A new spin on Racquet magazine
Steph Chung is managing partner at Racquet, the New York-based magazine that takes a fresh, anti-elitist look at the world of tennis. There have been some big changes since the last issue, with editor David Shaftel and art director Larry Buchanan both leaving the magazine, and a more commercial emphasis across the pages, with a big Gucci photo shoot on the cover and inside, and a partnership with Seoul-based cultural creators Ssoldot. It’s all part of a plan to take advantage of what Steph calls, “the convening power of the magazine”, with the aim of making it more commercially successful while expanding further into things like events, merchandise, and other activities based around tennis.
As you’ll hear, she says that they’ve already broken even on this issue before selling a copy, thanks to the advertising pages and commercial partnerships, and they’ve got much bigger plans beyond that. I really appreciate her taking the time to speak with me and share her thoughts on the future of the magazine, and I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation. If you want to hear more like this, take a look in our archive for hundreds of independent magazine makers speaking about what they do, and of course if you follow us wherever you get your podcasts we’ll be able to deliver new issues to you as soon as they’re ready.
