Ken Miller, Import

Ken Miller is a writer and editor who together with creative strategist Sasha Laing recently opened New York’s newest magazine shop, Import. Specialising in local and imported indies, Import is located just south of Little Italy in an area known as Two Bridges, and you can pick up a magazine, a coffee and a treat from their range of imported snacks. If you’re quick you’ll catch the last days of our magCulture selection of magazines on their top shelf. They also have an outlet in San Francisco.

We asked Ken (pictured right, with Sasha) to select a new issue, an old issue and something else… here’s what he selected.

A new issue: Apartamento #19
This is probably a really obvious pick, but I feel such a deep personal connection to Apartmento. I know Omar, Nacho and Marco and on a basic, personal level, they’re great people. And they all truly live what they publish. I’ve been fortunate enough to contribute to the magazine, so perhaps I’m biased, but it’s one of the very few magazines that manages to consistently surprise and inform me in a really approachable way. For example, I stumbled across Leonard Koren’s Wet magazine very recently and was incredibly intrigued. And then, lo and behold, there he is, in his amazing house, in Apartmento!

An old issue: List magazine
The premise is just so simple, but so endlessly mutable. I think that’s the sign of a really good publication. A lot of current indie magazines are hyper-focused, which is great to begin with, but can become really limiting and frustrating. I was a magazine editor for many years, and one of the joys of doing the magazine was finding ways to maintain consistency while also constantly challenging and bending the rules. That way readers had a sense of what to expect from each issue, but were also (hopefully) surprised and intrigued. List never published a second issue, so who knows how things would have panned out, but I think it’s an amazing, incredibly solid concept. Lists! We all love them… especially magazine publishers.

And another thing: Kalyustans/Sahadis/Patel Brothers/Hong Kong Supermarket/Mi Tierra/Despana/DiPaolos/H Mart/Mitsuwa/Mediterranean Market
We don’t just sell magazines at Import… It’s more of a one-stop world shop. We travel extensively and always find intriguing products wherever we go - that’s the main source for what we carry at Import. But also, being based in New York (and London as well) has incredible advantages when it comes to the diversity of products from around the world that are available locally.

I’m a huge packaging nerd, so its incredibly fun to explore the various stores, find something visually appealing and then test it out to see if its something we would like to carry. Generally, if it looks good it tastes good, but… well, that’s not ALWAYS true!

Import, 5 Oliver Street, New York, NY 10038
import-store.com