Nick Shelton, Broadsheet
This month, a new, free magazine launched in London. Broadsheet is a quarterly publication backed by a significant digital operation.
Broadsheet is already an established brand in Australia, and one of its most significant independent publishers—there are local editions covering culture and city life in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
Founder and CEO Nick Shelton introduces his brand and explains why London is the first launch for Broadsheet outside Australia.
What are you doing this morning?
Today, you’ve caught me in Melbourne. My wife and I relocated to London about six months ago to launch Broadsheet in the UK, but this week I’m back at our head office checking in on our team here and visiting friends and family.
I started the day taking our dogs for a walk in the spring sunshine (who we miss terribly when we’re in London). Next I head to my neighbourhood cafe Napier Quarter where I spend an hour or two catching up on all the emails and slack that have come in overnight from London.
From there I’m into the office to spend time with our team. This afternoon we have an Executive Leadership Team meeting. For the past six months Ive been dialling into them early in the morning, so Im looking forward to being with everyone in the flesh.
Describe your work environment
We have a lovely big office on the fifth floor overlooking Melbourne’s inner north. We moved in about a year ago after 10 years around the corner in what you might charitably call a ‘start up environment’. So this feels very grown up.
About 60 people work from this office, another 20 from our Sydney office and eight from our London office.
Which magazine do you first remember?
It’s hard to say, but what I do remember is that I filled out a survey when I was about 15 and in return I was given a 12 month subscription to both Australian Gourmet Traveller and Vogue.
Gourmet Traveller was a brilliant magazine that treated food, restaurants and travel seriously. And while I wasn’t the Vogue target market, I was always struck by the artistry and beauty of the photography. I always looked forward to the moment in the month when they would arrive.
Aside from yours, what’s your favourite magazine/zine?
New York magazine has always been a huge inspiration for me.
In one sense, as a publisher of a title that covers city culture, it’s an obvious choice. But its real appeal to me it its use of voice. When New York is at it’s best (from the sixties to today) its full of personality, perspective and lovely lovely writing. From the literary journalism of Tom Wolfe onwards. That’s then complimented with design, layouts and photography that’s edgy and vibrant.
Ultimately I admire any magazine that can capture the zeitgeist and set the cultural agenda. Not many have done that as well or consistently as New York.
What other piece of media would you recommend? And why?
I’m definitely a media and news junkie, so I consume a lot in any given day. But I find it hard to go past the New York Times. Yes, their reporting is excellent in its depth and credibility, but what I admire about it so much is how well they execute their strategy.
Their core mission is so apparent and expertly executed across print, web, video, audio, events, newsletters, social and anything else they decide to execute on.
Culture, Community, Insight
Why did you select London for the first non-Australian edition of Broadsheet?
We feel that London is the most exciting cultural city in the world right now. Like all cities, it’s had its challenges in recent years, but we see an energy here that is positively fizzing and we’re excited to be a part of it.
Sadly, a lot of the London cultural media has diminished in recent years, so we feel like there’s a really interesting opportunity to cover and report on the city’s culture.
I first thought about Broadsheet when I was living in London in 2006. Coming from Australia it was such a big exciting cosmopolitan city, but so difficult to discover. I craved a resource that would help me navigate it with tase and lens that I could trust.
I returned to Melbourne a few years later and found a city undergoing a cultural renaissance and felt the media was ignoring. So I launched Broadsheet in response to that in 2009. It grew quickly and eventually launched editions in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
So returning to London is a somewhat full circle moment.
What is the balance between print, digital and experiential content?
Broadsheet publishes written and video content daily on the web. Our audience engages with us through a mixture of newsletters, social media (mainly Instagram and TikTok) and through Google.
We’re also very passionate about our print magazine, which we’ll publish quarterly in London. In 16 years as a publisher I always found print as the the best way to build a media brand. Being able to hold the magazine in your hand and focus on it as a collection of stories and imagery is incredibly powerful.
We also love events, which we see as a way of bringing culture to life and as a way to engage directly with our audience and community.
Where next for Broadsheet?
Right now our focus is on building strong foundations in London. We’re looking to increase our video output, add more brilliant columnists and launch a podcast. We want to be an active participant in the city’s culture, which is not something you can rush.
After we feel like we’ve done that we’ll look to cities like Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam and go from there.
Show us one spread that sums up how the magazine works
I selected this spread because it’s a good showcase of what we value in our editorial. On the left hand page Daisy Hoppen guides us around her neighbourhood of Highbury Islington. This is has all the ingredients of a Broadsheet guide: It’s the perspective of someone with a great deal of taste and credibility, it’s expertly curated and it’s helpful.
On the right hand side, we’ve picked up on something happening in design (fashion designers moving into homeware design) and shone a light on it. We’ve selected an edit of great examples and offered our audience both insight into this movement but also some utility in how they might like to engage in it.
What has publishing the magazine taught you that may be helpful to anyone else planning to launch one?
The one guiding principle that I believe has led to our success is astonishingly simple: Put the audience first. People would be amazed at how many publishers don’t. Understand who you’re making it for and why they might need or want it. Be laser focused on executing it for them.
In the cut and thrust of running a media business it can be easy to lose sight of it when you’re balancing advertisers, deadlines, budgets and day to day admin.
Whenever we create anything. Be it a single article or a large project, we ask ourselves: what is the audience going to take away from it?
What are you most looking forward to this coming week?
Mostly Im looking forward to spending time with the team face to face. This week our leadership team has its quarterly strategy session to plan and prioritise for the rest of the year. It’s always an inspiring and energising afternoon.