Racquet issue 4
Delivered to Stack subscribers in
Aug 2017
Treating tennis with as much creative charm as music, art or literature, Racquet is an appetising and refined quarterly about the sport. We’ve read a professional player’s honest essay on her rival, and found out the true relationship between a clothing brand and its muse — their investigative writing and beautiful design will make you see tennis like you’ve never seen before.
Read on for our interview with the editor and publisher…
Job title
David Shaftel and Caitlin Thompson, editor and publisher
What is Racquet?
Racquet is new quarterly magazine that celebrates the art, ideas, style and culture that surround tennis.
What makes it different to the rest?
There are no other literary publications about tennis, and narrative journalism about our sport — in addition to original illustration and archival material — is quite rare. We’re the first to pull it all together into a print offering.
Who makes Racquet?
Racquet is made by journalists and friends David Shaftel and Caitlin Thompson, both of whom have played and loved the sport for decades. Our Art Director is Larry Buchanan, our Creative Director is David Bartholow and our Contributing Editor is Courtney Nguyen.
Who reads it?
Racquet is geared toward the tennis fan who might not know they’re a tennis fan—people who like the style, the culture, the history — as well as the die hards who want to see the sport elevated and treated as relevant as part of larger global culture.
Why do you work in magazines?
Print is tangible, emotional and you have to make time for it. We are engaged in covering a sport that has an abundance of information that surround it — from scores to gear — but without a regular medium to host a larger, more esoteric and also more community focused conversation.
Aside from the print magazine, what else are you involved in?
David is a features writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Monocle, and many other publications. Caitlin’s a digital journalist who has worked for TIME, The Washington Post and currently scouts podcasts for a Swedish podcasting company called Acast.
What would you change about Racquet if you could?
We have enough ideas, contributors and energy to be able to do more of everything, if only we could afford to do it. My hope is that as we continue to grow our subscriber base, we’ll be able to do more projects, more pop-ups, more issues, more digital footprint, more podcasts, etc. Growth.
Where do you see Racquet in five years?
Optimistically, we are a media company comprised of a beautiful print publication, a book imprint, a studio developing and producing broadcast content, and a creative studio. We have so, so many ideas and our sport needs a fresh injection of ideas in every category.
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