Jeremy Leslie’s career began in graphic design for the likes of Blitz and Time Out, progressing to John Brown Publishing where he was creative director before expanding a blog into a business.
That was 2009 when MagCulture was formed as a design and editorial consultancy for a nascent independent magazine sector. Its shop is in Clerkenwell, at one time an area teeming with typesetters, platemakers, repro houses and block makers. That opened in 2015.
The business has grown to cover events, and has become a lighthouse for independent magazine publishers.
“People have a desire to express themselves and communicate,” Leslie says. “They may have a voice online in some way or on social media and there’s still a natural progression to into print from that.
“In order to be taken more seriously, you go into print. The technology to do that is so accessible, it’s just the price of a computer and some software – it’s so much more simple than it was 20 years ago.”
MagCulture is tapping into this, helping with the communication between those that have broken into publishing and those that are still at the planning stage, between the magazines and a readership that is keen to identify with the independent magazine that reflects themselves. Like fashion and music (vinyl preferred) the magazines you read help create an individual identity.
MagCulture is very much part of this trend, says Leslie. “We see it on a daily basis both in terms of sales because there are more and more people wanting to buy magazines and wanting to make magazines. That puts us in a happy position.”
There is definitely a push back against an all digital culture, but also a desire to enjoy the diversity that digital enables but in a print form. This means finding that special title that might be published in the US or Japan that might not be discovered without the internet and magazine retailers like MagCulture. “Small magazines have limited outlets,” he says. “We get people ordering from us from all over the world
“There is a great shift away from the IPCs, the Haymarkets and Emaps, We run the Flatplan as an online masterclass where people talk through how to go about setting up a magazine and other issues they face,” he says. That has fed into other events held in the Clerkenwell premises and now conferences in London and New York.
It held the first MagCulture Fair at the start of July in a new space within the new offices of design group Pentagram which had opened nearby. “There are book fairs and magazine fairs in other cities, so why not in London?” he says. “It’s an event where publishers can meet their readers which they don’t always get a chance to do.” The event attracted 40 publishers, printer Park Graphius and hundreds of visitors.
MagCulture has pointed many start up magazines to the Beckton printer over the years. “It’s helped them develop a speciality in that sector,” he says. “We sell a lot of magazines that were printed there. This is about print adapting to a new circumstance.”
