“We haven’t killed each other yet…”
Les Jones, Molly Campbell and Wilf Jones are the team behind Contemporary Collage Magazine, and they’re unusual for a few reasons: Firstly, this is a family business, which Les started in 2021 after falling in love with collage art during the COVID lockdowns. Secondly, it’s a profitable business – lots of the independent magazines we see at Stack are creatively brilliant, but they don’t function as financially viable businesses, whereas Les was clear when he started that this magazine would have to be able to pay its way. And finally, Contemporary Collage is unusual because it started as a digital magazine, with subscribers who pay to receive a new issue each month, and the print magazine has been layered on top of that, selling three issues per year. It’s hard work convincing people to pay for a purely digital product, and the fact they’ve succeeded shows that there’s a strong demand for a specialist collage magazine like this one.
As they say, though, there was also, “a bit of an anomaly” in the fact that they were publishing a digital magazine about the very analogue subject of paper collage art, and so the print version was born earlier this year. But they haven’t stopped there, and they also make money from selliing collage packs, running an awards programme, hosting workshops and more. It’s an impressive setup, and it was lovely speaking with the three of them about their work, so I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation with Les, Molly and Wilf from Contemporary Collage magazine.
