Printout!

Big thanks to the three speakers – Andrea from Huck, Jonathan from Blizzard and Philip from Ride – for taking part in last night’s Printout! and sharing their thoughts about independent sports publishing. As ever the discussion revolved around their passion for their respective subjects. The gap between what they are doing for boardsports, cycling and football and what the mainstream provides is huge.

All three speakers had great examples of the type of behind-the-scenes stories of personal achievement that require indepth examination rather than the quick personality-driven sketches favoured by newspapers and glossies alike. And they reminded us that their specialist subjects are as much a route to learning about people as about the subjects themselves, as is so often the case with the best magazines.

We also learned three pieces of advice for anyone planning their own magazine:
1/ Work with people you like and trust.
2/ Give up your social life.
3/ Use twitter to spread the word.

Thanks also to everyone who came along and joined in the magazine swap; I came away with a complete set of the nine issues of the Penguin Music Magazine, a paperback-like publication from the Penguin publishing house that was produced three times a year 1946-49. I hadn’t heard of it before; it’s really a paperback book but the content is a series of essays and briefer pieces about classical music. The covers are the star – as above (thank you Maya).

The next Printout will take place in September.