Jen McCarroll – http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermccarroll

As someone who knew very little about the indie magazine industry and had never been to a conference of any kind before, the idea of attending Magazine Street from the International Magazine Centre was more than a little bit intimidating. The word ‘conference’ alone sent shivers down my spine.

I imagined a gaggle of very serious men in suits discussing business jargon over cups of unsweetened coffee and talks droning on about graphs and statistics.

But honestly, this could not have been further from the truth.

Magazine Street was a vibrant and welcoming showcase of the untouched creativity of the indie magazine industry. I went to ten talks throughout the day, and here are my top three takeaways:

1.Creativity pays off if you have an audience for it

Every magazine starts from an idea, and these creatives took that idea and made it into something tangible. Some you’d think are completely bonkers, but speaker David McKendrick’s Paperboy magazine with multi-page spreads of mops with designer sunglasses on sells out on preorder before it even hits shelves. According to the IPG; ‘a majority of British independent publishers have seen domestic sales surge…’ (Tivnan, 2024), which, with these magazines as an example, shows that the thirst for indie art is at an all-time high.

David McKendrick of 'Paperboy'

2. AI is a looming threat to the industry, but hope remains

John McCarthy from ‘The Drum’ opened the day with his talk about the ever-growing pile of slop that is our social media timelines thanks to the development of AI generated content. AI was a running theme throughout the day, with other speakers talking about tackling this problem in the industry. When it is easy to feel hopeless against AI, there was a reassurance in them all that the sincerity of real human art would prevail, or even be utilised; ‘AI can make us all far more creative and innovative’ (Collier, 2025).

3. New efforts are celebrated!

Speakers Nancy Heley from ‘Sandweegies’ and Tom Brandhorst from ‘Crocked’ are both fresh off the releases of their respective magazines and were met with welcoming and celebratory arms from the community. Both publications are just at their beginnings but were given the platform to speak at the conference due to their undeniable potential. The whole conference had this atmosphere where rather than being competitors in the same market, everyone genuinely wanted to see each other succeed, which was comforting, in a way.

The Scary Bit

Watching and enjoying the talks was one thing, but when it came to networking it was easy to feel a sense of imposter syndrome going into a professional environment like this, like I was at the bottom of the food chain, that I had nothing of value to add to any conversation.

When I did manage to work up the courage to chat to one of the speakers, I opened with an awkward ramble about being ‘just a student’ and how ‘I totally understand if I’m wasting your time’ – they paused me, and told me that I have every right to be there just as much as anyone else, and that I shouldn’t belittle myself to be more appealing to others. They were absolutely right.

I end this post with a callout to all students or newbies to the professional world; don’t be afraid to take up space! Advocate for yourself! Learn from me and put yourself out there!

Nancy Heley of 'Sandweegies'

References

Brandhorst, T. (2025) Magazine Street. ‘The Launch of Crocked’ Glasgow: 3rd Oct.

Heley, N. (2025). Magazine Street. ‘The Launch of Sandweegies’ Glasgow: 3rd Oct.

Collier, S. (2025). Will AI destroy entry-level jobs? [online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/will-ai-destroy-entry-level-jobs [Accessed 9 Oct. 2025].

McCarthy, J. (2025). Magazine Street. ‘AI will change publishing… just not the way you think.’ Glasgow, 3rd Oct.

McKendrick, D. (2025). Magazine Street. ‘Terrify your advertisers through original ideas.’ Glasgow: 3rd Oct.

Tivnan, T. (2025). ‘Growing and global’: IPG survey shows UK independent sector is on the up. [online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/growing-and-global-ipg-survey-shows-uk-independent-sector-is-on-the-up [Accessed 9 Oct. 2025].

Images

All images taken by me at the Magazine Street Conference in Glasgow on 3rd Oct 2025.

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