PPA Blog

The Magazine Diaries 2020

Six years ago, publishing consultant and co-host of Media Voices Podcast, Peter Houston, reached out to friends and colleagues in the magazine industry and asked what it felt like to be working in magazine publishing during the 'biggest disruption in publishing history.' However, the Coronavirus crisis is now the biggest disruption in publishing history and so Houston has resurrected The Magazine Diaries to chronicle how magazine people are coping and to support The Big Issue.

How you can help
?

The first Magazine Diaries project took the form of an A5 bookazine. This time round it is starting off digital until we're on the other side of lockdown, but the content will be the same – 100-word posts written by magazine people about working in our industry through the pandemic.

What should the 100 words be about?

• The frustrations or the joys of working from home

• Managing or working remote teams

• Falling retail sales or rising subscriptions

• No face to face interviews

• Changes in your relationship with your readers?

• Stories that have gone away – restaurant and event reviews, travel, sport

• New stories – health and wellness, technology, home schooling and cooking

• The instant switch to digital

• Your hopes or fears for the future as we ease out of lockdown

• Anything else the lockdown has left you feeling

If you would like to contribute, you write exactly 100 words – no more, no less. To be fair, it's not as easy as it sounds.

Once you've written your 100 words, reply to peter@flippingpagesmedia.com, with your 100-word submission, your name, your job title and magazine/company and your Twitter account if you want to share it and a hi-res headshot.

If you want some inspiration, have a look at what people have written so far for The Magazine Diaries 2020,or what some of your favourite magazine people wrote for The Magazine Diaries 2014.

**
Helping the Big Issue
**

By pitching in, you will be helping to support The BIG ISSUE's Emergency Subscription Campaign.

With vendors kept off the street by the lockdown The Big Issue needs everyone who normally bought it when they were out and about to take a three month subscription. Every 100-word post on The Magazine Diaries: 2020 will link directly to The Big Issue Subscription page.

*Even as vendors slowly return to their pitches, sales will be down because of reduced footfall in town centres, and they will still need our help. **

Any questions, contact peter@flippingpagesmedia.com

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