Magazeum

WHAT'S RED AND YELLOW AND ORANGE ALL OVER? —   The images are iconic. And you know who they depict. They may be the most unforgettable magazine covers to emerge from the chaos of the late 2010s. Why are they so effective? Because of the implicit understanding of what’s being said between artist and audience—without a word being spoken. Using just three basic colors, today’s guest has created the b...

Saveur was always a little different from the other food magazines. It was not exactly highbrow, but it did expand the definition of what a food magazine could be. If anything, it was a magazine about culture—centered on food, sure—but also about places, and things, and people. It was a magazine for foodies before the word “foodie” was invented—and then became annoying. It embraced the web and dig...

THE LAST EMPEROR — It might be difficult to remember, at least for our younger listeners, how vast the Time-Life empire was. At its height, during the John Huey dynasty of the late 1990s/early 2000s, the company published over 100 magazines. Quite a rise from its humble beginning in 1922, when Henry Luce launched Time as the country’s first newsweekly. It was followed shortly by Fortune in 1930, L...

Jeremy Leslie is a magazine person. A lifer. He has had his hands in a diverse group of publications and media, including Time Out , The Guardian , Blitz , and many others. Since 2006, he has led magCulture , which started out as a research project, became a well respected blog , but now includes a retail outlet in London, a consultancy, events and conferences, and really, anything magazine. He ha...

MY EFFING CAREER —   When you’re born in a town called Media, your career path is pretty much preordained. It has to be, right? And when you end up leading the design teams at blue-chip magazine brands at Condé Nast, Hearst, and Time Inc., the prophecy is then fully realized. (Yes, I just watched Dune ). But the journey in between is not as cushy as you might imagine.  Since the age of 10, with hi...

Introducing our new podcast all about the future of magazines — and the magazines of the future. Check out episode 1, our interview with Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones. — Radhika Jones was named editor in chief of Vanity Fair in November 2017, the fifth editor in the magazine’s storied history. Her hiring was met with some surprise, and more than a little skepticism. The Guardian called...

THE ULTIMATE HYPHENATE —   Rochelle Udell is many things.  She is all of these things: teacher, ad woman, vice president, founder, wife, creative director, mentor, chair woman, student, marketer, graduate, design director, editor-in-chief, mother, chief talent officer, executive vice president, collector, president, meditator, internet strategist, partner, art director, volunteer, deputy editorial...

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER — “I finally went up to Graydon and I said, ‘Hey, you know, I know you like me. I know you wanted me to be here, but I can also do covers.’” • • • That’s today’s guest, Mark Seliger. He’s the same Mark Seliger who, at the moment of this exchange with Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, had already shot over 180 covers for Rolling Stone , where he was the chief photographer fro...

A CRIME OF ATTITUDE — As George Bernard Shaw once said, “England and America are two countries separated by the same language.” Turns out it may be more than just the language. Early in my career it became clear the British were coming. The first wave arrived when I was an editor at New York magazine: Jon Bradshaw, Anthony Hayden-Guest, Julian Allen, Nik Cohn—all colorful characters who brought wi...

The Prime of Mr. Neville Brody — “Once you have broken down the rules, literally anything is possible.’” In the business of magazine design, few names resonate as profoundly as Neville Brody. And, to this day, he lives by those words.  Renowned for his groundbreaking work and commitment to pushing design boundaries at magazines like The Face , Arena , Per Lui , and others, Brody is a true auteur i...

One Eye on the World — “When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams, this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is, not as it should be!” — Don Quixote de la Mancha   Monocle , the brainchild of the expat Canadian magazine maker,...

A Style All Her Own — This summer, our first collaboration with The Spread —the Episode 21 interview with former Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles—became our most-listened-to episode ever. Now Rachel Baker and Maggie Bullock are back, and this time they’re speaking with another game-changing woman in media: Stella Bugbee, the editor of The New York Times ’ Style section. For our new listen...

Today’s guest, the celebrated photographer Albert Watson, OBE, is a man on the move. This is not a recent development. Watson’s professional journey began in Scotland in 1959, where he studied mathematics at night. His day job? Working for the Ministry of Defense plotting courses—speed, altitude, distance, payload—for British missiles pointed towards Cold War Russia. It’s the Journey, Not the Dest...

Designing Her Life — It’s impossible to look at Gail Anderson’s body of work and not be reminded of the limitless potential of design. A traditional biography might pinpoint her education at the School of Visual Arts in the early eighties as her launchpad. But Gail actually kicked off her career much earlier when, as a kid, she created and designed her very own Jackson 5 magazine. What followed wa...

The Accidental Editor-in-Chief — Today’s guest, Terry McDonell, is the kind of editor you fear based on reputation, but would probably run through a wall for at 3am on deadline day. As for that reputation, I’ve never worked with McDonell, but a simple Google search fills the screen with an undeviating set of impressions like these: “he helped define American masculinity”… “a version of manhood ins...

An Englishman in New York — If you can count yourself among the lucky ones who’ve met Robert Priest in person, any chance you remember what you were wearing? Well, fear not: He does. According to his business partner, the designer Grace Lee, Priest possesses a near-photographic memory of how people present themselves. And those first impressions last a lifetime. To hear him talk, though, it’s not...

A Revolution from Within — This episode is about a girl from East Toledo, Ohio. A girl who taught herself to read by devouring comic books, horse stories, and Louisa May Alcott. A girl who didn’t set foot in a school until she was 14. A young woman who went to India for two years to avoid getting married—to anyone. A young woman who was described by one Esquire editor as the only writer he knew wh...

It’s a Wonderful LIFE Today’s guest, Bob Ciano, is probably best known as the designer who guided the venerable LIFE magazine into its second chapter, shifting, after five decades as a weekly, to a monthly. But in an era where editors and art directors did not enjoy the downright chummy partnerships we have now, he’s known for a lot more. In his career, which continues to this day, Ciano has punch...

A Freaking National Treasure By any measure, Anita Kunz has built a dream career. She’s won every award, been inducted into every hall of fame, won every medal and national distinction. When her native Canada ran out of honors to bestow, the country minted a postage stamp in her honor. Over the last 40 years, the Toronto-based illustrator has created covers for The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Time,...

All the News that Fit   Imagine there’s no sixties . In 1967, today’s guest was a college dropout whose Plan B was to start a rock ’n’ roll magazine. Plan A? “Kicking back, having a good time, delivering letters, and smoking dope all day” as a San Francisco postal worker. But thanks to a nudge from his mentor, Ralph Gleason , and a cash infusion from his soon-to-be-wife, Jane Schindelheim, Rolling...

The Last Celebrity Magazine Editor Hello and welcome to a very special episode of Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) . For our first “pod-nership,” we’ve teamed up with The Spread , the brainchild of two former Elle magazine editors and “work wives,” Rachel Baker and Maggie Bullock, who, in 2021 found themselves wishing for the perfect women’s magazine—at the exact moment when women’s magazines were...

He’s Never Felt More Naked Barry Blitt wants you to laugh at him, not with him. Because laughing with him means you’d have to be where he is. And, “thanks very much,” but he’d rather not. He’s happy enough just drawing for himself. “I’m trying to make myself laugh,” he says. “That’s the point, that’s part of the process, it’s as un-self-conscious as possible.” Blitt is a Pulitzer Prize-winning car...

When your business partner is Milton Glaser, the most celebrated designer in the world, what does that mean for you? If you’re Walter Bernard, today’s guest, you accept it as the gift it is, and then you go out and make yourself an extraordinary career.  Here’s three things you need to know about Walter Bernard: 1) He was the founding art director of New York magazine, 2) he once produced a top-se...

A Man at His F*#king Best We’re 18 episodes into this podcast, and while several interesting themes have surfaced, one of the more unexpected threads is this: Nearly all magazine-inclined men dream of one day working at Esquire . (Some women, too). Turns out that’s also true for today’s guest. Which is a good thing because that’s exactly what David Granger did. “But all this time I’d been thinking...

For the past ten or so years, indie magazines have been booming. As digital media platforms relentlessly chase clicks and smartphones paralyze our focus, a host of fresh print publications are taking a slower and more measured approach. Guided by the tenets of the “slow media” movement, this new breed of publishers focuses on correcting the pace of media creation and consumption in the digital age...