MaHB Media Man

After much harrumphing and posturing, it turns out two arch-rivals are learning to co-exist after all.
By John Lim

A magazine with no fancy digital multimedia; nothing but “timeless” content; a RM45 cover price—you’d think that Lucky Peach would have folded a long time ago if not for a few enthusiasts who relish the “feel of paper” in the same way vinyl collectors prefer the format to digital downloads.

Yet, it’s precisely because of those perceived weaknesses that both mainstream and independent magazines remain culturally relevant. “The reason that print [is] still important [is] the emotional connection… the touch and feel of a magazine, and getting ‘tech detox’ time,” noted Tess Macleod Smith, the publisher of Porter magazine, at the recent Professional Publishers Association Conference.

Macleod Smith isn’t alone in her opinions. “Readers are saying: ‘Don’t take away my print’,” said Ian Birch, Director of Editorial Development & Special Projects at Hearst Magazines, in an interview with Monocle magazine. “It absolutely chimes with what we’re seeing at the moment; a feeling that print is something special, something to relax with. Print is an oasis of calm.”

This isn’t to say that magazines have bided their time while waiting for their prodigal audiences to return. One could argue that the rise of blogs has encouraged readers to seek a deeper relationship with the person behind the by-line.

Lucky Peach is emblematic of what’s expected from magazines today. The quarterly food journal was launched in 2011 as a co-publication between McSweeney’s and Momofuku’s Chef David Chang, but has since become an independent publication with a worldwide circulation of 100,000 copies. Quite a success, considering there are hardly any ads,marketing or digital downloads available.

A flip inside reveals its recipe for success: the features are deep-dives and well edited, and aren’t inhibited by ads due to the magazine’s relatively high cover price. Beyond the written word, however, are its playful and expressive layouts. Lucky Peach has verve and sass, and it isn’t afraid to show it.

It also has bags of personality: almost every story is written from a first-person perspective—an approach often avoided by traditional editors because the story, not the writer, should be what readers care about. That’s precisely what the writers at Lucky Peach, and increasingly more magazines, are good at: they make you care. The emotional connection is a powerful one, resulting in the ideal publication that Macleod Smith talks about: a trusted companion whom you always want to spend time with.

How ironic then, that just as magazines are becoming popular again, many local lifestyle blogs have turned into vapid, generalised and voiceless entities—the complete opposite of what the medium set out to be. I recently browsed a new blog whose only appeal is the photogenic girl fronting it; the “blog” itself is nothing more than product placements, sponsored trips and rehashes of press releases.

It just goes to show that the rise of one media doesn’t mean the obsolescence of another. Each medium has its own strengths and weaknesses, and in the case of magazines, they are, and can be, the same.