The Return to Print (magazines)

The Return to Print

(Published May 12, 2025, BoSacks Media Intelligence)

Daniela Rodriguez’s boyfriend needed to have his paper published for his final class project. So what better way to publish it than to start your own magazine. It was something Daniela always wanted to do anyway, and this was a great reason to start.

Superstars Only, kicked off in 2021, is now on issue five. It looks very DYI and pokes fun at the New York art scene. The latest issue comes with a handle so you can carry it like a purse.

This is just one of the magazines featured at magCulture Live NYC25 in Brooklyn on May 4, an annual event where independent and/or unusual periodicals are introduced to an enthusiastic community. The other end of the magazine spectrum featured there is Pitchfork, which started as an alternative online music magazine in 1996, had a brief print life from 2013 to 2016, and is now owned by a “multi-billion dollar company,” Advance Publications by way of GQ, which is part of Conde Nast. It is back in print as a single-story quarterly “zine.” But it tries to maintain its independent scruffiness.

It was an exciting event, with dozens of “zines” spread across tables, for purchase or on display. And about nine zines were presented to the enthusiastic audience by their editors or art directors, giving a brief history of how they started, the vision of the publication, and how they hope to sustain themselves. Zines included:

AFM (A Fucking Magazine) is a sexuality and culture magazine that is part of the dating app Feeld. Issue two is being prepared.
Broadcast is the magazine of cultural venue Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. I was amazed by the way it uses a different font for every story, and the wide range of stories.
The Cut was a women’s media platform started in 2008 by New York magazine, but is now in print.
i-D started as a fashion, music, art, film, and youth culture magazine back in 1980, stopped publishing in 2023, has a cult following, and is back in print.
Metrograph is the magazine for the New York City art film theater Metrograph and covers film.
New York Review of Architecture, a tabloid magazine on newsprint that goes against logic by not having any photographs, with black and yellow page designs and a rat mascot appearing throughout. Not your traditional architecture stories.
Viscose Journal, a journal of fashion criticism and analysis where each issue has a theme such as “Text,” “Retail,” “Trans,” or “Scent.” Each issue is a different format.

At the fair I bought a copy of TYPEONE which is packed with examples of and essays about fonts and typesetting. (I used to be a typesetter back in the day, becoming a master of one of the first CRT typesetting machines from Mergenthaler.)

Being a runner myself, over the past year I picked up a couple issues of Like the Wind, a beautiful running magazine with great essays and pictures, printed on heavy, matte paper. Like the Wind was for sale at the event.

This new crop of periodicals has small print runs, longer frequencies, and different business models for generating income and covering its expenses. As to be expected, cover price is higher than your typical magazine.

And many of the stories in these magazines are off-the-wall, thoughtful, challenging, and/or underreported in mainstream media.

Each magazine drills down into its topic with insights you wouldn’t anticipate. There’s “Tarzan Wasn’t for Her—It took an outsider to restore women to the story of human evolution” from Nautilus, an excellent Science magazine I have read several issues of. Or there is “The Beginnings of DIY Culture” from The Rock & Roll Public Library, a magazine based on the Library, which, as far as I can figure out, is not a permanent space, but a traveling collection. It reprints old music ads and covers rock and roll memorabilia mostly from the collection of Mick Jones of Clash fame. These are not typical science or music magazines.

Over the past year I’ve bought a couple copies of Delayed Gratification, a newsmagazine that has well-researched, long, in-depth articles about news events, as well as fun news-based graphs and tidbits of information. Different than your Time or Newsweek. (I used to work for Time, “the largest newsmagazine in the free world,” as a colleague called it, and it is really sad and crazy what happened to the great Time Inc. And it’s not because of the liquor carts on closing nights.)

If you want to read about the business of magazines, there is Grub Street Journal. The issue I have has information on “How to get a Spice Girl to buy your mag,” as well as a thoughtful piece on where the next generation of magazine creators and readers will come from.

The event ended with a talk and presentation from Richard Turley. Turley is an incredible designer, worked on dozens of magazines and projects including Interview, and is perhaps best known for having completely transformed the look of Bloomberg Businessweek starting in 2011. Moving along manically, he showed and talked about what seemed to be hundreds of designs and products he worked on in his career. Some of its pretty crazy stuff, and it was a bit much to take in after the day-long presentations.

MagCulture is a magazine shop in London, but it really is more of a culture than a store. They present events and talks and podcasts about magazine-making. Once a year they come to New York for this event. This year’s theme was “The Return to Print,” and there were some very high-quality zines here.

Die Keure, a printing company based in Belgium, had a table displaying many of the publications they produce. Beautiful stuff. And there really was a wide variety of papers, bindings, trim sizes, styles. With the print and publishing world moving to standardization of papers and designs for workflow and cost efficiencies, I was really amazed by the bespoke publications here.

Although MagCulture is in London, Casa Magazines in New York’s West Village carries many of the above titles and has an amazing selection of periodicals. They also had a table at the event.

MagCulture was founded by Jeremy Leslie, an art director of over 30 years, and he did an incredible job running this day of print joy.

Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni, I expect to see you there next year!

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Edson Atwood—former Production Director of Billboard magazine—is an ideationist and text-based content provider and producer. He publishes at https://edsonatwood.wixsite.com/website. Open to work.