West East - Great Cover

Some covers just jump out and grab you. Here is one of them.

Imagine this on the mag shelves along side all the other dribble, and you will see why West East - a fashion mag out of Hong Kong, is one of my favourites.

Monster Children

I have a number of books that list the coolest mags in the world. They are dominated by fashion and design mags, but for some reason, Monster Children is not listed amongst them.

WRONG

If Monster Children doesn't rate as one of the 100 coolest magazines in the world, then I am a munkles unky. They do two covers for each issue (one cover of the current issue 13the glows in the dark). Check this for out there - who does 4 colour printing for a purely black and white edition, even for ads? These guys do.

MC has achieved that elusive cult following that so many want but few manage. Newsagents wouldn't have a clue where to put them - they probably think it is a title about kids!

By the way, mag nation has exclusive back copies of monster children, going back all the way to issue 1, and with both copies of each issue. Colour me cool.

I am now going to rip off something from the magazine and take my chances with the copyright gods. I hope people appreciate the irony. This is the fine print from the mag:

"this is the 13th issue of MC. Don't copy anything in this mag. That's shit house. Comments made within this mag are not ours. We just need words to fill the space. So back off. And whats that park in North Sydney, under the bridge. I like that park..."

Anyone who includes random crap in small print is brilliant by me

world exclusive

can we trust anything that is ever printed on the front cover of a weekly gossip mag? take a look at this week's woman's day and new idea.

both feature shane warne and simone on the front cover. the amusing part is that new idea has "world exclusive" printed on it (top right corner). these mags come out at the same time and sit next to each other in most retail outlets. do people really believe that new idea are the only people in the entire world who have photos of shane and simone. i wish i could ask the question who cares, but obviously many people do.

can' wait for the next simultaneous world exclusive across 79 different magazines in 15 different countries.

do you think i am cynical? now that is a world exclusive.

Magabsent

wow... long time no blog. sorry

to the thousands of people :) who read me religiously, get a life. no, i mean, i will be a good magazine from now on, i promise. kind of like the frustration of collecting monthly editions only to miss out on the december issue.

i'm back. 2007 is the year of the magazine. sooo exciting.

What a great Yarn

I love a good yarn...

Nothing like sitting by a fire with a warm knitted blanket spinning a few tales. I can light fires, and I can definitely spin... (some would use other terminology), but unfortunately, I can't knit. Never tried. Wouldn't know where to start.

Enter Yarn Magazine.

These guys make knitting accessible. Just as well, as knitting is suddenly cool. Check out the hollywood starts into knitting and you will see why it is gaining media attention. And besides, it is probably a good way to meet girls!

That is not the reason why we are holding a "Knit In" at mag nation this Thursday the 14th of December - the real reason is because we can! In conjunction with the wonderful Yarn magazine, we are inviting knitters of all standards (including yours truly who didnt until recently even know what a knitting needle looks like) to stage a "knit in" over wine and sushi.

Thanks to Yarn, there are door prizes including a weekend getaway for two at Tarndwarncoort and a Namaste needle binder. I don't know what this last thing is but boy does it sound cool.

Come and join us at mag nation (88 elizabeth st) between 6 and 9pm this Thursday. Have a knit and spin a good Yarn.

Wad is wad? Urban redefined...

It is increasingly hard to categorise certain mags. The mag industry got together a while ago to standardise mag categories - the problem with the result was that it was useless. Oooohhh, I am definitely going to get in trouble from someone with a big stick...

Take WAD for example. What is Wad? The cover, apart from being unbelievably gross yet strangely provocative, uses the following tag line "We'ar Different / A Magazine About Urban Fashion & Culture".

There is a new genre of magazine that is getting increasing cut through. I call it "Urban". Urban can cut across numerous genres such as fashion, art, design, literature or even travel (a la Paper Plane). Urban is not about content. It is about attitude. No wonder the industry associations don't get it.

WAD is one of an increasing number of bi-lingual magazines. Written in both French and English, it comes out of one of the centres of Urban in my humble opinion, Paris. Edgy, provocative, and aimed squarely at Gen Y, urban is a category of the future.

This is an unbelievable cover. Looking closely makes me squirmish, but I can't stop looking at it. Urban has this effect on me. At 32, perhaps I am too old to get it, but I can't seem to get enough.

Serious stuff

And now for a serious entry. Or at least serious in my world (not as if I am about to declare I have found the cure to cancer, learned how to turn lead into gold, or even discovered how to bite into aluminum foil without my teeth hurting).

There is a lot more to magazines than gloss, fashion, cool and funk. How about straight down the line, old fashioned “information”. The kind that makes you say “I really needed to know that and I am a better person because of it”.

A lot of what I blog about can’t be categorised in this way – unless I have had a few too many single malts. But as a Magazineologist, I don’t just read the “cool” stuff, but try to read a wide range of mags from different genres.

I was reading Australian Parents this morning. It may shock some of you to know that I have two kids of my own. The mag cover story was about whether you should have your kids sleeping in the same bed as you.

I have to admit that I love my kids in the same bed as me. They grow so quickly, and at 3 and 1, they are still really cuddly.

Up till now, I had never wanted to admit my co-sleeping. Made me feel like not only a freak but also an irresponsible parent given that many in western medicine advise against it. Reading Australian Parents today made me feel normal. Alleviated my guilt. Reaffirmed what my instincts had been declaring as natural.

I feel like a better person today. A small weight has been lifted. All because of a magazine. These babies of mine (the mags, not my kids) are cool, fashionable, glossy and at times, downright entertaining. But they are also serious tools for the flow of serious information. Seriously.

Sneaker Freaker Week

Sneaker Freaker Issue 09 is here. We have been waiting forever and we finally get it 4 days before any other retailer in the world. mag nation rocks.

You read Sneaker Freaker and think that the guys who put these publications together (guy in this case) must be way too cool for school. Mostly they are normal people with a dedication and passion for something. Definitely the case with Woody - just an all round good guy.

The SF team came into mag nation last night and decorated the store in celebration of the new edition. It has 3 different covers, though I am only showing one here.

Sneaker Freaker doesn't need much in terms of a plug from me. They are way beyond needing a MagMan. Woody is da man. If you like sneakers, you want Sneaker Freaker. It is the first and only mag documenting this global footwear culture (took that from their website!)

Take a look at what they did to my store...

Giant Robot

Has anyone read Giant Robot? If you haven't, then you should. Does amazingly well in the US, but very few people know about it in Aus or NZ.

It describes itself as Asian Pop Culture and Beyond. It comes out of the US. Personally, I wouldn't describe it as Asian Pop Culture. Makes it seem as if it is less relevant to non Asians, and this is crap. I would prefer to call it Global Pop Culture with an Asian perspective.

Giant Robot have retail stores in LA, San Fran and NYC. They are a very funky brand and the mag seems to be an extension of it (or perhaps it is the other way around). In any case, I would go as far as to say that it is one of the best mags I have come across. I have known about it for a while, but you don't get it in most places. mag nation to the rescue. Again.

One of my favourite parts of the mag is the regular "book collector". These guys really do find the cool stuff to read.

Check it out. Pop culture from an Asian perspective is going to be huge. Asia is the future and their influence on the streets here in Aus and NZ is only starting to be felt.

Giant Robot is already huge in the US. It deserves to be huge here too.

OK!

Ok, so if you hadn’t heard, OK! (Australia) has gone weekly. It was fortnightly, and it was previously $5.95, but it has been repositioned as a weekly and the lowest priced of its competitors at only $2.95.

Now I have no vested interest in saying this, as the money I make on selling one OK! at mag nation ain’t going to be putting my kids through college any time soon.

I really like OK!

You might have guessed by now that I am not much into weeklies. My personal tastes are more towards a mag that challenges my withering intellect. But, I recognise that there are magazines for everyone (my entire business is based on this premise), and the weekly celebrity gossip mag has its place in the market. (It also happens to be the best selling category of magazine and what keeps your local newsagent ticking along).

We don’t really depend on the weeklies at mag nation like other retailers of magazines. But I have to tell it as I see it. OK is different. It is “cleaner”. I am not the expert in how magazines are put together, but the people who do the setting out for OK should be congratulated. It just feels easier to handle and navigate.

Well done OK! You are definitely OK by me. And so far anyway judging by our sales numbers, your readers seem to agree.

The Power of Controversy

Nothing sells a magazine like controversy. Brad Pitt has apparently been photographed in white undies and put on the cover of Vanity Fair. He is suing. And Vanity Fair couldn’t be happier. Nothing like a juice law suit to sell more magazines.

We have ordered in more copies.

My NZ readers will know of Pavement – a very popular lifestyle and fashion mag from Auckland. It is also sold in Aus, but has less of a profile. This is old hat for you guys in NZ, it has already hit the news and died down.

The Spring edition of Pavement caused a lot of controversy. Entitled “Lost Youth” it features fascinating snippet insights into the lives of today’s teens. And yet, people will probably remember this edition for the flashes of breasts belonging to girls who look as if they are underage.

I am told that the Pavement team might get a fine. They are known for pushing the boundaries and this part of what gives Pavement its positioning.

If the powers that be wanted to draw attention to Pavement and guarantee that every pervert in a trench coat buys this issue, then they have done a great job. The fact that I am blogging about this is a case in point.

There is a controversial debate underlying all this, and I am not going to get into it here. But you have got to hand it to Barney and the guys at Pavement. They know how to sell magazines.

Shame that I read in the NZ papers over the weekend that the magazine is about to fold due to lack of advertising support. After 13 years, I wonder if this is just another controversy in the offing…

S T R E T C H

I love my job. One of the perks is I get to see sneak previews of some of the coolest mags in the land.

And the POL Oxygen Stretch Special Expanded Issue is one of those magazines.

I really like innovation, but especially so when it happens in my industry that rarely dares to dare. (mag nation is all about innovation and challenging the established norms in the magazine industry).

POL Oxygen has shown a sense of adventure in creating a beautiful magazine that needs to be folded out vertically.

Beautiful in the sense that great imagery is made even better at a large scale with great content to boot.

They have called it the Stretch Edition. It will stretch your mind and your visual senses. Hopefully it will add to the groundswell that might finally act as a catalyst to stretch the magazine industry as well.

The Kylie Wars

Kylie is back. In case you didn’t know, just take a look at the mag covers of the popular women’s titles.

Vogue Australia. Marie Claire Australia. Elle UK (probably won’t find the airfreight version in most places). All of these have Kylie on the front cover. All vying for our attention.

Make no mistake about it, this is all out war. The average punter won’t be buying Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle at the same time. Therefore, the magazine publishers, knowing that Kylie sells, are all vying for our allusive custom.

Vouge hit the shelves first, and we sold more in the first few days than ever before. We have always known that covers are what sell the popular women’s mags, and some stars have more pulling power than others.
Kylie is one of those with amazing pulling power. No wonder everyone is doing the pulling.

T-World rocks my world

Simply put, some magazines kick arse. T-World – The Journal of T-Shirt Culture is one of those mags.

People who know me well will have heard me speak about T-World before. I had my doubts about it when I got a sneak preview of the launch edition. Would anyone actually buy it? I like T-Shirts as much as the next guy or gal, but would I actually buy a mag about it?

I was wrong. We have sold more of the first edition of T-World than nearly any other mag we get. The magazine and its creators even inspired us to hold T-Week at mag nation – a week long celebration of the humble t-shirt with a limited edition T packaged with 100 copies of the magazine.

T-World rocks my world. I enjoy nothing more than seeing something take off and T-World is doing just that. To think that I played just a small part in it by giving it a wonderful retail environment warms by heart.

Go you good thing T. I am now a believer…

Out of action

Two weeks with no blogging.

I have a good excuse - Chicken Pox.

Ugly thing to have as an adult, but all good now.

The only good thing to come out of it is that I have had a million things running through my mind, all to do with magazines, and all that will end up being poured out here.

Had lots of time to read mags - in between itching like crazy.

I love mags. I hate the chicken pox.