In the years preceding Thursday 29th September, I had given little thought to the subject of magazines. Of course, I glanced at them in supermarkets, browsed them on the rare occasion I was delayed at an airport terminal and even went as far as to admire their dismembered form in my younger brother’s primary school collage project. But I’d never given much real thought to the process of crafting, running and working with these glossy windows into celebrity, fashion and food. 

But that’s the thing: musings on celebrity, fashion and food – that’s all I thought magazines had to offer. My attendance at the International Magazine Centre’s 2022 Magazine Street Conference changed all that. As I sat in Edinburgh’s Assembly Roxy venue listening to a flurry of talented, engaging and above all properly interesting speakers tell their own tales of (what I soon learned is) a fabulously varied industry, I realised I’d been doing magazines a disservice. Like many people, I find myself interested in a wide variety of stuff – for want of a better word – and it was as the speakers changed from a fascinating presentation by Sandrae Lawrence concerning the Cocktail based publication she and her partner run to a talk by Alex Longson about his magazine Command+i that I realised just how broad the magazine spectrum is. 

As the conference continued and laughs were had, a cheesecake was consumed and admittedly not enough notes were taken (I blame the captivating speakers!) I began to see that the only real constant with magazines is change. Magazine Street served as something of an awakening for me to realise how – in a world in which there’s an app for everything – having a printed magazine to suit just about every interest is something of a comfort. Pursuing the well-stocked stands that flanked the seating area, I saw an array of handsome covers. Scared to ask the price for fear of revealing just how out of my depth I felt, I opted to purchase the latest issue of The Cocktail Lovers. Taking a peek inside I was greeted with elegantly arranged and content-heavy articles that detailed a niche much richer and larger than I could have possibly imagined. 

Sandrae and Alex weren’t the only top-class speakers that Magazine Street had to offer. From the inspirational Arusa Qureshi to the truly singular Laura Bartlett, each speaker was a front-cover star in their own right and each championed a different route into magazine publishing. With every accomplished figure that took the stage a new roadmap to making one’s way in the industry was unveiled and instantly I felt welcomed into a world I’d only just dipped my toe into. My desire to ‘have a bit of everything’ which is so often the undoing of me (particularly at all-you-can-eat buffets) became something to embrace as I was told about the consistent opportunities for varied experiences that exist within this part of the publishing industry. From food to fashion, housekeeping to horticulture, politics to pigs (no, really), the limits are seemingly endless. 

What I’m trying to say is: I liked Magazine Street. It helped me see just how exciting the cooler cousin of fiction publishing is. Yeah, sure, Booker Prize winners are great, but have you ever published a piece of work with four different strawberry daiquiri recipes in it?

(I thought about ending this post with a snappy “Move over Hachette, Hearst is in town” but I feel it’s more important to support the underdogs, so I’ve linked them above: enjoy!)

Featured Image: International Magazine Centre, Magazine Street 2022 https://internationalmagazinecentre.com/magazine-street/faqs/
[Accessed on 11th October 2022]