Apologies for the drought around here – our dissertation lives are pretty damn busy right now. This serves as one final reminder that I’d love to hear your thoughts on independent media, if you’re willing to give up 5 minutes of your time to my survey. Also, if you subscribe to STACK Magazines – please fill in this one too.

The surveys will close on Friday (20th August), so please use this chance to have your say and be part of the State of Independents research study.

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Coming up soon at SoI – reviews of Now Then and The Green Soccer Journal. If you’re interested in sending your magazine to us for review, please get in touch.

As the first of many (hopefully) magazine features/reviews we conduct here at State of Independents, I was proud to get a copy of free Sheffield-based art title Article in the post last week. This is the magazine’s fourteeth issue, but the first to be distributed outside of the Steel City. Believing that free doesn’t have to mean rubbish – Article started out of a university bedroom two years ago driven by the desire to demonstrate that the normal and everyday is just as fascinating and absorbing as the unattainable high gloss world of mainstream media.

To be honest, I couldn’t wait to see it and boy, it doesn’t disappoint. Article is produced so well and at 64 pages and an ‘iPad sized’ format (we liked that in the press release) you wouldn’t believe it was free.

With insightful features, interviews, photography and a beautiful minimalist design, this issue’s theme – Copy – explores the use of copying in the creative industries and a cultural emphasis on the originality of ideas. It includes interviews with Kevin Braddock of Manzine (see previous post!) and Ian Anderson from The Designers Republic and features include a photocopier deteriorated fashion spread, an essay all about 20th century art forgery, an examination of duplicated models in urban regeneration and a really nice look at alternative branding.

Printed in a rather zine-esque yellow and black, the regular centre spread ‘The Life Worth Living’ makes for Article’s carefully selected guide to the latest exhibitions, books, zines and new music. I love how the yellow seems to bleed into the centre of the magazine and disappears soon after, leaving space for some great full colour photos of roleplay gamers by James Dodd and a feature covering the development of global graffiti culture.

Article is an intelligent and gorgeously produced bit of independent free press that deserves more than a second glance. Produced bi-monthly, Article can be found in all good bookshops, cafes, bars and galleries around Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham and Sheffield. Come September, they’re rolling out 8,000 of their next issue across the UK but to be sure to get one, subscribe from only £12 on their website (where you can also get t-shirts and a rather nice tote bag).

Next time – part two of Messages from Steel City. We take a look at Now Then, another great free independent magazine all the way from Sheffield.

Don’t forget, if you’d like to send us a copy of your magazine – just get in touch.

Just when you thought it was safe, here’s another survey. This time it’s not just for those of you that subscribe to STACK.. it’s for everyone, so click here to take part. I want to know all about your media consumption habits, thoughts on magazines – both mainstream and independent, especially for an MA research project. It won’t even take 10 minutes to complete and yes, you will probably become part of a fancy info-graphic. I want to hear your opinions, so please.. let me know how you really feel.

Once you’ve done it, it would be great if you could RT, post it on Facebook, email it out to your friends etc. Just pass it on.

Here’s the first of many (I hope) quotes we’re sourcing from editors, art directors and publishers from the independent magazine world. They’ve all been lovely so far, but none as fast as replying as Kevin Braddock.

Like a cross between Private Eye and The Idler with an even sharper dose of cynicism, Manzine is the antithesis of the over-saturated glossy men’s market made more for the man down the pub than the man about town.. check out the brilliant Monocle piss-take from Issue 3 (and for a nice tie in to our last post).

“Technology is moving so fast now that it’s not possibly to confidently predict where the magazine industry will be in a year’s time, never mind five years. Will the iPad save magazines? No idea. I hate to quote Tony Blair, but on this subject, I’ll just say that I never make predictions – and I never will.”
Kevin Braddock, Editor, Manzine

‘Monocle Mediterraneo’ via magCulture.com

“I was working in our London shop last weekend and we sold 70 copies to people who were commenting on the feel of the paper and the smell of the pages. We’re interested in that type of tactile engagement.”
Tyler Brulé, Editor-In-Chief, Monocle

I’m probably not part of Monocle‘s key target demographic… but it does make me happy. Of course, they also have an admirable attitude towards quality print production – and for that alone they should be sharply saluted.

For more, read the magCulture feature all about Monocle Mediterraneo.

Hey STACK fan – I would appreciate your help with conducting research for my MA thesis on the future of the independent magazine in print. Please click on this survey link to be taken to a short online questionnaire about you, your magazine habits and your opinions on independent magazines and STACK. Oh and, please tell all your STACK subscribing friends.

MagCloud by brianfling

All the talk around MagCloud‘s new features (which were announced today) got me thinking.. is print-on-demand a flash in the pan idea or can it really help the survival of small, independent publishers get their work out there – in print?

Since working on Pica Pica Magazine, several people I’ve spoken to have said the same thing.. “it’s all well and good to look at that page turner PDF whatsit.. but I want to see it in front of me.” We couldn’t afford to get more made (we stopped at 20 due to the stress of screenprinting the covers and a lack of extra money) but we definitely wanted to.

The idea of a second PoD-based run seemed good.. so what about MagCloud? They promise so much. They’ll cut your costs, save on distribution woes and are a nice easy way to get your work out there, in print, worldwide. Sounds great. But only if your magazine is standard A4 and small enough to be saddle stitched. And paper? Yeah, well, they’ll print on whatever they have available. The change in format would have been our biggest issue – none of us wanted to re-design the whole magazine to A4, and also the limited production options seemed a sad departure from what we originally set out to achieve when creating the magazine.

Can a real independent magazine ever rely on MagCloud for their whole production and distribution process? Sketchbook seem to be doing ok. Mankind and Fray also make good use of the PoD system (and I’ll be talking to them, fingers crossed, as part of my thesis).. but I’ve yet to see an on demand service that really speaks to the independent magazine community.

I’m disappointed their new features don’t go far enough and what’s the point of trying to compete with Issuu (with a basic iPad app)? It seems like I’m not the only one, check out Andrew Losowsky’s inspired recommendations for HP.

There’s hope for PoD yet, but it’ll probably take a while.

Alternative Press will be celebrating all that is self-published by holding another day fair with zines, comics, poetry, printmaking, book arts and radical literature on Sunday 28th November 2010 at St. Aloysius’ Social Centre in Euston, NW1.

They’re currently recruiting – so if you want a table to sell your wares or if you have any ideas for activities on the day then they’d love to hear from you. Head on over to the Alternative Press site to find out more.

They’re also on the hunt for some great flyer designs, taking inspiration from the ‘_____ is my rock’n'roll!’ templates seen on the Comics & Zines blog. So get your crayons out and start designing.

Alternative Press Fair 2010
St. Aloysius’ Social Centre (Map), 12 – 6pm
Eversholt Street x Phoenix Road, London NW1 1TA
Nearest tube: Euston

Hello and welcome to the State of Independents blog.. a project started by two MA Publishing kids from LCC melding together two dissertations on the survival of independent magazines. We’re aiming to break apart our academic work and create a great new printed publication all about independents – hopefully in time to make an appearance at Colophon 2011. We’re told no one from our course has done anything like this before, so we’d really love your support and value your opinions. Feel free to comment and please follow us on Twitter.

In the next few months we’ll be posting here when we see anything interesting, beautiful, funny or mad from the world of independent magazine publishing and of course, will let you all know when we’re ready to kick off in print.