"Past forward, here we go ..." proclaims the
Vintage Magazine website, and it's an apt rallying cry for this one-of-a-kind magazine, which seeks to package the best of what print magazines can offer—excellence in design and carefully chosen, high quality editorial—for the contemporary reader. The formula seems to be working, as
Vintage is reportedly selling well to a targeted niche audience through subscriptions and atypical sales channels.
In a media age where those who shout first and loudest tend to be heard, albeit briefly (until swamped by the next wave of chatter),
Vintage is a reminder that there is still a demand for a tangible product worth pausing over. And as Publisher
Ivy Baer Sherman notes in this week's
Publishing Executive Inbox interview, the success of digital devices like the iPad may actually strengthen, rather than disprove, this proposition.
INBOX: What in your background made you think, "I'm the one to do this."?
IVY BAER SHERMAN: There hasn't been an "I'm the one to do this" moment—but rather more of an "I'm inspired to do this" subliminal build up over the years. I majored in English at Barnard College (back in the day, as they say). For a senior course in 20th century literature I chose the avant garde magazines of the 1940s as the subject of my final paper, and presented the paper in the form of an avant garde magazine. I found those magazines to be graphically stunning and rich with brilliant writing—giving voice to writers such as Andre Breton, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens [and] artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst. I remember being surprised and delighted to discover these eloquent magazines whose extraordinary design and sophisticated editing caught the eye and the mind and the senses. Though not realizing it at the time, that somewhat serendipitous "meeting" with avant garde magazines served as my early education in the possibilities of what a magazine can be and do—and informs/enspirits what I do today.
INBOX: You were inspired by Fleur Cowles'
Flair, which saw a short but brilliant run in the early '50s. Do you think there is an unserved audience today looking for a design-focused magazine coupled with top-noch editorial? Does the movement toward "niche" markets open up opportunity even as mass market interest continues to shift elsewhere?
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