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Inside The World Of TOPS News: A Magazine That Helps Members Lose Weight Sensibly. A Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Team TOPS News.

February 1, 2025

TOPS News is the membership magazine for TOPS Club Inc. TOPS stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly. Its motto for the last 75 years since its inception is Real People. Real Weight Loss.

In 2025, and for the first time, the TOPS News magazine started accepting advertising on the pages of the magazine. Through an agreement with the James G. Elliott Company, Inc., the magazine opened its pages to advertising in a move that is seen to add more help to their members.

I reached out to TOPS News president Rick Danforth, editor and publisher Barry Gantenbein, and senior designer Dave Zylstra to chat about the organization and its magazine. It was sort of a roundtable about TOPS News, the magazine’s mission, and the reason they are now accepting advertising in the magazine.

Before the interview, I should note that in a recent study the magazine found out that over 90% of the members see it as the number one benefit of membership. A quarter of the membership responded, unaided, to the study in the first two days. A response rarely heard about in the magazine industry.

So without any further delay, please enjoy this round table conversation with the team at TOPS News and what is in store for the years to come.

But first the soundbites:

On TOPS News mission: “I view TOPS News as our best vehicle to keep in constant contact with our members to share success stories and give them updated information on a healthy lifestyle.” Rick Danforth.

On why they are accepting advertising: “Because things are getting more costly and it was a way of generating some revenue.” RD

On why did you add the publisher title to the editor’s title: “One of the reasons that I became publisher was just to prevent any snags in meeting our deadlines.” Barry Gantenbein

On how is TOPS News different than the rest of weight loss magazines: “I think the one thing that really separates TOPS News is the group support, from the chapter level and also from the magazine.” BG

On how to approach the design of the magazine: “Our members are basically our core demographic, trying to think and trying to tap into their minds what they want to see.” Dave Zylstra

On the hope and goal for the design of TOPS News: “Hopefully inspire them to want to keep flipping the pages and keep reading it.”

On any challenges facing him: “There’s always challenges… But no serious challenges that we couldn’t fix.” RD

On content creation : “There’s a large element of TOPS News is the member contributions. So that does definitely affect the scope of things, and the way we approach things.” BG

On the magazine being an experience: “There has to be a reason to engage with the magazine, and that’s what I’m trying to accomplish with every issue is to engage our members as fully as possible.” BG

On what he is expected to accomplish this year: “A year from now, what I would be telling you is that it would help with our revenue stream so we can provide more services to our members.” RD

And now for the lightly edited conversation with the team at TOPS News:

Samir Husni: Rick, can you give me the elevator pitch of TOPS News? TOPS News, not TOPS as the organization, the magazine.

Rick Danforth: I view TOPS News as our best vehicle to keep in constant contact with our members to share success stories and give them updated information on a healthy lifestyle.

Samir Husni: And why did you decide after 75 years to start taking advertising?

Rick Danforth: Well, that is because things are getting more costly and it was a way of generating some revenue.

Also, too, there was a misconception by past administrations that that wasn’t allowed by a non-profit. So it took a while to convince people that this is a legitimate concern and plus Jim (Elliott) was very instrumental in helping us with that process.

Samir Husni: Why do you think members should be interested in advertising as much as they are interested in editorial?

Rick Danforth: I think it’s another way for us to show them other information without just putting it out there in an editorial format or story to prompt them that it might catch their fancy and do a little research on their own.

Samir Husni: Barry, as an editor and publisher, you wear two hats. First, let me ask you the personal question. Which of the two hats do you prefer, editor or publisher?

Barry Gantenbein: Oh, well, that’s hard to say. I like being the publisher because then I have the final say in things. And one of the reasons that I became publisher was just to prevent any snags in meeting our deadlines.

When I had worked with publishers previously who had more than one job and did more than just be the publisher of the publication, sometimes there would be other priorities other than the magazine and I wanted to get rid of that sticking point. So that’s why I became the publisher. I like being the publisher for that reason.

But as far as the work and what I do mostly, I’m an editor and I have been doing that for a long time and I enjoy that type of work.

Samir Husni: So being the editor, let’s put the editor’s hat on. What’s the mission statement of TOPS News?

Barry Gantenbein: The one sentence is to provide our members with information and inspiration to make healthy choices.

I want to provide a variety of stories for our members. When you open up the TOC, there’s seven different headings. Those are the types of stories that we publish.

So our goal, we build a magazine on a frame and I use those seven sections to create those types of stories.

So if we have at least two in each section, then I know that we’re going to have a balanced offering for our members.

Samir Husni: Weight loss has been a topic for ages. There are so many commercial magazines and there are so many commercial drugs nowadays to help you lose weight. Where do you think you can navigate the magazine to balance between everything that’s taking place with weight loss these days?

Barry Gantenbein: I think that’s a good question. And that goes back to the start of TOPS.

We’ve always had a medical component as part of TOPS since the beginning. Our founder, Esther Manz, always wanted that component. When she started the magazine with her friends, they were all doing the same stuff and they were losing weight, and she wasn’t. So she was wondering, why is that? Why am I not losing weight? So she wanted to get a doctor involved in this so that she could better understand why they were losing weight and she wasn’t losing weight.

We don’t really take any stance on things like the different types of injectables now that are out there. We feel that if you are considering something like that, see your healthcare professional and get their advice on that.

We’re open to the shots, but that’s part of the overall health plan. And I think the one thing that really separates TOPS News is the group support, from the chapter level and also from the magazine. We try to always provide a community for our members so that they can be themselves, make healthy choices. We just really want our members to become the best version of themselves.

Samir Husni: Your last issue that I saw, the November-December, was all about bringing balance to your life. Does this balance now include the shots?

Barry Gantenbein: If it’s helpful to that particular member, because one thing that I have learned is that weight loss is a very individual thing, that what works for somebody may not work for somebody else. So that’s why we like to have a different variety of options available for people.

Samir Husni: And Dave, let me ask you about how do you take all these, I mean what Rick said, what Barry said, how do you design a publication for members as opposed to the general audience out there, or is there no difference?

Dave Zylstra: No, that’s a great question. I do definitely take into account our members. Our members are basically our core demographic, trying to think and trying to tap into their minds what they want to see.

So I actually, when I started, I sat down with my folks who are kind of a little older than our core demographic, but I sat down with them to see what magazines they’re reading, what they’re looking at, and what they want to see, and use that and glean some of that info to try to put that into the layout of the magazine. Also, using past issues, seeing what we’ve been doing, trying to update a little bit a more current design aesthetic. But really just hopefully trying to tap into what our demographic wants to see in the magazine, and hopefully inspire them to want to keep flipping the pages and keep reading it.

Samir Husni: Rick, hearing what Dave said about listening to the members, and you just did a survey which had a big, huge response from the members. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Rick Danforth: I was not surprised at the response as much as Jim was, because our members are very, very engaged, and I know that because every time I would meet members out at various events, the first thing they would say is, thank you for TOPS News. And I say, that’s okay. I tell them about the staff, and how Barry and Dave put it together.

I just stay out of their way. I provide content, and I get out of their way. But they say, this is the best issue ever, and I’m thinking, yeah, you’re right. I don’t know how they’re going to top this, and each time they keep on topping the previous one. So that tells me our members are engaged on what Barry and Dave are doing. As far as Barry making decisions on what goes in the issue, and how Dave portrays it so that it’s appealing to their eyes and catches them, and they can have that, bring that magazine to a meeting to help their discussions.

Samir Husni: So has it been a walk in a rose garden? Any challenges, or it is just a walk in the rose garden?

Rick Danforth: Nothing’s perfect. There’s always challenges, for example, our Canadian members saying, how come there weren’t enough Canadian stories in this particular issue? But there’s that balance that we try to provide all the way across. Another challenge if it’s a special theme issue that we might not have a Canadian angle into it. Others probably want more than six issues a year, but that’s our program right now.

But no serious challenges that we couldn’t fix.

Samir Husni: Barry, if you look at the images, the cover, I know it’s a reflection of the members, but is it in any way, shape, or form a hindrance? For example, like entering a national magazine awards, or competing with the magazines that are out there that put a different image on their cover?

Barry Gantenbein: When Dave talked about listening to our members, we rely on them for a lot of story ideas, and also for photos.

A large element of TOPS News is the member contributions. So that does definitely affect the scope of things, and the way we approach things. As far as the covers, we again talked about balance, and we try to have a balance.

We want to have balance between basically food, which is a huge part of the magazine, obviously, and then member photos. So we try to balance that, and balance where people are from. Like Rick had mentioned, our Canadian members, we always try to have at least one Canadian member featured in every story.

And then as one way to let our Canadian friends know that they are in the magazine, we started putting a red maple leaf in the TOC next to the Canadian stories. So when people say, hey there’s no Canadian stories, we’re like, there’s three in there. I can tell you that right now just by looking at those little maple leaves that are there.

So I think balance is a good way to describe what we’re trying to accomplish, and our approach to the magazine. It’s a balancing act. And do you consider TOPS News as a pioneer in the reader-generated content? Oh, I don’t know.

Like Dave said, my main goal is to provide information and make it entertaining. It has to be interesting. Dave and I both came from newspapers, and that overriding approach to newspapers was — no boring stories. There has to be a reason to engage with the magazine, and that’s what I’m trying to accomplish with every issue is to engage our members as fully as possible.

Samir Husni: And Dave, do you think this is easier or harder? I mean, having to deal with submitted photography, having to deal with submitted articles and…

Dave Zylstra: It’s harder. It’s been a challenge because not everyone understands high resolution. Not everyone understands what makes a good photo. And then, so just like accepting photos, sometimes it is a stab to the heart a little bit, like, couldn’t you have not taken that photo with all the stuff in the background.

So, but it is what it is, you know. We don’t have the budget nor the resources to go out and have professionals take every photo we need. So we are at the mercy of our members.

So it does. Definitely it is a challenge sometimes working with what we are sent. It’s a challenge I fully accept. At first I was like, oh man, what am I going to do with this? Because coming from, like Barry said, newspaper backgrounds, we’re using nice professional photos.

So coming here, at first, it was definitely a challenge. I mean, it still is a challenge. But I can only use what I have. I try to make them look good.

Barry Gantenbein: And also Dave serves as our staff photographer. Dave is an excellent photographer. We have members come in for, workouts in the magazine. We’ll have members come in to do the workouts. And Dave will be the photographer for the workouts.

Dave also is a photographer for the food shoots, for the recipes. So, when we have our transformations issue, where we honor the members who lost the most weight, we will hire professional photographers to take their portraits. So it’s a mixture of submitted stuff and professional photographs.

Samir Husni: So, Rick, Barry and Dave came from a journalism background and newspaper. You came from a microbiology background. How do you fit in the organization, you’re the president of this company, but what led you to be part of this organization?

Rick Danforth: Well, first, I was a member. Well, this week, I’ll be a member 23 years. And as I got into the organization and saw the benefits of it, it really helped me a lot. I lost 30% of my weight and I maintained about a 15% loss because it’s a struggle and it’s a disease. So when I left the world of microbiology, a lot of my friends were surprised.

And I said, why would you be surprised? I’ve been fighting various diseases for other folks. Obesity is disease. Now I got a chance to help a lot more people to battle this dreaded disease.So it was a natural fit for me. And I was involved in town politics and other things and trainings for the laboratory works. So it was a natural fit.I love getting on the stage and talking about TOPS to our members and non-members.

Samir Husni: So if you and I are having this conversation a year from now, what would you tell me that TOPS News with the new advertising acceptance have accomplished in this 2025?

Rick Danforth: A year from now, what I would be telling you is that it would help with our revenue stream so we can provide more services to our members. And that’s the main goal.

Samir Husni: The question that I have to ask always is, is there anything I failed to ask that you would like to ask ?

Barry Gantenbein: I’m thinking I’m used to doing the interviews, not being interviewed. So this is kind of an unusual spot for me. So that you didn’t ask.

I guess what I would say about the magazine, and that we’ve tried to do, is to make it a little more informal and make it more personal. That’s one thing that our members talk about. They said, since it’s become more personal and we use their first names, it’s Paula. It’s not Mrs. Livingston or Livingston. It’s Paula. And just be, I think that helps to forge a sense of community by making it more informal and more.

And one of the things that I like to explore more themes in the magazine. One of the main themes to me is after a while people figure out what works for them, but then why don’t we do what we know is good for us? We, after a while you figure out what sort of diet and what sort of exercise program you enjoy or works for you, but then sometimes people just don’t do it. Why is that? That’s something that we continually explore.

And I think that’s what makes it interesting because that’s an individual thing.

Samir Husni: So my typical last two questions are more on the personal side. If I come to visit you one evening unannounced, what do I catch you doing? Watching TV, reading a book, cooking, having a glass of wine?

Rick Danforth: You’ll catch me at my desk working. And I’ve been told I’m doing that too much. They just want me to slow down a little bit. I eat with my wife.

Barry Gantenbein: I’m really lucky to have a wife who’s an excellent cook. So if you showed up in the evening, you’d probably be served pretty nice meals. I like to read and I would probably be reading later in the evening.

Samir Husni: And on paper or tablet?

Barry Gantenbein: Both. I do, I use a tablet, but there some books that I just like hard copy. If it’s got a lot of pictures, I like hard copy. If it is a novel, I can definitely read it on a tablet.

Samir Husni: Dave?

Dave Zylstra: That’s a great question. I have a lot of interests. I’m doing a lot of things, but on the average night, I’m usually cooking for my family.

I have two teenage daughters and I kind of am the house chef. So, with two teenage daughters, I feel like their childhood is fleeting and our family is fleeting. I’m trying, my wife and I are making a very concerted effort to spend as much time with them as we can right now.

So spending time in the kitchen with food and dinner. And then I do a lot of painting, so there’s a good chance I’ll be doing some painting after dinner. Maybe watching a movie with my wife. Pretty domesticated at the moment.

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

Rick Danforth: Wow. I worry a lot. So I’m always trying to figure out different scenarios where if this problem hits, I got this thing. So it’s just making sure that everybody has what they need to do their job.

And you know, the expression is lonely at the top. I got support, but it does still keep me up at night.

Barry Gantenbein: I would say just trying to figure out how to get things done. We have limited staff, so I rely on a lot of freelancers and friends of friends to do things for us. I’m always trying to figure out how we can get a story written or who can write a story for us or I joke that every single person that I know eventually ends up working for the magazine in some aspect, and that’s actually pretty true. We just signed a guy who’s a science writer, and he’s a former coworker of mine from newspaper days.

We signed a therapist to write for us, and she’s a friend of my wife. We’ve got an illustrator who went to high school with my daughter. These are the freelancers, and we’ve got just people that are friends of past staffers that believe in TOPS and work for us.

I’m always trying to figure out. I’m like a talent scout trying to figure out who can write and who can illustrate and who can help us out in any way and is willing to do it for little money. So that’s what keeps me up at night.

Samir Husni: What keeps you up at night, Barry, is TOPS.

Dave Zylstra: I love that. It’s always on Barry’s mind. This might sound bad, TOPS doesn’t keep me up at night. So that’s my answer is two teenage daughters.

You know, we recently, my older daughter is a junior in high school, so we recently started talking about college and basically financing college. It’s usually some type of money type of concerns, which I think is pretty standard, and very specifically like money for college. My younger daughter is talking about going to parochial school, so she did get some scholarship money for that, but also, so usually it’s some type of money.

And I should just say, my folks are getting up in age and their health isn’t the greatest.

Samir Husni: Thank you all for this conversation.

Posted in Magazine Power, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | 2 Comments »

Hiii is the Magazine Launch Of The Year and Field & Stream is the Magazine Re-Launch Of The Year. New Magazines 2024 Wrap Up…

January 5, 2025

“Quantity was down, but quality was up,” Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni

The aforementioned statement sums up the status of new magazine launches in 2024. Thirty-nine new launches and nine re-launches arrived on the marketplace together with more than 1,000 bookazines and mini-zines.

Leading the launches was Hiii, For People Who Partake, magazine, the brainchild of Rob Hill and Pam Patterson. Hiii floated to the top of the pack deserving the title the New Magazine Launch of the Year. It is one of the best new magazines to come to the marketplace in a long time. “Simply put, the weed genie will never be put back in the bong,” Rob wrote in the first issue’s introduction. Pam wrote, “This magazine is not just about marijuana. It’s about freedom, creativity, exploration, and supporting those who truly honor cannabis for its power and potential.” Hiii is excellent on all fronts: content, design, and photography.

Another great new magazine is Ori. The brainchild of Kade Krichko is a travel magazine from the source. Slow journalism at its best. Definitely a different, much needed, travel magazine that depends on writers and photographers from the countries it covers. “Travel is a form of connection,” reads the intro to the magazine, “not only with places and experiences, but with friends around the world.” Ori deserves to be the First Runner Up of New Magazine Launches.

The Second Runner Up of New Magazine Launches is RISE from A360 Media. The “Women in Sports” magazine adds a much needed platform for a sports platform dedicated to a large population of female sports players, led by Caitlin Clark, and spectators, both women and men. The magazine’s motto is a quote from Serena Williams, “The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you’re very courageous: Be strong, be extremely kind and above all, be humble.”

There are two other magazines worthy of note. New Christian Makers, a museum in a magazine, featuring the work of Christian makers from all fronts of life. “New Christian Makers is an in-print juried exhibition featuring the best in contemporary Christian making.” Highlights for Children continued its belief that children, even the under-two children, still enjoy a print magazine, thus they introduced their newest monthly mini magazine: Highlights CoComelon, “packed with all the CoComelon charm your little one adores, plus a sprinkle of extra learning fun.”

As for those magazines who opted to return to print after halting publication for few years, Field & Stream led the pack and earns the title the Re-Launch Magazine of the Year. Hands down, it is the best relaunch I have seen in my years of following and tracking the magazine industry. The magazine, established in1871 (yes, you read that right, 1871), is back in print through two “Legacy Stewards”: Country music superstars, Eric Church and Morgan Wallen. Editor-in-Chief Colin Kearns writes in the first relaunch issue, “One of the things I’ve missed most about producing a print edition of F&S has been the connection to you, our readers. Back in our print-magazine days, I’d get notes from readers all the time. But during these past few years, when there wasn’t a physical magazine, I never heard from you.”

Having said that, there were also two re-launches that were very well done, both in terms of content and design: SAVEUR and Spin. SAVEUR with its tag line, “Eat the World,” is back. “ It’s been four years since, remotely and in masks, we printed our last issue,” wrote EIC and CEO Kat Craddock in the return to print issue. She added, “But while corporate boardrooms posit print is dead, SAVEUR is one of a growing number of publications that have decided to prove them wrong.”

SPIN, “Well, it’s been a while,” writes editor Bob Guccione, Jr. in the relaunch issue, “A while since SPIN last printed an issue (12 years) and it’s then owner – I had no idea who that was, this magazine, like a haunted house, has changed hands a lot…” He added, “Then along came Jimmy Hutcheson and his Next Management Partners and they bought SPIN from its last owner, and set about revitalizing it…” This SPIN, writes Bob, is “the Phoeix-like rise from long cold magazine ashes.”

I started this blog by saying the quality was up and the aforementioned magazines are a testament for this.

Two other re-launches are worthy of note: Flow and Nylon. The Dutch import, Flow “The Magazine That Takes Its Time. Celebrating A Conscious, Slow And Creative Life,” is back on the newsstands. Nylon celebrated its 25^th Anniversary by returning to print. “ I like to think of this 25^th anniversary issue, our triumphant return to print…” ,” writes editor-in-chief Lauren McCarthy.

As long as there are new magazines launched and relaunched, regardless of the numbers, print is alive and well… Here’s to a healthy and wealthy print 2025. Cheers.

Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, Ph.D.

P.S.: Thinking of launching or relaunching a magazine? Be sure to send me a copy to include the crop of 2025. Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, 776 Shady Oaks Circle, Oxford, MS 38655. Thank you.

Posted in Innovation in print, Magazine Power, New Launches, News and Views | Leave a Comment »

Flow Magazine: A Dutch Favorite Returns To The United States. The Mr. Magazine™ interview with Irene Smit, Co-Founder and Creative Director.

November 17, 2024

Flow, the magazine that was born in an attic in the Netherlands in 2008, gained the world’s attention for its beauty, elegance, and giving its audience a time for themselves in a very slow but conscience and creative presentation.

What can easily be described as a magnet to paper lovers, returns to the shores of the United States and another 20 English speaking countries after suspending publication in English following COVID 19 in 2020.

The articles in the magazine, the photography, and the illustrations are all printed on paper that corresponds to the nature of the article or illustration. The genius idea of Irene Smit, the cofounder and creative director of Flow, with business partner Astrid van der Hulst, cofounder and former editor in chief of the magazine.

When the magazine arrived on the newsstands in the Netherlands, the skeptics who doubted a “me time magazine,” will survive were stunned by the sales numbers. Flow continued to grow in the Netherlands and beyond. Now in four languages(Dutch, German, French and English) and multiple international editions, the magazine is back on the United States newsstands.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Irene Smit, the cofounder and creative director of Flow via Zoom in her office in the Netherlands. What follows is the lightly edited interview with Irene Smit, but first the soundbites:

On the elevator pitch of Flow: “Flow is about slowing down and living a conscious life.”

On the challenges that forced the suspension of Flow in 2020: “The challenges brought by COVID-19 proved insurmountable. Skyrocketing paper prices and exorbitant distribution costs, combined with widespread shop closures worldwide, made continuing the magazine untenable.”

On the timing of the return of the English edition of Flow: “Last year, Flow Magazine was sold to another publishing house, Roularta Media. They were enthusiastic about restarting the international edition, which was exciting for us.”

On the feedback during Flow’s suspension: “What’s truly heartwarming is that even during the years we were away, we continued to receive letters and messages on platforms like Instagram and Facebook.”

On Flow’s target audience: “In a time of increasing polarization, many found comfort in Flow’s community—people who cherish crafting, paper, and positivity.”

On the genesis of the Flow idea: “People were growing tired of the “more, better, quicker” mentality. Instead, they seemed to crave a simpler, more authentic way of life.”

On the power of print in a digital age: “After years dominated by digital devices like iPhones and iPads, people are rediscovering the value of paper. It resonates particularly with Gen Z and millennials, who are increasingly seeking ways to step away from their screens.”

On Flow’s mission: “Flow has always been about: nurturing your mind through creativity and incorporating positive psychology into everyday life.”

And now for the lightly edited conversation with Irene Smit, cofounder and creative director of Flow magazine:

Samir Husni: What’s the elevator pitch of Flow?

Irene Smit: Flow is about slowing down and living a conscious life.

When we started Flow (myself and business partner Astrid van der Hulst) in 2008 magazines weren’t about those topics. They were all about more, better, like what social media is now. We already knew what the world wanted before the world wanted it, a place to slow down and to live a conscious life, and that’s what we still offer in the magazine.

Samir Husni: You publish several international editions. You have one in France, you have one in Germany, and you brought an edition to the States. Because of COVID, you had to suspend the International edition. Now you are bringing it back. Why now? And what are some of the reasons for this relaunch?

Irene Smit: Shortly after launching the Dutch version, we began receiving numerous letters from people who had come across it at the airport. They all praised the magazine, saying it looked stunning and had a unique tactile appeal due to the variety of papers used. However, many added, “We don’t really understand what it’s about.” This feedback prompted us to create an English-language edition in the Netherlands.

At its peak in 2020, just before the onset of COVID-19, the magazine was published and distributed in 34 countries. We had licensed German and French editions, while the English edition was produced in-house. This version was developed in the Netherlands with support from English-speaking translators and editors.

However, the challenges brought by COVID-19 proved insurmountable. Skyrocketing paper prices and exorbitant distribution costs, combined with widespread shop closures worldwide, made continuing the magazine untenable. A new publishing company had just acquired us and we decided to stop producing the English issue, and unfortunately weren’t able to start it up again.

But last year, Flow Magazine was sold to another publishing house, Roularta Media. They were enthusiastic about restarting the international edition, which was exciting for us. This summer, we finally made it happen. The magazine will now be published twice a year and distributed across 20 countries. This allows us to gradually grow and adapt to modern distribution methods.

What’s truly heartwarming is that even during the years we were away, we continued to receive letters and messages on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Our Facebook group for Paper Lovers has been especially active. Fans would often ask, “Can you please bring back the English edition? You’re my paper inspiration, my ‘Paper porn.’ I miss you so much!” Some even joked about learning Dutch or French just to stay connected with us. Whenever we posted updates, our many international followers would respond, urging us to return to the U.S., New Zealand, or Australia.

Last year, more and more people were expressing that the world truly needs Flow. They emphasized the importance of spreading a positive message of hope and offering ways to care for ourselves in this fast-paced, often overwhelming world. Flow Magazine has always been about fostering a sense of community, bringing people together, and celebrating creativity. In a time of increasing polarization, many found comfort in Flow’s community—people who cherish crafting, paper, and positivity.

With so many asking for Flow’s return, we realized that now is the perfect time to bring it back.

Samir Husni: If you can go back to 2008, tell me a little bit about how you and your business partner came up with the idea and how did you start this magazine? My understanding that you were in your attic?

Irene Smit: Yes, we were. We were both working for Marie Claire, a glossy magazine that was part of Sanoma Publishers.

One day, we were on the attic when Anita Mooiweer, the new business manager of Sanoma, mentioned, “We feel there’s a need for a different kind of magazine, but we’re not sure what. Could you help us think of a new concept?” Inspired, Astrid and I gathered a variety of paper goodies—things we loved, like stationery and notebooks—from children’s bookstores and sat down to brainstorm.

Both of us shared a deep love for paper. After years of working on glossy magazines, we felt that by 2008—just before the economic crisis—society was shifting. People were growing tired of the “more, better, quicker” mentality. Instead, they seemed to crave a simpler, more authentic way of life.

We noticed that people no longer yearned for more designer clothes or extravagant vacations. Instead, they valued meaningful gestures, for example, like a homemade apple pie from a friend. Those personal, heartfelt moments held more worth than expensive luxuries. Inspired by this, we set out to create a magazine that we would want to read ourselves—something entirely different from what was already available.

At the time, we had just completed a mindfulness-based stress reduction course. It taught us profound life lessons: letting go of perfectionism, accepting ourselves, cultivating a beginner’s mind, and appreciating the little things in life. We realized our magazine should reflect these principles. It should celebrate life’s small joys and offer guidance on navigating lessons that traditional schooling never taught us.

We wanted to learn and share these life lessons with others. That idea became the heart of our magazine. It combined everything we loved—poems, stories about inspiring women, history, and articles that helped us better understand the world and ourselves better.

Samir Husni: And you decided to use a variety of paper in the magazine. It was not one paper stock. The magazine is known for the variety of paper from tissue paper to glossy paper?

Irene Smit: Yes.

Samir Husni: Why do you think this was the choice and what’s the power of print today in this digital age?

Irene Smit: We decided to use a variety of papers because paper is so much more than just a medium for printing text. The tactile feel, the scent—it evokes emotions and can transport you to a different state of mind. For instance, when presenting an article filled with images, glossy paper is ideal. Its shiny, eye-catching quality adds a sense of indulgence, almost like visual candy.

On the other hand, if the article is about confronting personal challenges or pitfalls, a rougher paper feels more appropriate. The texture itself mirrors the subject matter—it’s a bit raw, a bit tough—adding a layer of depth that complements the article’s tone and content.

Today, paper has re-emerged as a luxury product. After years dominated by digital devices like iPhones and iPads, people are rediscovering the value of paper. It resonates particularly with Gen Z and millennials, who are increasingly seeking ways to step away from their screens. Many of them feel the need to reclaim their time and reduce their reliance on phones, often spending hours daily glued to their devices.

This reconnection with paper is beautiful. Younger generations, who grew up immersed in the digital world, are finding joy in treating themselves to offline moments. Whether it’s reading a magazine, journaling, or crafting a mood or vision board, they’re rediscovering the simple pleasures of print. It’s akin to the resurgence of vinyl records; just as people have fallen in love with playing records again, I believe the next step will be a revival of magazine reading.

Samir Husni: That’s good. So, tell me, was it more like a walk in a rose garden or you had some challenges you had to overcome?

Irene Smit: We had a lot of challenges. I wish it was a walk in a rose garden.

In the beginning, it was almost amusing how few people believed in our potential for success. Critics scoffed, claiming we could only fill two or three issues with content. Many doubted it would work long-term.

Some even complained about the empty pages, saying they weren’t willing to pay for blank space. But we stayed true to our vision, deciding to do things our own way.

To our delight, the magazine sold exceptionally well. To all the skeptics, we simply said, “It’s fine to doubt us, but the numbers speak for themselves.” After the first decade of success, while many other magazines started to decline, we remained stable and even thrived.

We were thrilled to still be riding that wave of positivity. However, the past five or six years have been more challenging. The pandemic forced us to pause the English edition, and switching publishers twice added further complications. Creating this product is incredibly time-consuming, and downsizing our team has made the process even more demanding.

Despite these hurdles, we continue to pour our hearts into this magazine. We believe in crafting the best product possible, and we think our audience can feel that passion. This connection is why so many people are eager for its return.

It’s heartwarming to see such enthusiasm. In fact, the English edition seems to have gained an almost mythical status during its absence. People are eager to bring it back, and our Book for Paper Lovers has been equally beloved—it’s a magazine without articles, filled solely with beautiful paper.

We’ve collaborated with Workman Publishing in the U.S. to produce various projects, such as A Book That Takes Its Time, along with stationery and puzzles. Now, as we prepare for our return, Workman Publishing has expressed interest in new books featuring stickers and stationery.

It hasn’t been an easy journey, but we’re on the upswing. With the English edition back on newsstands, we’re hopeful it will be warmly received. Our message of comfort, compassion, and care for one another feels more relevant than ever. We believe this is the perfect moment for our comeback.

Samir Husni: When you launched the magazine, you were all alone. What was your feeling when you saw all those competitors sprouting like mushrooms on the newsstand worldwide?

Irene Smit: Yes, it was challenging. I think in the Netherlands, the situation was manageable. However, in Germany, there were times when we faced competition from 10 or 15 rivals simultaneously. That was definitely frustrating.

Even so, I believe people can recognize when something is created with genuine passion and originality. We’ve always aimed to innovate and bring fresh ideas to the table. Over time, people continued to view Flow as the original, standing out with its unique products. I don’t think the imitations are as good as ours, and I believe people can sense that.

Samir Husni: Who’s your target audience? Whom are you trying to reach with Flow?

Irene Smit: It’s funny, we always said we have a very broad audience, everybody that likes our topics is welcome.

These days, many young people are deeply interested in our topic. From the very beginning, Flow has been about mental health, although we didn’t use that term back in 2008. At the time, nobody really talked about mental health. Instead, we focused on mindfulness and caring for your mind.

It wasn’t until after COVID that mental health became a common topic of conversation. That’s when I realized—this is what Flow has always been about: nurturing your mind through creativity and incorporating positive psychology into everyday life.

Now, many young readers turn to Flow specifically for its mental health articles. At the same time, we continue to have a large audience of readers in their 50s and 60s, making it a truly broad and diverse community.

Samir Husni: That’s good. So what’s your motto now? Is it like “Go with the Flow?”

Irene Smit: Yes, it’s still “Go with the Flow”. We just keep going with the Flow.

We try to sense what people want to read, what they want to hear, and how we can help them in life. Every day feels different, as the world changes so quickly.

We aim to keep up with all these changes, but we go with the flow, embracing the opportunities that come our way—like restarting the English edition. I think that approach works best for Flow.

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

Irene Smit: You should have asked, “Where is Astrid?” She left. She’s now a primary school teacher. It was very sad because we started this together.

We’re still both parents of Flow, but she’s found something else that suits her life better. She loves teaching and doesn’t want the pressure of all these deadlines anymore. Now, she has found the right balance—she’s a teacher, but still writes articles for the magazine.

I’m happy she’s still involved with Flow.

Samir Husni: If I would come uninvited one evening to your house, what would I catch Irene doing, reading a book, watching TV, having a glass of wine, cooking?

Irene Smit: I’m always striving to improve my life, just like everyone who reads this magazine.

Recently, I started the course The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, and as part of that, I’ve been making an effort to spend less time on my phone. Last night, I worked on creating a vision board.

I cut out images from old Flow magazines—both the German and French editions—because it’s difficult for me to cut out from the Dutch edition. I still find that challenging. So, I used illustrations from the French and German versions to create a vision board focused on my future—on what I want to achieve and the experiences I’d like to have with Flow.

I continue to make an effort to stay connected with paper as much as possible, but sometimes, I admit, I get caught up in my phone or the television. Hopefully, you’ll find me engaged with paper when the moment is right.

Samir Husni: My typical final question, what keeps Irene up at night these days?

Irene Smit: I am deeply committed to supporting young people with their mental health. It’s tough to see how much they struggle, and I always try to find ways to help.

Whether through the magazine or collaborations like the one of Flow with the Museum of the Mind in Haarlem, the Netherlands, where we have a permanent Flow Slow Art Tour, I focus on providing programs that support their mental well-being.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Posted in A Launch Story..., Across the Pond, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | 1 Comment »

The Other Magazine: The Latest Launch To Take You “High” Up The Hudson Valley & New York City: The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Peter Shafran, Founder and Publisher.

November 11, 2024

The legacy of cannabis and the legacy of magazines collide to introduce The Other magazine: A magazine devoted to cannabis, its dispensaries, and the customers who partake in enjoying the plant that for years has been the forbidden fruit. With more states legalizing cannabis for recreational use, magazines devoted to the once forbidden plant are sprouting across the nation.

The Other is the latest entry into the cannabis consumer magazines serving the audience of the Hudson Valley in New York State and New York City. Peter Shafran, the founder and witty publisher, has high (pun intended) hopes for The Other. His wit is evident in the cover of the first issue. Take a look at the cover and read what he had to see about it:

“So if you look closely at the mountains, you’ll see that they’re not really mountains. It’s all cannabis. And the bridge, the base of each of the bridges are bongs, or at least the big bridge in the back is.

And this is all based on a real photograph. The big bridge is the Bear Mountain Bridge, which goes over the Hudson River, but the two boats floating on there, one is just a pipe, and the other one is a pipe, it is a boat with a puff on it.

The small bridge in the front, which is the bridge that takes you over the Taconic State Parkway, all those little side things, those are all joints. So when I bring this into the dispensary and I tell people, you know, so do you like the mountains? And they’re like, oh yeah, I like the mountains. I was like, do you really like the mountains?”

I had the opportunity to interview Peter, and his strategic communications consultant, magazine veteran, Stu Zakim. But first the soundbites:

On the name of the magazine: “The title of the magazine hearkens back to a newspaper that came out in 1968 called the East Village Other. It was one of the first underground countercultural newspapers in the country.”

More on the name of the magazine: “But the reason we chose that name is because we as cannabis consumers have always felt that we were on the outside, we’re the others.”

On the reasons the magazine is regional: “We felt that the regional way was the way to go, because especially in the cannabis industry, much of the industry is vertically aligned in terms of the growing, the processing, the distributing and the retail is all contained in New York.”

On why The Other is in print: “Well, tactile. It really is. In other words, cannabis has its legacy. So do print magazines. And I think there’s a marriage there.”

On the mission of the magazine: “The conversation has changed so that we’re focusing more on the lifestyle, the alternatives, the education, the normalization and destigmatization.”

On the status of the cannabis industry: “The cannabis industry is so much mainstream now that they’re providing a portion of the revenue to these towns and villages that they never saw before, or at least haven’t seen since manufacturing was here.”

On the future plans of the magazine: “I really have no desire to go into California, Colorado, Massachusetts, or any of those places. What I’m looking for is a place like New Jersey, which has two or three years of growth. There is no magazine in New Jersey that does what we do.”

On the role of The Other: “It’s a wonderful place to be in because we’re past what we used to call the wild, wild West. But now it is a functioning, growing economy, and we’re able to be there at the ground level and helping make it flourish.”

And now for the lightly edited interview with Peter Shafran, founder and publisher of The Other:

Samir Husni: Congratulations on the launch of The Other.

Peter Shafran: Thank you.

Samir Husni: Would you please give me the elevator pitch of The Other and tell me what’s the idea behind the name?

Peter Shafran: Oh, sure. The magazine is a countercultural lifestyle magazine for people in the Hudson Valley, in New York City, for people who enjoy cannabis and other lifestyle things like psychedelics and the whole lifestyle. The magazine is a consumer magazine.

Unlike most of the magazines that are out there in the community, which are B2B magazines, this is a lifestyle consumer magazine. Though there is a little bit of a space here for another business magazine. So we’re going to add some industry focus on there as well.

I live in the Hudson Valley, which is why we started here and I grew up here. The title of the magazine hearkens back to a newspaper that came out in 1968 called the East Village Other. It was one of the first underground countercultural newspapers in the country, which spurred on the development of other countercultural magazines in Berkeley and Chicago and a couple of other places.

That became the beginnings of the underground movement in the 60s. The people who wrote for the East Village Other were all the top minds and writers of the 1960s and the anti-war and revolutionary writers. So we hearken back to that to give them some props.

But the reason we chose that name is because we as cannabis consumers have always felt that we were on the outside, we’re the others. And even in terms of where we are today in the industry, probably not before a year or two ago was cannabis really discussed among real people, among my friends. I’ve been living in this village for 18 years and people did not discuss cannabis openly, definitely because of the stigma attached to it. We are all parents and we don’t want our kids to talk about it and stuff like that.

So it really has only been in the last couple of years where that openness, and of course, the legalization in New York and the opening up of cannabis dispensaries has changed the whole landscape. It has changed the conversation. We felt there was a vacuum here and we’re hoping to fill it.

Samir Husni: Why did you decide to fulfill that vacuum via ink on paper in this digital age?

Peter Shafran: Well, basically, because I’m insane. Nobody in their right mind would do this, but the reality is that the regional magazines and local magazines are actually flourishing. The national magazines, especially in fringe areas, have a hard time in attracting advertisers and attracting money. We felt that the regional way was the way to go, because especially in the cannabis industry, much of the industry is vertically aligned in terms of the growing, the processing, the distributing and the retail is all contained in New York.

The New York focus was really helping us to find that we want to make a regional magazine. But the eventual goal that “if we can make it here, we can make it anywhere,” to quote Frank Sinatra.

Samir Husni: Besides the fact that regional magazines are doing well, what do you think is the power of print in this digital age? What do you offer your readers, your customers?

Peter Shafran: (Holding the magazine in both hands) Well, tactile. It really is.

The response has been unbelievable. I’ve been driving around to dispensaries within a half hour, 45 minute radius. The magazine’s been out a week.

Every place I go, I wear my shirt or I wear my hat (with the magazine name on them). I walk into the dispensary and one of the workers in the dispensary says, I know that logo. Where did I see it before? Is this where you saw it? And every single bud tender, every single person in the dispensary is like, wow, this is really cool.

Why hasn’t somebody done this before? We’re seeing that from across the spectrum, from the readers to everybody we’ve seen. We went to, Stu and I, and a couple of members of the team went to Reveille Buyers Club a couple of weeks ago when we started talking about the magazine. The magazine hadn’t even been out yet, and the buzz around it was huge because nobody else is doing it.

Stu: There’s another cannabis title out here, but it’s newsprint. Unlike Peter’s point of a tactile and the beauty. A slick, glossy, four-color publication in an era where, to your earlier point, things living digitally is amazing, number one.

It’s an emotional attachment, which I think we all have. The newsprint book has never taken off. You know, it’s not well designed.

It looks like a high school project. When people see The Other at the retailers, at the point of sale, where they pay for the products, curiosity will definitely attract them. They’ll see this gorgeous cover, which in itself has a little gimmick built into it.

Peter, I don’t know if you’ve explained that or not. And, you know, the demographics of the cannabis consumer are me and Peter. And, you know, not that we’re old men, but we grew up in the, we grew up with magazines and the role they played in all of our lives was very central.

So it’s, in other words, cannabis has its legacy. So do print magazines. And I think there’s a marriage there. That’s one thing that’s going to work to their advantage.

But the reality is that community with a big C is really what we are looking forward to becoming the community focus for this region.

Samir Husni: How is The Other different than the cannabis magazines of the 70s and 80s, such as High Times, Inside Dope, The Weed Journal and all these titles that were published before it became legal?

Peter Shafran: Very easy answer. Before we didn’t have dispensaries. So the curiosity, ooh, let’s see what cannabis looks like.

And you’ve got these beautiful pictures, now we call it cannabis, but the whole industry has become such that the curiosity to see something in a magazine, first of all, you can see anything you want on the web. So you don’t need to see beautiful pictures of a bud. Now, of course we have, but I have buds in my background of my pictures, more of a joke than anything else.

The realization is that we have evolved from that point where we’re curious about what bud looks like, because you can walk into any dispensary and see exactly what bud looks like. The conversation has changed so that we’re focusing more on the lifestyle, the alternatives, the education, the normalization and destigmatization.

Also one of the things that New York has going for it that some other states don’t have, is a very strong social justice part of the industry where specifically it was designed to let mom and pops come into the dispensaries and to the growers and the processors and not the multi-states which are coming in, but the mom and pops have the stronghold.

They’re already in here. They’ve been nurtured and they’re growing and developing. So it’s a lot different than it was in the seventies.

Samir Husni: You mentioned in your magazine introduction that the Hudson Valley have changed from what used to be a pumpkin growing area to a cannabis growing area. What’s the reaction of the consumers? Has it been accepted now? Is it just a matter of fact?

Peter Shafran: Number one, New York has the highest use of cannabis than any other place in the world, in terms of per capita. Number two, growing up in the Hudson Valley, my father was a home builder. And the three things that they used to say are going to bring this area back is an international airport.

Well, we have that in Newburgh. High-speed rail, we don’t have it. Casino gambling, we don’t really have it. There’s one or two places around here, but all the things that they promised were going to happen to revitalize the economy in New York, never really happened in those terms.

What’s going on now in cannabis in New York is just incredible. Between the processes and the growers and everybody else that’s coming in here, the jobs and the local towns, the villages, the municipalities, the development corporations, they’re seeing real growth.

It’s not just the dispensaries. They’re employing 500 people at a facility when nobody else is putting these shovels in the ground to build processing plants, to build grow houses and things like that. So even the most right-wing conservative politicians and people who follow them are saying, well, wait a second, you’re building construction jobs, permanent jobs, money coming into the community, both in terms of sales and retail, but also in terms of taxes.

The cannabis industry is so much mainstream now that they’re providing a portion of the revenue to these towns and villages that they never saw before, or at least haven’t seen since manufacturing was here. But going back to the pumpkins and apples, there are still plenty of pumpkins and apples, but several of the smart people in agriculture, like the Hepworths, for example, realized that this is coming and had the foresight to say, let’s start growing. So people who were worried about surviving in the agricultural field now have a secondary and sometimes a primary source of income that is not related to pumpkins and apples.

There’s a company called Ayrloom, which started out as an apple grower, one of the most successful apple growers. And still is. They make delicious apple cider. Well, now they make really good apple cider with a little bit of a hint inside. And I’m a fan.

I happen to love their honey crisp apple cider, which is just absolutely delicious. But here’s a company who been growing apples for a hundred years, and all of a sudden grew into one of the major players in the region. So from the economic standpoint, it’s fantastic for the Hudson Valley. It’s fantastic for the state of New York.

Samir Husni: Do you envision seeing more of lifestyle advertisement or are you on purpose sticking to the advertisement from the cannabis industry?

Peter Shafran: No, we’re actually going about 50-50. That’s our focus now.

We’re hoping to do that in the next round of advertising. But we’re looking at our magazine as more of a lifestyle magazine rather than a cannabis magazine. And the difference is that we’re talking to advertisers and saying, we have a base of probably 250,000 readers geographically in this region.

And that’s not to mention New York City, but just 250,000 people who can read the magazine in the area. And guess what? They buy cars. And guess what? They buy cookies, and they buy candy, and they buy all kinds of things that they want to eat after they smoke.

So we’re approaching the snack companies, the insurance agencies. I mean, we are a niche lifestyle brand, but the numbers are just too hard to ignore.

Stu Zakim : If you look at the other categories, Samir, for advertising, one of the biggest growth areas as an ancillary to the cannabis is cannabis tourism, where they’re taking people from the city or wherever.

They pay a lot of money to go on this tour bus. They come up. They check out the farm. They get to see the fields. And there’s hospitality. There’s hotels that are, since it is legal, welcoming this new population for them because it’s a new customer base.

And rather than having a chocolate on your pillow at night, you may have an infused chocolate on your pillow. And they can serve infused beverage. All this stuff is an offshoot of what Peter’s been talking about with the growth in the industry.

And the other categories, to his point, if we just restricted ourselves to dispensaries and farms, there won’t be any revenue. It’s these ancillary categories that are more normal to regular publications that are actually, as the consumer, it’s not cheap to be a cannabis consumer. So you have to have a lot of extra income, which is the same logic when Rolling Stone transitioned from their newsprint and they became a slick glossy, they went after cars and autos and fashion and beauty and other lifestyle categories who felt more comfortable living in a magazine that had that feel to it and also the kind of customer readership that they had.

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

Peter Shafran: Good question.

The growth model that we see here is, you know, in answer to one of your previous questions about why we go regional, I think that this model can be replicated in other areas. I’m not looking to become a national magazine. I’m looking to make The Other something that can be duplicated in certain areas, especially in new growth areas.

I really have no desire to go into California, Colorado, Massachusetts, or any of those places. What I’m looking for is a place like New Jersey, which has two or three years of growth. There is no magazine in New Jersey that does what we do.

There are very few places that do this kind of magazine, which is why I go back to the point of being insane. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this, but the reality is the buzz around the magazine has been huge. And we’re just seeing fantastic replies and the growth in just in our Instagram page in the last couple of days has just been explosive.

Our model was providing free magazines and putting them in every single dispensary in our region. So we distributed 5,600 magazines in one week to dispensaries and ancillary places. And in one week, we’re already getting responses: We need more magazines.

In addition to being a magazine, we have realized that what we can become and what we’re really launching towards is becoming the backbone of a community. There are groups out there that have networking events and they have little things in here, but there is nothing here that is really containing in terms of the lifestyle and the advertising and the culture for this region.

What we’re finding is when we talked to a couple of dispensary owners in the last couple of weeks, and I floated the idea about starting a dispensary owners roundtable. Every single one that I spoke to said, I’m in, tell me when you want to do it. And last week, in bringing the magazine to different places, I said to the bud tenders, what do you think about having a bud tender event of the month? Like, yeah, you want to do it? If you’re going to be providing something free, we’ll all come.

But the reality is that community with a big C is really what we are looking forward to becoming the community focus for this region.

Samir Husni: Excellent. Well, my typical last two questions are if I come to visit you unannounced one evening, what do I catch Peter doing? Smoking a joint, drinking a glass of wine, watching TV, reading a book?

Peter Shafran: Well, so the easy answer is that I have become over the last year or two, more of a, maybe not a connoisseur, but I’m learning how to become a connoisseur.

But what I found is that prior to my involvement in the magazine, and prior to probably two years ago, I used to have a glass of wine with dinner every night. I haven’t opened up a bottle of wine unless company is coming for about six months, maybe more. I’ve had a sip of beer just to taste it in the last couple of months.

So one day I’ll roll a joint and smoke it. And the next day I’ll smoke out of a pipe or a bottle or I’ll do a gummy. The wonderful thing is that we live in a society right now where choice is unbelievable. It was whatever the guy had is what you got for 40 bucks. You got an ounce of whatever he had, whether it was terrible or not, it was what you got.

And now you go in for to any dispensary and you got two, three, 400, a thousand skews of products and it’s dizzying. That’s one of the things that we can provide is that benefit to say, we’ll give you reviews. We’ll show you what’s out there.

It’s a wonderful place to be in because we’re past what we used to call the wild, wild West. But now it is a functioning, growing economy, and we’re able to be there at the ground level and helping make it flourish.

Samir Husni: My typical last question to you is what keeps Peter up at night these days?

Peter Shafran: Well, of course keeping the magazine funded. We wanted to get the business of the magazine up so that that could be our tent pole to be able to use in other areas. We have a newsletter coming out, an online presence, and the live events, which will provide streams of income to be able to fund everything together. But until that happens, it’s hard to go to sleep at night. But I just take a gummy and I’m fine.

Samir Husni: Thank you very much. I really appreciate your time.

StuZakim: But as a hardcore magazine person, you know, the, the role of this format has been diminished over time. And here, I think it takes courage in this rather tough market to break out a new title. To your point about the earlier titles of High Times and all that shit that’s another generation.

We’re in a new world now. And if not only educate people about it to help eradicate the stigma against cannabis, educate people about the beauty of the magazine format and why photography jumps off the page. I mean, look at that cover.

You’ll never see that in a newspaper where it catches your attention as you walk by and bringing this to a whole new group of people who haven’t really grown up with it the way we did. So, you know, whenever you get to it, it’s fine. I would appreciate the, the forum, the platform, and as you know, I’m, I’m just really thrilled that this conversation is taking place.

Samir Husni: Thank you

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

There Is Nothing Basic About BASIC Magazine And The Woman Behind It: Viktorija Pashuta. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview.

October 10, 2024

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.

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United We Stand, Divided We Sit… A Mr. Magazine™ Musing

October 2, 2024

Unlike today’s mass media, magazines in the year 1942, specifically July, were united across content, audience, genre, age, etc. United they stood and proudly displayed the American flag on their covers to celebrate and educate their audience that the country was “United We Stand” as the country entered WWII.

Picking up any magazine in July of 1942, people felt patriotic. Regardless of the nature of the magazine, all magazines were dedicated to a campaign to support the war and unity among the people of the United States of America.
Compare this to today’s mass media, whether satellite or cable television, social media, or even magazines, readers and viewers feel that they live in two countries. No longer United We Stand, but rather Divided We Sit.

As we approach the elections of 2024, both presidential and congressional, I hope these magazines of July 1942, will bring back that spirit of optimism and freedom that engulfed our nation in the 40s. Of special note is the July 25, 1942 issue of Liberty magazine with General James Doolittle on the cover. This copy of the special collector’s issue is signed by the general himself. For those of you who are too young to remember him, he is the one who flew over Japan in what is known as the Doolittle Raid.

Liberty magazine, as I mentioned earlier, was but one of many American magazines joining forces in the United We Stand campaign in supporting the country in times of crisis. Other magazines included the general interest magazines led by Reader’s Digest and National Geographic.

Even the children magazines joined the campaign. Jack and Jill magazine sported the American flag on the front cover and the Pledge of Allegiance on the back cover. The magazine used red and blue colors on every page.

Not to be outdone by the general interest and children magazines, women and men magazines did the same. American Home and Pic are but two examples of those genres. United We Stand indeed. When the mass media were a force to unite and not divide. For what it’s worth, I blame the 24/7 cable news channels with the beginning of division in the country that was then rapidly accelerated by social media.

I recall my former journalism professor telling us one day, “if everyone thinks that he or she is a journalist, then no one is a journalist.” That is the beginning of our problem and that’s why divided we sit in front of our phones, tablets, and the many cable and satellite channels. I hope it is not too late to be United We Stand, because the alternative is nothing short of a disaster.

As always keep in mind that if you would like to take a dive into the “oldies but goldies” magazines of the past, feel free to reach to John Henry at the Special Collections division of The University of Missouri Libraries and ask for the Samir Husni Magazine Collection. Until the next musing, stay tuned …

All the best

Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni

Posted in A Mr. Magazine™ Musing, Magazine Power, News and Views | Leave a Comment »

Ray Seebeck , The Twenty Something Young Person* Behind The Unique Print Magazine “Magazine TM” The Mr. Magazine™ Interview

September 28, 2024

“There’s something different about holding something in your hand and looking at it to actually create that experience that we want to create.” Ray Seebeck, Founder and Editor

They say Gen Z is the digital generation, and print is their parents and grandparents’ medium. However, one twenty something young person from Chicago begs to differ from that adage. They are the founder and editor of the print “Magazine TM” which they launched last year.

The oversized, accordion bound magazine, is a beauty to view and a delight to flip through its pages. Ray wants the magazine to be an experience for artists and the audience. An experience it is. It is a very pleasant experience that ends with a series of pages that looks like a wall mural.

To say Ray is passionate about print, would be an understatement, but they are also very digitally oriented. They use online for their research and searches for anything and everything beautiful. They hope to invest in that passion to create a profitable magazine that will hopefully make a living for them and those who work with them.

So please enjoy my conversation with a print fanatic, Ray Seebeck, founder and editor of “Magazine TM,” but first the soundbites:

On the role of print in a digital age: “For me the end solution is print. Part of what I’m trying to do is make that finished product.”

On the binding method for Magazine TM: “I wanted to do something that was memorable, that was unique for the first issue. We settled at the accordion bound method.”

On the magazine audience: “Right now, it’s mostly people in the art community is who I want to reach.”

On their vision of the magazine: “It’s more an experience of actually viewing art through how it’s designed.”

On their goal for the magazine: “I’m trying to make a model where it’s positive for the artists. It’s building community for the artists.”

On their aim to help artists: “It’s really important for the artists to have their work published. It’s huge. And then just to be doing something that I love is hopefully showing people and inspiring them in a small way.”

On the TM in Magazine: “The answer is no. It’s a play on letters… it’s not actually a trademark, but what it means is TM stands for The Magazine. So it’s basically Magazine, The Magazine is what it stands for. And TM is like abbreviation.”

On what keeps them up at night: “It’s just the idea of the keeping the magazine running. That’s a big one.”

And now for the lightly edited conversation with Ray Seebeck, the founder and editor of Magazine TM:

Samir Husni: My first question to you is, you’re a young man in his 20s, and you launched and produced a print magazine unlike any other print magazine that I’ve seen in a long time. What’s your fascination with print?

Ray Seebeck: It probably started when I was a young kid. I did collect some magazines. I collected National Geographic, and we had Life Magazine running around the house, and Sports Illustrated.

I was a big Sports Illustrated fan, but I really got into print as an art form in college at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I had some really great experiences there where I learned from teachers screen printing, lithography, and letterpress as well. So I really just developed. It was a great opportunity where I was able to chart my own education, and so I studied in the print media department at SAIC, where you were able to take the classes you want to take, and I was able to take a lot of classes related to printmaking and try to develop a lot of skills in that field.

Samir Husni: People will tell you we live in a digital age. What makes print so attractive to you? You’re so passionate about print, you produced a magazine called Magazine. What’s in you that makes you feel print is essential today as it was yesterday?

Ray Seebeck: It’s kind of a tough question to answer, but I feel print is just the answer, it’s the solution.

There’s no other solution for me. There’s no other possible route, like the end product. For me the end solution is print. Part of what I’m trying to do is make that finished product. There’s something different about holding something in your hand and looking at it to actually create that experience that we want to create. So printing is sort of a solution for that.

Samir Husni: Why did you choose this format for magazine? It opens up like an accordion and it becomes like a mural.

Ray Seebeck: I worked with, I worked with a few people to make it.

We had five meetings as we were preparing to make the magazine and as I was gathering submissions. And so one friend from New York, one of my classmates from college, and a friend’s friend from college. We had a few Zoom meetings.

My friend Christiaan, who’s a designer, the print designer, who works with me to design print, put together this like Pinterest board with different print and different binding ideas. We talked through what were the design details we wanted to have for the magazine. We discussed different binding formats.

We all kind of came to a decision together. I wanted to do something that was memorable, that was unique for the first issue. We settled at the accordion bound method. That opened up so many possibilities for the actual design of it, which was really exciting.

Then one of the people who I was working with asked what size we wanted to make it and we decided large format would also be very memorable. We went by the 11X17 size. Those are the two key elements as we decided accordion bound and large format.

Christiaan and I had some book binding skills from our college days, so we were able to figure out how to do that.

I definitely want to turn it into a business and hopefully make a living off it and help other people make a living off it.

Samir Husni: Who’s your audience? Who do you want to reach with this magazine?

Ray Seebeck: Right now, it’s mostly people in the art community is who I want to reach.

I would love to reach art collectors. It is an audience I want to grow to. Anyone who’s like interested in art and artists. So I’m hoping to expand the audience. But right now it’s mostly people in our community.

Samir Husni: Give me the elevator pitch the magazine?

Ray Seebeck: I would say there’s a few things that are really important: I’m really trying to create a different kind of publication, something that’s different than what most people have seen before. A magazine that’s more an art experience. It’s a simple magazine. It’s more an experience of actually viewing art through how it’s designed. That’s one huge aspect is trying to do something really creative.

The second aspect is that I’m trying to create a better experience for the artists. So there are a few art magazines they make artists pay them to get involved in their magazine. I’m trying to make a model where it’s positive for the artists. It’s building community for the artists. And it’s something that artists want to be a part of and they can themselves grow through being involved in it. So those are the two key probably aspects, I would say.

Samir Husni: Is the magazine a mirror reflection of you? Are you the magazine?

Ray Seebeck: I would say yes and no. I put so much of myself into it. So in one way, it’s a lot of the artists in the magazine are artists, that I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing at art shows or events. I’m kind of reinterpreting the art that I’ve taken in through the magazine. So in that way, it’s sort of a reflection of me. And then also, I would say, being it’s not meant to be super loud. It’s not meant to be super loud and showy.

It’s meant to be reserved. Once you start looking at it, it’s kind of an amazing experience. In that way, it’s maybe a reflection of my personality maybe kind of a reach. I definitely put a lot of myself into it. But at the same time, I feel like it is something totally different. Just like an end product of a lot of hours of work.

Samir Husni: It sounds like you have a love affair with this publication. Do you ever or would you consider it to be also a business? Is your dream to make money from this or just to do a magazine and say, hey, I have a magazine?

Ray Seebeck: No, I definitely want to turn it into a business and hopefully make a living off it and help other people make a living off it.

That’s the dream. So I’m trying to take small steps every month to achieve that. So in terms of producing the magazine, I have to figure out how much each issue costs and how much I’m selling each issue.

And then packaging and mailing is a huge thing I’m working on trying to reduce the cost of. Then just trying to create more revenue by expanding to new areas such as a podcast I started, which is basically just interviews for the next issue of the magazine.

I’m trying to create new ways to maybe make money off it. I have some like possible goals for the future. But right now it’s a passion project.

So I work on it whenever I can. A lot of times late nights and things like that. But my dream is to definitely turn into business.

Samir Husni: Good luck on that.

Ray Seebeck: Thank you.

Samir Husni: What are you looking for to work in print?

Ray Seebeck: I’m really looking to just to keep the magazine going. That’s the main goal.

So if I can keep it afloat, and not losing money on it. At the end of the day, if I’m what’s most important to me, is to put something out into the world and to have it mean something to people. That’s a big part of it.

It’s really important for the artists to have their work published. It’s huge. And then just to be doing something that I love is hopefully showing people and inspiring them in a small way.

Samir Husni: So Because you have limited distribution, how can people get the magazine?

Ray Seebeck: So I did, with the first issue and also will do with the second issue coming out next March, a presale for them, probably the month of February. I’ll have a presale online and that determines how big the edition is going to be for the next issue. Basically print however many copies we sell for the limited edition.

Samir Husni: And your website is?

Ray Seebeck: It’s rayseebeck.com backslash magazine dash tm.

Samir Husni: Okay. Were you able to register magazine as a trademark?

Ray Seebeck: That’s a good question. The answer is no. It’s a play on letters. So it’s slightly misleading, which I understand because it’s not actually a trademark, but what it means is TM stands for The Magazine. So it’s basically Magazine, The Magazine is what it stands for. And TM is like abbreviation.

Samir Husni: Is there any question that I should ask you that I didn’t ask you? Or anything you would like to add.Ray Seebeck: I would say I have done a lot of market research, not necessarily market research, but read research on different publications and podcasts that has really informed me in the evolution of the magazine, the design evolution for especially for this next issue. So I could talk about that a little bit, if you wanted me to.

So have you ever heard of Esopus magazine? It’s no longer published.

There was a show at the Colby College Museum of Art about Esopus magazine. I learned about it because of that show. I actually found a copy at a bookstore in Chicago. That was really cool to see that magazine because they do a lot of similar things in terms of creatively, making creative layouts, interviewing artists, and having different formats in the magazine. That was pretty cool. It’s something to look up to.

But it’s definitely not the perfect model of what I’m trying to do. But it was cool to see. I’ve gained a lot of research by going to libraries and looking through old magazines, or print design inspirations.

I also have gotten a lot of inspiration from different art books, too. I just wanted to share that I’ve done a lot of research of looking through magazines and also art podcasts. I’ve been listening to a lot of art podcasts in the last year or so.

Samir Husni: Let me ask you my typical last questions. If I come uninvited to visit you one evening at your home or apartment, what do I catch Ray doing? Watching TV, cooking, having a glass of wine?

Ray Seebeck: So to be honest, most nights, what I’m doing is after I’ve done everything I need to do that day, I’m generally pretty busy.

I generally will like take a shower, change into like a comfortable t-shirt and shorts and make dinner. I will turn on the TV basically every night. I watch a lot of different television shows.

Right now I’m watching like the Great British Bake Show. And RuPaul’s Drag Race is a big show that I like. I watch a lot of TV shows. I’m currently watching Only Murders in the Building.

I like to decompress. I know the magazine is very print oriented, but I’m also a very digitally oriented person. So I do a lot of online research and look through a lot of photographs all the time. That’s generally what I’m doing at night.

Sometimes I’ll… If I have something to work on for the magazine, I will work on that at night. That’s kind of my exception is that because I love doing it. If I have like if I have a submission from an artist, I will like organize all the content or work on the design layout at night.

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

Ray Seebeck: I’m worried about the magazine falling apart. I would say that keeps me up. It’s just the idea of the keeping the magazine running. That’s a big one. There’s a lot of things that goes into that. Making money for the magazine also sometimes will keep me up. And just like diversifying.

Samir Husni: Thank you and good luck.

Ray is a non-binary and they use they/them pronouns.

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They Don’t Make Magazine Like They Used to! Do They? A Mr. Magazine™ Musing

September 26, 2024

Magazine making is an art. It was, is, and always will be. However, there is great art, mediocre art and just plain bad ugly art. To each its own. Continuing my journey into the magazines from years gone by, let alone a century, I happened to come across the first issue of Horizon magazine from September 1958. It is a hard back that is encyclopedic in look and content.

The editors wrote in the foreword (two full pages) to the first issue: “We take for our title the word horizon because it is here, where earth and sky meet, that one may observe those jagged interruptions in the landscape that are the words of man: the squat mud houses of ancient Sumer;” The editors continued, “the gleaming statuary of the isles of Greece; the stately sky line of Venice when “she did hold the gorgeous East in fee”; a perfect bridge in Peking; our own soaring, protean civilization; all that moved Milton to write that

Towered Cities please us then,

And the busie humm of men.

I wonder if today’s reader would need a translation of the above. Remember, this is just part of the foreword of the magazine. The editors continue, “Culture, the concern of this new magazine, is both achievement and dream, a work of hands and a movement of the spirit, the special property of man since the great miracle of the Sixth Day – since Darwin’s hairy quadruped dropped from his tree and (how many millennia later?) first lifted up his gaze to seek something beyond mere food and drink.”

If that’s not enough of pure excellent prose, read on and say how magazines were made and how they were meant to be. The editors of Horizon continued, “ Culture is art and ideas, past and present, taken in sum as a guide to life. It is history too, the science which Dionysius tells us is “philosophy teaching by examples,” with philosophy suspended between the I-believe of theology and the I-know of science.”

The editors added, “ This magazine in any case is commenced in the belief that some better guide than now exist in America is needed to the house of culture, with all its thousands of rooms.” In conclusion, the editors wrote, “We invite all those whose interests lie in this broad field, whether as contributors or readers, to join us in this venture.”

When was the last time you read something like this? Something that makes the magazine a piece of art to keep and collect? Are the magazines of today worth keeping? Are they a “better guide than” what exists in America today? You be the judge and the jury.

Would love to read your comments. As always keep in mind that if you would like to take a dive into the “oldies but goldies” magazines of the past, feel free to reach to John Henry at the Specia Collections division of The University of Missouri Libraries and ask for the Samir Husni Magazine Collection.

Until the next musing, stay tuned …

All the best

Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni

Posted in A Mr. Magazine™ Musing, From the Vault, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views | Leave a Comment »

Model Cars: The Hobbyist Magazine Celebrates 25 Years. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Gregg Hutchings, Editor & Publisher Extraordinaire.

September 22, 2024

“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.

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I Have Two Eyes…. A Mr. Magazine™ Musing

September 16, 2024

That is two Eye magazines. One from the days before I was born, and the other when I was a 13-year-old teenager. However the two Eyes have a lot in common and few good lessons to learn if you ever thought or think of going into the magazine business. And by magazine, I mean the ink on paper publication that is published on some regular frequency.

So without any further ado, here are the lessons I have found in those two Eyes that are still applicable in the year 2024, some 75 years after the first EYE was born:

Lesson number 1: Magazine publishing is not for the faint of heart. In 1949 when the first EYE ( Martin Goodman, publisher and Carlton Brown, editor) was published, magazines were the only mass medium available to the public nationwide. This EYE was first published in May 1949 with the tag line “People and Pictures.” The editors wrote in the first letter to the readers, “Starting a new magazine is as exhilarating as jumping into a mountain pool – and as filled with suspense. You hold your breath, take the plunge, and hope for the best.”

In March of 1968 editor Susan Szekely, wrote in the first issue of the Eye published by the Hearst Corporation (Helen Gurley Brown was the supervising editor), “ To get off the ground, EYE went high in the sky. For our first issue, we sent a host of venturesome journalists aloft. Among the most unruffled was Yale graduate Peter Swerdloff who set off casually to hitchhike around the country by air. Although he makes it look easy, Peter was no slouch. Where he succeeded, another writer had failed, returning home in disgrace with a toe stubbed during a forced landing.”

Both magazines took calculated risks and knew that magazine publishing, even in the 40s and 60s of the last century was not for the faint of heart.

Lesson number 2: Plea for help from the audience.

Without your readers, the magazine is not going anywhere. Readers input is essential. EYE of 1949 offered readers money for the best letters about the first issue. “We want this to be a magazine that you will like – whoever you are, wherever you live. To help us make it that, we want you to write us letters telling us what you like and don’t like in this first issue, and what you’d like to see in future issue,” the editors wrote. They continued, ‘We’ll mail checks for $10 each to the ten people who write us the best letters about EYE – the letters that will help us most in making this the kind of magazine you – and we – want it to be.”

Hearst’s eye was more on the wishful side of things with the audience. “May you be as high on EYE as we had to be to do it,” wrote the editor.

Lesson number 3: Great content was and will always be king and queen.

The importance of good quality content is as important as it was in 1949. For magazine content goes beyond good writing to include good photography, design, and the art of packaging a coherent and pleasing publication both for the eye (pun intended) and the brain. “The publishers and editors of EYE, have no misgivings about this first issue. We’ve packed it with what seem to us the best photographs to be found,” EYE’s editors wrote, “plus two full-length articles that we believe are worth anyone’s reading time.” The editors were humble enough to admit, “But our judgment, unless it’s backed by our readers’ approval, is worthless.”

As for the May 1968 Hearst’s eye, the editor wrote, after paragraphs of introducing the writers and photographer for the volume 1, number 1 issue, “EYE promises more of the same—hip young writers, photographers and artists (and a few oldies and goldies) covering the pop scene, the political and social controversies of the day, sports and travel (Spartanburg, South Carolnia?) and the latest fashion news—with each future issue.”

Publishing a magazine, a good magazine still depends on those three premises stated above. Recognizing it is not for the faint of heart, engaging your audience from the very beginning, and providing excellent content that can’t be found any other place.

If you would like to take a dive into the “oldies but goldies” magazines of the past, feel free to reach to John Henry at the Special Collections division of The University of Missouri Libraries and ask for the Samir Husni Magazine Collection

Until the next musing, stay tuned…

All the best

Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni

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

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