BoSacks Speaks Out: Ode to the Glorious, Slightly Musty Tome:

A Celebration of Print

Fellow publishers, I have been tracking our industry and publishing this newsletter for over thirty years, and the world seems closer now to finally going full digital goldfish, flitting from one shiny hyperlink to the next. But amidst the endless click-click-click, you my friends, the magazine industry, still stand resolute – like a particularly well-dressed librarian amidst a mosh pit. You're the stewards of slow journalism, crafting beautiful stories and insights that linger longer than a disappearing Snapchat story.

Sure, we've traded ink-stained fingers for keyboard callouses, and news cycles now spin faster than a hamster on a caffeine bender. But fear not, for in this digital deluge, the desire for something tangible, something that doesn't require a battery change, has only grown stronger.

Enter you, the Michelangelo’s of the magazine fold. You weave words that spark imaginations, curate images that speak volumes without emojis, and bind it all together in a physical form that practically begs, "Don't just scroll past me, you heathen! Hold me close, feel the paper whisper its secrets, and let me grace your coffee table for a few weeks!"

In this age of information overload, you, my friends, are the curators, not the clickbaiters. You unearth stories worth savoring, not swiping past. You fight for voices the algorithm would mute, and champion the power of slow journalism – narratives that unfold at the pace of turning pages, not the frantic swipe of a thumb.

And your canvas? Vast and glorious! From the glossy catwalks of fashion magazines to the newsprint trenches of investigative reporting, from the sticker-encrusted joy of children's publications to the heady intellectualism of literary quarterlies, each magazine is a portal to a different world. Niche is king and we own niche.

So, let's salute the magic we weave! May your pens flow with ink-stained inspiration, your layouts sing with visual pizzazz, and your words ignite the minds (and possibly start a few delightful discussions) of your readers. In a world chasing the next fleeting trend, you offer a haven of focused depth, a refuge of beauty, and a testament to the enduring power of the printed word. And that, Dear Friends, is something truly worth celebrating.

What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind.

Wendell Phillips