lived, Art Lovers’ Magazine, is but one example of a cultural and artistic publication from 100 years ago when magazines ruled the media world. Here is its story:

Dummy book cover designed using Chat GPT

The Philadelphia Ethical Culture Society

So, what are those societies that the Freeman Hubbard and Walter Hubbard were involved in?  According to its website, www.phillyethics.org, The Philadelphia Ethical Culture Society is still active today and it is based on, “Ethical Humanism, a humanist, religious and educational movement, has nurtured religious humanism and contributed to progressive causes for well over a century. Founded in 1885, the Philadelphia Ethical Society is a member of the American Ethical Union.”

The influence of the society is evident in a letter dated August 15, 1925 that Freeman H. Hubbard, in his other role at Hubbard Publications, associate editor of The American Art Student and Commercial Artist, wrote to the National Association for Advancement of Colored People.  In the letter he wrote, “When I was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts some years ago, there was one student who was debarred from a traveling scholarship solely (the rest of us believed) on account of his Negro blood. As an artist he ranked very high.”

He continued, “Although I am not a Negro, the incident made me so bitter against race prejudice, and I determined that I would do all I could to break down such prejudice”

Freeman Hubbard goes on offering the association the opportunity to send him any relevant news, stories, and the full details of the literature and art contest conducted by “The Crisis” the association’s magazine. He promised that he “would probably publish the first, second and third best illustrations submitted in the contest, in this magazine, provided you send them.”

The Philadelphia Law and Order Society

The Philadelphia Law and Order Society was founded in 1881 and was a temperance and Sabbath observance organization. It campaigned for the enforcement of the liquor laws in Philadelphia, the proper observance of the Sabbath, and against “white slavery” (prostitution). It claimed in 1917 to have reduced the number of saloons and similar establishments in Philadelphia from 6,000 to 1,910.

The Rev. Walter Hubbard, the son of one of the founders of Hubbard Publishing Company, was an active member of the society according to the editorial in issue 3 of Art Lovers’ magazine.  He was also an active preacher and lecturer in the Pennsylvania Anti-Saloon League, according to the same editorial.

The Pennsylvania Anti-Saloon League

And the Pennsylvania Anti-Saloon League was founded in 1895 and in 1920 was a powerful organization advocating for prohibition, and working to ban the production, sale, and transportation of alcohol. This was part of a larger nationwide effort, that started in Oberlin, Ohio on May 24, 1893, and culminated in the passage of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act.  The ban was later repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933.

So as you see both Hubbard’s were involved in ethical, moral, religious and humanitarian issues even before they worked at Art Lovers’ magazine.  However, their background left a great influence on the magazine and its direction.

Beautiful vs. Salacious

The editorial of the third issue of the magazine, dated March 1925, opens with the following: “ART LOVERS’ MAGAZINE is in thorough sympathy with the nation-wide movement to suppress salacious and crime-inciting literature, and particularly to keep it out of the hands of the young.”

“The iron hand of the law cannot deal too strongly with the fly-by-night printers and publishers who pander to the vices of youth.” The editorial continues.  It goes on to state, “The Hubbard publications have consistently held this position since 1868, when the Hubbard Publishing Company was founded.”

It adds, “We mention these facts because we take great pride in the traditions of the Hubbard publications. We are proud also of the family ties connecting us with the late Elbert Hubbard (he died in 1915) and his son, Elbert Hubbard II, and we lose no opportunity to speak well of the Roycroft publications of East Aurora, N.Y.”

An article in the same issue by R. G. Ingersoll titled “Art and Morality,” the author writes, “There is an infinite difference between the nude and the naked, between the natural and the undressed. In the presence of the pure, unconscious nude, nothing can be more contemptible that those forms in which are the hints and suggestions of drapery, the pretense of exposure, and the failure to conceal. The undressed is vulgar – the nude is pure.”

A mixed bag of ironies

So taking into consideration the facts about the original Hubbard Publications as a Bible publisher, and the fact that the son of one of the founders is a reverend and a preacher, and the editor is a member of an ethical society, it comes to no surprise to read in issue 3 of the magazine the fact that in “reiterating our support of the “clean books” crusade, we wish to make clear, as Elbert Hubbard once pointed out, that there is a difference between lewdity and nudity, despite the similar pronunciation of those two words. Failure to grasp this distinction has led to misdirected effort on the part of some reformers with whom we are otherwise in hearty accord.”

The irony is, Elbert Hubbard was convicted in 1913 on one count of “circulating “objectionable” or “obscene” matter in violation of the postal laws.”  He was later pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.

Freeman H. Hubbard refers in his third issue editorial to a new bill introduced by Senator Love of the New York State Legislature.  The bill introduced to the legislatures would “class a publication as obscene on the basis of any excerpt from it.” Freeman argued, “In other words, condemn an entire book or magazine by separating a sentence or paragraph from its context, instead of judging the publication as a whole.”

He continued, in the signed editorial, “if the Love measure were passed it would make publishers of the Holy Bible, Shakespeare and many other classics liable to prosecution, in addition to publishers of the best art and medical works.”

However, he was quick to note, “Of course, the purveyors of indecent literature would be the hardest hit, but our point is that no publisher could feel safe from the possible attacks of shyster lawyers, blackmailers, and cranks of all kinds.”

His ethics and morals are quick to appear in his last paragraph of the editorial, “By all means, let’s war on the vice and immorality that masquerades under the name of literature, but we dare not surrender the freedom of the legitimate press to a clique of self-appointed censors and overzealous reformers.”

He concludes, “Literature and art are heritages too precious to be shackled by the forces which should be directed entirely against their enemies.”

To sum his views, nudity is art, lewdity is obscene and there is a big difference between the two as you will see in the coming issues of Art Lovers’ magazine.

The magazine continued its growth journey and achieved a print run of 150,000 print run with issue 3, an increase of 25,000 than issue 2.

And Senator Love’s bill did not come to a vote.

Stay tuned for more of the history of Art Lovers’ magazine 1925-1927.

Posted in From the Vault, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, Nude Vs. Lewd | Leave a Comment »

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Different Leaf Magazine: The Intersection Of Culture & Cannabis. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Michael Kusek, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

June 22, 2026

Michael Kusek knows when to hold them and he knows when to fold them, like the country music song goes.  He started an art magazine for New England called Take few years back, only to fold it and launch Different Leaf magazine, a cannabis magazine for Massachusetts and New England, which he also folded five years later in the midst of all the advertising struggles that the industry was facing as you will read in this interview.

Now he is relaunching Different Leaf with a completely different approach.  One, it is no longer a regional magazine, but rather a global one, and two, it is a collector’s item to be hold and displayed, like an art piece.  In addition, each issue will have a guest editor or two who will be very involved in the magazine creation.  The guest editors for issue 1 is no other that Nick Cave and Bob Faust.  Also, a first for the magazine is a magazine curator: Denise Markonish, who is the curator of the first issue. She was the curator at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for the last 18 years.

The first issue of the relaunched Different Leaf

The curated magazine will come in three different formats, a soft cover costing $40, a hard cover costing $100 and a collector’s box with pieces of art costing a hefty $1,000.

As Michael says, there is an entry point to each reader or customer and based on what I saw, each entry point is worth it, so hopefully this third launch is a charm.

Without further ado, please enjoy my interview with a true believer in print and in its permeance. Michael Kusek, publisher and editor in chief of Different Leaf magazine.

Michael Kusek

But first the soundbites:

On whether the third time is a charm: “Sure. One hopes, one hopes that the old adage lives up to its lives up to its reputation.”

On the audience: “You had magazines that were definitely targeted towards much younger people. The content in general and the pop culture angles were much younger…There wasn’t anything out there for the older beginner cannabis user at the time that rapidly changed.”

On the new direction for Different Leaf: “The writers that we worked with really closely, were very interested in the cultural intersection of cannabis and the broader culture.”

On the content of the magazine: “How cannabis impacted the broader culture and how the broader culture was impacting cannabis.”

On the mission of Different Leaf: “…bringing in creatives from the world of fine art, music, and fashion to guest edit three issues about their particular look at the intersection of cannabis and culture.”

On the magazine’s format: “Nick and Bob decided that they didn’t want to structure it like a magazine. So, it’s not. It doesn’t have a front of book. It doesn’t have a well, it doesn’t have a back of book. It has a couple of things that make it look like a magazine inside, but it is an art piece in a lot of ways. And it’s ink on paper. It’s in print.”

On the power of print in a digital age: “But it feels like in a period of time where we don’t know what’s real, at least having something you can hold in your hand feels real.”

More on the power of print: “I’m more convinced in the importance of print now than I think I ever have been, because this will always remain this, like this isn’t going to go away. It’s going to stay on a shelf.”

And even more on the power of print: “People used to say to me, why are you doing print? And I was like, because 20 years from now, you’ll still be able to read the interview I’m doing with you. You’ll be able to pick it up and read it. You know, the interview you do online may or may not be there.”

On the major difference this time than the previous ones: “A difference, certainly, is the magazine is going to be global. For the first time, it’ll be available, around the world and on newsstands around the world, which is an exciting difference.”

On what keeps him up at night these days: “Will our guest editor for issue two say yes. I would love it if she did. It would be great to announce it at some point.”

And now for the lightly edited interview with Michael Kusek, publisher and editor in chief, Different Leaf magazine.

Samir Husni: So, tell me, is the third time a charm?

Michael Kusek: Sure. One hopes, one hopes that the old adage lives up to its lives up to its reputation.

SH: Why the relaunch now?

MK: A lot of reasons went into sort of the change.

I think on one hand is the cannabis industry and business in general is always wildly in flux. And so it makes operating in that business environment very tricky.  One of the challenges in being a national cannabis magazine was the way advertising is regulated state by state, unlike other industries in this country, where, for instance, cigarettes, there are national regulations around cigarette advertising or alcohol advertising, Federal Trade Commission, sort of standards. So when Different Leaf was just a regional magazine covering Massachusetts and New England, selling advertising was much easier because the advertisers were trying to fulfill regulations for a smaller number of states.

The difference between regional and national

But once we went national, I had more than one perspective, one cannabis company that’s operating on a national level, operating in multiple states, say, well, we can’t take an ad out with you because we can’t design an ad that’s compliant for every state. And so, being small was actually more successful in a way, being just Massachusetts, just New England was much more successful than being national. It made a lot more challenges, just on the business end.

Then on the editorial end there was a real rapid change in five years, which was when I started researching what was out there in the world of magazines covering the cannabis space. You had magazines that were definitely targeted towards much younger people. The content in general and the pop culture angles were much younger.

The way the products were described was definitely much younger. And then you had sort of things like High Times, which were senior level, like a senior level seminar on cannabis, as opposed to something for beginners. There wasn’t anything out there for the older beginner cannabis user at the time that rapidly changed.

You had much more mainstream media pickup on cannabis as a topic. From the time we started to the time we stopped those five years, the number of times that cannabis appeared positively in The New York Times, it really increased a lot.

It was very interesting reading articles we’d already written in The New York Times, after the fact. So, we’re like, we did that two years ago. The sense of our uniqueness in the space was kind of under threat in a way, the mainstream media was going to come along and eat our lunch.

When I made these decisions two years ago, things have changed half a dozen to dozen times in terms of social media. Some days Meta is fine with cannabis advertising. Some days Meta is not fine with cannabis advertising. I think people in the cannabis space, and it’s a problem I face today as a cannabis adjacent arts magazine right now, talking about cannabis on social media can get you banned very quickly and very easily.

On the editorial front, mainstream media was kind of coming along. And then what we wanted to do as a team, the writers who worked for me, we were interested in this particular angle in the cannabis industry that was ultimately not as big as we thought it was going to be. You have a small, savvy group of people in the cannabis industry who are doing new things, and a whole lot of people who are copying them.

A new beginning: A cultural intersection of cannabis and the broader culture

When we got down to looking for topics to write about, or for businesses to write about, we kept coming back to the same pool of businesses repeatedly. One of my better writers, somebody who’s been with me since the days of Take magazine, he’s great, he was a great arts writer who became a great weed writer, basically said to me, I’ve run out of adjectives to describe gummies. It just wasn’t there.

We were working with a great writer, somebody who came from Bon Appetit, who was writing about cannabis and food. And even they were like, I kind of want to talk about the cultural piece. The writers that we worked with closely, were very interested in the cultural intersection of cannabis and the broader culture.

How cannabis impacted the broader culture and how the broader culture was impacting cannabis. That, editorially, was where we were interested in doing.  How I’ve ended up wrapping it up in the current package that we have is a long tail as well. But it was from talking to people in the industry, talking to people we work with, talking to people we cover, of what kind of things were you looking for? And then just that desire to try to keep things new and to keep things different.

That’s how we landed on this.  I’ve always loved the guest editor idea. I always loved what Visionaire magazine did. A guest editor, or guest editors and bringing people in to work on a magazine, sometimes it can be just a little throwaway. You can see that there wasn’t a lot of real input from the person who did it. And then in other instances, like A magazine, a magazine curated by the fashion title that hands itself over to a different fashion designer or fashion house, every issue, that’s just, it works so incredibly well. Every issue is a radical transformation.

So of course, you want to get every issue because it’s completely exciting every single time. And I prefer to go with that latter than the former. I think because cannabis changes so much as an industry and so much as a topic, one way to meet the challenge of covering that is to always bring fresh eyes into it over time.

I’m committed to this look at cannabis for at least three issues in this format, art, music, and fashion.  We shall see if cannabis continues to be the main thrust of this, or if we move on to a different topic, because it’ll all depend on where cannabis is at that time.

SH: So if you are going to define the mission of those next three issues of Different Leaf, how would you define it?

MK: We are bringing in creatives from the world of fine art, music, and fashion to guest edit three issues about their particular look at the intersection of cannabis and culture.

That is our mission for these three issues. And we’re one down.

We are talking to our second guest editor next week to see if she’s willing to come on board. And so there is interest in this, and we’re selling them online already, and we haven’t even printed them. So that’s always exciting.

SH: You are offering the magazine in three different packages. You have the soft cover, you have a hardback cover, or have a collector’s box with art pieces.

MK: Yes, that was the other different way of looking at this and looking at the revenue stream. I don’t think we would have been able to do this model of selling the magazine without my friend, Denise Markonish, who is the curator of the first issue. She was the curator at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for the last 18 years.

She’s just switched and she’s now working in New York City, but she’s been a longtime friend. She was somebody I talked to about this project, and she said I’ve never curated a magazine. I’d love to do that.

And so I was like, cool, you can be my first curator. She has the ability to call up Nick Cave and Bob Faust, and she literally sat here in my office, texted them, and they both said yes. I don’t think we’d be able to do that artist edition level, particularly out of the gate without names like Nick Cave and Bob Faust.

It really made a big difference. But also having them involved made a very big difference in who ultimately became involved with all of the editorial in the book. We were able to bring in the author Jonathan Lethem.

We were able to work with the Broadway star André De Shields. It allowed us to sort of level up some of the creative people who came on board. Ultimately, I think that also allows us to sell this artist edition.

The bells and whistles in the artist edition come with a little rolling tray designed by Nick and Bob, and  a sleeping mask, which all fits in with the book. And that’s all a limited-edition little object.

So there is interest out there with very little marketing on that front. We’ve sold a couple. We’re about to print up the boxes that it comes in.

SH: The magazine is not cheap.

MK: $1,000 for the box. It is a very limited-edition art piece. $100 for the hardback, and $100 for the hardcover and then 40 for the newsstand. So there is an entry point for everyone.

I had a great intern, a student from UMass, son of a dear college friend, a couple summers ago, as I was thinking about this project, who came to work with me for the summer.

And we talked, we always were talking about things, things that he’s interested in. It’s always nice to talk to somebody half your age every once in a while, to find out, what’s cool, or confirm your priors or learn something new. He talked to me very excitedly about a book he bought. It was a Faden Press book of Virgil Abloh, the fashion designer who was at Louis Vuitton, designed for Nike, and was a very high in demand as a streetwear designer.  Abloh had so many cultural connections.

My intern talked to me very excitedly about how he saved up his money to buy that book. He wanted to have that $100 book on his shelf, and how much that book meant to him, because he was incredibly connected to Abloh as a cultural figure.

That meant a lot, and he talked a lot about how having the book on the coffee table meant something for him. I thought about that: for some magazine people it is only meant for a moment. And for some magazine people, those magazines are on a shelf for all time.

Thus, providing that limited run of hardcovers for folks gives them something to step up to, or aspire to, to add to their collection. And Nick in particular, as an artist, is one of those people.

I was in New York City to go to Nick’s gallery opening, I went with two friends of mine. And by 9:30, there were 1,000 people in that galley. I mean, it was mobbed.

It was absolutely mobbed. And overwhelmingly, the later part of the evening, it was incredibly young. And my friend, I was just looking at all of those people in there who love Nick, and one of my best friends who was with me said, so what do you think? I was like, A, incredibly happy for Nick. This is a phenomenal art opening. B, very happy about my choices.

So, we’re sort of seeing it for the third time. You talk about the third time is a charm. I’m working with an agency, which I’ve never done before, for any launch. I’m working with this agency, Digital Council in New York. They have a PR side called Cultural Council. Primarily, they work in the arts and museum space. They don’t work in the media space. They don’t work in the cannabis space.

In the last three weeks they’re saying we need to build up your audience online so that we can market back to them and sell the magazines and sell them books and that sort of thing.

They’ve been running ads for the magazine to find out more information about it. We’ve added something like 1500 names to our email list in three weeks, which for us is an enormous number of people in a short period of time.  I’m encouraged, but also, it’s a crazy business. I feel like we threw everything into this issue that we could possibly throw into this issue. Like, I put it all in.

People who’ve seen it really like it, they really are enjoying it. I’ve had people read the proof of it cold, come in cold and just read it and look at it. And I had people in the art world look at it. I had people in the cannabis world look at it and just sort of said, like, is this something you would buy? And they were like, this is, I’ve never seen anything like it.

This is weird. Nick and Bob decided that they didn’t want to structure it like a magazine. So, it’s not. It doesn’t have a front of book. It doesn’t have a well, it doesn’t have a back of book.

It has a couple of things that make it look like a magazine inside, but it is an art piece in a lot of ways. And it’s ink on paper. It’s in print.

SH: Tell me about your love of print and why do you think the power of print in this digital age is still something to talk about?

MK: You and I have talked about this a bunch of the years that we’ve known each other. And I’m more convinced in the importance of print now than I think I ever have been, because this will always remain this, like this isn’t going to go away. It’s going to stay on a shelf.

I think about six, seven years ago, probably when I started Different Leaf and we did five years of issues of that. At the same time, there was a lot of stuff happening in cannabis. There were other titles around. Some of them were digital. Some of them were print. Some of them were both. A lot of them are gone, like don’t even exist on the web anymore. And so you have this stuff disappears.  People used to say to me, why are you doing print? And I was like, because 20 years from now, you’ll still be able to read the interview I’m doing with you.

You’ll be able to pick it up and read it. You know, the interview you do online may or may not be there. But then the other part of that now with the rise of AI what is real on digital? The question about, I think that there is the question about what am I looking at? And is it real? And has a human written it? Has a human created this image beyond a prompt? That I’m not saying people in print aren’t using AI.

But if you’re committed to print, you’re probably committed to having people make the stuff that goes in print. I can’t imagine that there are many people out there who are like, I’m going to 100% make a print magazine out of AI. We haven’t run into them yet. Maybe they’ll show up at some point. But it feels like in a period of time where we don’t know what’s real, at least having something you can hold in your hand feels real.

Screenshot

SH: Before I ask you my typical last questions. Is there any question I failed to ask you you’d like me to ask you?

MK: What makes Different Leaf different? A difference, certainly, is the magazine is going to be global. We’re working with Ron Ali in the UK. We, we also have some distribution here. Barnes and Noble has picked us up as well, which I think is interesting for we have a high cover price. These were not cheap to make. And these are not cheap to produce and are not cheap to print. I’m printing in Italy, which is different. I’m printing in Italy because that proved to be the best price. And working with a printer, Nova Press that can do the complexity of it all.

The other part of the business and what’s radically different is that this is a global thing. For the first time, it’ll be available, around the world and on newsstands around the world, which is an exciting difference.

It’ll be interesting to see how we can build a global audience rather than just a domestic one.

SH: My typical last two questions are, if I come to visit you one day unannounced, what do I catch Michael doing at home in the evening, smoking a joint, having a glass of wine, reading a book, watching TV?

MK: Of late, I’ve literally been watching TV. I’ve been assembling things to put in the artist box.

So, I’ve been doing arts and crafts. I am wending my way through the giant stack of magazines I have. I over shopped over the last couple months, but with little time to read.

I’m reading to see what other people are doing. That’s what I’m doing these days. And it’s very exciting. I’m supporting my peers by reading them.

SH: And what keeps you up at night these days?

MK: I think what’s keeping me up right now is the next five months are going to be a lot of promotional activity and will our guest editor for issue two say yes. I would love it if she did. It would be great to announce it at some point.

SH: Thank you and congratulations again on the relaunch.

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Art Lover’ Magazine: Nude Vs. Lewd. A Book-in-a-Blog, by Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, Chapter 2, Part 2

June 18, 2026

A century ago, we were more culturally and artistically advanced. Magazines in the 1920s shined a very bright light on art and culture. One such magazine, albeit short lived, Art Lovers’ Magazine, is but one example of a cultural and artistic publication from 100 years ago when magazines ruled the media world. Here is its story:

Chapter 2, Part 2

Art Lovers’ Volume 1, Number 3

The Hubbard Connection

A lot has been written about Elbert Hubbard the founder of the Roycroft handicraft community of the late 19th century and early 20th century.  The same can be said about Freeman H. Hubbard who was appointed editor of Art Lovers’ magazine commencing with the second issue of the magazine.  However, all the current references about Freeman Hubbard are in his association as an author and editor of Railroad magazine from 1930 until its demise in 1979.

Although Art Lovers’ magazine was published by Art Publications, Inc. in New York City, its covers touted that it is a Hubbard Publication starting with issue 4.  The president of the company was Walter W. Hubbard and the associate editor of the magazine was the “Rev. Walter Warren Hubbard, the son of one the founders of Hubbard Publishing Company” that was founded in Philadelphia, PA in 1868 by Alfred H. Hubbard and Frank W. Judd as the Hubbard Brothers and was renamed the Hubbard Publishing Company in 1893 according to the 19th Century Juvenile Series last revision on Feb. 24, 2025.

The original Hubbard Publishing Company was, “a subscription publishing house” and “a well-known Bible publisher,” according to the source.

One early indication of the relationship between Art Lovers’ magazine and Hubbard Publications is the reference to  Art Lovers’ in a Feb. 1925 article about the photographer James Wallace Pondelicek in Hubbard’s The American Art Student and Commercial Artist magazine.  “Without a doubt, James Wallace Pondelicek, photographer and artist, ranks among the few pictorial photographers of America whose work merits the highest honors. As a figure photographer he is a master,” the editors wrote.

They continued, “Of late Mr. Pondelicek, whose work has appeared in the columns of this, and of Art Lovers’ Magazine, has been going in for advertisement illustration.  We hope to persuade him, at some time in the near future, to contribute an article, helpful and technical, based on his experiences along that line.”

With the second issue of the magazine, the Hubbard connection became more obvious. In addition to Walter W. Hubbard and Freeman H Hubbard, the magazine announced the appointment of “the Rev. Walter W. Hubbard, of the Philadelphia Law and Order Society and of the Pennsylvania Anti-Saloon League as associate editor with this issue.”

Between the credentials of Freeman H Hubbard and the Rev. Walter W. Hubbard, you will think Art Lovers’ is more of moral, religious magazine. Read how Freeman was introduced when they announced him as editor of the magazine, “The publishers of ART LOVERS’ MAGAZINE announce the appointment of Freeman H. Hubbard, A.B., as editor, effective with this issue.”

“Mr. Hubbard was a scholarship winner at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts…In addition, he is well known as a writer of short stories…Mr. Hubbard is recognized as an authority on ethics, having recently received the award of the Philadelphia Ethical Culture Society for the best statement of the meaning of the ethical movement.”

The editorial added, “His connection with ART LOVERS’ Magazine, therefore, is assurance that it will be kept to a high moral standard without losing any of its attractiveness.”

As for the Rev. Water W. Hubbard, the associate editor of the magazine is introduced in issue 3 as, “The son of one of the founders of the Hubbard Publishing Company—the Rev. Walter Warren Hubbard, of the Philadelphia Law and Order Society, widely known preacher and lecturer for the Pennsylvania Anti-Saloon League…”

In fact the Reverand Water Warren Hubbard had a story in issue 3 of the magazine titled, “Three Red Sweaters and a Canary Bird.”  Another Hubbard also wrote for the magazine; Henry D. Hubbard, the assistant director of Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C.: He wrote about “Ther Motion Pictures of Tomorrow.”

Yet, one more Hubbard is also included in the third issue of Art Lovers’ magazine. Hesketh Hubbard, “eminent British artist, has assembled a collection of two hundred and thirty-two prints by ninety-seven contemporary British artists, which arrived in this country recently for exhibition, during March, at the Brooklyn Museum, and later in other museums and galleries in this country.”

The publishers of Art Lovers’ magazine were also proud of their relationship with the late “Elbert Hubbard and his son, Elbert Hubbard II, and we lose no opportunity to speak well of the Roycroft publications of East Aurora, N.Y.”

To be continued…

Next: Ethical issues in the American land…

Posted in A Launch Story..., From the Vault, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views, Nude Vs. Lewd | Leave a Comment »

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To Serve Kids Better, You Need To Be BOLDER: The Mr. Magazine™ Interview with Bronwyn Weaver Archibald, Editor In Chief Of BOLDER Magazine.

June 15, 2026

It takes a bold person, bold in vision, bold in mission, and bold in goal to create a BOLDER magazine.  That bold person is Bronwyn Weaver Archibald, editor in chief of BOLDER magazine, the new monthly magazine for “Kids 8-80″.  I had an opportunity to chat with Bronwyn and we talked about BOLDER, the magazine, the role of print in this digital age, the birth of the idea to create a magazine about “Where Things Come From & Why We Care.”

With a degree in Geology and English and armed with a very positive view of our world and how it turns, Bronwyn decided to swim against the current and about two years ago, she “started hatching an idea, a pretty big idea. A BOLDacious idea. Why not start an earth science magazine for kids from 8 to 80? A magazine so cool that everyone will be more curious about where things come from and why we care so much.”  And, if I may add, she is swimming very well, thank you very much.

So, without any further ado, please enjoy my interview with Bronwyn Weaver Archibald, editor in chief of BOLDER magazine:

But first the soundbites:

On the Bolder idea: “It was our big idea about two years ago to create a magazine that would engage not only the kids but the whole family about where things come from and why we should care about it. So, BOLDER was born.”

On why print in this digital age: “Print is so important for, especially for engaging anybody under the age of 18. I think that the way that studies have shown that the way that a young brain works, it is a much healthier environment for them to read information and to be able to enjoy it, to be able to engage with the information when it’s in print.”

On a magazine for 8-80: “We’ve found since we introduced our magazine is that we’re writing about things that are enjoyable to discover and to learn about from truly the whole spectrum in a family.”

On the idea behind the magazine: “Well, my background is in geology. And on our team of people, we’ve got subject matter experts that understand the discoveries in earth science, whether it’s discovering a resource and then figuring out how that powers the power station or goes into road building or how those resources are used.”

On using BOLDER in schools: “Some public schools are using the magazine to encourage reading to learn. We’ve got some schools that are using us for enrichment programs. And we’ve got some schools that are just incorporating it into any of the earth science classes that they have.”

On her biggest obstacle: “We underestimated the impact of the digital creep on printed materials. We didn’t appreciate that it had been a long time since people got excited about a magazine that would come to their home that they could enjoy every month.”

On being timely yet timeless: “In fact, our first issue had a date on it. And after that, we decided that we would just put Roman numerals on them. And in our disposable world, we were encouraging anybody that would subscribe to the magazine to keep it. To maybe go ahead and try to get all of the volumes so they wouldn’t miss out on any of the fun information.”

On the magazine’s audience: “I’m able to reach who knows who, inspiring them in the same way that maybe something that they’ll learn in the magazine might lead to a curiosity, to spark an interest that’ll become a lifelong hobby, a lifelong interest, maybe their career.”

On the decision to be ad-free: “We as a team thought that it would be better not to have advertising so that it’s part of our mission with the magazine to just be telling stories and engaging on this wonderful content. We wanted to have a safe space where somebody isn’t being sold something.”

On what keeps her up at night: “Getting to kids that are fixed to their devices and interrupting that by getting them outside or giving them something in print to read. “

And now for the lightly edited interview with Bronwyn Weaver Archibald, editor in chief, BOLDER magazine:

Samir Husni: Please tell me about BOLDER.

Bronwyn Weaver Archibald: So, It was our big idea about two years ago to create a magazine that would engage not only the kids but the whole family about where things come from and why we should care about it. So, BOLDER was born.

SH: Why a print magazine in this digital age?

BWA: Print is so important for, especially for engaging anybody under the age of 18. I think that the way that studies have shown that the way that a young brain works, it is a much healthier environment for them to read information and to be able to enjoy it, to be able to engage with the information when it’s in print.

Being on devices is something parents, grandparents, schools, I think everybody is thinking second thoughts about having children only consume information that they see on devices. And so, we think the experience of holding something in your hands, of being able to read it kind of back and forth, to be able to pick out a pencil or a pen. We’ve got art exercises in the magazine to be able to engage with it, put it down, be able to pick it up and go back to it later. Those are, we think it’s not just old school or nostalgic, but it is something that is joyful that we want kids to experience.

SH: Your tagline, “A monthly Magazine For Kids 8-80”: care to explain?

BWA: Yeah, exactly. And that’s what we’ve found since we introduced our magazine is that we’re writing about things that are enjoyable to discover and to learn about from truly the whole spectrum in a family.

For the kids to share it with parents or grandparents, for parents to engage the kids with and not have it be boring, so many, from my perspective, a lot of the things that are written for children are so not engaging. I don’t know how to describe it better than that. They are maybe simplistic.

They all look the same sort of caricature. They don’t allow a child to use their imagination through the discovery. If you’ve ever seen the original Toy Story movie, it had sort of the subject matter and the content that was written to engage the children, but there was also a subtext that engaged the parents or an adult watching the movie so that we all enjoyed it together.

And that’s what we try to do in the magazine is to make it so that no matter what age you are, you can learn something and you can discover something that maybe you never appreciated before.

SH: What gave you the idea for BOLDER?

BWA: Well, my background is in geology. And on our team of people, we’ve got subject matter experts that understand the discoveries in earth science, whether it’s discovering a resource and then figuring out how that powers the power station or goes into road building or how those resources are used.

We’ve got people on our team that understand that. And we also have people on our team that our managing editor was a teacher for 15 years. So we delight in making it interesting for kids.

And we’re very passionate about our mission to connect the dots about where things come from. So we didn’t begin this exercise, begin BOLDER Magazine to be a profitable enterprise.

I guess it’s hard to admit. We started this magazine because we thought it was an important thing to do. And we’re hoping that it becomes more sustainable as more people find out about us.

We’re pretty passionate about our mission.

SH: I see you are, so to speak, spreading your wings to reach the schools now.

BWA: Yes. We’ve been very well received in the schools, whether it is a private or public schools.  For example, we’re in quite a few Catholic elementary schools and we are in public schools.

Some public schools are using the magazine to encourage reading to learn. We’ve got some schools that are using us for enrichment programs. And we’ve got some schools that are just incorporating it into any of the earth science classes that they have.

Our magazine is designed to be supplemental. So we’re not trying to replace any curriculum. We don’t really have an agenda other than the fact that we want kids to be curious about getting outside and exploring nature and exploring earth science.

SH: You’ve done a wonderful job with the issues that I’ve seen. So tell me, has it been a walk in the Rose Garden?  

BWA: It’s not been a walk in the Rose Garden. It has been, in some ways, it’s been a walk in the briar patch.

We underestimated the impact of the digital creep on printed materials. We didn’t appreciate that it had been a long time since people got excited about a magazine that would come to their home that they could enjoy every month. So, not only are we having to show people what we’ve got in the magazine, but we’re having to reintroduce them to what it is like to get something delivered in the mail that the whole family can enjoy reading.

I grew up with the old National Geographic magazines that whether you looked at the pictures or you were interested enough to read the articles, it was something that the whole family enjoyed. And then it got put on a shelf so that you could go back to it when you were curious again about it. And our magazine has a project in it every month for the whole family.

It has themes that are different from month to month. So one of the goals that we had was that we were going to create a magazine that had the longevity that it could be passed around in the family, could go from child to child and not fall apart. That’s why we’ve taken the, we made the investment to have the magazine printed from a really wonderful printer.

It’s almost like getting a book every month. And with the theme, each issue has a different theme.

SH: So it’s indeed timely but timeless.

BWA: Exactly. In fact, our first issue had a date on it. And after that, we decided that we would just put Roman numerals on them.

And in our disposable world, we were encouraging anybody that would subscribe to the magazine to keep it. To maybe go ahead and try to get all of the volumes so they wouldn’t miss out on any of the fun information.

SH: So you underestimated the digital creep? What other obstacles or challenges you faced and you were able to overcome in the last year or so?

BWA: Well, one big part of our mission is to combat what we see as a pretty horrible condition in that children and adults alike face climate anxiety. And there is so much chatter about running out of resources and the state of our climate and it is creating a lot of fear. And so, part of our mission is to talk about how we’re not running out of resources.

That we’re solving problems every day and industry is doing a pretty good job in being problem solvers. And perhaps some of our young readers will be curious enough that it might lead them on a career path because there’s so many opportunities. We don’t talk about anything controversial in our pages, but we’re trying to communicate that there is an abundance that we should be grateful for.

And that kids all need to be outside as much as possible and not to be fearful of being outside. So our message is really starting to resonate. We feel that every month we get more people that find out about our magazine and agree with our mission to get kids interested in reading.

They’re discovering things like we have in every issue, we have two audio stories so that you can listen to the story as you read along. So our magazine is actually like an audio book and we’re not anti-technology, we just think there’s value in getting something in print. So every month that we print another magazine and we’re out there doing our job, more people find out about us.

So we’re having to hold on a little bit longer than we thought. We thought people would be signing up like crazy. We realize now we have to do a better job convincing them why it’s worth giving us a shot to try out a subscription.

SH: You’re a positive voice in the midst of a sea of negative voice and information.

BWA: Thank you for saying that.

SH: Like any positive voice, it’s hard in this, what I call the jungle of negativity that we live in. It’s so hard to break through. So I congratulate you on the magazine and wish you all the best.

So tell me, which one do you like more, being a geologist or being an editor-in-chief?

BWA: You know, I just had an experience just in the past week. I reached out to my mentor that I had when I was beginning to study geology in college. I had a professor.

His name is Dr. James Aronson. He’s almost 90 years old. He got me so excited about learning geology and discovering earth science.

He was such an inspiration. I told him the reason why I reached out to him was that through the magazine, I’m able to reach who knows who, inspiring them in the same way that maybe something that they’ll learn in the magazine might lead to a curiosity, to spark an interest that’ll become a lifelong hobby, a lifelong interest, maybe their career. And so just as I was inspired, I love the thought that our magazine can inspire the next generation.

SH: So tell me, what type of question that so far I failed to ask you that I should ask you?

BWA: I’m glad you did because I was wondering when you were going to ask me, why do we not have any advertising? And I wonder that often because we do need subscribers. I would love to be able to get another four or 5,000 subscribers would make a huge difference to the economics of what we’re trying to do. But we as a team thought that it would be better not to have advertising so that it’s part of our mission with the magazine to just be telling stories and engaging on this wonderful content.

We wanted to have a safe space where somebody isn’t being sold something. But I don’t know whether we are a real outlier.

SH: Before I ask you my typical last questions, anything you would like to add or anything you would like to about BOLDER?

WBA: We formulated our magazine based on our mission of what we wanted to accomplish. We wanted it to be perfect bound, but we didn’t want it to be ridiculous, so we made it 80 pages. We could have probably made it eight or 16 pages shorter, but then the spine is silly.

We feel that the content is enough so that something in our magazine will engage somebody in the family. And again, if we were making it thinner or less frequent, we think that would be a disservice. Because we are a startup and we haven’t gotten to the point where we’re sustainable yet.

SH: My typical last questions, if I come uninvited one evening to your house, what do I catch you doing, reading a book, watching TV, cooking, having a glass of wine?

BWA: Well, at our house, I would say that it would be more like, we would describe it as you would come unannounced to our farm. And this is the farm.

I’m sitting in a barn. That’s where my office is that was built in 1870. It is the farm that I grew up on.

And my husband, who is a third-generation mining engineer, and our daughters work in this business, too. So, we this is part of our passion is that you might see any or all of us here and we might be feeding baby dairy goats. We would be working in our garden.

We’d be feeding chickens or feeding our horses. So we live mostly outside. We love being outside in the middle of things.

I guess that’s part of the reason why we feel called to get kids excited about being outside and exploring nature, too.

SH: So you are as BOLDacious as the magazine itself?

BWA: Yes. In fact, it was when we came up with the name of the magazine, we thought maybe at first it would be B-O-U-L-D-E-R.

And then we decided, no, we do love rocks and geology and earth science, but we want kids to be confident that we have got plenty of earth resources. We just need to all be stewards of them.

SH: My last typical question is, what keeps you up at night these days?

BWA: Getting to kids that are fixed to their devices and interrupting that by getting them outside or giving them something in print to read.

SH: Thank you.

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Lewd Vs. Nude: A Bible Publisher Launches Art Lovers’ Magazine A Century Ago. From the Vault, A Book-in-a-Blog By Mr. Magazine™ Chapter 2, Part 1.

June 8, 2026

A century ago, we were more culturally and artistically advanced. Magazines in the 1920s shined a very bright light on art and culture. One such magazine, albeit short lived, Art Lovers’ Magazine, is but one example of a cultural and artistic publication from 100 years ago when magazines ruled the media world. Here is its story:

Chapter 2, Part 1

A Bible Publisher Turns to Art

The beginning: A magazine for everyone

The first issue of Art Lovers’ Magazine Jan. 1925

There was no indication in the first issue of Art Lovers’ magazine that the magazine was a Hubbard Publication.  The editorial page carried no masthead, and no table of contents. It served as a page, “In which we become acquainted with you, the reading public.”

The magazine was introduced as such: “ART LOVERS’ MAGAZINE will be published monthly, each month of the year, from their offices at 15 Park Row, New York, N.Y. It is owned and published by Art Publications, Inc., and is not connected, in any way, with any other publication at present.”

The only Hubbard name appearing in this issue was that of Freeman H Hubbard who wrote the short story “Yvonne” on pages 4 and 5.  Later, in issue 2 of Art Lovers’, a masthead appears announcing that the magazine is published monthly by Art Publications, Inc., 15 Park Row, New York City, (other Hubbard Publications were published at 21 Park Row) with Walter W. Hubbard name as president and an announcement of appointing Freeman H Hubbard as editor of the magazine.  It was not until issue 4 that the cover of the magazine carried the line, “A Hubbard Publication,” while the masthead continued to say it is an Art Publications, Inc. magazine.

The second issue of Art Lovers’ magazine Feb. 1925

The cover of the first issue of the magazine featured two women, one half naked, in a room setting chatting with each other. Nudity was present in abundance in the inside pages of the magazine that touted “Beauty, Fiction, Art and Life.”  With issues 2 and 3, the word Truth was added to the tag line reading, “A Magazine of Truth, Beauty, Fiction, Art, and Life.”  However, the word Truth did not last but for those two issues.  With issue 4, the word Truth disappeared from the tag line.

Unlike other art magazines of that period, Art Lovers’, in the words of its editors, “will, to the best of our ability, be ‘an all-around meal’ for every one in the family, especially to lovers of beauty, art, fiction, and the theatres. It will contain, each month, excellent stories; — mystery, love, adventure, and true-to -life tales; fully illustrated.”

The editors continue, “We have purposely avoided making this a ‘one-track’ magazine. It is something you can spend hours with; buy it before you go on a railroad journey this winter, for example, and see just how quickly time flies.”

No advertising in the first issue

Another point of differentiation from the rest of the magazines of that era, is that the editors decided not to accept any ads in the first issue. They wrote, “Before the magazine went to press at our rotogravure plant we were obliged to turn down slightly over two pages of advertising.  The editorial board decided that there must positively be no advertising in the initial number, and the business office has reluctantly yielded.”

However, the magazine’s editorial board was not completely against accepting ads in the magazine, for they were quick to add, “Future advertising will be scrupulously analyzed before it is accepted for these pages and every effort will be made to keep the highest standards possible. This means protection for us as well as for the readers.”

Another promise: Picture and fiction magazine

The editors added one more promise to the readers of the magazine, “Within the next few months the number of pages will be materially increased, and color covers will be added later. Every improvement possible will be carefully considered and acted upon, — in and endeavor to fill the need of a combined picture and fiction magazine. And in the meantime, –‘On with the dance,– let joy be unconfined.”

Next: The Hubbard Connection

And in case you missed the four parts of chapter one here are the links

Chapter 1 Part 1

Chapter 1 Part 2

Chapter 1 Part 3

Chapter 1 Part 4

Posted in A Launch Story..., From the Vault, Magazine Power, Nude Vs. Lewd | Leave a Comment »

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Rap Central Station: The Essence Of A New Magazine 2026 (As In INK ON PAPER Magazine): A Mr. Magazine™ Musing

May 31, 2026

Slow the culture so we can breathe again…

At least 30 new magazines were launched in the first five months of 2026.  Those who know me, know that my definition of a magazine is, “If it is not ink on paper, it is NOT a magazine.”  Feel free to call those digital platforms anything you want, except a magazine.  We never called television radio with pictures.

This leads me to a great editorial written by the editor of the new magazine Rap Central Station.  An oversized publication measuring 12X12 inches and refers to itself as a MAGPAPER.  The editor writes in the second issue of the magazine, and I quote, “Scrolling ain’t reading. Texting ain’t writing. That line hit even harder after the response to the debut issue of Rap Central Station earlier this year.  What we didn’t expect – but we fully respect – is how fast the magazine is becoming a collector’s item.  That tells us something important: people still need tangible culture. Something you can hold. Something that doesn’t disappear with a swipe.”

The editor continues, “I’m not gonna front I h’ve been inspired with stories of 2 fledgling magazine publishers from 75 years ago.  John Johnson with JET EBONY and Hugh Hefner from Playboy.  Both ironically from Chicago.  They had visions against insurmountable odds.”

So, what is this magazine that was inspired by two of our great magazine publishers of the last century.  The editor writes, “We are an art magazine first.  Then artist – driven storytelling.  Then music—charted with intention. We believe artists should write their own reviews. Nobody listens harder than the creator. That’s the innovation. That’s how you reverse some of the damage done to hip-hop by speed, neglect, and surface-level coverage.  This magazine slows the culture down—so it can breathe again.”

And all what Mr. Magazine™ can say to that is Amen!  Let’s slow the culture down a bit, so we can all breathe again.

Posted in A Launch Story..., A Mr. Magazine™ Musing, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, New Launches, News and Views | Leave a Comment »

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“Magazines Are Here For Good,” Says Nikki Simpson, Founder Of The International Magazine Center in Scotland.  The Mr. Magazine™ Interview

May 26, 2026

Nikki Simpson is on a “one woman’s adventure” to help and support independent magazines worldwide.  Nikki sees the future of magazines in those independent titles that are being published worldwide on “a daily basis.”

She founded the International Magazine Center specifically for that purpose.  She writes about the Center, “My baby is the International Magazine Center – a membership organization supporting independent publishers and freelancers working in magazines.  We focus on teams between 1 and 10 people, most of which are owner-run.”

For the first time since establishing the Center, Nikki is bringing her workshops to the United States on June 12 and 13.  Titled “Magazine Are Here For Good,” the conference will take place in Portland, Oregon, and will run workshops on circulation, membership and publishing among other subjects.

I reached out to Nikki via Zoom and asked her about the International Magazine Center, and the Magazines Are Here For Good conference.  What follows is my interview with Nikki Simpson, founder of the Internation Magazine Center in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

But first, the soundbites:

On her goal with the IMC: “What I wanted to do was support independent publishers, teams of between one and ten in a company, because those were the people who were isolated and not just during the pandemic but all the time.”

On the total number of members in IMC: “We’ve got about 190 members and they’re all over the world. 80% of them I suppose are in the UK for obvious reasons but we’re expanding all the time and picking up new members in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and we’ve got a couple in Amsterdam.”

On why a conference in the United States: “I’ve been wanting to run an event in America for a while.”

On why Portland, Oregon: “I thought well if everything’s happening in New York then what’s happening on the other side of town? And so Portland seemed like a good place…”

On the role of digital in magazine publishing: “I always feel digital publishing is the add-on, it’s the way that people can access information if they can’t afford to pay for the (magazine).”

On her hopes for the Magazine Are Here For Good conference: “To meet people who are working in publishing basically.”

On what keeps her up at night: “Falling asleep on the couch usually trying desperately to do the hard sudoku and just getting nowhere.  I’m getting pretty good at sleeping…”

And now for the lightly edited interview with Nikki Simpson, founder of the International Magazine Center in Edinburgh, Scottland.

Samir Husni: My first question to you, tell me a little bit about this whole one woman’s adventure creating an International Magazine Center.

Nikki Simpson: Yeah, I love the way you put that one woman’s adventure. I suppose that’s exactly what it is really.

I used to work for a magazine publisher years ago and that’s where I fell in love with magazines. Then I went to work for PPA, which is the National Association for Magazine Publishers in the UK, and I was there for about four and a half years. I had a great time but there were elements of it that I found difficult, and I wanted to run my own thing, but didn’t feel that I could. Then I had a kid. He’s nine now, so I had him and when I came back, I just thought I really want to work for myself because if something’s going to drag me away from my son in this moment, my little baby, then it needs to be something that I really love.

But while I’d been at PPA I had this idea to open a physical building dedicated to magazines and that was what the original idea was. We were kind of trying to think about ways to attract people to come and live and work in Scotland and work in magazines obviously. When I left PPA and I had my child, I came back and thought I want to really spend time on that and see what comes of it. It is not a physical building in any way at all apart from this office that I’m sitting in, but what’s come of it is an international membership for magazine publishers. When I first started that, like the first two years, I couldn’t really quite find my niche because I was still talking to all the PPA members I knew in Scotland and nobody was used to communicating by video so it was difficult to run events internationally and then of course the pandemic hit and that’s when everything changed for me.

I realized that what I wanted to do was support independent publishers, teams of between one and ten in a company, because those were the people who were isolated and not just during the pandemic but all the time.  I had people coming to me who had been publishing for five, ten years and say, “do you know any other publishers” and I’m like “oh yeah I know a few.” They thought they were the anomaly, they thought they were the one crazy person in town. So, now we’ve got about 190 members and they’re all over the world. 80% of them I suppose are in the UK for obvious reasons but we’re expanding all the time and picking up new members in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and we’ve got a couple in Amsterdam and it’s just basically where I spend my time is where we tend to be able to pick up members and I love it.

Samir Husni: I see that you are coming to the States and you are doing the first conference or workshop in Portland, Oregon June 12 and 13. Why Portland and why did you decide to start with the States as your first international venture?

Nikki Simpson: That’s a good question. I think specifically Portland because I’ve been having conversations with a friend called Megan, Megan Schertler, I don’t know if you know her, she does a blog called In Real Life Media and she’s a massive print advocate, runs her own consultancy and so on.

Anyway, I’ve been talking to her a lot about events in the US and how most of them were happening in New York. She’d just been involved with a New York event, Mag Culture were running annual events in New York, and I knew of course that being New York there’s going to be hundreds of events going on full stop. The way I approach things in Scotland is I run maybe one event in London a year because everything happens in London in the UK.

So, for me it’s much nicer to run things locally in either Scotland or we run a regular Manchester event as well. I felt the same way about America. I thought well if everything’s happening in New York then what’s happening on the other side of town? And so Portland seemed like a good place, Megan introduced me to somebody who runs a magazine shop there and it looked like there was lots of great independent titles in the area. Then I heard that Broccoli was based in Portland and then one of my members, it turns out, Kitchen Table magazine, they’re in Portland as well. I thought well this is brilliant, all signs lead to Portland.

And then why the US in general? I don’t know, I’ve been wanting to run an event in America for a while. I think, I mean interestingly I’ve been speaking to quite a few people about this and they kind of said why are you coming to America now? This feels like not the best time for it and I kind of feel like well maybe, but if you know if everybody feels that way then maybe I should go against the grain a little bit and go well maybe what people need now is support right and that’s my job is to support independent publishers so why would I, why would I steer clear of that when something bad’s happening you know or something is controversial is happening depending on which way you look at things. I would much rather come and say well, I’m here to help and support you if you want it.

Samir Husni: You say magazines are here for good, I say we are going to have magazines as long as we have human beings.

Nikki Simpson: Yes, I am absolutely 100% on the same page with you on that. One the independent titles specifically are having a bit of a moment now, but I feel like that moment has been building for so long.

When I first started working in magazines, I’ve been working in magazines for about four or five years by that point, and I remember we did this exhibition on magazine publishing, and it was curated by Jeremy Leslie at Mag Culture. It was a fabulous exhibition and it was all these amazing new titles but I mean you could have chosen another 50 different titles, it was just those ones that he happened to choose and so I feel like that was when people really started to go oh okay there’s an alternative to mass media and there’s an alternative to the rhetoric around mass media and print is dying and so on. I just can’t bear that sentence, print is dead, print is dying, I’m like really, really, do you want to meet some of my members?

Samir Husni: My definition of what a magazine is, “if it’s not income paper it’s not a magazine.”  We never called television, radio with pictures, we called it television, why can’t we call those digital platforms some name besides magazine?

Nikki Simpson: Another name for it, that’s a good question.

I’ve got a friend who, well one of my members and friend, up until recently she was a digital publisher only and every time she’d come to my conference she’d say to me afterwards Nikki there’s lots of digital publishers out there who are doing great things too and I’m like I’ll think about that. Now she’s just started publishing in print as well and she absolutely loves it and her readers absolutely love it as well. I always feel digital publishing is the add-on, it’s the way that people can access information if they can’t afford to pay for the £30 or $30 in postage. But it’s not the place where people enjoy reading, it’s not the place where people go oh happy days my digital magazine has arrived. It’s just like oh okay well I need to read it, or I should read it or I can read it because I couldn’t afford the print version or whatever but it’s not everybody’s first choice, is it?

Samir Husni: I just picked up the first two issues of a new magazine from the UK, it’s a rap magazine called Rap Central Station, it’s an oversized rap music magazine and in one of their introductions they write, “scrolling ain’t reading. Texting ain’t writing,” which is amazing. So, what are your hopes for this conference in Portland?

Nikki Simpson: To meet people who are working in publishing basically. We’ve got two workshops in the afternoon so I’m running a workshop on how to turn your magazine into a membership and then Joe Berger, a circulation consultant, is running a circulation health check for people.  So, people can come along with their magazines and talk about their circulation.

Then we’ve got an evening social event where we’ve got Anja Charbonneau coming from Broccoli magazine and Brett Warnock from Kitchen Table magazine and the whole event is being sponsored by Neesh who are the company that are connecting publishers direct to retailers as opposed to going through a distributor so they’re going to be talking as well and then the following day on Saturday we’ve got a how to launch a magazine workshop for people who aren’t really actually working in magazines at the moment but who want to.

The idea is just to meet new publishers and to help support people. I’ve never been to Portland. In fact, I’ve never been to America so I’m excited to meet new people and to find new ways and approaches of publishing.

Samir Husni: before I ask my typical last questions, is there anything I failed to ask you about the International Magazine Center and about the Magazines Are Here For Good conference?

Nikki Simpson: That’s a big question.  As for the Magazines Are Here For Good conference, anybody that’s coming just don’t forget to bring your magazines. For the International Magazine Center, we run a whole series of training courses and events now.  I counted it up the other day I’m running 57 events this year albeit three of them are recurring events but 57 events and they’re all tailored for independent publishers.  What else can you say?  It’s a welcoming community I’m very non-hierarchical a lot of the events that I run are more about peer-to-peer learning.

Our conference is like the people that I invite to come and speak at it are a real range of people so we have people who aren’t even in the market yet, like they’re still students and they’ve maybe you know produced a magazine as a part of their course right through to you know CEOs of major companies,  so we try to really cover the spectrum there and I think that’s really important to for people to feel recognized it’s when you have that focus of teams of one and ten people.  Huge problems come from that, usually through lack of confidence , so like the majority of my members are teams of one and two people in a team, or you get one person and then they work with three or four freelancers, which means that they’re not sure about whether they’re doing things correctly or  where to focus their attention because they’re doing absolutely everything in their business.

You get that kind of moment of inertia when you have too many decisions to make, so it’s difficult for them to move their businesses. That’s something that we help with.

Samir Husni: My two typical last questions are personal questions:  If I come to visit Nikki one evening unannounced what do I catch her doing, reading, cooking, taking care of her child?

Nikki Simpson: Now gardening. We’ve got a big garden, and we stuck our garden through Chat GPT and we’re in the middle of building a dry-stone wall and then putting down you know making it split level and all this kind of thing.  I do a lot of swimming in my spare time I go to two different swimming classes now a week and I just want to work my way up to be able to do long distance sea swimming. That’s what I’m aiming for or even just a bit of scuba diving that would be nice.

Samir Husni: My final question is what keeps you up at night?

Nikki Simpson: Falling asleep on the couch usually trying desperately to do the hard sudoku and just getting nowhere.  I’m getting pretty good at sleeping, what tends to keep me up I often work late so that I can communicate with people over time zones but I think what keeps me awake at night is when I haven’t worked out in my head what the worst case scenario is because once I’ve discovered what the worst case scenario is, I can go okay, and so that will look like what it looks and that’s okay.  

But if I haven’t done that yet, I’m going oh my god it needs 300 people to come to my event and how am I going to get them, that kind of a hamster wheel in my head.

Samir Husni:  Thank you and good luck on your Magazines Are Here For Good conference June 12 and 13 in Portland, Oregon.

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