Catching up on Printout

Thanks again to everyone who came down to Printout on Monday night. The picture above doesn’t really do it justice, but it was another sell out success, with people packing the room to hear from our three speakers about how their magazines are changing the world.

First up was Rob Orchard from Delayed Gratification, who ran through his seven “rotten things” about mainstream media. In brief:
1. It wants to keep up with Twitter (but it can’t)
2. It has way too much space to fill
3. It’s addicted to PR, churning out the stories it’s fed
4. It generates fake controversy (cf. “media hand grenade” Katie Hopkins)
5. It has a herd mentality
6. It uses up resources on piffle
7. It values being first above being right

All the above means that the whole point of being a journalist (getting the story right) is lost. And of course that’s where Delayed Gratification steps in, swimming against the tide and taking time to make sure the job is done properly.

Of course the trouble with doing journalism properly is that it costs money, which is where The Outpost picks up. Their drive to crowd fund the next year of the magazine has just come to an end, raising $27,000 and drawing attention from a range of potential partner organisations. Ibrahim Nehme, founder of The Outpost, spoke to us via a video presentation, and emphasised the power of stories to help us discover ourselves and our place in the world.

It was great to see the work they’re doing, mixing fantasy with reality to dream up a better future for the Arab world. And it made for a great lead into our final talk of the night, Postr‘s Pieter De Kegel on the inspiration behind his poster-sized pamphleteering. Taking his lead from the likes of classic Rolling Stone, Oz and Hunter S Thompson’s Aspen Wall Posters, he talked about the need to connect the dots, looking back at what has gone by to understand what’s happening now.

Rob, Ibrahim and Pieter take very different approaches to their magazines, but they’re all united by the fact that they’re dissatisfied by the mainstream, and determined to do something positive about it.

As ever it was fantastic to get so many magazine lovers in one place, which is why we’re cracking straight on and announcing a special one-off event in Bristol. There are lots of excellent magazines being made there at the moment, so we’re teaming up with Bristol Independent Publishers and Bristol Festival of Ideas to put on a night that brings some of our favourites together. We’ll be at The Crofters Rights from 7pm on 8 May, with a panel of local publishers featuring Another Escape, Boneshaker, Cereal and Off Life.

Tickets are on sale now, so please do come down if you’re going to be in the area, and help us spread the word. If all goes well this will be the start of several excursions out of London to host magazine nights around the country. Because there must be more to life than Shoreditch, right?

Delayed Gratification
The Outpost
Postr
Bristol Independent Publishers
Bristol Festival of Ideas
Another Escape
Boneshaker
Cereal
Off Life