Mr. Magazine

“It’s a nice feeling, working together. We’re both very creative, and we bounce ideas off of each other really well. When one of us is stuck on something, the other one can really jump in to help that idea form and get it to the right place. It’s been a really nice partnership in that way.” Gia Miller

“We’re telling real stories and we’re putting in quality-level journalism into it. We’re fact checking everything. We’re finding as many experts as we can, so the story is being told correctly. And I think a big point that’s worth touching on is that we don’t do pay to play. Obviously, we have advertisers, and we’re happy to have them. But we don’t allow that to affect our editorial, and people really have noticed that.” Justin Negard

Journalism, quality journalism, passion, thoughtful passion, business, solid business, are the major cornerstones of Connect to Northern Westchester.  Cornerstones that are rapidly disappearing from the worlds of journalism, passion, and business.  Until you meet Gia Miller and Justin Negard, and you see clearly that quality journalism, thoughtful passion, and good solid business thinking are all manifested through the two of them and their magazine that they founded to serve the area of Northern Westchester, New York.

A good read and a better display of visual photography, typography, and illustrations that “connects” you to an area of our country which brings the term local to a national level. 

A job so very well done that I thought I should have a chat with Gia and Justin, mainly for selfish reasons, to show me that good quality journalism is not dead and that there are good story tellers who believe in the value of printed magazines and what they have to offer.

My conversation with Gia Miller, the co-founder, co-publisher and editor-in-chief,  and Justin Negard, co-founder, co-publisher and creative director was as delightful as the magazine itself.  So please enjoy this conversation with two entrepreneurs who still believe in the power of print in a digital age. 

But first for the soundbites:

On why print: (Gia Miller) The problem is when you try to connect digitally, your feed is really curated. You’re only getting news and information about people that you’ve chosen to get news and information about. 

On the early days: (Gia Miller) We originally started as a website towards the beginning of the pandemic. And it was literally just for our small town of Katonah. So, when we ended up deciding that we were going to print a magazine, we went back and forth with the name, and we chose to keep it as Katonah Connect, even though we were mailing to a larger audience than just Katonah, because that name had name recognition.

On their feeling today about the magazine: (Justin Negard) I think everything we’ve done has been kind of a surprise. The very first edition, we had that beautiful feeling that, hey, we put out our first magazine. And that hasn’t gone away yet. We’ve put out our second, our third, and now we’re over a dozen. And each time it’s special. It’s an amazing thing. But we don’t really notice it as we’re going along. We sort of step back, and we think about the fact that this started with a conversation at a coffee shop. And now we are covering so much of our region.

On the business model: (Gia Miller) From a business model perspective, we pay for the publication with advertising. I actually remember in journalism school learning how much money subscriptions suck from your business. So, we decided that we would do direct mail and just directly mail into homes and businesses in our area and support the publication via advertising.

On the most pleasant moment: (Gia Miller) I always say I’m living the dream I never knew I had.

On teamwork: (Justin Negard) I love calling the shots creatively. I’m very lucky that we work so well together because we each stay in our lane and we’re each very good at what we do…And we both have great taste, so it’s easy.

On keeping it local: (Gia Miller) You can find 25 stories online about how to put on your makeup or the latest fitness craze, but you can’t find 25 stories that are local, that are about the people in your community. I think the positivity is a part of it, and then, honestly, it’s the community piece. Knowing who your neighbors are, who the business owners are and what they’re up to. We take a lot of national stories, and we make them local. We only interview local experts. We bring it back to our community in whatever way we can.

On the status of journalism: (Justin Negard) We are at a point where journalism is a very loose word and it’s become weaponized and co-opted by the wrong people on both sides of the political spectrum or possibly even in other countries. My hope is that the younger generations are smarter to these things, and they know what they are reading and where it’s coming from, whereas maybe older generations don’t pay attention to that as much.

On their mission and vision: (Justin Negard) We’re not trying to influence anybody, but we want to at least establish quality journalism wherever our footprint is.

And now for the lightly edited conversation of Gia Miller & Justin Negard, founders of Connect to Northern Westchester magazine:

Samir Husni: Why did you decide to connect via a print magazine? 

Gia Miller: That’s a great question. It kind of just happened, honestly. I think the problem is when you try to connect digitally, your feed is really curated. You’re only getting news and information about people that you’ve chosen to get news and information about.  In order to really know who’s in your community, that’s what the media is for; that’s what newspapers and magazines exist for.

Justin Negard: There was a real void in our community. The numbers are showing also that local publications are actually thriving. So even though some magazines are switching to digital, for a lot of reasons, my opinion is that people don’t necessarily care about having an actual paper news feed. They just want to get that hard hitting quick news or whatever it may be, wherever they are. But when it comes down to a local level, people like having an actual, ‘this is our town, this is my business’ publication.

To Gia’s point, there was a void in our community that needed to be filled. 

Gia Miller: We previously had a really nice local magazine in our area. I used to write for them occasionally.  At the beginning of the pandemic, it was sold to a family who chose to recreate it into what they envisioned. And it lost that local feel. It lost that feeling of community, of knowing who your neighbors are.

Justin Negard: Also, we are fortunate we live not too far from Manhattan. We have a lot of very interesting and talented and artistic people in our neck of the woods. There were tons, and there’s still a ton of stories to tell. 

Samir Husni: What drives you to this trust in print, especially on the local level? 

Justin Negard: Well, there are two sides of it:  Our personal preference, which, I know, you can’t run a business around personal preference, but it does matter. So, I am a designer, and I was a journalism graduate. And Gia is an accomplished journalist herself. In both of our worlds, we appreciate paper. We love paper. When we’re putting this magazine together, one of the fun things was laying out all these magazines in front of us, different samples from our printer, and touching each page and figuring out which paper stock we prefer.

It’s a pleasure now to see it laid out in the way that it is. We’ve designed our spine so there would be a rainbow; these little details matter to us. But even on the business side, if you look at our model right now, the print is skyrocketing. We’re doing great. And that’s been the focus of our income.

Gia Miller: We get a lot of feedback because we’re local. We actually see our readers and talk to them just when we’re shopping or whatever. Everybody tells us how much they like print, regardless of their age–younger than us, older than us. They all want to touch and hold and feel something. Very oddly to me, we get tons of compliments on our paper, on the quality of our paper.

Justin Negard: Another thing we did, that leans into that, is since our very first issue, we decided to put artwork on the back cover. We don’t sell that real estate. This is for local artists, which we are blessed to have so many talented local artists in our community. This is probably our highest profile one, a man named Ed Giobbi. In the beginning, we were wondering if we’re going to have enough stories to fill our pages, and now we’re laughing, because I found out that three blocks down the street from where both of us live is a man named Ed Giobbi, who is a bit of a recluse, but he’s a master painter who’s in the MoMA, the Tate, the Chicago Art Institute, the Whitney, and many other places.

So, we featured his artwork, and we feature a variety of artists in our area. Because it’s a print publication, the artwork extends the shelf life of this magazine. Because when you’re done looking at our covers, you can flip it over and leave this on your table. Now you have some beautiful artwork as well, which people have appreciated. 

Gia Miller: Yeah, it works. We hear from people all the time. 

Justin Negard: I design all the covers. As such, we keep that very simple as well. We don’t put local celebrities and subheadings and all this to clutter up the page. We keep it very clean for that exact same reason. We want this to look beautiful on people’s tables for some time to come. So even if the issue is a year old, it still holds up. 

Samir Husni: Great.  Since you started the magazine in 2022, you moved from zero circulation to over 21,000. Tell me about the business model. Tell me about that growth.  How does it feel to see this growth going on? 

Gia Miller:  Honestly,  everything has been a pleasant surprise as we’ve gone along. We’ve grown because the demand is there, and we’ve been able to support it financially. Even our name change was a surprise.

We originally started as a website towards the beginning of the pandemic. And it was literally just for our small town of Katonah. So, when we ended up deciding that we were going to print a magazine, we went back and forth with the name, and we chose to keep it as Katonah Connect, even though we were mailing to a larger audience than just Katonah because that name had name recognition.

Our thought was that we’d get a good four or five years out of that name before we had to change it. And it came quickly. It was about a year and a half.

Justin Negard: Yeah, it was much quicker than we thought. So, everything we’ve done has been kind of a surprise.

We had that beautiful feeling when we put out our first issue, and that hasn’t gone away yet. We put out our second, our third, and now we’re over a dozen, and each time it’s special. We’ve been growing and we’ve been so busy, and we haven’t paid attention.

We pay attention to every little detail, but we don’t always necessarily step back and really reflect on where it is. So, to answer your question, it’s an amazing thing, but we don’t really notice it as we’re going along. We sort of step back, and we think this started with a conversation in a coffee shop, and now we are covering so much of our region.

Gia Miller: And from a business model perspective, we pay for the publication with advertising. I actually remember in journalism school learning how much money subscriptions suck from your business. So, we decided that we would do direct mail and just directly mail into homes and businesses in our area and support the publication via advertising. So that’s the business model we’ve chosen.

Samir Husni: How does it feel to actually own the magazine?

Gia Miller: I always say I’m living the dream I never knew I had.

Justin Negard: How does it feel for me personally? Most of my career has been as a designer and a photographer, and that, of course, branched out into the worlds of branding, website design, brochures. I mean, you name it. So many different problems you’d have to solve. And for me, this is the epitome of all my skill sets. Everything that I’ve learned to do over the last decade plus of my career as a designer, I do every single day now and a whole lot more.

I love calling the shots creatively. I’m very lucky that we work so well together because we each stay in our lane and we’re each very good at what we do.  I’ve said if I can continue making money and paying our bills doing this, it’s the absolute dream, 100 percent. We don’t have to really answer anybody but ourselves. And we both have great taste, so it’s easy.

Gia Miller: I’m trying to think of the best way to answer that question: how does it feel still? We very intentionally did not want investors. We didn’t want to have to report to someone who would tell us, “that’s not a good idea,” or “that’s a little risky.”

It’s a nice feeling that we have; we’re both very creative and we bounce ideas off of each other really well. When one of us is stuck on something, the other one can really jump in and help that idea form and get it to the right place. And it’s been a really nice partnership in that way.

And there have been a number of articles that we’ve published that I’m pretty positive if we had financial backing, we would have been told no. And they were very well received in our community. 

Justin Negard: Our very first issue, when it came out, we met with a wonderful person who was an editor at a previous magazine at some point.  She gave us some advice on the visual side. She said, this is lovely, but maybe have a local celebrity and have those subheadings and all that sort of thing. I mean, these are opinions that are perfectly well grounded. And there’s a lot of marketing and research behind making some of those decisions or turning down a certain article, whatever it may be.  We have been able to avoid that.

And I think our instincts have been good. If you have a local magazine, your inclination is to write about the local soccer game or to write about the local celebrity. We have a little bit of that, but we have leaned into more just interesting stories. They’re going to be interesting wherever you go, locally or nationally. And that’s what we’ve been able to do.

And if I can add one little detail to it, maybe because of the pandemic and various factors in our life, but humbly, Gia and I are probably far enough along in our careers and in our skills that we could work in Manhattan and work for an agency or work for a publication somewhere down there. But for circumstances in our life, we are local. And so, we have what I hope are national skills that we’ve brought to this local level. So that makes us more unique than other publications.

One of the things that I heard a lot is the reason there’s a rise in the city and local and regional magazines is that the need for that positive feeling, that you feel good as opposed to everything you’re bombarded with around you.

Samir Husni: Do you apply that to your magazine?

Justin Negard and Gia Miller (in unison):  Yes.

Gia Miller: But also, no, we’re not negative. We don’t feel the need to bash anybody. We come out every other month. We’re not hard news.  So that isn’t there. But I also think there’s a need for knowing what’s going on in your community and knowing local stories. On a national scale, magazines like Glamour, Cosmo and Marie Claire, they tell very similar stories. And you can also find 25 stories online about how to put on your makeup or the latest fitness craze or whatever.  But you can’t find 25 stories that are local, that are about the people in your community.

I think the positivity is a part of it, too. And, honestly, the community piece, knowing who your neighbors are, who the business owners are and what they’re up to. And we take a lot of national stories, and we make them local. We only interview local experts. We bring it back to our community in whatever way we can.

Justin Negard: I think the quality we bring to it as well. There are so many 24-hour news channels. And now, these days, without putting politics in the conversation, people are getting their medical opinions and their political opinions from, with all due respect to the Joe Rogans of the world, for example, or these 24-hour news channels that don’t always have the most credible journalists on the station. 

I think people are also hungry to read quality journalism. It doesn’t have to revolve around who’s running for president right now. There are other stories to tell. So, we certainly do put a positive spin on most of our stories, which is a consequence of the stories we’re telling.

We’re telling real stories and we’re putting quality level journalism into it. We’re fact checking everything. We’re finding as many experts as we can. So, the story is being told correctly. We have very strong opinions on a variety of things in our world today, but we keep that out as well.

And I think a big point that’s worth touching on is that we don’t do pay to play. Obviously, we have advertisers and we’re happy to have them, but we don’t allow that to affect our editorial. We did that in the beginning just for our own passion and our own our standards, our own morals . But we were also surprised that people really have noticed that in our area. And there are other publications in our region, and God bless them, but when you talk to people, they say, “yeah, that’s been paid for, and that’s also been paid for.” And they like the fact that we don’t do any of that. 

Samir Husni: Do you think, is it passion that’s going to drive the future of good journalism, the future of good magazines, as opposed to chain ownership or venture capitalists or people who have no idea what journalism is all about? 

Gia Miller: I hope so.  There are several chain publications in our area and the larger area around us who don’t know a lot about journalism, and it shows.  I think it is a skill set that you develop. You can study it in school or not, but you have to learn the skills to develop it. And I think from what we’ve seen, we’ve very quickly achieved respect in the community, and it’s because that’s our background.

Justin Negard: I think I would say yes.  There is definitely a difference. I think we are at a point where journalism is a very loose word and it’s become weaponized and co-opted by the wrong people on both sides of the political spectrum, or possibly even in other countries. My hope is that the younger generations are smarter to these things and they know what they are reading and where it’s coming from, whereas maybe older generations don’t pay attention to that as much. I hope, this is all big hope, that the younger generations will be smarter than that and this will eventually level out and they’ll realize what’s BS and what’s actually coming from a credible news source.

All we can do, though, is continue to sort of push back on that. There was another local publication that had been looking to sell and they did face sort of this onslaught of larger companies that were trying to push more of an agenda in the region. They’re trying to influence people on a more local level. We’re not trying to influence anybody, but we want to at least establish quality journalism wherever our footprint is.

Gia Miller: I want to know what you think about that question.

Samir Husni: You can tell that there is some good quality journalism in here. This is not like somebody got an article from a PR agency and then published it. And so, I congratulate you on that, because I’m one of those people who, before I retired, I told my students that journalism is dead. But I’m first-generation Presbyterian, so I believe in life after death. So, folks like you are bringing journalism, good quality journalism back. Because I learned in journalism school years ago that when a journalist gives his or her opinion, he or she is no longer a journalist. And we have nothing but opinion these days, and I wish it was good opinions or opinions based on facts.

Justin Negard: And I would tell anyone seeing this or reading this, whatever, it’s not just passion, I mean it definitely is passion for us. We’re doing this as a labor of love, but there are financial dividends. Neither of us are driving Rolls Royces today, but there’s a hunger for this. So, if there’s anyone on the fence thinking, “journalism is dead, I shouldn’t do it, I should do something else, I should just sell out and work for the big company that’s blah blah blah,”– nope, don’t do that.

There’s a lot of hunger for good quality journalism. People are ready to have a good organic meal.

Samir Husni: A more personal question, if I come visiting you one evening, unannounced, what would I catch you doing? Reading a book, watching TV, listening to music?

Gia Miller: Working!

Justin Negard: One hundred percent, working. 

Gia Miller: And calling each other on the phone about this page or that story or whatever. 

Justin Negard: We have started doing almost like a day in the life of a publisher sort of thing, which is almost laughable because I think our typical day is not standard for most, even most publishers, although we have a lot of respect for the busy schedule of any publisher.

But we’ve branched out now as well. And we haven’t needed to, but we wanted to. So, we branched out into a lot of video work. We have a heavy digital footprint. We are very involved in social media. We even launched an app recently.

I mean, we have a lot of plates spinning at once. The magazine is still probably our main event, but videos have picked up tremendously.

So, every single day, if you look at our calendar, we have a chunk of time where we are reaching out to advertisers, where we are working on layouts, where we are writing stories, where we are going to local events, where we are filming videos. I mean, it’s nonstop, truly, truly nonstop to the extent, and I say this with a lot of humor, that people in our region recognize us now, which is kind of kind of flattering and weird.

Sometimes, we eat in other towns where our magazine doesn’t mail to because people recognize our faces. They know us from social media, from me running around with the camera everywhere we go. It’s a lot.

We also have interns, collaborators. So, we’re juggling a million things, and then we’re talking to someone like yourself.

Samir Husni: So, my typical last question is what keeps you up at night these days?

Gia Miller:  Trying to get everything done. I’m thankful we’re not a monthly because we would not be functioning humans if we were. 

But what keeps us up? You know, on my end, now we have a lot of writers who freelance for us. And so, it’s where is this story and when do I need to get that one in? People missing deadlines, that stuff keeps me up.

And advertising, which is the part of the business I hate the most, selling ads. That’s not my skill set. 

Justin Negard: I personally have so many things in front of me. What keeps me up is definitely working. Gia and I are texting each other until sometimes one, two, three in the morning, depending on what we’re working on. So literally, that’s what keeps us up.  Working on the magazine itself. But as soon as that’s done, I have videos to work on. We’re working on the app.  We’re running. There’s just so much to juggle. But it’s rewarding.

We’re proud of the results. And that’s something that I think is worth mentioning. It definitely feels like work. I’m not someone who says it doesn’t feel like it feels like work, but we’re so proud of it.

We’re building something. We’re not just working.

Samir Husni: Congratulations and a job well done. Keep up the good work.

Gia Miller: Thank you.

“Customers committing to longer term subscriptions and positive customer feedback. So they’re telling us that they want TV Insider, this is the magazine that they’ve been waiting for. We just have to market it on a larger scale and we have to promote it better…” Tony Frost

“You want to give people real content. There was a lot of lists online, but I think the curation is the key. We’ll pick each of the major streamers and other smaller streamers that our readers are interested in and give them an in depth amount of shows and reporting…” Michael Fell

When you think of the name TV Guide, your mind might go back about 40 years to the heyday of television and its printed cohorts, such as the aforementioned golden phoenix. And I call it a phoenix purposely because the frequency print magazine has definitely risen from the digital age’s ink ashes, along with two more great magazines from parent company NTVB Media:  TV Weekly and  now TV Insider (also frequency). While their accompanying websites are very complimentary and, in the case of tvinsider.com, going strong, you can’t emphasize enough that the print version of the magazines are just as prominent, if not more, than their pixels on a screen.

I spoke with Tony Frost, president and Michael Fell, group editorial director of the titles recently and we talked about the need for a printed streaming magazine that focused and curated television information for the readers. Tony and Michael are firm believers in print, much like yours truly. They see a definite want and need for this print magazine, along with the others. It was a refreshing discussion on something we all three love and have in common: print.

So please enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ exclusive interview…

But first the soundbites:

On what he was thinking in launching a monthly print magazine (Tony Frost): As I told you earlier in the year, Samir, Michael Fell, our group editorial director and editor in chief of TV Guide, carried out a very extensive survey of readers. And we got the response that there was a need for significantly more streaming-focused content. So we decided that we would give it a go.

On whether focused curation is the future of print (Tony Frost): Curation is a very  good word; we have experts – TV Guide’s complete editorial team  – who know TV from the inside out. The same team has brought that expertise to TV Insider. Over the whole year, the 12 issues will give you the most comprehensive guide on what to stream and why you  should watch the editors’ recommendations. The choices are carefully curated.   

On cornering the market on TV magazines and the synergy the publications are producing (Tony Frost): TV Weekly, produced out of NTVB’s Troy, Michigan HQ,  is a double issue and TV Guide is a content-laden triple. Both carry grids for regular channels  – in TV Guide’s case they have been doing this for 70 years. And we launched  TV Insider as a monthly for streamers. We’re covering all bases.

On cornering the market on TV magazines and the synergy the publications are producing (Michael Fell): You ask about synergy, I was thinking about how complementary the magazines are. I’ve always found this fascinating since Andy (DeAngelis) and Larry (MacKenzie) came on board; TV Weekly, as far as the grids and listings go are distributed regionally like TV Guide used to be.

On any changes coming up in 2024 (Michael Fell): A lot of 2023 was just seeing what works. Now we know that something like this can be successful and I think we’re going to be a little more focused on our cover choices.

On how the future magazine material might be decided (Tony Frost): In 2023, the emphasis was on what was the biggest show coming out from which streamer during the month that we went on sale. That’s where we started and continued during  2023. And now it might be that instead of doing the biggest show, we’ll still do a big show, but focus on a specific genre. 

On any predictions on streaming (Michael Fell): The reporting really settled into a certain groove post-strike about the contraction of the streaming services, such as not spending as much money, not going crazy with sequels, and being really focused. But we’re all about the consumers. And to me that’s a great thing, because streaming is THIS big and so if it becomes just THAT big, it becomes easier to handle for the consumers and we can in turn be more focused and curated for them.

On what they’d like to say that they had accomplished within the year (Tony Frost): We’re looking to extend our reach; we’re looking to make the magazine more visible; we’re looking for twice as many subscribers, and we’re seeing very encouraging early renewal indicators.

On what keeps them up at night (Michael Fell): I’m sleeping pretty well. (Laughs)

On what keeps them up at night (Tony Frost): There’s not much that keeps me awake at night, let me tell you. (Laughs too) 

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Tony Frost, president TV Insider, & Michael Fell, group editorial director and editor in chief, TV Guide. 

Samir Husni: I’m calling 2023 the year of bookazines. We have more than 1,000 bookazines published and less than 100 regular frequency magazines. It may be closer to 50, I haven’t had a chance to count mine yet. Yet, if my memory serves me right, you are the only publisher launching a monthly magazine in 2023. Almost all of the new magazines that came out in 2023 are either quarterlies, bimonthlies, or twice a year. But you have launched a monthly. What were you thinking?

Tony Frost: As I told you earlier in the year, Samir, Michael Fell, our group editorial director and editor in chief of TV Guide, carried out a very extensive survey of readers. And we got the response that there was a need for a significant amount of  streaming-focused content. So we decided that we would give it a go.

And so far, it’s been an exciting challenge. We’re undoubtedly producing a very good magazine, getting a lot of praise from the industry and support from subscribers. And a decent number of them have signed up for a two-year deal, not just one. The numbers aren’t huge, but they are very encouraging. Our first subscription issue  was in April and after eight months we hit our first 12 months subs’ target. That is impressive. And we’re going to build on that in 2024.

We recognize the challenges of print magazine economics in the current climate, so we did take a cautious approach with marketing spend. And we decided that we had to make every test dollar count. The same with newsstand; we’ve been very cautious with our retail presence. But we feel there is support for this title. We used 2023 as an experiment  to see what works on the cover. We’ve gone from the launch issue with Kiefer Sutherland in March and his then new action series, to costume drama with Bridgerton. We’ve done the final season of Billions and  Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first  TV role in Fubar. By the way, Arnold,  loved the magazine – he complimented us big time on it. Plus we’ve tested Sci-Fi on the cover with Marvel’s Loki.

They’ve all sold similar amounts at newsstands, but Bridgerton and Loki seem to be the most solid. So we’ve been learning as we go along – in 2024 we aim to put pedal to metal. For instance, I believe we have a new Bridgerton in the spring, is that right, Michael?

Michael Fell : Yep, May is the next season.

Tony Frost: So we’ll be all over that for our readers. And we have The Walking Dead as well!

Michael Fell: Yes, Rick and Michonne are coming back at the end of February. So we’re looking at that as a possible March issue. And if I could add something to Tony’s response to your original question, the why of it all has to do with the volume of programming.

You can go back a year ago and go online and find television guidance, and some of this is still true today. There are a lot of lists where people will recreate the publicity release list of stuff coming up in a particular month. It’ll just be a list of titles with no information. Or a little plot info. You often find 50 best shows on Netflix to watch now. And I’m looking at that list and I’m thinking I know those aren’t the best shows; I can see they’re just adding a few lines to the press release from the titles. I think there was a need that we saw. A curated, focused, structured need for reviews and guidance where we report on the shows. 

You want to give people real content. It wasn’t there online. We’ll pick each of the major streamers and other smaller streamers that our readers are interested in and give them an in depth amount of shows and reporting. But it’s still something that they can understand and appreciate and take hold of, as opposed to the massive lists and surface reporting that was online. I really think curation is the key.

Samir Husni: So do you think focused curation is the future of print in 2024?

Tony Frost:  Curation is a very  good word; we have experts – TV Guide’s complete editorial team  – who know TV from the inside out. The same team has brought that expertise to TV Insider. Over the whole year, the 12 issues will give you the most comprehensive guide on what to stream and why you  should watch the editors’ recommendations. The choices are carefully curated.   

Michael Fell: The services? It doesn’t stop. It keeps coming up. We cover 10 to 12 of the premier streamers. Our readers will often request info about smaller services like Acorn and Britbox. A big part of what the magazine does is provide the library material. Going back, there’s so much volume on television, is a monthly magazine that has a fair amount of library content; is that worth it to the reader? And we decided internally that it was. 

I told Tony this once; just before we were launching the magazine, I was in Tucson, Arizona visiting my brother and we were talking… do you know Mike Flanagan, Samir? He does a lot of shows on Netflix, like The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor. We were talking about some of his series and my brother mentioned how Mike Flanagan reuses some of his actors on different shows.

We were talking about Bly Manor and Midnight Mass and I asked him what about The Haunting of Hill House, which was Mike Flanagan’s first big Netflix series. He was like – what! I never even heard of it. And I was staring at my brother who subscribed to TV Guide magazine, was married and had two kids, one in college and one about to go to college, and I told him that his statement was proof to me that a monthly magazine with as much news stuff as we can, which also has a fair amount of library material, would be of major use to readers. He didn’t know anything about The Haunting of Hill House – and he liked Mike Flanagan’s other shows. I told him that I had a magazine for him that would be launching soon. 

Tony Frost: There’s 82 networks, 42 streamers, and 26 production studios currently. Plenty for us to write about. (Laughs) There’s also a bit of reverse engineering here, which I told you about earlier. First we had our well-established website, tvinsider.com, which has 10 million page views per month, so a lot of the work that Michael’s team does is repurposed on the website creating a natural synergy between the two. Also, tvinsider.com has proved to be a valuable source for new subscribers. So one supports the other and that has been a success.

Next year, apart from putting to use what we learned this year editorially and going deeper into that, we will continue drawing in subscriptions through traditional methods, reach new external audiences by direct mail and we’ve taken on a new digital marketing agency, named  salestube, based in Warsaw, Poland, to optimize paid search and social media efforts across all platforms for an even broader reach. That’s very important. 

As exciting as the material is that Michael’s team creates, we need more visibility; we have to get out there. And our website helps with the visibility. It’s very hard to make an impression at newsstand.  As you said Samir, there are so many SIPs out there. We have a small draw at newsstand which we use to really test covers and   editorial content,  as opposed to bringing in any real revenue. Ultimately, we see TV Insider as a subscription model, but that doesn’t mean in 2024 we won’t attempt some bold moves at newsstand.

Samir Husni: Let me ask you about your company, not only TV Insider. You’ve cornered the television magazine market. You have TV Guide, TV Weekly, and now you have TV Insider. In its heyday, TV Guide used to have 18 million in circulation, when there were no digital guides or anything. Is there any synergy in all of these guides you are producing?

Tony Frost: In this day and age, TV Guide magazine has a million subscribers And is jam-packed with content. That number is still very impressive. TV Weekly is doing well and in TV Guide we’ve just launched  “Extra” –  for subscribers to get digital access to a newsletter and grids updated every 24 hours. We are not standing still!

Michael Fell: In our 2024 preview issue we’re launching a newsletter service called “TV Guide Magazine Extra.” This service is just for subscribers and it’s a weekly newsletter serving two purposes. One is to give them access to online grids and listings, which are being updated every single day.

There is still a lot of appointment viewing, watching network and cable television, so we want to make sure that their literal day-to-day guidance is accurate. So this newsletter is going to provide online links to daily updated grids that are substantial with programming information and plot information that you won’t find anywhere else. Even on websites that already have online grids, the detail that will be provided is amazing. 

And also we’ll update them with new news items and articles within the newsletter for programming information, story information that we may not have been on top of in the previous magazine. So we want to make sure they’re completely updated with story and programming information.

Tony Frost: Last year when paper costs were sky high and most other chargesws were going through the roof, we had to make adjustments. The triple issue is a very robust magazine with a lot of content. 

Michael Fell: Going back to your question, you asked about synergy, I was thinking about how complementary the magazines are. I’ve always found this fascinating since Andy (DeAngelis) and Larry (MacKenzie) came on board; TV Weekly, as far as the grids and listings go are distributed regionally like TV Guide used to be. It’s almost ironic that the guys who came and took over TV Guide had their own guidance products which were being delivered regionally, which we know in publishing and printing, the paper and postage end is extremely difficult. But they are able to put Channel 2 for CBS because they’re locally delivered,

Tony Frost: TV Weekly is a bi-weekly listings magazine,  with regional editions just like TV Guide used to have. It is a valuable tool for many traditional TV users.

Michael Fell: Yes, so we take care of that customer who’s looking for really local information.

Samir Husni: Yes, such as mine is the Memphis area.

Tony Frost: Exactly. So TV Weekly is a double and TV Guide is now a triple. And we have TV Insider as a monthly for streamers. We’re covering all bases. 

Samir Husni: As we look forward toward 2024, will there be any major change coming up in the New Year? As compared to 2023?

Michael Fell: A lot of 2023 was just seeing what works. Now we know that something like this can be successful and I think we’re going to be a little more focused on our cover choices. If you look at all the covers, they’re certainly very broad, covering your hit Netflix dramas, Marvel Sci-Fi’s, maybe we’ll think about DC, I don’t know. (Laughs) I try, I really do try with DC and Zack Snyder, but it’s on and off. The biggest star in the world, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a great serial drama coming from Showtime; we’ve covered all kinds of shows. And I can’t tell you what it is right now, but I think what we’re going to be able to do in 2024 is be more focused on the covers. And really drill down on what’s going to work.

Samir Husni: How do you decide what you’d like for the material to be?

Tony Frost: In 2023, the emphasis was on what was the biggest show coming out from which streamer during the month that we went on sale. That’s where we started and continued during  2023. And now it might be that instead of doing the biggest show, we’ll still do a big show, but focus on a specific genre.

Samir Husni: Do you have any predictions about streaming? Will it continue to go up or is it hitting its status quo?

Michael Fell: The reporting really settled into a certain groove post-strike about the contraction of the streaming services, such as not spending as much money, not going crazy with sequels, and being really focused. But we’re all about the consumers. And to me that’s a great thing, because streaming is THIS big and so if it becomes just THAT big, it becomes easier to handle for the consumers and we can in turn be more focused and curated for them. 

There’s still going to be an amazing amount of overwhelming television and if the reporting from the industry says the sky is falling, we’re still thinking more about the consumers’ point of view. Such as number one: they’re not going to notice and two: it’s around the edges. And now streamers are focusing on, hey, maybe we shouldn’t do that fancy show that no one watched but we got to work with this great director. They’re like, let’s make some more shows that people are going to watch. And that’s all good for the consumer, the watcher, the viewer and that’s our audience. We’re not really industry-focused, we cover the industry, but always from the consumer point of view.

So, there will be some contraction, but I think it’s all good for the viewers. There will be plenty to watch. I’m just not crazy about the people feeling overwhelmed, especially if they’re reading our magazine.

Samir Husni: Let’s imagine that we’re in December 2024, what would you like to tell me you had accomplished throughout the year?

Tony Frost: We’re looking to extend our reach; we’re looking to make the magazine more visible; we’re looking for twice as many subscribers, and we’re seeing very encouraging early renewal indicators. Customers committing to longer term subscriptions and positive customer feedback. So they’re telling us that they want TV Insider, this is the magazine that they’ve been waiting for. We just have to market it on a larger scale and we have to promote it better. 

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Michael Fell: I’m sleeping pretty well. (Laughs)

Tony Frost: There’s not much that keeps me awake at night, let me tell you. (Laughs ,too)

I did want to say that one of our biggest successes over the past couple of years has been Yellowstone. We covered it from the beginning. TV Guide was the first  magazine to put  Yellowstone on its cover. Our  Yellowstone articles have been repurposed for our website tvinsider.com and we did three SIPs under the TV Guide logo. Obviously, the show has been featured in TV Insider magazine on a regular basis. In November we completed our fourth Yellowstone SIP in a partnership with a360, under the subhead The Complete Story – All Four Seasons. It has sold well in a short time with a cover price of  $13.99. We are happy with the results so far – and so are a360. I use this as an example of how important it is for a company like ours to be nimble and smart … always looking for the next opportunity.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

“We tend to reach consumers over 40 plus or 50 plus, who grew up with magazines, loved the experience of magazines; who miss magazines. They’ll tell you stories of what their favorite magazines were and how they’ve changed.”

“I believe that there are consumers who want to guarantee that this magazine comes to them. That when they go, when the weather turns and the leaves fall and they move to their second home in Florida or California or Palm Springs or back to Boston or back to the city, they want it in their mailbox. And that consumer is absolutely going to pay for it and go to their mailbox.”

The B, a magazine of the Berkshires, is a regional title that is both very well connected to the Massachusetts area and is a new launch. Michelle Thorpe Petricca is the publisher of the magazine and brings immense talent and experience to this position. Michelle has been a fixture at Condé Nast in the past and carries a lot of deeply held beliefs about magazines, especially print ones.

The B celebrates life in the Berkshires and beyond, but also provides entertainment and knowledge about the area for people moving there or visiting. It’s a stylish title with a host of possibilities. Mr. Magazine™ suggests that you find your copy today. 

So please enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Michelle Thorpe Petricca, Publisher Of The B Magazine.

But first the sound-bites:

On how it feels to work on a smaller-sized publication than she’s used to: I love a launch. And I was part of Condé Nast with the launch of Lucky magazine, from the very beginning. And it has the same energy and the same excitement. Obviously, not the depths of floors of departments and support, however it’s energizing and thrilling for me to be part of that.

On one of her Condé Nast colleagues’ starting his own media company and magazine: I worked with Alan Katz’s wife for years at Self Magazine. I think Alan and Cheryl are just two very talented people. And I think what it shows is that there are stories to be told in this region, and there’s a lot of enthusiasm and passion for this region. And the fact that both are doing very well speaks to this untapped market in many ways. There’s a real hunger to be closer to the community.

On why she thinks people like herself still believe in magazines and in print: There’s absolutely a desire for certain segments of a population to enjoy the print experience. And I would say that that segment of the population in our community is not going to be Gen. Z though they are enjoying it. We tend to reach consumers over 40 plus or 50 plus, who grew up with magazines, loved the experience of magazines; who miss magazines. They’ll tell you stories of what their favorite magazines were and how they’ve changed.

On whether only print can link the past with the future in the present: You definitely found one of the most powerful platforms that we have at The B, and that literally is the archives of the Eagle which are situated in the basement here of the Clock Tower Building in Pittsfield. And if you came to the Berkshires and I brought you down there, your mind would be blown by the files and the archives of the history of Norman Rockwell, of Tanglewood and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

On whether the magazine was an easy launch: My husband was from the Berkshires. His family has been here for 100 years. His grandfather moved here from Italy, slept in a tent, built a wonderful business that’s going strong. And I didn’t think that this opportunity was possible, to be able to tap this passion I have for print. And I feel so fortunate that the Eagle recognized and held a high value to print and that they invested in me.

Michelle Petricca, right, with editor in chief Amy Conway.

On any challenges or roadblocks they had to overcome: So what have we overcome? I would say that introducing a new print product, you really had to pass a lot of litmus tests here because I think they’ve seen other publications in the area before and they weren’t always done by magazine people. They may have been done by newspaper people ensuring that you were going to deliver what you promised.

On whether the magazine is moving from controlled circulation to subscription: That is in the works. I believe that there are consumers who want to guarantee that this magazine comes to them. That when they go, when the weather turns and the leaves fall and they move to their second home in Florida or California or Palm Springs or back to Boston or back to the city, they want it in their mailbox. And that consumer is absolutely going to pay for it and go to their mailbox.

On the wantedness factor that print inspires: Yes, exactly. I was spending some time in Barnes & Noble in Pittsfield the other day. Magazines seem to still be alive by the number of publications and special interest titles and the ones that are still available to consumers.

On anything she’d like to add: As far as the B, people want a connection to the community, so much so that even on the grounds where we live there’s a massive reckoning going on with the Native American tribes that lived here. Many of the cultural institutions, like Jacob’s Pillow, which is one of the oldest historic dance sites in the country and Beckett Hits in Beckett. Massachusetts; at the bottom of every single of their email signatures, they say we are on the lands of the Munsee Native Tribes, so there’s a whole connection. The good and the painful in our community. That’s why there’s still so many untold stories here.

On what keeps her up at night: From a professional level, it would be to make sure that we got it right. That it was factually correct. We have a responsibility to do it right. And so oftentimes I circulate stories to the editors here, to other people in our community. To have them look through it to make sure it’s right, because the last thing I ever want to do is have any stain that reflects any print  journalist that is here. So getting it right is important. That keeps me awake at night. 

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Michelle Thorpe Petricca, publisher The B Magazine.

Samir Husni: Congratulations on The B Magazine.

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: Thank you, I appreciate that.

Samir Husni: How does it feel? Moving from magazines like Lucky and Allure with hundreds of thousands in circulation to launch a small-sized publication, a beautiful publication, but one that elevates like fifteen thousand in circulation?

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: I love a launch. And I was part of Condé Nast with the launch of Lucky magazine, from the very beginning. And it has the same energy and the same excitement. Obviously, not the depths of floors of departments and support, however it’s energizing and thrilling for me to be part of that. 

And then I was also part of US Weekly when it turned from a monthly to a weekly magazine. So I was prepared for the unexpected because the unexpected always happens with a launch. But I would say that being a part of the Berkshire Eagle, which is one of the longest continuously run newspapers in the country, it started in 1892, they have the same commitment to facts and credibility and to getting it right. Much like Condé Nast always wanted to do and does and still does. 

Samir Husni:  Your previous colleague, Alan Katz, also started The Mountains magazine. Now there’s two or three graduates from Condé Nast who started and launched magazines outside.

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: That’s right. In fact, I worked with Alan Katz’s wife for years at Self Magazine. I think Alan and Cheryl are just two very talented people. And I think what it shows is that there are stories to be told in this region, and there’s a lot of enthusiasm and passion for this region. And the fact that both are doing very well speaks to this untapped market in many ways. There’s a real hunger to be closer to the community. 

Alan, his focus is seven counties, so it’s broader. He’s got Sullivan County, Catskills, seven counties. I’m focused on three counties, Berkshire County, Columbia County and Litchfield County. So there is a point of difference there. And there’s a point of difference with our voices. But that being said, I think it’s fabulous. I really do. Allen and his team are doing a great job.

Samir Husni: Michelle, it’s so rare to see small, regional magazines bringing in top publishers,  top editors, national folks, like in your case. Like Amy Conway, who’s been the editor of Health Magazine, and Martha Stewart Wedding. Why do you think people like you and Amy still believe in this business, in print and in bringing a magazine into the world?

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: That’s a great question. There’s absolutely a desire for certain segments of a population to enjoy the print experience. And I would say that that segment of the population in our community is not going to be Gen. Z though they are enjoying it. We tend to reach consumers over 40 plus or 50 plus, who grew up with magazines, loved the experience of magazines; who miss magazines. They’ll tell you stories of what their favorite magazines were 

and how they’ve changed. And maybe they’re not happy about some changes. So there was certainly a desire to bring magazines back into their life.

More importantly, they want the things that magazines are, well-written and visually appealing. And it’s interesting, when I worked at Allure and worked for Linda Wells, she would often talk about how a magazine would bring you to this magical place, and Allure would share possible visions of a different self, of all the possibilities that were out there for you. And how you want to present yourself to the world. 

And so that aspiration and that inspiration is found in print, in these glossy, four color magazines. And when you come to a community, particularly like the Berkshires, you’re seeking pleasure. You’re seeking entertainment. You’re seeking visual experience of the outdoors, art, culture, theater. And so they’re pleasure-seekers and magazines bring a lot of pleasure. They’re very proud of where they live or where they have second homes, or where they’re visiting. And they have it in their homes. That is the greatest compliment. When someone says to me. I have guests coming up this weekend, and I made sure The B was in the guest room for them because they want to know more about where they’re visiting. And so print brings you closer to the experience. I think that that’s why it’s resonating with consumers today. 

The other part of my experience was spending time at a company called Modern Luxury, which published 84 magazines in 22 markets. And so I worked at Modern Luxury while I lived here in the Berkshires and I commuted back and forth. I got to see just how personal it was for these city titles to these particular communities. 

I remember it was Erin Lauder at Estee Lauder who wanted us to plan an event in Dallas,  Neiman Marcus for a launch of one of her fragrances. And I heard from her team that these were the dates available in Dallas. So I call up Neiman’s and said this is when we’re going to have the luncheon and they said, whoa, we can’t do it that date. And I’m like, it’s Aaron Lauder, of course you can do it that day. And they explained, oh, no, that’s the Texas/OU football game day. And all the jets fly in from Oklahoma. And there are big Gala’s and parties all around his event. 

So, I was able to bring that information back from the Dallas team of our local boots on the ground, and of Neiman Marcus local and go back to Estee lauder and say, well, here’s why that date doesn’t work. 

So, understanding the ebbs and flows of a local community are really important and it makes you have a better event or better print project product. Or helps you connect brands and advertisers to that community in a more relevant and more powerful way.

Samir Husni: That art of storytelling is so obvious since you are also reaching to the archives of the newspaper from 1789 on and using some of those pictures. Do you think only print can link the past with the future during the present?

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: What a great question. You definitely found one of the most powerful platforms that we have at The B, and that literally is the archives of the Eagle which are situated in the basement here of the Clock Tower Building in Pittsfield. And if you came to the Berkshires and I brought you down there, your mind would be blown by the files and the archives of the history of Norman Rockwell, of Tanglewood and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

You’re transported when you walk downstairs and you go into these files of pictures that you’re holding that the Eagle owns. And so I don’t have any obstacles of publishing them. And knowing that there are people here that I can turn to… in fact, they have two Pulitzer Prize winning journalists on their editorial advisory board here. And being able to get it right, which is so important here at the Eagle is to tap those archives to connect the past of our community to the present. 

And so when we take a topic, the summer issue right now is at press, and the theme is music. And music plays an outsized role here in the Berkshires, as you can imagine with the home of Boston Symphony Orchestra all summer long. But it goes back even further than that. 

And our goal is, when this magazine comes out, that local mavens who have lived here for generations, to the tourists who happen to be staying at the Red Lion Inn, to a second homeowner from Williams College who loves the Berkshires, is to surprise them and to educate them, to help bring them closer to this community. 

So we literally went into the fields of a place called The Music Inn, which is in Stockbridge, and was part of an old gilded-age estate called Wheatleigh. The Music Inn was a home in the 1960s  of something called the Lenox School of Jazz, where black musicians would teach white musicians who came over from Tanglewood at night. And that school then turned in the ‘70s into something called The Music Inn where Bruce Springsteen played, the Allman Brothers,  BB King, and we literally went for the music issue and spent time in a place called the Potting Shed, which is a home to this woman now who has a plaque to all the musicians that played on those grounds. 

And so being able to walk those fields and give the history and bring the photographers, such as the talented Ben Garver, who is photographer for the Berkshire Eagle really helps bring the music experience to life. And then it also happened that really well known journalists like Tony Gervino, who was the editor in chief of Billboard Magazine and is currently the editor in chief of Jack Dorsey’s Title, a streaming music platform, happens to have a home in the Berkshires, and he’s like, I’d love to write an article for The B. And so when you live in a community where you can tap this talent, it helps make it an even stronger editorial product.

Samir Husni: You sound like you’re on Cloud Nine. Tell me, has the magazine launch been a walk in a rose garden for you?

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: It was really hard for me to leave Condé Nast in 2013. I mean, Allure was on fire. It was just so successful. And I loved the team. And I loved working with Agnes Chapski and Linda Wells and the whole Condé Nast family.  

I moved for love. My husband was from the Berkshires. His family has been here for 100 years. His grandfather moved here from Italy, slept in a tent, built a wonderful business that’s going strong. And I didn’t think that this opportunity was possible, to be able to tap this passion I have for print. And I feel so fortunate that the Eagle recognized and held a high value to print and that they invested in me. 

And then, of course, Amy Conway, our editor in chief, whose voice… it’s what she’s been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. And you can tell she was Martha Stewart’s right arm for 20 years. And Amy knows how to tell a story. She really does. And she has been a complete joy and delight to work with, and I mean it. We speak the same language, and we were able to tap a local designer here, Julie Hammil, who creates a lot of visuals for a lot of the cultural economy institutions here such as Berkshire Botanical Gardens, or the Berkshire School. And so we were able to really go local here. And that meant a lot. Yes, I am on Cloud Nine. (Laughs)

Samir Husni: Any challenges or roadblocks that you have had to overcome?

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: So what have we overcome? I would say that introducing a new print product, you really had to pass a lot of litmus tests here because I think they’ve seen other publications in the area before and they weren’t always done by magazine people. They may have been done by newspaper people ensuring that you were going to deliver what you promised. 

So it happened fast. I literally was at an event with Hans Morris, who was one of the saviors of the Berkshire Eagle with a few other individuals who saved this incredible historic newspaper brand. And I was at an event with him, I guess maybe September or October. And we started talking. He used to be president of Visa and now is at NYCA Partners in New York and he knew my experience in magazines. He said let’s do it and I asked, seriously? And he said yes. 

So going from October to launching a magazine in basically April was fast without having hired an editor, without even having a name or an editorial calendar, the specs and the press. It was definitely a lot of sleepless nights. But it was so personal. And that would be an obstacle because I didn’t want to walk into my local grocery store and say hi to my butcher or the florist and for them to say it didn’t really work. I really wanted to make them proud and I would say that was an obstacle. Having to deliver, I would say that was a challenge. 

And then advertising, people literally writing checks from their own bank accounts, ensuring that you are going to deliver on what you’re promising. And ensuring trust in you. It is helpful that they knew who I was and they knew my husband. And they knew the Berkshire Eagle. That could be considered an obstacle. But my goodness, we doubled the number of advertisers and revenue in the summer issue. 

But let’s be clear. This is not necessarily a done success. We have three more issues to go with different editorial themes. We’re experimenting with a wedding issue. And so some of these things are unproven. But I do believe that we have the perfect alchemy at the moment and that things look positive, but it’s not done. You know that path, there could still be plenty of obstacles, especially as we try to figure out a formula for subscriptions versus controlled circulation. Figuring and navigating that I’m sure will be an interesting endeavor. 

Samir Husni: Are you moving from controlled circulation to subscription?

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: That is in the works. I believe that there are consumers who want to guarantee that this magazine comes to them. That when they go, when the weather turns and the leaves fall and they move to their second home in Florida or California or Palm Springs or back to Boston or back to the city, they want it in their mailbox. And that consumer is absolutely going to pay for it and go to their mailbox. 

But I also believe that we could do a hybrid model that has some control distribution in places like Canyon Ranch or fine museums or restaurants. And that we can also still sell it in some places because there isn’t going to be an unlimited number of copies floating around. People are going to see it and they’re going to want it. And if they can’t find it, they’re not going to be happy about it. There’s a wantedness to this and there’s a scarcity model to this, so I do believe that a hybrid model will work. 

Samir Husni: I think that wantedness is an important word you mentioned because. Again that’s what continues to differentiate print from the rest of the media that’s out there.

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: Yes, exactly. I was spending some time in Barnes & Noble in Pittsfield the other day. Magazines seem to still be alive by the number of publications and special interest titles and the ones that are still available to consumers. 

I just think that this is personal to people here. And so when it’s personal and you’re writing about their community, they’re not seeing this online. They’re not reading about this really anywhere else. That it means something different and there’s a different value to it. Especially when you’re supporting their causes that are their passion points. We live in a community that wants to give back, that wants to help out, that supports the arts. That is incredibly inclusive. And our intention is always to profile those saints and eccentrics that really romp our beloved County. And people want to support that and want to be part of that. 

Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: I guess the question is, if you lived here, Samir, or you were a second homeowner, would you subscribe to The B? 

Samir Husni: (Laughs) Of course I would. My wife always asks me, why are you still getting magazines after we donated all our magazines to the University of Missouri where they are establishing the Samir Husni magazine collection in the library?

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: That’s incredible.

Samir Husni: 188,300 magazines. It took two 18-wheelers. 

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: Do you have photos or a video of that happening? 

Samir Husni: Yes. Actually they are doing a video on the whole transfer of the magazines from my storage units to the Library of Missouri.

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: Will it be on your blog?

Samir Husni: Once they send it to me, I will definitely put it on the blog.

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: Thank you! That’s magical. I can’t wait to see that. As far as The B, people want a connection to the community, so much so that even on the grounds where we live there’s a massive reckoning going on with the Native American tribes that lived here. Many of the cultural institutions, like Jacob’s Pillow, which is one of the oldest historic dance sites in the country and Beckett Hits in Beckett. Massachusetts; at the bottom of every single of their email signatures, they say we are on the lands of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, so there’s a whole connection. The good and the painful in our community. That’s why there’s still so many untold stories here. 

Samir Husni: As long as you continue telling stories, you will continue to thrive and succeed.

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: I hope so. 

Samir Husni: My typical last question, what keeps you up at night?

Michelle Thorpe Petricca: From a professional level, it would be to make sure that we got it right. That it was factually correct. We have a responsibility to do it right. And so oftentimes I circulate stories to the editors here, to other people in our community. To have them look through it to make sure it’s right, because the last thing I ever want to do is have any stain that reflects any print  journalist that is here. So getting it right is important. That keeps me awake at night.

Even when we lay out the magazine, not being sensitive to advertisers as to where they are placed. Maybe that goes back to my Condé Nast days where, and this is probably not an appropriate story, but I was at Self magazine and we were laying out the magazine and we had a Revlon ad and the Revlon ad said, it’s a good hair day, and it was opposite of a Wonder Bra 

ad that said, who cares if it’s a bad hair day. (Laughs) 

And that was probably 1996 and it still haunts me to this day. You have to make sure that you’re sensitive to if I am this architect or this shop  and I’m opposite this editorial, how does that impact me. And that keeps me up at night on a professional level, because I think about it. It’s their business and they care so much about this ad. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a one six or full page, this means so much to them into their budget into their marketing plans that I really 

want to be sensitive to where that message lands.

Samir Husni: Thank you. 

Check out the second issue of The B here.