INTERVIEW
ALEC DUDSON (INTERN MAGAZINE)
In your opinion how are new magazines becoming successful?
I think they are tapping in to a desire for consumers to have and buy in to variety of personally curated publications that give a really interesting personal take on any giving subject. Its good that by virtue of being independent they are free willed in subject matter and it boils down to human interest. People are often a lot better represented by new independent magazines because they cater to a far smaller portion of readers than something like vogue or GQ.
With the breadth of magazines in circulation how important is it to define your audience and how do you go about it?
The more that come out the more competition there is generally. If you are in to independent magazines then naturally you are open to new ones and find them interesting and keen to see what’s going on. So the trick is not just to nail down that audience, but to pull your self out as being the publication to go to on that specific theme. How you go about it is having a really clear voice. For instance there is a lot of travel magazines out there so if you are a travel magazine you need to be the travel magazine that does things differently and build up your audience and your audiences loyalty through the strengths and consistency.
How can you insure longevity for independent magazines due to the niche information?
These are all factors you have to consider when coming up with your concept. For me at intern magazine if tomorrow morning unpaid internships were made illegal and that was enforced to be honest there would probably be one more issue in the magazine and then it would seize to exist because the discussion is no longer there. You always run the risk of that happening. But from the people I have met that make magazines are so in to what they make magazines about, that if they were out of the industry for too long they would look to get back in to it through another title. Longevity is something you have to aspire to. A lot of magazines don’t make it past the first issue, which is a shame because there is a lot of good ideas out there, however the financial reality of it all is often a great shock. The only safe guard against that is to research, not just in to content and design but in to the market and the process. Everything from between the idea generation to getting it in someone’s hands. Distributers, Subscription, online sales, over seas distribution. As soon as possible you have to consider the bigger picture, you have to be open to learning as you go along.
I think they are tapping in to a desire for consumers to have and buy in to variety of personally curated publications that give a really interesting personal take on any giving subject. Its good that by virtue of being independent they are free willed in subject matter and it boils down to human interest. People are often a lot better represented by new independent magazines because they cater to a far smaller portion of readers than something like vogue or GQ.
With the breadth of magazines in circulation how important is it to define your audience and how do you go about it?
The more that come out the more competition there is generally. If you are in to independent magazines then naturally you are open to new ones and find them interesting and keen to see what’s going on. So the trick is not just to nail down that audience, but to pull your self out as being the publication to go to on that specific theme. How you go about it is having a really clear voice. For instance there is a lot of travel magazines out there so if you are a travel magazine you need to be the travel magazine that does things differently and build up your audience and your audiences loyalty through the strengths and consistency.
How can you insure longevity for independent magazines due to the niche information?
These are all factors you have to consider when coming up with your concept. For me at intern magazine if tomorrow morning unpaid internships were made illegal and that was enforced to be honest there would probably be one more issue in the magazine and then it would seize to exist because the discussion is no longer there. You always run the risk of that happening. But from the people I have met that make magazines are so in to what they make magazines about, that if they were out of the industry for too long they would look to get back in to it through another title. Longevity is something you have to aspire to. A lot of magazines don’t make it past the first issue, which is a shame because there is a lot of good ideas out there, however the financial reality of it all is often a great shock. The only safe guard against that is to research, not just in to content and design but in to the market and the process. Everything from between the idea generation to getting it in someone’s hands. Distributers, Subscription, online sales, over seas distribution. As soon as possible you have to consider the bigger picture, you have to be open to learning as you go along.
The importance of printing your work as opposed to blogs?
There is a lot of Internet content out there. The great thing about the Internet is it gives everyone a voice. However it also inevitable drags down the over all quality of the content because peoples motivations are completely different some people will publish stuff online because they feel strongly about a certain matter, some will publish online for a laugh, some for a joke. The bigger financial commitment that comes with printing your work weeds a lot of that out, if you are going to the trouble of printing stuff your editorial bar is raised so the need for it to stand out is greater. It is a really nice affirmation for people with talent that I try to make a point that not only are these people good enough to go in to print, but they can go in to print and hold their own with the industry that they feel locked out of.
Is print more validated?
There are situations where that is not the case. There isn’t any critical value for being printed in the daily star for instance. Print has different functions and implications and with in the realm independent magazines there is that personally curated feel. The fact that most of the magazines you see on shelves are treated as a tactile object there is care that has gone in to them. Unit costs is through the roof for independent magazines, they are printing a lot less and paying a lot more compared to large commercial magazines. It’s a labour of love and that is what makes them really attractive to customers that’s what makes them such a nice thing to be involved in as a contributor, so the jostle for positions with in them is greater, so that often drives the standards up.
It was always intended to be a niche topic in order to give me a chance to define a readership. The content kind of follows that. The challenge of the content is for it to remain fresh. In one sense we have a slender and narrow focus but with in that there is a constant effort to provide some consistency so that the issues follow on from one another in a coherent manor but also to go down different avenues of inquiry and keep the audience guessing to a certain degree. But your readerships response to your content affects how you curate it moving forward. The beauty of being an independent magazine is that you are a lot more nimble than a grand old institution in the fact that if users don’t like one thing but not another you can just change it. That is the beauty of being able to retain complete creative control that you can move with the times. Once you have identified your topic you need to retain an element of elasticity in order to move with the times.
Have you utilised the Internet to advertise and distribute your magazine?
There is a lot of Internet content out there. The great thing about the Internet is it gives everyone a voice. However it also inevitable drags down the over all quality of the content because peoples motivations are completely different some people will publish stuff online because they feel strongly about a certain matter, some will publish online for a laugh, some for a joke. The bigger financial commitment that comes with printing your work weeds a lot of that out, if you are going to the trouble of printing stuff your editorial bar is raised so the need for it to stand out is greater. It is a really nice affirmation for people with talent that I try to make a point that not only are these people good enough to go in to print, but they can go in to print and hold their own with the industry that they feel locked out of.
Is print more validated?
There are situations where that is not the case. There isn’t any critical value for being printed in the daily star for instance. Print has different functions and implications and with in the realm independent magazines there is that personally curated feel. The fact that most of the magazines you see on shelves are treated as a tactile object there is care that has gone in to them. Unit costs is through the roof for independent magazines, they are printing a lot less and paying a lot more compared to large commercial magazines. It’s a labour of love and that is what makes them really attractive to customers that’s what makes them such a nice thing to be involved in as a contributor, so the jostle for positions with in them is greater, so that often drives the standards up.
It was always intended to be a niche topic in order to give me a chance to define a readership. The content kind of follows that. The challenge of the content is for it to remain fresh. In one sense we have a slender and narrow focus but with in that there is a constant effort to provide some consistency so that the issues follow on from one another in a coherent manor but also to go down different avenues of inquiry and keep the audience guessing to a certain degree. But your readerships response to your content affects how you curate it moving forward. The beauty of being an independent magazine is that you are a lot more nimble than a grand old institution in the fact that if users don’t like one thing but not another you can just change it. That is the beauty of being able to retain complete creative control that you can move with the times. Once you have identified your topic you need to retain an element of elasticity in order to move with the times.
Have you utilised the Internet to advertise and distribute your magazine?
Primary means of doing it was kick-starter, but that was always in conjunction
with social media. Again if you have zero budget to start with you have to
realise that there is a huge difference between online sentiment for example
likes and retweets to people actually buying the magazine. People can like
everything I post and don’t buy the mag. It is a really great tool to increase
visibility but not for profit to a degree it is designed for the people selling
advertising space for example facebook who are chasing clicks. Clicks don’t
mean anything. I paid £8 for 8000 people to see one of our posts in their
newsfeed, but no one clicks on sponsored links. The people who work on
marketing these things will have you believe that it is guaranteed sales, but it
is nothing of the sort. But it is all part of the risk of advertising, last time I saw
a billboard I didn’t buy what was on it but its job is to increase brand visibility.
The most direct sales knock on for us is online press. If I get interviewed on
New York Times or similar I will sell 30 magazines that day.
How do you sell the tactile nature of a magazine online?
People who are interested in print magazines still use the Internet I don’t think one must exist with out the other or one must be better. There are something’s that the Internet is better suited to and something’s id rather read in a magazine. You cant give too much content away online because then no one will buy the magazine, so it is an altered content online, bonus interviews and so on. It’s almost like bonus content online; you try and feed people by enticing them, if you want to get to the juice of the matter and get to the story then you have to buy the magazine. There are many strategies of trying to make the two mediums dovetail.
Do you have a digital magazine in conjunction to your printed one?
We have an IPad issue of our first issue, I creatively directed this project with the early Domus magazine in mind. It was beautiful interactive and you could slide away aspects, spin things. The concept was interactive design and trying to make it tactile in another, you need to get people drawn in. Apple have neglected newsstand from day one, if they’d paid the same amount of attention as the app store it could have been huge for independent publishers. They don’t market it at all, we designed it for the IPad and it exists as a stand- alone app. By the time we’ve sold that, 50% of the profit goes back to apple, the same as if it were an app, so you have to sell thousands of it to make any profit. A separate design team is needed and cost thousands of pounds. We charge £2.99 and id be amazed if I’ve sold 250 copies and that has been around for almost a year. Fundamentality if companies like apple invested more time and interest in those platforms, I think a lot more independent publishers would be looking to utilise that platform. When so many people are giving away things for free on the Internet it becomes hard to sell digital copies of magazines to that market.
How do you sell the tactile nature of a magazine online?
People who are interested in print magazines still use the Internet I don’t think one must exist with out the other or one must be better. There are something’s that the Internet is better suited to and something’s id rather read in a magazine. You cant give too much content away online because then no one will buy the magazine, so it is an altered content online, bonus interviews and so on. It’s almost like bonus content online; you try and feed people by enticing them, if you want to get to the juice of the matter and get to the story then you have to buy the magazine. There are many strategies of trying to make the two mediums dovetail.
Do you have a digital magazine in conjunction to your printed one?
We have an IPad issue of our first issue, I creatively directed this project with the early Domus magazine in mind. It was beautiful interactive and you could slide away aspects, spin things. The concept was interactive design and trying to make it tactile in another, you need to get people drawn in. Apple have neglected newsstand from day one, if they’d paid the same amount of attention as the app store it could have been huge for independent publishers. They don’t market it at all, we designed it for the IPad and it exists as a stand- alone app. By the time we’ve sold that, 50% of the profit goes back to apple, the same as if it were an app, so you have to sell thousands of it to make any profit. A separate design team is needed and cost thousands of pounds. We charge £2.99 and id be amazed if I’ve sold 250 copies and that has been around for almost a year. Fundamentality if companies like apple invested more time and interest in those platforms, I think a lot more independent publishers would be looking to utilise that platform. When so many people are giving away things for free on the Internet it becomes hard to sell digital copies of magazines to that market.
