Magazeum

SMILING THROUGH THE APOCALYPSE — In the past few weeks, Will Welch has taken a bit of flack for letting Beyoncé promote her new whiskey label on the cover of GQ ’s October issue, with an interview that one X user described as “an intimate email exchange between GQ and several layers of Beyonce’s comms team.” Whether that kind of thing rankles you or not—and yes, we asked him about it—in the five y...

WHEN ‘HOUSE’ IS NOT A HOME — Dominique Browning jokes that after the interview for this episode, she might end up having PTSD. After more than 30 years writing and editing at some of the top magazines in the world, Browning has blocked a lot of it out.   And after listening today, you’ll understand why. At Esquire , where she worked early in her career, Browning says she cried nearly every day. Th...

VIVE LA CREATIVITE! — There are many reasons for you to hate Fabien Baron (especially if you’re the jealous type). Here are 7 of them: • He’s French, which means, among other things, his accent is way sexier than yours. • He’s spent an inordinate amount of time in the company of supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Kate Moss. • He gets all of his Calvin Klein undies for free. •...

THE FIFTH — You cannot overstate how much Tom Bodkin has changed the Times . In fact, you can say that there was the Times before Tom and the Times after Tom. The Times before Tom threw as many words as possible at the page, with little regard for the reader. The Times before Tom thought tossing a couple of headshots on the page was all the visual journalism we needed. The Times before Tom held to...

DUTCH MASTER — Dutch-born, California-raised designer Hans Teensma began his magazine career working alongside editor Terry McDonell at Outside magazine, which Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner launched in San Francisco in 1977. When Wenner sold Outside two years later, Teensma and McDonell headed to Denver to launch a new regional, Rocky Mountain Magazine , which would earn them the first of seve...

THE ART DIRECTOR’S ART DIRECTOR — Janet Froelich is one of the most influential and groundbreaking creative directors of all time. For over two decades, she lead the creative teams at The New York Times Magazine and its sister publication, T: The New York Times Style Magazine . In this episode, Froelich recalls her own personal 9/11 story, and what is was like to be in the newsroom on that awful d...

A HANDY MAN — Photographers are gearheads. They’re always throwing around brand names, model numbers, product specs. So when legendary photographer Eddie Adams asked today’s guest, Dan Winters, if he knew how to handle a JD-450, it was a no-brainer. He had grown up with a JD- 350 . So yeah, the 450 would be no problem. But here’s the funny thing: the JD-450 is not made by Nikon. Or Canon. Or Fuji....

THE JAZZ OF THE NEWSROOM — In this episode, we talk to George Gendron, the long-time editor [Inc. Magazine] and educator who created one of the first liberal arts-based entrepreneurship programs in America. We talk about his first job working under legendary editor Clay Felker in the early days of New York magazine, how a third-grade book report set him up for a life in publishing, the near-fatal...

THE ARTIST AS ENTREPRENEUR   — Michele Outland has spent her career at some really beautiful magazines. Beautiful ... because she made them that way. Her resume includes stops at Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food , Domino , Nylon , and Bon Appétit , as well as the magazine she created and launched with her good friend, Fiorella Valdesolo: Gather Journal . Gather , which only published 13 issues, made...

THE GREATEST STARTUP IN THE HISTORY OF MAGAZINE STARTUPS — We’ve always had a thing for magazine launches. They’re filled with drama and melodrama, people behaving with passion and conviction, and people ... misbehaving. Anything to get that first issue onto the stands and into the hands of readers. Some new ventures seem to sneak in the back door. Who saw Wired or Fast Company coming? Others are...

WHAT’S BLACK AND WHITE AND RED ALL OVER? —   Roger Black is a pioneer. His art direction of iconic print brands and high-profile redesigns, his early embrace of digital publishing technology, and his typographic innovations are hallmarks of a 50-year, trailblazing career. He’s refined his design mastery at publications ranging from Rolling Stone to Esquire to Newsweek to The New York Times Magazin...

THE SLOWER THE BETTER — Given that this is the final show of the season, it is perhaps a bit poetic that our guest today is Rob Orchard from Delayed Gratification . Not that we would plan an episode around a bad pun. Not us.  Delayed Gratification is media created to comment on, and offer a counterpoint to, the media. Rob Orchard and his team met each other, for the most part, in Dubai in the earl...

RICHARD TURLEY CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP — Richard Turley is changing the idea of the magazine. Richard Turley has no idea what a magazine is in the year 2024. And in this sense, he is not so different from you or I. Richard Turley’s magazines—and there are many—are confrontations, loaded with text, or not, sometimes, but if you ask him, he’s not sure what he’s doing. He claims to be boring. He once...

IT’S COMPLICATED — If Teen Vogue ’s editorial still surprises you, it might be time to admit that this says more about you than it does about Teen Vogue . And also, perhaps, that you haven’t been paying attention.  Teen Vogue is not the first magazine aimed at “the young” of course, and it’s not the first one to address multiple issues. But… Teen Vogue is the first, perhaps, to make a certain kind...

THE FIFTH —   I want you to stop what you’re doing for just a moment and imagine we’re back in 1998. (Those of you born since then will have to use your imagination). We’re on an ASME panel exploring the future of magazines in the digital age.  The moderator, eager to get the discussion off to a lively start, turns to you and asks, “What magazine that we all cherish today is least likely to adapt...

THE FINE ART OF MAGAZINE MAKING —   Imagine this: You’re a 42-year-old designer who’s only worked at one magazine. Ever. Then one day, unexpectedly, you’re tasked to lead the design of that magazine. Now imagine that the magazine is universally lauded as a design masterpiece. Add to that, your immediate predecessors have both been enshrined into every hall of fame across the design and media unive...

THE CHERRY ON TOP — Cherry Bombe is a full-course meal. Its founder, Kerry Diamond, created the magazine after working in titles like Women’s Wear Daily and Harper’s Bazaar , and after working for brands like Lancôme. And in the restaurant industry. She worked in restaurants at a time when everything culinary was in the ascendance in the zeitgeist. That’s also when Diamond realized a key ingredien...

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER —   In early April, what’s left of the magazine industry gathered at Terminal 5 to see who would win this year’s National Magazine Awards—the ASMEs. Throughout the evening, the usual suspects stepped up to accept their Alexander Calder brass elephants—the ‘Ellies’—on behalf of their teams at The Atlantic , New York , and The New York Times Magazine .  Then came the award for...

WELCOME TO THE GREAT OUTDOORS — Mountain Gazette is one of those media … things … that only long-time fans really know about, with a long and colorful history. A kind of Village Voice of the outdoors, the first incarnation (1966) of the magazine was about mountains and for “mountain people”—a lifestyle magazine for those who weren’t interested in either coast, let alone cities, let alone New York....

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER —   A good editor can, theoretically, edit any magazine, regardless of genre. But in some cases, you need an outsider to make things right. To see the forest for the trees.  To that end, Janice Min has planted acres of forests—one tree at a time—on both coasts, where the Colorado-born editor considers herself an outsider. “I cared about almost none of this. I don’t care abou...

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN — Emma Rosenblum is a best selling author and is about to release a new novel. But that’s not why she’s here.  As the chief content officer at Bustle Digital Group, overseeing content and strategy for titles like Bustle , Elite Daily , and Nylon , she has witnessed some if not all of the massive shifts and changes in the media business. The ups and downs and highs and l...

DESIGN, BUILD, AND MODIFY —   In his mid-20s, Scott Dadich told his editor at Texas Monthly , Evan Smith, that he wanted his job. A move like that is a combination of arrogance, youth, and frankly, balls. But you should also know that Dadich is an engineer. And what do engineers do? Well, according to one definition in Merriam-Webster , they “skillfully or artfully arrange for an event or situatio...

THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF THINGS —   The Bed. The Window. The Rope. The Sink. The Cabinet. The Ball. The Trousers. The Desk. The Rug. The Bottle. The Chain. The Log. The Letter.   These aren’t random words thrown together, nor am I reading a list of things I need to buy—though stop for a moment and admire the poetry and cadence of the list. No, those words are the themes of every issue of MacGuffi...

No ‘Visions of Loveliness’ — Picture it: It’s 1991. You’re sitting at your desk at The New York Times , when you get a call from the office of Condé Nast’s Alexander Liberman. Alex wants to meet you for lunch at La Grenouille to discuss an opportunity: Si Newhouse has decided to launch the first-ever beauty magazine, and he thinks you’re just the woman to make it happen. You’re 31 years old. The c...

STRING THEORY —   Media, and most every brand in general, talks a lot about building and nurturing a community. Tribes, even. Finding one, inserting yourself into it, and then making your message an integral part of it. And what activity creates a more loyal community, than sports? If there is the ultimate niche audience, sports is it. It goes without saying that every sport has fans. And some len...