Mr. Magazine

Viktorija Pashuta, the founder, CEO,  and editor in chief of  BASIC magazine, left her home country, Latvia, with a little book that she started writing her ideas in it at age 11. Her dream was that one day she would create all the ideas in that book.  One of the ideas must have been BASIC magazine: an upscale magazine that is anything but basic.

Also an award-winning director and film maker, Viktorija Pashuta launched BASIC magazine seven years ago in Los Angeles as “a print platform for artists from all over the world to express themselves and give them the opportunity to share their artwork and their passions on the pages of the print magazine.”

I was so impressed by the quality of the magazine and the way it has progressed since its launch. Flipping through the pages of BASIC was like taking a first-class trip around the world, luscious photography accompanied by imaginative design and complemented by beautiful typography. It is a delight for both the eye and the brain.

A photographer by profession, Ms. Pashuta is also a writer who combines the art of audio-visual writing to her editorials that introduce every issue of the magazine.  She is a dreamer and she is more than willing to share her dreams with you. When I asked her what she would be doing if I stop by unannounced, she told me that, “sometimes you could catch me doing something weird like I imagine I’m a batman and I’ll go outside in the dark streets and just walk around at night and there would be someone who needs my help randomly.”

It was hard to separate her drive for life and adventure from her passion and zeal for BASIC magazine.  So, please join me with this wonderful conversation with Viktorija Pashuta, founder, CEO and editor in chief of BASIC magazine.  But first, the soundbites:

On why print: “I’m really proud that BASIC is actually in print, not in digital…It was really important to create a physical product, a magazine that has the presence in the physical world.”

On how to do print today: “The idea was to invest in the quality of the paper, invest in the quality of binding, invest in talent, create content that is timeless and you wouldn’t easily find online.”

On the challenges of creating a magazine: “If I knew then what I had to go through, I’d probably think twice if I should start a print magazine…it’s not enough just to have the funds. You also have to be extremely passionate about it and live with it.”

More on challenges of creating a magazine: “There were definitely challenges creating content that would resonate online and also would be relevant in print because these are two complete different platforms.”

On sources of revenue: “I created different avenues with the product placement that we utilize the smaller brands and provided them additional value by creating unique organic content for them within the pages of the magazine.

On appearing on the cover of the magazine: “That actually was very unplanned and I’m a person that would never put myself on a cover because I thought that’s sort of abusing your power.”

More on appearing on the cover of the magazine: “I thought if you use yourself as the main inspiration I think it will give inspiration for other people to believe in themselves and keep going with whatever ventures they enter.”

On finding the BASIC DNA: “We’re trying to shape our own voice which I think was the hardest thing and I think for any brand it’s really hard to stand out in the crowd so that’s kind of our goal been to find our DNA, to find BASIC  DNA and to really stick to it and be authentic.”

On her life’s philosophy: “The most talented people are very humble and they don’t really want to push themselves. The loudest people on social media are usually the least talented.”

More on her life’s philosophy: “I’m a hardcore fan of the cat woman, so I believe being behind the scenes and being that savior for those who cannot speak for themselves and elevate people. I would love to do more charity work. I would love to help more people.”

And now for the lightly edited conversation with Viktorija Pashuta, founder and editor in chief of BASIC magazine:

Samir Husni: As I told you in my email BASIC is anything but BASIC. Tell me the elevator pitch. What is BASIC magazine?

Viktorija Pashuta: Well, BASIC, first of all, it’s my passion project.

This is something I’ve been craving and wanted to do since I was in high school. And pretty much it’s a platform that provides opportunity for artists from all over the world to express themselves and to give them that opportunity to share their artwork and their passions on the pages of print magazine. And I’m really proud that BASIC is actually in print, not in digital.

So we take pride creating such a publication that became sort of a coffee table book and collectible edition. So yeah, like you said, absolutely right. BASIC is everything but BASIC.

Samir Husni: You wrote that while others are abandoning print and are going digital, and with the high increase of paper costs, mailing costs, you name it. Why is this print drive that you have?

Viktorija Pashuta: Well, I think I believe that nowadays there is such a high demand for interpersonal connections, for physical products, for physical touch, especially in our modern age of technology and of desensitization of the society, of people not being willing to connect in person or they really craving to have personal interpersonal experiences. So for me, it was really important to create a physical product, a magazine that has the presence in the physical world.

Besides that, I believe that the pages transcend the experiences that we go through creating the magazine. What’s really important is being on set, creating a community, working with passionate people with the same interests and sharing those passions with the world through the print publication. I’ve noticed that trend, especially being myself constantly on social media, that you have those two, three seconds to look at the post, like the post and you forget about it.

But the beauty about print publication, it’s something you look through, but then you put it in a shelf, you can get back to it later. You can look through it and you have this connection that digital can never substitute.

I always have a comparison. Would you like to have a digital kiss or a physical, actual kiss? And the same with print. We want that interpersonal connection. It’s very similar to the luxury sector where we want to have luxury products, luxury experiences, and the same with print.

The idea was to invest in the quality of the paper, invest in the quality of binding, invest in talent, create content that is timeless and you wouldn’t easily find online. So that was the goal. And for me, it was extremely important to create a physical product and have basic in print.

Samir Husni: It sounds like you have had in the last seven years since you launched BASIC, a walk in the old garden, or was there some challenges, there were some thorns across the road?

Viktorija Pashuta: Oh, absolutely. I mean, every step of the way, there was a challenge starting from the fact that when I was getting myself into print, I had zero knowledge in publishing, zero knowledge in printing, zero knowledge in logistics.

All I knew is photography since I started to be a fashion photographer and experience in writing since I was writing back in my country for another smaller magazine. That’s all I had. And then if I knew then what I had to go through, I’d probably think twice if I should start a print magazine.

I thought, oh my God, it’s so easy. I’m going to do it. But then once you start doing it and you realize how huge of an undertaking it is from looking for clients and advertisers, looking for cover stars, being on top of current affairs and finding the budgets for the productions and finding the right team, the passionate, loyal team that would have the same vision as you have or be willing to bring your vision to life.

So all of these things are very, very complex. Even people and companies with unlimited budget would consider having a print magazine quite an undertaking. So it’s not enough just to have the funds.

You also have to be extremely passionate about it and live with it. So I live BASIC. I live 24-7 with the publication, with the ideas, with the concepts, with the things we need to do with the project.

Definitely there were some challenges. There were challenges on many levels, on the production level, to really build the team, to have the right team to support me, to support the vision, to find the funds to run the publication since the magazine is fully self-funded. And I can talk a little bit more about that,  and different avenues, how we monetize the publication, how we keep it alive.

There were definitely challenges creating content that would resonate online and also would be relevant in print because these are two complete different platforms. And something that goes for print would necessarily go viral online and vice versa. If you take an influencer that has millions of followers online and put them in print, it’s going to completely contradict itself and not going to resonate with the audience who loves the fresh print, who loves to read something more meaningful and in-depth with the in-depth research.

Those are two different things were really hard to blend, but I managed to do it. I started it with the viral project, blending my photography and having a concept that resonated both online and in print. That concept was what if cars were supermodels.

I took different types of cars like a Tesla, a Toyota,  and a Ferrari. I imagined what they would look like if they were supermodels. So that concept went viral right away. We got so many, like almost billion impressions online and so many different magazines picked it up and translated to different languages. And for print, it also was a really good artistic series. So things like that are used to sort of be relevant in the digital time, but also print relevant, you know, in modern times.

Samir Husni:  How do you monetize BASIC?

Viktorija Pashuta: Very interesting question, because in my mind, the traditional advertising didn’t work. Something that worked maybe 10, 15 years ago when you have a full page of  a luxury brand, it wouldn’t work for BASIC because  we didn’t have the right numbers for the advertisers.

We didn’t have the right quantities in the beginning. We didn’t have enough celebrity power at the time. So in order to survive, we had to be creative. We had to be resourceful.  I created different avenues with the product placement that we utilize the smaller brands and provided them additional value by creating unique organic content for them within the pages of the magazine.

So we started to get that product and integrate the product within our editorials, within our articles, within the special projects that we were creating, at the same time, giving the brand so much more value than they would have gotten in a digital, I mean, in the traditional media, just having a one page ad, they would get traction, they would get word of mouth, they would get new original content that they in turn would use on their social media pages.

That was one of the things that we utilize is the product placement.
Secondly, we started to create specific targeted projects for brands that would increase the brand awareness and create content that will resonate with the image of the brand. So we take a suitcase company brand and we create a series of imagery that would support that brand.

For example, we work with a Taiwanese brand of suitcases called Desenio and their series were based on the Marvel Comic-Con heroes like Hulk and Captain America and Black Panther. We took those suitcases and I reimagined them as a female superheroes because traditionally in the Comic-Con world, all these characters were played by male characters. So I took a female Black Panther, I took a female Hulk, I took a female Captain America and then we utilized through fashion a series of works for them holding the suitcase in the photo shoot series that also became viral and we actually got the word of the ads of the world website for that campaign also printed and that both got viral digitally.

In addition, we diversified our revenue streams by utilizing additional activations that supported the magazine non-directly like organizing events, creating a production company that would create social media content for brands. We created a fashion showroom that represents fashion designers and provide press placements for those designers.

We had different revenue streams also connected to entertainment, fashion and content creation but non-directly they all were supporting BASIC magazine and all under the Basic Media Company umbrella and that really helped us to keep going and help us to succeed. That doesn’t mean we don’t want traditional advertising, we want it but at the same time that challenge pushed us to be more creative and find new non-traditional ways to monetize our operations.

Samir Husni: It sounds like more than a love affair with BASIC for you,  yet at the same time it’s one of the rare moments that I see the editor-in-chief herself on the cover of the magazine. Tell me about that.

Viktorija Pashuta: Yes, that actually was very unplanned and I’m a person that would never put myself on a cover because I thought that’s sort of abusing your power.  But for that specific issue it was very challenging to find a cover star.  It was the 20th issue of BASIC. The stars that were suggested to us from publicists didn’t really match my aesthetic or they didn’t really were in line with the grandeur of the matter because it was a 20th issue. I wanted to do something special, none of the stars really kind of match that idea .My sister suggested, “that since it’s our 20th issue why don’t you put yourself on a cover and have your team inside of the magazine.”

I said no.  I mean that would be too much. I would never really do that.  Why would I do this? She said well it makes sense because you  are the only photographer and the editor in chief. You are the visioner of the magazine that’s out there.  Even Anna Wintour editor in chief of Vogue didn’t invent Vogue but you did. So I thought maybe that is something interesting to explore and also with my own story I can inspire other people specifically other women because I do have a quite big female following that always admire my journey and admire my tenacity and they know how difficult it is so that was a testament to the team and to myself.  I thought okay if you cannot inspire yourself how can you inspire the world.  I thought if you use yourself as the main inspiration , it will give inspiration for other people to believe in themselves and keep going with whatever ventures they enter.

Samir Husni: Well, your sister was right.

Viktorija Pashuta: I hope so. She’s always my secret advisor and, to have a little confession, most of the time she helps me with my editor’s letter.  She has a very interesting perspective on things.

Samir Husni: You and I are having the same conversation in 2025. What would you tell me you’ve accomplished in the 24-25 year for BASIC?

Viktorija Pashuta: I think we made such a huge leap even right now. Look back at the first issues of the magazine. I’ve seen how different we’ve transformed since issue one and I also think it’s deeply connected to my own personal transformation. Certain things that interested me seven years ago no longer interested me now. As far as I grow personally and I transform personally so does the magazine. I feel we’ve done so much but also so little in my mind within the seven years. I always had these grand goals. I thought by this time we would become such a huge media company with huge following and it would have a very huge impact, but we’re not there yet. At the same time

I learned that no matter how big you become or no matter how successful you become you will never truly be satisfied with what you have and I think that’s a good thing that will always keep you pushing because once you feel like you’ve done it all and if you accomplish it all this stagnation period starts and you kind of start degrade and I always say the same about Oscar winning actors I feel like when DiCaprio won that Oscar he kind of slowed down. I always kind of wanted him not to win that Oscar because you know he’s going to push more, do more movies, do something more mind-blowing and keep growing as an actor so the same thing for me. I feel like even though I’m so close of being big but at the same time it always keeps pushing me to do better.

Looking back if we’re talking in 2025  I think we’ve done some really great accomplishments. We had quite a few renowned stars from Megan Fox to David Guetta to Michelle Rodriguez to Bebe Rex. All these really amazing personalities in music, film, and art world. So it’s been really great to have those celebrities.

I think we did quite a shift, especially for the past few issues, having more written content as before. In the beginning stages of BASIC we started highly as a visual publication. We had a lot of editorials, a lot of artworks, but we didn’t have a lot of articles. Right now we started to have more in-depth interviews. A little more articles, a little more research, a little more data, that we’re trying to get a little bit more a point of view, and trying to shape that BASIC identity.

We’re trying to shape our own voice which I think was the hardest thing and I think for any brand it’s really hard to stand out in the crowd so that’s kind of our goal been to find our DNA, to find BASIC  DNA and to really stick to it and be authentic

 I have a lot things to share but looking back I think we’ve done a lot of immersive projects, a lot of interesting events, which right now is my priority. My goal is to not also have a beautiful publication, but to create a community outside of the magazine, and that’s been my focus.  As of right now I want to involve more projects supporting artists, supporting female founders, supporting emerging musicians, emerging student designers. For me I really want to be the voice for those who cannot really speak.

The most talented people are very humble and they don’t really want to push themselves. The loudest people on social media are usually the least talented. I want to shift that dynamic and give the platform for the truly talented people who don’t really have crazy presence on social media but they have something to say and they have some beautiful artwork that they’ve been working the whole life.

That’s my goal, that’s my passion, and looking back I feel we’ve done a lot, but I want to do more.

Samir Husni:  Before I ask my typical last two questions is there any question I failed to ask  or anything you would like to add.

Viktorija Pashuta: Interesting question. If you allow me just to kind of philosophize, I always feel that I want to judge myself . I feel, as any artist, there is always an internal struggle and sometimes people became too much consumed by consuming things right there’s so much choice and there’s so much pressure to be successful and to create, create, create and sometimes we kind of lose ourselves in that process and we lose ourselves. Why are we doing these things, what’s the purpose?

For me, it’s been a continuous journey to find myself and to find my voice, but also to be silent and listen more to those who have something to say so with the magazine. Maybe the question would be how individuals, who stand behind this smaller passionate project, how do they really keep that positive mindset that allows them to keep motivating themselves every day and keep continuing doing what they do because it’s not easy.  

It’s always challenging. You always have this black and white stripes every day, you want to give up one day and the another day like no I’m doing something right. I want to continue because you feel there’s a feedback, and another day just like why am I doing all this.  There’s so much already out there I just might just stop and get an eight to five job and just be happy and travel.  But this is what I think really makes it so different for BASIC because despite all these challenges and the pains and the hurts you still persevere and still keep moving, still keep creating, because you know that’s through these pains you create something new, you make a difference, you inspire someone else and keep the planet going.

You keep grinding that wheel and you are not willing to settle and just take the easy path. I guess that would be my comment to your question,

Samir  Husni:  If I come to visit Viktorija one evening unannounced, what do I catch you doing cooking, watching tv, reading a book, reading a magazine?

Viktorija Pashuta: A good question. It depends on the day. I taught myself on the thought that I do live in my own bubble. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing to be so disconnected from the rest of the world.  If you come into my house you probably will see me doing either two things: one either watching a super dark bloody thriller or a documentary. I really love dark documentaries and research about unsolved crimes and cold cases.  I’m really passionate about that mystery and that enigma of those cases and trying to find what happened and who done it.

The second thing you may find me doing is spending time in silence. Having some candles on, having some essential oils, and just maybe dancing in the dark. I love dancing, I love connecting to myself through movement and I think it’s very important to move in general in your life with your mind physically emotionally being out there.

Sometimes you could catch me doing something weird like I imagine I’m a batman and I’ll go outside in the dark streets and just walk around at night and there would be someone who needs my help randomly. It happened to me a few times.  I just was at the right place at the right time to help somebody like an older person falling. Minor little things where I was just there at the right time to help them.

Samir Husni: Were you fascinated with the black cat back home in Latvia?

Viktorija Pashuta: Oh yeah.  I’m a hardcore fan of the cat woman so I believe being behind the scenes and being that savior for those who cannot speak for themselves and elevate people. I would love to do more charity work. I would love to help more people.  I’ve been trying to find something meaningful that connect with me, especially in the long term. I want to work more with kids and do more of the educational talks where I can inspire young people to find their passions.  I was really grateful having really great mentors in my life and I want to pass it on and give back and be that mentor for someone else down the line.

Samir Husni: My typical final question is what keeps Viktorija up at night these days?

Viktorija Pashuta: What keeps me up at night usually some obsessive idea that I will never do. I had so many obsessive ideas that I see them so vividly but they never come to life. I roll them over back and forth in my head and I’m just thinking yes that’s exactly what I’m going to do but at the end of the day never do them, so that keeps me up at night.

Some kind of concepts,visions, and dreams that I feel stuck in my brain but would never materialize and that really drives me crazy I want this magic one where, well,  maybe like a utopia thing where one day I would be like saying Viktorija, you have all the wealth in the world now, you can do anything you want. I actually had a little notebook that I’ve been writing since age 11. It contains all of the amazing cool concepts and ideas I want to do one day. Right now, that little book is full with ideas from books, shows, and restaurants.

I mean anything in the world that I could have created in that little book. So one day maybe if I have so much free time and unlimited wealth probably will bringing my crazy ideas to life.

Samir Husni: May all your wishes come true and thank you.

“Print is forever… With magazines, its there. It’s permanence. It’s always there.” Gregg Hutchings

Those who read my blog know that I don’t use adjectives such as extraordinaire, or incredible, or outstanding and such.  But after my conversation with Gregg Hutchings, editor and publisher of Model Cars magazines, I felt the urge and the need to use such adjectives.  The one-man band has been at it for more than two decades, with the last 15 years dedicated to Model Cars magazine.

To quote his bio, “My name is Gregg Hutchings, and I grew up in Kailua, Hawai’i, on the windward side of the island of Oahu. I graduated from Kalaheo High School in 1979 majoring in hot rods and girls, and went into the automotive industry as a mechanic. Around 1984, I hurt my back working at a Porsche/VW/Audi dealership, and had three back surgeries during the 1985-1987 time frame. To help pass the time, I got into building model cars, a hobby I grew to be a part of locally.”

Hurting his back was just the beginning of his journey with pain and surgeries.  He was rear-ended twice in car accidents which only enhanced the pain and introduced more surgeries, that as you will read in my conversation with Gregg, forces him to work on the magazine laying on his back.  The pain is so severe at sometimes, he can’t sit down to work. “Because I fall a lot. My head gets knocked up from the falls,” Gregg tells me, “my back will just seize up and I lose all feeling and everything. And it’s not a good way and it’s not a fun way to live life.”

With at least six surgeries so far, and a host of screws and pins in his back, Gregg refuses to give up and is so happy to announce that this coming October the magazine will celebrate its 25 anniversary. 
The first issue of Model Cars was published in October 1999.

So please join me as you read this incredible story of an extra-ordinary man, wishing him a very happy anniversary and all the best for his health.

But first the sound bites from the conversation with Gregg Hutchings, editor and publisher, Model Cars magazine:

On getting published in the magazine: People must have “done something good to get in print, because anybody can get on the web. But to get in print is something else.”

On whether the magazine is a hobby or a business: “It pays my bills, it pays my monthly bills. And I’m able to travel to shows all over the country whenever I can because my wife and I actually caregivers for her mom. So that’s my full-time job.”

On the usage of digital and online: “We’re getting a lot of our content from online. So it’s a lot of accumulating what we see online and finding new people that want to be in print and are tired of their internet fame, because it is so fleeting.”

On his pain and physical health: “I can’t sit up. My whole desk is elevated. I can stand up and work. Or I actually lay down here. This is where I do a lot of work too, just laying down.”

On the audience reaction to him: “It’s like, here’s this guy from Hawaii that’s done something he loves to do. And people all across the country and the world just love to talk to him.”

On the plans for the 25^th anniversary celebration: “I’d love to have a social media blitz going. Just to say, it has been 25 years. It’s the only magazine out there that’s lasted this long. I want to get more new people. Because one thing with COVID, I had 247 dealers, which gave me a lot. It did really well for my bottom line. After COVID, I’m down to 146. Now, I’m down to 129.”

On working on model cars: “I can’t work on cars anymore. I can’t build cars. I was an incredible mechanic. But with this hobby, it’s just every day I can work on cars.”

On what keeps him up at night: “Pain. Besides pain, it is the next project, I think, it’s always the next thing. It’s what do people want to see? Because they trust me.”

And now for the lightly edited conversation with the incredible Gregg Hutchings, editor and publisher, Model Cars magazine:

Samir Husni: My first question Gregg, you are approaching the 25th anniversary of Model Cars, and you’ve been the owner for the last 10 years. What’s the attraction to a print publication, a specialized print publication in this digital age?

Gregg Hutchings: Somebody gave me that word: eternity. It’s permanent. Because digital, you have to know where you’re looking. With magazines, it’s there. It’s permanence. It’s always there.

That’s what everybody likes, because everybody can put their self in or on a website or whatnot. But to get yourself into a magazine, to be in print, that means something to all these people. It’s self-acknowledgement.  They’ve done something good to get in print, because anybody can get on the web. But to get in print is something else. Print is forever.

You can go ahead, and if you did a mistake, you are not going to reprint the magazine. I always call my mistakes, I spell them M-I-S and then steak, like eat a steak. That’s how I spell my mistakes. I said, oops, I made a mistake. No backspace in the magazine. No control alt V or what.

Samir Husni: Give me your elevator pitch for Model Cars, for people who don’t know the magazine. You’re based in Hawaii, but the magazine is distributed in the entire country and internationally.

Gregg Hutchings: It’s the hobbyist magazine. It’s the magazine for the model car hobbyists. I got into it as therapy. A lot of the people I talked to have had health issues and whatnot, and that’s why they get into the hobby or got back into the hobby mostly. It’s always been that way. I think that’s why it’s not corporate, it’s down grassroots, that’s the word. It’s the grassroots magazine.

And the fact that I was able to do something really smart when I had Plastic Fanatic magazine, when I bought it, I think the circulation was about 2,500 or 3,000 and it was okay. But then I come up with this idea to sell directly to the hobby shops. That’s the core, that’s the key, billing the hobby shops directly. That’s why I’ve lasted 25 years, because I don’t have to worry about advertisers or circulation or doing renewals. Every issue I send out invoices and it pays for the printing.

Samir Husni: You mentioned, besides being therapy and hobby, that it’s your life, it’s your business. You’re not doing this for charity work or anything. You said that through this distribution system, it pays the bill for the printing. How about for the publisher, for the editor-in-chief?

Gregg Hutchings: It pays my bills, it pays my monthly bills. And I’m able to travel to shows all over the country whenever I can because my wife and I actually caregivers for her mom. So that’s my full-time job.

She’s 92 years old and she’s got major health issues. We are caregivers for her. I watch her during the day and my wife watches her at night, which is when I get to do my work that I need to.

Samir Husni: Describe for me, what’s a day in the life of Gregg? I mean, when you are putting this magazine together.

Gregg Hutchings: One thing I do like about what you did mention about the digital part is we’re getting a lot of our content from online. So it’s a lot of accumulating what we see online and finding new people that want to be in print and are tired of their internet fame, because it is so fleeting. Once they get in print, it’s forever.

Finding the people, making sure they’re a good fit, because like you said before, in your book, you got to keep that lighthouse going of what you’re actually about. And that’s what I think has kept me different from everybody else is I love this hobby. I love the people.

My best friends are model car builders, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was a mechanic for many years. I ran one of the biggest firms here for 10 years, all while doing the magazine too.

But the people with the hobby are just fantastic. I think that’s what makes these niche magazines so great, because it’s not a huge corporation. It’s a bunch of guys I can call up any time of day, say, hey, how are you doing? What are you building? What are you doing? Or if I need help, they’ll come and help me here. I couldn’t ask for something better. I really couldn’t. It makes good money because I can live here comfortably. It pays all the bills, but I have to chase the money. That’s the only thing I don’t like. I have to chase the money. That’s the hard part.

Because I can’t sit up. My whole desk is elevated. I can stand up and work. Or I actually lay down here. This is where I do a lot of work too, just laying down. And I always said, if I was 100%, I’d probably have this magazine at 20,000 circulation.

But it’s just hard to chase it. Right now, I’m at 5,500. And when I was with Source Interlink and Ingram we were at about 7,500 with a 63% sell-through. That’s unheard of.  The Atlanta group recently approached me to be back on the newsstands. A lot of people are asking for it. But because I’m so behind all the time, I’m about two months behind schedule. It’s just really hard to get back up to speed and being able to have a solid publication schedule. Still trying to do six issues a year. I started at six, went to nine.

Then when I got hurt in 2016, I went back to six. But when we’re doing nine issues a year, it was doing really good.

Samir Husni: You’re the publisher and the editor-in-chief.

Gregg Hutchings: Yeah, everything. Accounting, taxes, subscription, renewal.

Samir Husni: Which hat do you like more? The publisher or the editor-in-chief?

Gregg Hutchings: That’s a tough one. I kind of like the incognito guy, if that makes sense. Because if I go to shows and stuff, sometimes I won’t wear my shirts or my uniform, and people don’t know me.

I’ll just walk up behind them and talk to them, and they find out who I am. It’s like they met their idol or something. And it’s an incredible feeling. It really is. It’s like, here’s this guy from Hawaii that’s done something he loves to do. And people all across the country and the world just love to talk to him.

It’s not egotistical. That’s one thing about Hawaii. We don’t really have egos and all that stuff.

A couple of quick stories. When I go to shows, nine times out of 10, the person’s wife is the one that comes up to me and thanks me. Because it’s made such a difference in the husband’s life for doing the model cars. That’s what I like. I just think it’s unreal to be able to touch that many people. I know it sounds corny.

Samir Husni: No, it is your passion, love, and work all in one and one in all. So tell me, when Larry Bell retired and said, okay, here’s the magazine, in 2015, can you describe that moment? Can you describe your feeling?

Gregg Hutchings: Well, back up to 1999 when I went to the mainland and got hooked up with Golden Bell Press. I was co-owner with Larry Bell from the start of 1999.

And then about a year or two later in 2001, I was in a serious rear-ended accident in Denver. The back of the Honda Civic I was in, the bumper hit my seat. The back bumper hit the back of my seat.

I was the passenger. So I was extricated from that. And I came back to Hawaii and then Larry said, instead of being co-owner, he just paid me a straight salary.

So that way I didn’t have to worry about, I had strict income, I didn’t have to worry about percentages or whatnot. So he took over complete ownership and I was paid a salary or 1099.  I’m on heavy medications too. You became more like a freelance. You became on a set salary.

I became the editor instead of just the co-publisher. But he always considered me the publisher because I did everything still. It was just the financial part of it was it was safer for me because I had to go.

I went, I had three surgeries before that. Then after the accident, I had two more. And then it worked out great. We went up to nine issues a year. And then in 2015, he wanted to retire. And so he just gave me everything.

At that time, I had started another magazine called Slot Cars Magazine. And that one was doing really good. But the problem with that is when he gave me that magazine, he didn’t give me. The needed paperwork for the periodical mailing.

It’s terrifying. My wife, Kelly, and I went through the whole schooling process of that. But when he gave me Model Cars Magazine, he didn’t give me all the original paperwork.

So, I didn’t have the original requesters, all the copies of everything they had and whatnot. So, I could not get my periodical permit.

The post office really tried to help me out. They came to the house. They did the audits and everything. But I didn’t have the original paperwork. So, that was… I just gave up. And then in 2016, December, I was hit again.

I was rear-ended. My wife hates it because I drive by the rearview mirror. She’s like, what are you looking at? I said, I’m just watching, just watching. If I get hit again, I’ve got so much rods and screws in my back, it would be… This time, my next surgery is going to go through the front, break two ribs, fuse the front of it, flip me over, take out all six levels of rods and screws and go all the way up.

So, it’s not going to be fun.

Samir Husni: I wish you the best.

So, tell me, what are the plans for the 25th anniversary?

Gregg Hutchings: I don’t know. I’d love to have a social media blitz going. Just to say, it has been 25 years. It’s the only magazine out there that’s lasted this long. I want to get more new people. Because one thing with COVID, I had 247 dealers, which gave me a lot. It did really well for my bottom line. After COVID, I’m down to 146. Now, I’m down to 129.

So, I lost a lot of shops, a lot of hobby shops. I want to find more. Either go back to Barnes & Noble or find other ways to find other retail shops. Because that’s what does it for me. They pay the bill within 30 days. And it is about chasing the money.

I mean, the advertising revenue is not that high. I think I’m at 6.5%. But with my printing schedule,  I don’t have the reputation of being timely. Most of these people know me. And they know that,  he’ll be down for a week if something happens. Because I fall a lot. My head gets knocked up from the falls. My back will just seize up and I lose all feeling and everything. And it’s not a good way and it’s not a fun way to live life.

Samir Husni: Yeah, it’s not. So tell me, if I come uninvited to your house, not that I’ve been to Hawaii before, but let’s say I come to see you one evening, what do I catch Gregg doing? Reading a book, watching TV, or laying on the floor?

Gregg Hutchings: Probably the last one. Laying on the floor. I’ve got what I call the squirrel syndrome. I’ll see something shiny and I’ll just jump right on it and I’ll forget about what I was working on. And I’ll have so many projects going on.

I guess with the specialized part of the hobby, I’m always building something. I’m always working on something. I added the projects I am working on now on a spreadsheet. I’ve got 157 projects like that started. And it’s always something going.

I can’t work on cars anymore. I can’t build cars. I was an incredible mechanic. But with this hobby, it’s just every day I can work on cars. And then I got into computers.  I just met so many unreal people with the magazine. I’m just such a small little guy that has been able to do such unreal things.

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

Gregg Hutchings: Pain. Besides pain, it is the next project, I think, it’s always the next thing. It’s what do people want to see? Because they trust me.

Samir Husni: Is there anything you would like to add or I failed to ask you?

Gregg Hutchings: One thing I’ve always said is I don’t do reviews on something I haven’t had in my hands. So if a company sends something a PR piece, I’ll say, no, no, no, you got to send me the actual thing. Because people trust that.

Because they know that if I’ve looked at it, if I read it, if I wrote about it, so it’s either thumbs up, thumbs down, or like we say, a shocker or a no shocker. But I love the business side of it.

I really do. Because it’s got the potential to be really well. I used to tell Kelly, if I hit 20,000, that’s a million bucks a year for one guy.

That’s pretty good. So I mean, it can be done. And it’s just physically being able to do it.

It’s just, I wish I could. But I’m not going to give up. That’s the one thing people ask me with the pain and stuff.

How do you keep on doing it? I don’t know. I’ve got too much junk to pass on to my wife that I’ve got to keep on looking forward. And it’s just, I love the magazine industry too much.

Samir Husni:  Thank you.

“We love magazines. We’re finding out that a lot of other people who didn’t know they love magazines, love magazines. I’m feeling really buoyant and positive. You say, “Will this be a business? Yes, we are very, very confident. This is not a vanity project. We’re here to make money. The universe is conspiring such a thing.” Rob Hill

An upscale magazine for the masses “who partake.” A “Vanity Fair for weed.” A new twist on marijuana magazines. Elegant in design and even more elegant and sophisticated in writing and photography.  The brainchild of Rob Hill and Pam Patterson, hiii magazine arrived on the newsstands in the city of Los Angeles and at all its dispensaries.

The lifestyle magazine utilizes every inch of space to channel messages to its readers and advertisers.  From the margins to the spine and the front edge of the magazine, there is content, a very specific message to the audience.

To say the magazine is well done will be an understatement.  Rob and Pam poured their heart and soul into this new publication that goes beyond the ink on paper magazine.  To find out about this hiii adventure I reached out to Rob and Pam and had a delightful conversation about the magazine and the entities surrounding the publication. 

Please enjoy this conversation with Rob Hill, co-founder and editor in chief, and Pam Patterson, co-founder and creative director,  that is sure to give you a hiii whether you partake or not.  But first for the soundbites:

On the genesis of the magazine idea: “My thinking was that the industry had nowhere to brand. And there are about 2800 potential advertisers in this city. So I just saw it as a numbers game. But it also had to bring a new and veneer to the industry. A new take for a new time.”

On the mission of the magazine: “Because what this industry didn’t need was another rag that was basically looking backwards and not forwards, actually propelling the stereotypes. We’re totally anti that. We don’t believe that. I think 64% of people use cannabis in this country.”

On scoring an ad from Porsche: “We don’t all live in a silo. We buy Porsches. I hope you saw the ad. We booked Porsche, which has never been done in a cannabis magazine. They booked it for the full year and paid. So we’re going after car companies, we’re going after mainstream brands.”

On expanding beyond Los Angeles: “We’re getting calls from Vegas, NYC, and Detroit, etc, to bring the magazine there. It’s just been so exciting. I don’t want to say we’re saving print, but I think we’re part of a resurgence of print. Nylon is back, Spin is back, Creem is back, Life is back, Playboy is back. There is a digital fatigue that has set in.”

On the role the magazine aims to play: “One of the things that makes this audience so much different is we really are a lifestyle magazine. It’s a tool for connection between people. I think people who don’t smoke wouldn’t completely understand it.”

On the flipbook in the margins: “When I heard that Mickey Mouse came into public domain, at least Steamboat Willie, we took a look at it. He’s driving the boat and it’s just begging for a joint in his mouth. “

On the distribution model: “The thinking is to conquer the country through cities rather than the traditional way of printing half a million magazines and putting them on newsstands all over the country.”

On the creation of the magazine: “We just felt we were the best people to redefine, update, and package it in a way that made sense to everyone. Concentrate on the positive, creative, and medicinal parts.”

On the content: “We’re going to always have some really good stories in there too. Like the prison story we did. People don’t know that there are people still rotting in jail for selling three joints in 1975. It’s crazy.”

On the audience: “The audience is very broad, but it’s like the coolest people in all of those sort of segments smoke weed.”

On young folks reaction to the magazine: “We have a lot of young people that work in our office who are in their twenties and a lot of people that come through here who are millennials that treat the magazine like it’s a jewel. It’s an exotic thing to them that they’re liking. What’s not to like?”

And now for the lightly edited conversation with Rob Hill, Co-founder and editor in chief, and Pam Patterson, Co-founder and creative director of hiii magazine:

Samir Husni:  In this digital age, you are launching a print magazine, and not any print magazine, a print magazine “for people who partake.”  What’s the reasoning behind it? What were you thinking? Are you out of your mind?

Rob Hill: Well, during COVID, I was sitting home alone a lot. I kind of fell back in love with cannabis. I’ve had an on and off love affair with it.

I was coming from a business to business cannabis magazine called MG, which was the biggest cannabis business to business magazine with a very different model. It was a subscription only model. It went out to CEOs and owners of companies.

I would go down to the Malibu newsstand before they locked us all down. Even when they did, and just kind of, buy magazines and bring them home. I started to make a collage on my wall and started to just envision it.

My thinking was that the industry had nowhere to brand. And there are about 2800 potential advertisers in this city. So I just saw it as a numbers game. But it also had to bring a new and veneer to the industry. A new take for a new time.

I thought if we could bring it into the 21st century, and give it a splashy, fun, and modern take, that it would work.  That was kind of the thinking behind it.

We’re going to make money. We spent the first 18 months after we developed the idea and got it where it needed to be.

I think what’s really broken in the magazine industry is the distribution model and the fact that if you don’t love magazines don’t launch one. Anyone can have a blog and a website but not everyone can have a magazine.

In addition the print pages, we sold eight activations at our launch party, which means that a company brings their product, sets up a table, has their signage, while educating consumers and handing out samples.

Samir Husni: hiii is unlike any of the cannabis magazines that were launched even as back as the 70s. We had a lot of magazines like High Times, Inside Dope, Head, Kush,  you name it. hiii is more like an upscale magazine, yet it’s a mass magazine. Tell me the thinking behind combining upscale and mass at the same time.

Rob Hill: I think that’s the target we needed to hit to be successful. Because what this industry didn’t need was another rag that was basically looking backwards and not forwards, actually propelling the stereotypes. We’re totally anti that. We don’t believe that. I think 64% of people use cannabis in this country.

We don’t all live in a silo. We buy Porsches. I hope you saw the ad. We booked Porsche, which has never been done in a cannabis magazine. They booked it for the full year and paid. So we’re going after car companies, we’re going after mainstream brands.

Our hope is by this time next year, a third of the magazine is going to have advertising in it that has nothing to do with cannabis. We’ll get Levi’s and Doc Martens and Bentley and Range Rover. Porsche plowed the road for us, so to speak. They parked their cars at our party to out in front of Woody Harrelson and Bill Maher’s cannabis lounge/garden The Woods in West Hollywood which was really cool.

Porsche’s whole marketing team came and it’s a really big deal.  Ad Age or Adweek should really do an article on that.

We were hoping to have 15 ads and we booked 26. And the Porsche ad, goes above and beyond what they paid. It’s not even about the money with Porsche. It’s about having that real estate for the full year in the magazine

Samir Husni: That’s not your first venture editing a magazine. You’ve been there, done that. What’s the difference? You and Pam are now owners and publishers. Does it feel any different that just being an editor?

Rob Hill: The last time we spoke we were  launching Treats magazine. That was pretty exciting. Hugh Hefner tried to buy it the day after we launched it. He invited us up to the mansion.

But this is different. Pam and I purposely put our emails in our editor’s letters because we wanted people to email us. We didn’t want to do info@ or editorial@. And we’re getting about a dozen a week of just people that are saying things like, “I saw your magazine at the dispensary. I picked it up. I commute to work on a bus. I read it cover to cover.”

We’re getting calls from Vegas, NYC, and Detroit, etc, to bring the magazine there. It’s just been so exciting. I don’t want to say we’re saving print, but I think we’re part of a resurgence of print. Nylon is back, Spin is back, Creem is back, Life is back, Playboy is back. There is a digital fatigue that has set in. People are tired of being on their phones and all ages are looking for more tangible experience. This is why we spent lavishly on our paper stock, size, and design. And it’s paying off.

Samir Husni: The design of the magazine from printing on the edge of the magazine or having an edgy design. Tell me about the creative design of  hiii.

Pam Patterson: I’m the creative director and I’ve been a weed smoker since I was 13.

One of the things that makes this audience so much different is we really are a lifestyle magazine. It’s a tool for connection between people. I think people who don’t smoke wouldn’t completely understand it. But when you’re part of this community, there’s a bond there that we channel when we’re concepting the magazine.

We wanted to create a toy, something where people could relate to it in a lot of different ways. We could have a story of substance, and then have a story that speaks to the tools of the trade and whatnot. Also where they could have a little passage from some novel that someone may see in a new light. 

We want to be fun like Bob Marley’s quote on the edge printing. It’s just a fun way. I think it’s kind of a wink to our audience that we get it. Weed smokers are thinkers. We’re creative thinkers.

Samir Husni: What about the flipbook? I mean, the images that run in the margins?

Pam Patterson: When I heard that Mickey Mouse came into public domain, at least Steamboat Willie, we took a look at it. He’s driving the boat and it’s just begging for a joint in his mouth.  We wanted to do a flipbook for some time, and that was kind of a thing we devoted that real estate, the right hand margin to, in addition to a literary passage and the edge-printing. People were like, oh, advertisers are not going to like you getting into that space. But it’s been just fine.

Samir Husni: It looks like you have a love affair with the magazine and with print. But my question to you how is hiii as a business? Are you going to spend your savings or are you going to make money out of this?

Rob Hill:  Absolutely. We’re going to make money. We spent the first 18 months after we developed the idea and got it where it needed to be. We have a CFO who was CFO from Hard Rock Cafe and other companies. We did talk to a lot of people. But what we found was the investors didn’t get it as much as the advertisers did. So our business development consultant said, “Well, your advertisers are your investors. So just go start selling and don’t worry about all of this other stuff.”

We were hoping to have 15 ads and we booked 26. And the Porsche ad, goes above and beyond what they paid. It’s not even about the money with Porsche. It’s about having that real estate for the full year in the magazine and being able to go to other brands like Woody Harrelson, Whiz Khalifa, Snoop, Jay-Z, Willie Nelson etc., and say, “Hey, your ad is going to be after Porsche.” They like that.

We just started to knock down some barrier to entry and it was difficult in the very beginning. People were saying cannabis isn’t the hottest thing right now and magazines aren’t the hottest thing right now. But we didn’t believe that. And Samir, I think what’s really broken in the magazine industry is the distribution model and the fact that if you don’t love magazines don’t launch one. Anyone can have a blog and a website but not everyone can have a magazine.

I think we’ve come up with a way to do distribution right. In fact, last night, I went after dinner to go check the markets in Studio City and Laurel Canyon, where we distribute the magazine on the racks outside the markets. And there we put 25 on each and they’re gone in three days. There are 128 dispensaries and cannabis lounges that also carry the magazine in their stores and half a dozen that we have partnered with to deliver the magazine right to their door of their VIP customers with their cannabis.

And that’s all over the city. That’s Erewhon, Vons, Ralphs, Whole Foods. And then we do have a paid model. We’re distributed through Mader News. We took over the Beverly Hills newsstand for the month of August! Never been done before by a cannabis magazine. The first day David Lynch sent his assistant to buy the magazine. The next day it was Quentin Tarantino.

They put us right next to Monocle, which was really cool because Tyler (Brule) is one of my heroes. I think we figured out distribution, and the model is to take this to the next city in second quarter 2025.

The thinking is to conquer the country through cities rather than the traditional way of printing half a million magazines and putting them on newsstands all over the country. We’re sort of doing what Cigar Aficionado does married with what Departures did, with a dollop of traditional newsstand and the whole National Geographic in the dentist office thing.

Once Cigar Afficionado got distribution in the thousands of cigar lounges, the advertisers were like, What more could we want? If you’re an advertiser, you have a guy or a woman that’s in a cigar shop, hanging out, having a good time, talking with their friends and then they pick up Cigar Aficionado and spend 20 minutes enjoying it. It’s a warm audience. That’s hiii in the lounges and dispensaries.

The other unique and singular thing hiii does is reach not only consumers but also the budtnders, buyers, and owners of cannabis dispensaries who are all reading the magazine. The competition is fierce for foot traffic and for space on the shelves. Yesterday I got two calls from buyers who saw ads in the magazine of products that they would like to carry. Both brands scored over a 1000 unit order. That will be 10x what they paid for the ad. Needless to say, they called and asked to book for the rest of the year. Smart. Happy advertisers make my day.

Samir Husni:  You wrote that you’re “going to change the perception and the veneer of the industry.” What do you mean?

Rob Hill: I think that so much of this world is about perception and whether that perception is real or not, it is your reality. If you are a person that is perceiving cannabis users as criminals and low-lifes, then that’s not good for our industry. I always felt if we don’t define it, someone else will, and they have tried their darndest. Even magazines like Rolling Stone and The Atlantic have begun to take pot shots at the industry.

We just felt we were the best people to redefine, update, and package it in a way that made sense to everyone. Concentrate on the positive, creative, and medicinal parts.

Pam Patterson: Not everyone’s asleep on the couch. I think some of the highest performing individuals, and especially in the creative fields, are smoking pot all the time.

Rob Hill: You know what I’m most proud of? I’d say 80% of our advertisers have never done a print ad before. They’ve never done any marketing. This is a brand new industry, so to speak. And it’s hitting another phase because the genie can’t be put back in the bottle.

They’ve tried to slow it down and that’s not working either because humans are very malleable, flexible, and we figure stuff out. So one of the good things that happened to us right when we were getting out to sell ads, a law was passed that’s going to allow cannabis companies to write off their marketing and their advertising like every other industry. And that kind of gave us a little bit of a tailwind where we were coming from a headwind.

That changed a lot right there. Right after that, we went to the biggest cannabis expo and met with over 400 companies and started selling ads. Started telling them, “You can now write this off, like a beer company or a clothing company.”

Samir Husni: So here’s my question to you. What can you do in print that you could not do on the digital portal?

Rob Hill: Well, I was going to make a comment that because the industry is not federally legal, it makes a lot of media vehicles unwilling to do any advertising with cannabis. So things like radio, TV, much of print, etc. is off limits to cannabis companies. Also you can’t trade across state lines. So it’s all very regional play. There are some very unique, specific things to this industry that make hiii something that the community really needs.

They need an advertising vehicle. They need a place to brand. We can’t be shadow banned. We can’t be censored. We feel good. And we are something that the industry can be proud of. Every revolution needs a magazine, right?

I like the idea that we’re not going to wake up in the morning and have our Instagram taken down. I mean, like a lot of people wake up in the morning, have their Instagrams just taken down. That just happened to the biggest guy in our industry who had 8 million followers. He just woke up and it vanished. The disruption to people’s businesses who depend on that for a product that’s locally legal it’s kind of crazy.

We’re finding that print done well, like the paper that Pam picked and the size of the magazine, she’s so good at just packaging things and understanding what’s good and what catches the zeitgeist.

Print is a tangible object, people are buying vinyl albums again, and magazines are back in vogue. Are there going to be 2 million circulation magazines launching weekly? No. Those days are over.

Life magazine is coming back as a quarterly. Not a bad idea. I think quarterly is where these magazines are finding their sweet spot. Mader News told us what’s working right now are quarterlies with high quality and a high cover price. That’s why we’re charging $20 for that because they said you will get that at these newsstands.

Samir Husni: To me, this year is the year of the relaunches. But you are the year of the launch. You are launching something from scratch and using all the experience that you had for year. It’s manifested in hiii. The goal now is quarterly and LA. What next?

Rob Hill: Well we may change our minds. We talk about telepathy every night when I’m in my bed and she’s in her bed, 25 miles away. We started  thinking the same. It’s been interesting.

One of the things I do want to say that’s very important to our business and unique to this business is the trade shows and the events. This industry will write big checks, 50,000, 70,000, 150,000 to have booths at these trade shows. They’ve been doing it for about a decade now.

So they’re very comfortable writing those checks. What they haven’t been comfortable with or what they haven’t been doing is writing checks for magazine advertising because there hasn’t really been that vehicle. So we wanted to combine the two.

 In addition the print pages, we sold eight activations at our launch party, which means that a company brings their product, sets up a table, has their signage, while educating consumers and handing out samples.  We had 500 people at our launch party We’re packaging this with, You get the goodie bag, which they all want because they want these products in people’s homes very badly.

They want the activation to basically give samples away and to educate the consumer. They all fell in love with the magazine too. That’s going to be a big revenue generator for us.

We have an event space here that’s 12,000 square foot that’s outside that can fit 500 people. For every issue we’ll do a party. So we’re selling a 360 product because our newsletter has a 67% open rate.

We’ve curated a newsletter that’s like triple or double what you’d hope to have—a 67% open rate. We’ll be able to, as we grow that, monetize it. Digital is obviously really important, but we want the magazine to drive ROI and traffic to the stores. And so far after a month the ROI is tangible.

Digital doesn’t really do that well, but a magazine that you pick up and put in your car that when you go pick up your girlfriend and her friends after class or whatever, and they all see it and begin passing it around and gawking at the ads, does that really well. There’s something happening right now and it’s totally counterintuitive, but it’s happening. I’ve never been more excited in my life. We had to throw caution to the wind. We’ve had to just jump in.

I really do feel it. We have a lot of young people that work in our office who are in their twenties and a lot of people that come through here who are millennials that treat the magazine like it’s a jewel. It’s an exotic thing to them that they’re liking. What’s not to like?

Pam Patterson: It pays off. People who take the time to open the magazine, get rewarded. And that is an essential quality. One thing I wanted to mention, too, is that weed smokers are of all different ilks, all ages, highly diverse, from all different kinds of communities including LGBTQI+. The audience is very broad, but it’s like the coolest people in all of those sort of segments smoke weed.

There’s a common thread. It’s intentionally made to relate to a broad section of people, to be a unifying factor among everyone, and something everyone can be proud of. People who are in this industry are in it because they love it. It’s still very much a mom and pop industry.

Rob Hill: You know, it’s very difficult to be a big Coca-Cola type brand when you can’t sell your product in many states and almost all countries. That’s going to start changing pretty rapidly. Japan, Thailand, Germany, and Israel are opening up. We’re probably going to have to think about some licensing deals here because it looks like globally this thing is just on fire and I think is very interesting.

I liked what Imbibe did for the alcohol industry and they rallied behind it and they have stuck with it. It’s a good magazine. They have big brands in there and we actually really feel like we’re going to get a lot of those alcohol brands at some point. You only lose when you run away from the internet or run away from the things that you know are coming. Well, and in LA I think that there are more dispensaries than McDonald’s now.

Pam Patterson: And it’s outselling wine. There’s a lot of really big categories that cannabis is marching past.

Samir Husni: So before I ask you my typical last questions, is there any question I failed to ask you or is anything you would like to add.

Rob Hill: No, think you covered it. You totally understand the magazine.

I’ve always had a lot of respect for you and follow your blog and did my favorite interview with Treats with you. And, you know, it’s great to be endorsed. You love magazines.

We love magazines. We’re finding out that a lot of other people who didn’t know they love magazines, love magazines. I’m feeling really buoyant and positive. You say, “Will this be a business? Yes, we are very, very confident.

This is not a vanity project. We’re here to make money. The universe is conspiring such a thing.

Samir Husni: I know you are playing on the word high and hi. What was the thinking about the Hii?

Rob Hill: Well, we really liked the sing-song because it’s when you see somebody that you like, or maybe you’re flirting with, it’s kind of like, hiii. And so we thought that that was a sweet way to do it.

You got to be careful in this industry to not be too obvious. A lot of those like really obvious brands get into that realm of just showing pictures of flower and stuff like that. We wanted to be something fresh, new,  and friendly.

It just made a lot of sense in that regard. We trademarked the whole thing. “hiii: For People Who Partake.”

Pam put on the spine “The Third Eye,” which is referring to our pineal gland, our antenna to other dimensions, etc. There’s evidence that cannabis, CBD, and mushrooms help to decalcify the gland which has been corroded with Fluoride, etc.

Pam Patterson: We’re going to always have some really good stories in there too. Like the prison story we did. People don’t know that there are people still rotting in jail for selling three joints in 1975. It’s crazy. Not many. Lots of them have been pardoned, but it’s pretty crazy.

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

Rob Hill: At six pm we’re still at work. We’ll probably have people dropping in and probably smoking a pre-roll, but we’re not watching TV. We’re talking about issues.

We’re talking about the magic of the plant. Our office and event compound has a neighborhood clubhouse feel; hundreds and hundreds of people flow through here every month. The word is out. Frogtown and hiii are the place to be.

We’re the center of the community. We have this event space. We have the magazine that people are rallying behind.

We just hired the woman that used to work for Bob Guccione Jr. at Spin. She also worked at Cosmo too. She’s on our ad sales staff; we have now five ad sales people.

I just really feel like the ads are going to go from 26 to 40 to who know how many pages. Our main competitor, who’s not really a competitor, but he’s more of a newsstand magazine, he’s doing consistently 176 pages six times a year.

He’s doing pretty well. He has a different audience than us and a different business plan, but it’s good. We see that as a good thing.

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

Pam Patterson: We’re hitting our stride. We have a lot of fun stories.

Rob Hill: There’s a difference when you can’t sleep at night because you’re freaking out and stressed out. Then there’s this other side that for me, it’s just excitement, almost like I don’t want to go to bed.  I know I have to, because the rocket’s taken off. There’s so much to do in so many fantastic ways. It’s really a playground over here. The timing is perfect.

I think we’ve caught lightning in a bottle.

Samir Husni: Thank you both and good luck.

Kat Craddock is to SAVEUR magazine what Victor Kiam was to Remington Shavers in the late 1970s.  The famous salesman who said, “ I liked the razor so much I bought the company.”  And so did Kat Craddock who liked SAVEUR magazine so much, she bought the company.

A restauranteur who fell in love with the magazine at a very young age and was sad to see it halt printing in 2020 decided to do the unthinkable, buy the magazine from its current owners and relaunch its print edition without ignoring the digital space that the magazine enjoys among its faithful readers and followers.

In an all-encompassing conversation with Kat, I had the opportunity to ask her about the relaunch of the magazine in print, the role of print in today’s digital world, and how she is going to achieve success.  Her answers were down to earth, passionate and unpretentious.  She knows what she is facing and what are the challenges in store for her and the magazine, but, together with her team, she is determined to prove the theory of “print is dead” is wrong.

Kat told me that,  “Since we stopped printing in 2020, our readers have been telling us that they wanted the magazine to come back. I knew that enough people loved it and enough people would buy it that we could make it work. Maybe not in the old school distribution models, but I knew that there were enough people out there that wanted the publication that we could deliver something that they were excited about and that we were proud of.” 

So, please enjoy this Mr. Magazine™ conversation with Kat Craddock, CEO & EIC of SAVEUR magazine.  But first for the soundbites…

On SAVEUR’s mission: SAVEUR is such a particular type of publication with original recipe content,  original photography, recipe testing, and travel. It’s so core to our identity.  Those are all really expensive things.

On the magazine revenue model: . A lot of the advertising revenue that we are generating is built into these larger packages that are a combination of digital content or experiential and print. Our print magazine is $25 now. We’re not doing discounts for subscriptions.

On the myth of digital vs. print: I guess I’m being a little defiant about it. I don’t like hearing from the industry that since people want digital now, they by default aren’t going to want print.  I feel like I have this kind of personal mission to prove that theory wrong.

On what print can offer that digital can’t:  There are a lot of different types of storytelling through photography, through different story type, through different story lengths, through design that just don’t translate to digital.

On the role of events in her business model:  I want events to become more a part of our business model and our marketing model.

On selling out of the relaunch issue: we sold out, which is a great problem to have. It’s nice to be in a position of going back to our printer who was so wonderful to work with and say, okay, next time we’re going to be doubling our print run.

On what keeps her up at night: I’m a year into basically owning a startup. So probably the, the day-to-day business side of things and making sure that my team is happy and feels supported.

And now for the lightly edited conversation with Kat Craddock, CEO and EIC, of SAVEUR.

Samir Husni: Well, congratulations on the relaunch of SAVEUR.

Kat Craddock: Thank you so much, we’re very excited.

Samir Husni: You’re one of the few who not only relaunched the print magazine, but also have a relaunch party and also sold out of the relaunch issue. What’s going on?

Kat Craddock: Well, a lot’s going on, I guess. We bought the magazine out from our former owner last April. So it’s also our anniversary.

It’s a big anniversary this year. It’s our 30th anniversary as a publication. This month is our first anniversary since being an independent publication.

We relaunched the print magazine last month. We spent the last year working towards the relaunch. That was the first order of business that I really wanted to make sure we were able to do.

Since we stopped printing in 2020, our readers have been telling us that they wanted the magazine to come back. I knew that enough people loved it and enough people would buy it that we could make it work. Maybe not in the old school distribution models, but I knew that there were enough people out there that wanted the publication that we could deliver something that they were excited about and that we were proud of.

We’re starting slow. We’re only going to be doing two a year to get off the ground. So right now we’re working towards our fall/winter issue, which will launch in September and kind of pivoting our team, who largely had done only digital before, to the print mindset.

Getting out of the kind of quick turnaround cycle and working on assigning and shooting some seasonal content for next spring and next fall, which is it’s nice to be back on that rhythm again.

Samir Husni: I see you’re holding, to use a cooking phrase, two pots at the same time. You’re editor-in-chief and you’re a CEO. How are you balancing the job of your love for editorial and being a businesswoman at the same time?

Kat Craddock: Some days are better than others. It’s really exciting. I came from the restaurant world, so I’m used to kind of spinning a lot of plates or holding a lot of pots.

I do wish I had some more time for editorial. There are certain things that I had no idea would take as long as they did, like working through our employee handbook or our terms of use for our website, that sort of thing. I spend a lot more time looking at contracts than I ever thought I would.

But  it’s exciting and we’re learning very fast.  I have an incredible team, in particular, an incredible operations person who’d worked as our managing editor previously when we were owned by Bonnier. We’re learning very quickly together.

Having her insight into how print publishing and print operations worked in the old method has made it a lot easier for us to kind of pick and choose which systems are going to work for us as an independent pub and which ones we want to kind of reinvent.

Samir Husni: Do you think  independent publications are the future of print in this digital age?

Kat Craddock:  I can’t really speak for everybody else. SAVEUR is such a particular type of publication with original recipe content,  original photography, recipe testing, and travel. It’s so core to our identity.  Those are all really expensive things. I think that if we were trying to do a more kind of mass high volume sort of publication rather than something so niche, a lot of what we’re doing wouldn’t necessarily work. But since we know that we have a pretty loyal, devoted niche audience, we can kind of rejigger how our spending works and what we’re spending time on and what we’re not.

Samir Husni: The print editions are not cheap. Are you going more toward consumer revenue model rather than advertising revenue model?

Kat Craddock:  All the revenue is important. I’m really trying to get out of putting all of our eggs in one basket.  Advertising revenue is still part of the equation. Obviously, print advertising is not this king’s ransom that it used to be. A lot of the advertising revenue that we are generating is built into these larger packages that are a combination of digital content or experiential and print.

Our print magazine is $25 now. We’re not doing discounts for subscriptions. We’re doing a little bit of wholesale direct to retailers.  And in those cases, we’re not doing returns. We want to sell out of all these magazines. We don’t want to be throwing a bunch of copies away.  The consumer purchase is really at the forefront of what is funding the print product.

Samir Husni:  I’ve seen quite a few interviews with you.  You’re so passionate about print. Why?

Kat Craddock:  I don’t like being told that nobody wants it (print) because I don’t think that’s true.  I think that I went into food because I read SAVEUR.  I hear that from so many people in the food and beverage industry.  After we stopped printing, every single day, somebody told us that they wanted it to come back. And on some level, I guess I’m being a little defiant about it. I don’t like hearing from the industry that since people want digital now, they by default aren’t going to want print.

I feel I have this kind of personal mission to prove that theory wrong.

Samir Husni:  What do you think print can offer that digital cannot?

Kat Craddock:   That’s a really good question. There are a lot of different types of storytelling through photography, through different story type, through different story lengths, through design that just don’t translate to digital.

And obviously, there’s a lot that print can’t do that digital does really well. And I think that they both complement each other really nicely. We’re not looking to get rid of our website or anything like that.

But if we’re going to be investing in beautiful photography, long form storytelling, and more playful, short form storytelling that leans a lot more heavily on design, why not present that on the most beautiful paper that you can get and give people the opportunity to lean back and look at that content without ads and flash and video and all of this kind of distraction popping up in your face. And I think that people find that really relaxing. It’s a lot more of a pleasure and a luxury to consume media that way.

That’s why we’re not printing 12 of these a year. This is meant to be kind of a slow, leisurely experience to read a print magazine that we’re putting out.  But I think that, you know, that different experience is something that print does really well that you just don’t get from consuming media on your phone.

 Samir Husni:  You’ve opted to bring back the magazine the same dimensions as 2020 and before because you said you have the whole collection on your bookshelf and you don’t want to.

Kat Craddock:   It’s right up there.  (Pointing to the magazines on her bookshelf).  The same cut size, yes. It is significantly longer. It’s 160 pages.

If we’re going to be on stands, or available for six months, we want people to be able to take some time with those stories. We did consider going to a larger cut size. I think that some of the relaunched print magazines are going really big and it is delicious and wonderful to open up like Bitter Southerner or  Field and Stream might be going bigger also.

That said, when I unpacked my bookshelves or when I packed my new bookshelves and I got all of the archives up in one beautiful line and I realized how perfectly they all lined up. There are a lot of collectors out there. A lot of people that kept all of their SAVEURs. It’s not just me, the crazy SAVEUR lady that has every issue.

It seemed like it would be a shame for the new issues not feel like they were in the same family. The width had kind of gone up and down over the years a little bit, but the height is exactly the same.

Samir Husni:  It has been years since I’ve heard of a magazine launch or relaunch party. It’s

like even if people are relaunching the magazine, they are just doing it like hush hush. It’s like they are ashamed of relaunching it, but you went all out. Based on what I’ve seen on your website you had a great relaunch party.

Kat Craddock:   Well, a big part of the reason is that back in 2020 we still had a brick and mortar space in New York City. The whole team was based here. That’s not the case anymore.  About half of our team is in New York, but we’ve got editors in Spain and Nashville and Boston and Florida, and everyone worked so hard on this together.  I thought it was really important that we had an opportunity to come together to celebrate. We also just really like throwing a party.

Like I said, I came from the restaurant world when we did have our Test Kitchen space. We loved doing events there. I want events to become more a part of our business model and our marketing model.

So it was important to me that we kind of kicked off this important moment for us in person. It was also a great opportunity for a lot of people who worked on SAVEUR over the years to come together. So there were people who have been writing for, contributing to SAVEUR in some way, shape, or form all the way back to the 90s were in attendance.

And to see that level of support from people that worked on a brand that I loved all those years ago was really wonderful. It was nice to see everybody coming together and talking together, too, because these aren’t necessarily people that knew each other at all. But kind of being able to celebrate over something that everyone sort of shares this love for was really nice.

Samir Husni:  Tell me a little bit about your audience. People are saying print is more of a nostalgic thing, who is reading SAVEUR?

Kat Craddock:   I think about this a lot. I started reading SAVEUR when I was pretty young. My mom got it when I was 10 or so, and I started reading it a couple of years later.

I would love to find young people that are interested in cooking. It’s important to me that we’re developing relationships with the culinary schools in New York City and beyond for that reason. Yes, we have a lot of readers who have been reading us since the 90s.

They’re very valuable and very important to us, and we want to make sure that we’re giving them what they love about SAVEUR, but it is also important that we’re reaching out to that next generation. I think that it gets harder and harder to find print magazines and buy print magazines, but that makes them a little rarer and a little bit more special. We do see young people buying up vinyl records left and right, and I think that nostalgia is valuable to everybody.

It’s not just people that necessarily remember buying print magazines back in the day. I have spoken to a number of journalism students who are excited about print and see the value in it. I don’t think it’s going to get back to the volume again that it once was doing, but people are really appreciating the luxury of buying a print magazine.

Samir Husni: Can you tell me what has been the most pleasant surprise since you acquired the magazine and since you relaunched it?

Kat Craddock:   When we announced that we were coming back into print and opened up our presale, I had no idea if people were going to be comfortable with the price point. So I wouldn’t say that’s like the biggest surprise, but I was like the biggest relief that people seem to be okay with it.

I know that some folks balked a bit at the price, but by and large, I think that the readers that really saw the value, they came out. As you mentioned, we sold out, which is a great problem to have. It’s nice to be in a position of going back to our printer who was so wonderful to work with and say, okay, next time we’re going to be doubling our print run.

Hopefully that is a trajectory that we get to stay on moving forward.

Samir Husni: And what was the most challenging moment?

Kat Craddock:   Half of our team hadn’t touched print at all.  So I wouldn’t say it was a huge challenge, but it was definitely a learning curve for everybody to shift over to.  Deadlines in print are a very different thing than deadlines in digital publishing and getting people to kind of shift gears a little bit while still working on digital publishing, editing and writing new content for digital. I know that was hard for everybody. It was even hard for me and I had worked on print before, but just coming out of four years of not thinking that way is definitely a shift.

Samir Husni: Is there any question I need to ask you that I failed to ask you?

Kat Craddock:   I would love to talk about  our distribution model.  I don’t want to be working in a distribution model where a bunch of magazines are going in the trash. We spent a lot on these magazines. They’re very precious to us.  And we designed them so that they last for another 30 years on the shelf. They’re not intended to go in the garbage. There is one distributor that that we found that is willing to work with us on a no returns basis.

They’re on the West Coast. They’re Small Changes. They’re lovely.

I don’t know as many bookstores in like the Northwest area. So they were able to kind of help us coordinate with them. Other than that, all of our retail partners are stores that we know and love that we reached out to directly, and they’re buying directly from us.

Bookstores, wine shops, cheese shops, kitchenware stores. These are just shops that we know where the SAVEUR reader is or is likely to be or find us. It’s a lot more plates to spin.

Our brand partnerships person got that program off the ground. And one of our other employees is taking it over now so we can grow our list. You’re not going to find us in, big box bookstores or national supermarket chains at this point.

Samir Husni:  My typical last two questions are, if I come uninvited one evening to your house, what do I catch doing? Are you cooking, reading a book, watching TV?

Kat Craddock:   I am not cooking as much as I used to. And I really miss that. And I kind of have to force myself to do that because it’s a big part of who I am and why I do this.

But right now the business has definitely taken over my brain space in life. Most nights I’m after the Zoom influx ends, I eat quickly and then I’m back in front of my laptop, usually streaming some television while I answer emails until I crash.

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

Kat Craddock:   I’m a year into basically owning a startup. So probably the, the day-to-day business side of things and making sure that my team is happy and feels supported.

Samir Husni:  Thank you.