Making the Mag Part 1: Papercut's Journey to the May 2012 Issue
About a month ago, one of our awesome readers, Michael McKenzie, emailed us with a very good question. He wanted to know how we got started. In typical Papercut Fashion (which you can equate to anything but typical) we decided to respond to his query with a whole new mini segment called Making The Mag. As we gear up for our two year anniversary, we figured we share some posts with you about how we got started and also chronicle the process of putting our May 2012 Issue together.
So here we go!!
In The Beginning: Digital vs Print
One of the first conversations we had as a group revolved around whether or not we wanted to do a print edition or digital edition? Fortunately for us, it didn’t take us that long to come to a decision. The upfront costs to create a digital edition are minimal if non-existent when compared to print. Just get yourself a laptop and a copy of Adobe CS-whatever, and you’ve pretty much got the infrastructure to create a digital publication. Then throw in a platform like Issuu (which we use), YouPublisher, Scribd, etc. for a small monthly fee and Boom--pat yourself on the back, you’re now a publisher.
From left to right: Editor-in-Chief, Hayley Maybury, Creative Director, Nicole Bechard, & Technical Director, Jamall Oluokun
As luck would have it however, around the same time we were sure we were going digital only, emerged HP’s Magcloud platform which allows small publishers to sell their issues on-demand without incurring any cost. Readers simply buy a copy if they want one and sit back as it’s delivered to their door. Everybody Wins!
But What Are You Publishing?
Let’s take a step back for minute. The first thing we actually talked about as a group was what we wanted our magazine to be about. Who was our reader? What kind of content and articles would we produce? In our case, we chose the emerging creative arts and technology ecosystem: Photographers, designers, musicians, artists, startup businesses, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, writers, and dancers. Most of the Papercut team was already immersed in this world already. So it was a natural fit. Our Editor-In-Chief, Hayley, is a trained womenswear designer, Our Creative Director, Nicole, has a background in graphic design and photography, while our Technical Director, Jamall, has a band called DIGI LIVE (they just released their EP, check it out on iTunes).
We also wanted to make sure that our focus on the emerging creative class permeated all aspects of our magazine from our articles to our editorials. We’ve always taken tremendous pride in the fact that we not only cover emerging creatives, but also that the photo shoots, models, and clothing is from emerging individuals as well, and that the quality is on par with your typical newsstand pubs.
Our very first Cover shoot
Photographer Conor Doherty shooting model Leah Milch for the into the Woods editorial in our first issue
Papercut Magazine May 2012 iPad App
That’s right, you read it here folks. Papercut is making an Interactive iPad Magazine App. And just like we did when we started out, we first thought about what the issue was going to be about. In this case, we wanted to take a look at the growing trend of Sustainability, but not the green and “hemp-y” kind, but all the cool stuff and fashion that no one talks about. Then we next thought about the platform, which again didn’t take that long. No secret here, we chose the iPad.
Well that’s it for now. In the next installment we’ll actually go over the process of getting a publication on the iPad as well as the phase before you even start...Getting your team together.
