Mook

When we started mag nation, we were pretty clear that we were not going to be a newsagent and that we were going to focus almost exclusively on magazines.

So what is a magazine?

How do you distinguish between a magazine, a newspaper, a journal and a book?

The somewhat cheeky answer is that being the magazine experts, we can stock want we want, call it a mag, and hope everyone else follows our lead. But in reality, some of my favourite titles blur the line between a mag and a book. I don't know who coined the phrase, but we refer to them as "mooks".

Some of my favourites are Semi Permanent, Curvy and Dumbo Feather Pass it On (ok, so Semi Permanent looks and feels like a book. I don't care - I love it and am claiming it as a mag, or in worst case, a mook).

Mooks provide content taken to new levels in the format of a magazine. Much more beautiful than your average book, mooks are often works of art in themselves.

I am now eagerly awaiting the marriage of a newspaper and a journal (a newnal), a newspaper with a mag (a nag) and a book with a newsletter (a bewsletter). Don't tell me the magazine industry is not interesting!