Type two fun with Like the Wind magazine
One of the things I love about working in independent publishing is the publishers themselves. Everybody knows that it’s hard to build a sustainable business on print magazines, so there aren’t many people expecting to make a quick profit. That means you’re left with the people who are publishing in print because they love it, and because they feel they have something they want to commit to ink on paper.
The result is a remarkably friendly industry, full of publishers who want to help each other succeed while also competing for readers. So it’s not unusual for me to have extremely open conversations on our podcast, but even by those standards, this episode stands out as particularly honest and revealing.
Simon and Julie Freeman started Like the Wind magazine in 2014, inspired by magazines like The Ride Journal and Rouleur, and also determined to give runners something more absorbing than Runner’s World. As they explain in our conversation, they weren’t interested in product reviews, training tips, and advice on how to run – rather, they wanted to explore the different reasons why somebody decides to pull on their shoes and go for a run.
Twelve years later the editorial proposition is exactly the same, but these days as well as the main ‘global’ edition, they also have regional versions for readers in Japan and the United States, and they recently hosted the first instalment of Run Culture Live, a big, ambitious running event, held at the Truman Brewery here in London.
It would be easy for them to hold up those achievements as evidence of the magazine’s continued success, but as you’ll hear, they’re keen to stress the precarity of their position, and the continued sacrifice the magazine demands. I think that’s something to do with their experience as runners – Simon talks about “type two fun”; the sort of pain and discomfort a runner will put themselves through in pursuit of the pleasure that will come at the end of a race.
But I think it also has something to do with their 12 years in the magazine world, and their desire to show others just what their success has cost them. As Julie puts it, “It’s not just all fun and butterflies and unicorns. There’ve been really hard times…”
Of course she’s talking about financial pressures, but the pair go into great detail about the impact on their personal lives, and the difficulty of being “all-in” on the project, as well as the achievements and the sense of satisfation that has kept them going for so long.
I really appreciate their openness and I hope you’ll enjoy this episode, going deep behind the scenes on the making of Like the Wind magazine. And if you’d like to hear more independent magazine makers speaking about what they do, please search for “Stack Magazines” and follow us wherever you get your podcasts, and we’ll be able to deliver all our new episodes to you as soon as they’re ready.
