What is a magazine?

A series of discussion points about what a magazine is – or can be, should be, was, may be and so on – from a presentation given at The Future of Digital Magazines at the London College of Communication.

Transcript

1. What is a magazine? Well, one answer does rather present itself…
2. This is a magazine
3. But that doesn’t really help Here’s another way to think about it:
4. If we took {thing} away, would it still be a magazine?
5. Some definitions to play with as we face challenges, change and opportunities:
6. A point of coalescence for passion
7. Something that makes you feel cooler/smarter/ more interesting because you have it
8. A treat
9. Something that informs, inspires and enriches your life
10. Something made by someone else (Someone you trust)
11. A curated thing; knowledge, refined
12. A finite thing
13. Offline
14. Something for a quiet half hour
15. Something for the toilet
16. Something you buy …and that might increase in value
17. Something that you can stick a DVD on the front of and charge £5·99 for
18. Regular …and so something you can subscribe to
19. Something you can lose
20. A bound stack of pages you can scribble on – and pass on
21. Has a cover
22. Something that’s hard – and expensive – to make
23. What is a magazine? Fuck knows – go and make it up
24. Christopher Phin @chrisphin