Magazeum

Back in April, 1966, Time magazine famously asked America the big question: “Is God Dead?” Thirty years later, as Time Inc.’s Corporate Editor at Large, Dan Okrent posed an equally existential question: “Is Print Dead?” His answer: An unequivocal “yes.” “Finished. Over. Full stop,” he declared in a 1999 lecture at the Columbia School of Journalism. Despite that, it’d be unfair to call Okrent the G...

If Marianna, Arkansas looks like the kind of place that Walker Evans would’ve photographed, that’s because it is. And it was in that cotton belt town in 1936 that William Paschal Hopkins came to be. Born to Charles, a cotton merchant, and Martha, young Will Hopkins was on a path to follow his father into the cotton business. But thanks to the intervention of a distant aunt, a fashion illustrator i...

Kathy Ryan’s career journey began in Bound Brook, New Jersey, at St Joseph’s Catholic School. Her third grade teacher, Sister Mary William, had a thing for great works of art. And, as it turns out, so did Ryan. “I got it. I so got it. Looking at the pictures and just understanding. It was like, ‘Wow, I get it.’” That understanding of the power of the visual led Ryan to a focus on art in college—on...

For me, the 1980s comes down to two things: The Nakamichi RX-505 Cassette Deck and Metropolitan Home magazine. First, the gear. The Nakamichi RX-505 was an audiophile’s wet dream. It was prominently featured in the steamy 1986 film, 9½ Weeks . In a scene from that movie, Mickey Rourke walks Kim Basinger into his monochrome Hell’s Kitchen penthouse, where she glides through a living room full of fu...

Everyone Is a Salesman In 1995, New York magazine declared Martha Stewart the “Definitive American Woman of Our Time.” And, as the saying goes (sort of), behind every Definitive American Woman of Our Time is another Definitive American Woman of Our Time. And that’s today’s guest, designer Gael Towey. But let’s back up. It’s 1982, and Martha Stewart, then known as the “domestic goddess” — or some o...

Adam Moss is probably painting today. He’s not ready to share it. He may never be ready to share it. You see, this ASME Hall of Famer unabashedly labels himself as “tenth rate” with the brush. And he’s okay with that. As Moss explains, it’s not about the painting. After decades of creating some of the world’s great magazines, he is throttling down. He’s working with canvas, paint, and brush — and...

Where do magazine designers go after all the magazines are gone? That’s a question we’ve often pondered in recent years. Well, if you’ve been paying close attention, you’d probably guess, as it turns out, a lot of them go to Cupertino. And much of this migration can be traced to 2014, when today’s guest, AIGA Medalist and Emmy award-winning creative director Arem Duplessis, left his storied job at...

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 several ASME Nationa...

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. Or Leica. Not...

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 day, as well as how she helped creat...

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 car accident that changed e...

It’s 1967 and your train from Sandusky, Ohio, just rolled into Grand Central. You’ve got a suitcase in one hand and your portfolio in the other. You exit the station and take a right, uptown, before realizing it’s the wrong way. (It’s ok, you’re not from around here). So you turn around, and head down to 223 East 31st Street, the studio of the celebrated designer Herb Lubalin, who was about to giv...

To call designer Robert Newman “ubiquitous” might be an understatement. The entries on Bob’s resume are a name-droppers dream: The Village Voice , Entertainment Weekly , New York magazine, Details , Vibe , Fortune , and Real Simple . That’s enough brands for multiple careers, but Bob has worked on all of them — and quite a few others — in one lifetime. And he’s still at it. Despite all of the acco...

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 a powerful impact on the magazine bu...

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 to the manner born, and from the most elite print parents....

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 Magazine....

Magazines: The Original Influencers — For decades, print magazines have been an unrivaled platform for creativity and impact. A medium built on striking visuals, provocative ideas, and vivid storytelling that allowed its creators to reach deep into the souls of their readers—and move society forward in the process. Print Is Dead. (Long Live Print!) is a podcast about magazines and the people who m...