53 min listen
Caitlin Thompson (Cofounder & Editor, Racquet)
Caitlin Thompson (Cofounder & Editor, Racquet)
ratings:
Length:
45 minutes
Released:
Apr 5, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
STRING THEORY— Media, and most every brand in general, talks a lot about building and nurturing a community. Tribes, even. Finding one, inserting yourself into it, and then making your message an integral part of it. And what activity creates a more loyal community, than sports? If there is the ultimate niche audience, sports is it. It goes without saying that every sport has fans. And some lend themselves to something beyond fandom; they are lifestyles. And few magazines have built up a brand around a single sport and its audience and their lifestyle as much as Racquet. Launched with a Kickstarter campaign in 2016 by Caitlin Thompson, Racquet is a presence at major tennis events and has inserted itself into the lifestyle of tennis fans and players alike. The path has been rocky at times, but Thompson is clear about her aim to provide a “premium experience at a premium price,” as she told the Nieman Lab in an interview in 2017. Like any other media, Racquet will live and die based on a business plan, and it is quite possible that Racquet magazine is just a small part of a larger creative media agency, all centered around a global community. And while she is not loath to smash some volleys in the direction of the tennis establishment, she is doing this while also trying to recenter the entire community and become its new beating heart.Caitlin Thompson has much in common with the world’s top tennis players: passion, drive, ambition—and a willingness to make … a racket.
Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) is a production of Magazeum & MO.D ©2021–2024
Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) is a production of Magazeum & MO.D ©2021–2024
Released:
Apr 5, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (48)
Michele Outland (Designer: Bon Appétit, Gather Journal, Nylon, more): Michele Outland has spent her career at some really beautiful magazines. Beautiful ... because she made them that way. Her resume includes stops at Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food, Domino, Nylon, and Bon Appétit, as well as the magazine she created and launched with her good friend, Fiorella Valdesolo: Gather Journal. Gather, which only published 13 issues, made a powerful impact on the magazine business. In its five-year run, it won a James Beard Award for Visual Storytelling, an Art Director’s Club Award, and 20 medals from the Society of Publication Designers, including being named “Brand of the Year” in 2015. Under her leadership, Bon Appétit won the ASME National Magazine Award for Design along with a slew of SPD awards. We talked to Michele about: the power of internships, her Korean mother’s influence on the way she thinks about food, about how to start a magazine in a post-print world — and when we can ex by Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!)